• Impact on livelihoods: COVID-19 shifted Rohingya refugees from employment to self-employment. • Coping Mechanisms: Self-employed sold animals, withdrew kids from school, showing need for sustainable support. • Aid effectiveness: Non-monetary aid crucial for those who turned to self-employment during the pandemic. • Policy recommendation: Targeted aid for Rohingya refugee livelihoods, focusing on sustainable self-employment. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has disrupted the lives of people worldwide, severely impacting marginalized communities. Among marginalized communities, Rohingya refugees face numerous challenges, including limited access to education, healthcare, and livelihood opportunities. Therefore, this study seeks to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the various livelihood choices pursued by Rohingya refugees and the related coping mechanisms adopted. Additionally, the study also looks into the effectiveness of the various types of aid provided to the refugees. This study draws on quantitative data collected through face-to-face interviews conducted in September 2022. Using a cross-sectional dataset covering 339 households from Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, we performed a regression analysis to find out the adoption of coping mechanisms based on livelihood choices. Results revealed that refugees who were self-employed were the most impacted by the pandemic, additionally, a rise in the shift of livelihoods of refugees from employment to self-employment during the pandemic was also recorded. Regarding the coping mechanisms adopted by the self-employed, the most popular coping mechanisms were the sale of breeding animals and the withdrawal of children from school. Additionally, the majority of self-employed refugees prioritized the change or recovery of their livelihoods. Hence, it is recommended that aid agencies and the host government provide additional non-monetary assistance to Rohingya refugees who have recently shifted their livelihood activities from employed to self-employed.

• The implementation of dam-induced resettlement programmes in the Global South are fraught with shortcomings. • Dam-induced resettlement programmes are perceived differently by people in host communities. • The successful implementation of dam-induced resettlement programmes is governed by international and national legislative frameworks. • The implementation of dam-induced resettlement programmes is also governed by socio-cultural conditions and values. Hydro-dams in the Global South have become pivotal to accelerating socio-economic development and promoting the industrialisation drive through the supply of energy. The implementation of hydro-dam projects usually comes with involuntary resettlements. Such involuntary resettlements have consequences for those displaced and people in the host communities receiving the displaced for their integration. While existing studies focus on the planning phase of resettlement programmes, particularly, how to identify the hosts in the resettlement planning frameworks, little attention is given to the hosts during resettlement implementation. This study seeks to investigate the implementation processes, rules and regulations of dam-induced involuntary resettlement (DIIR) programmes and how they affect the socio-cultural dimensions of the life of the hosts, using the case of the Bui Dam in Ghana. The study used the impoverishment risk and reconstruction theory to do so. The study found that the implementation processes of the DIIR programme are fraught with shortcomings in terms of non-compliance with local planning laws, inadequate compensation and the Resettlement Planning Framework’s failure to capture the hosts during its implementation. It shows contrasting findings in the literature, with only Ghanaian laws applied to regulate the implementation of the Bui Dam resettlement programme without international laws despite the hybrid financing sources. It furthers the argument in the literature that a successful implementation of a DIIR programme is not only limited to international and national legal frameworks but should consider socio-cultural conditions and values of a community and country. We, therefore, recommend that people-based and place-based policies are adopted during the implementation of the DIIR programme.