Picking up the Pieces: Social Capital and Entrepreneurship for Livelihood Recovery Among Displaced Populations in Northeast Nigeria

This chapter draws from in-depth interviews of 15 respondents to interrogate the transformations of social capital among forcibly displaced peoples in Northeast Nigeria, and how the resulting formations of new networks have facilitated new entrepreneurship opportunities for livelihood recovery for the displaced populations. The chapter proposes a new framework that maps the changes in the stock of social capital of displaced people from a high level of bonding social capital with high homogeneity pre-displacement, to relatively higher levels of bridging and linking social capital, driven in part by new aggregations of residents in displaced peoples’ camps. The chapter then analyses primary interview data to discuss the impact of social capital on access to resources, the creation of new markets and the links between entrepreneurial opportunities and livelihood outcomes. The chapter concludes with some policy and practical recommendations for alternative interventions that focus on the agency of affected people to help themselves, instead of the aid model that tends to foster dependency.