How can social enterprises truly empower refugees whose lives remain suspended in legal and social limbo? This chapter explores that question through a year-long, qualitative interview study of eight Afghan refugee women entrepreneurs in transit in Malaysia. This chapter contributes to the growing literature on refugee entrepreneurship and social enterprise impact evaluation by offering a new framework for assessing outcomes in displacement contexts. This work identifies ten recurring psychosocial and relational benefits of entrepreneurship, including autonomy, resilience, and community belonging. These outcomes highlight the inadequacy of financial metrics alone in capturing impact within liminal contexts. To address this gap, the authors propose an evaluative 3P framework—proximate, portable, and preparatory—that aligns assessment tools with the lived conditions of transitory populations. This framework enhances both scholarly understanding and practical approaches to impact measurement, encouraging a shift from rigid evaluation structures toward adaptive, contextually grounded metrics. The chapter calls on policymakers and funders to embrace flexible, context-responsive evaluation models that recognize liminality not as a disruption, but as a structural condition in refugee life. In doing so, SEs can be better supported in cultivating dignity, agency, and continuity of value for displaced populations in transition.

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Proximate, Portable, and Preparatory: Non-monetary Performance Measures for Social Enterprises Working with Transitory Populations

  • L. Lin Ong,
  • Melati Nungsari

摘要

How can social enterprises truly empower refugees whose lives remain suspended in legal and social limbo? This chapter explores that question through a year-long, qualitative interview study of eight Afghan refugee women entrepreneurs in transit in Malaysia. This chapter contributes to the growing literature on refugee entrepreneurship and social enterprise impact evaluation by offering a new framework for assessing outcomes in displacement contexts. This work identifies ten recurring psychosocial and relational benefits of entrepreneurship, including autonomy, resilience, and community belonging. These outcomes highlight the inadequacy of financial metrics alone in capturing impact within liminal contexts. To address this gap, the authors propose an evaluative 3P framework—proximate, portable, and preparatory—that aligns assessment tools with the lived conditions of transitory populations. This framework enhances both scholarly understanding and practical approaches to impact measurement, encouraging a shift from rigid evaluation structures toward adaptive, contextually grounded metrics. The chapter calls on policymakers and funders to embrace flexible, context-responsive evaluation models that recognize liminality not as a disruption, but as a structural condition in refugee life. In doing so, SEs can be better supported in cultivating dignity, agency, and continuity of value for displaced populations in transition.