“Refugee self-reliance” is the core approach to refugee assistance in the humanitarian industry. From its introduction in UNHCR’s urban areas policy in 1997, refugee self-reliance was marred by implementation problems in Global South host states that do not recognize refugees’ right to access formal labor markets (Crisp 2017; Crisp and Obi 2000). Yet, “self-reliance, economic inclusion and livelihoods” remains one of UNHCR main commitments for all refugees at present. The evidence from urban areas depicts refugees often living hand to mouth and facing the very real specter of urban poverty (Crawford and Holloway 2024; Zaman 2018). This poses a puzzle: why has the UNHCR propagated self-reliance for urban refugees for three decades, when they cannot engage the same rights or resources as local citizens in the struggle for their survival? This talk examines the potential justifications for UNHCR’s propagation of refugee self-reliance, tracing the development of the urban refugee livelihoods programming in the Global South, through historical analysis over the three decades. Self-reliance for urban refugees, Ghosh argues, is an example of the ways in which donor state interests prevail, towards maintaining protracted refugees in the Global South where they are at low cost by making them responsible for their own welfare entirely.