This thesis explores agency in urban refugee spaces and the factors and skills seen to facilitate refugee journeys towards self-reliance in protracted situations. An ethnographic case study was carried out in Kampala, Uganda, where observations and conversations were held with refugee leaders, business owners, and with practitioners at refugee-led organizations. The reasoning is based on Hannah Arendt's notion on what it means to have agency and on wider connections to agency in relation to spaces, storytelling, resilience, and a sense of community. Hermeneutics was applied to the planning and execution of the research, while a narrative approach was adopted to exhibit the findings. The stories presented lay a foundation for proposing a new agency-led approach of how to critically reflect and rethink refugee support in ways that are cost-effective, ethical, and durable over time. This proposed agency-led approach was made by learning from the field and comprises four parts: (i) organizational resilience; (ii) meaningful ownership; (iii) meaningful representation; and (iv) meaningful participation. The new approach is presented to practitioners, potential donors, and those interested in learning how, but also why, we must rethink refugees as actors.