This blog post is part of a broader study led by the Dadaab Response Association on the impact of COVID-19 on life in the Dadaab refugee camps. Please see the new working paper for more information about the study and about the impact of COVID-19 on refugee education in the camps.

Despite restrictions on formal employment for refugees living in the Dadaab camps, running a business within the camps is a very common practice. Before COVID-19, refugee businesses in Dadaab flourished. Refugees could obtain travelling documents to go outside Dadaab and stock their businesses. Hotels were also successful and could earn a lot of money. Many incentive workers (refugees who are paid a small honorarium to work for an international organization) used to find it easier to eat at the hotels instead of preparing their food themselves, and then would pay the hotel owners at the end of every month. All agencies used to conduct workshops and seminars in the three camps, where their participants would receive food vouchers for hotels owned by refugees and the host community. This practice helped financially support refugee-owned businesses. Taxis would operate freely across the camps, carrying passengers to and from one camp to the other. Some people have specialized in moving items cheaply from one camp and selling them profitably to the other. Many youths are self-employed in the transport sector; they own motorcycles, bicycles, tuk-tuks, Altos and Pro-boxes. Beautifying businesses for men and women are common across the camps. Women own salons that have experts who design wonderful styles for their clients. These salons are also used by women and girls as an environment for social interaction, where they share views and support each other when one woman has an issue or a challenge. Some members of the refugee community also received cash or in-kind goods from fellow community members for the role of watchperson at the communal tap-stands. Each tap-stand for water collection has a member of the community who ensures water is collected in a peaceful and orderly manner.

Unfortunately, COVID and the public health restrictions put in place to respond to the pandemic had devastating impacts on refugee businesses. According to Zubair, a community worker in the camps:

It affected every part of the camp, but some people were badly affected, especially the business community. The lockdown affected transportation of goods to Hagadera and outside the camp. So, there was a decline in the economy in the camp. Those with small businesses ran bankrupt and left the market. I know some of them. Even those who were teaching in private institutions were badly affected. They were not getting payment. Even dugsis (madrasas) were affected. So, the children suffered because of education and the teachers suffered because of no work and payment. The parents suffered also; they had to care for their children all the time at home. So, some of them also closed their businesses because of the children. They did not want their children to go outside and extract the disease. Same time there is no caring center where they can take the children. So, everybody became stranded because of the disease and affected badly.

On top of the economic impact on businesses, another community worker, Fahmi, noted that remittances have also declined. He explained, “Because before Corona came, people were getting money from friends and relatives abroad. Even now collection of food has changed to two months’ interval. This has badly affected the community.” Though the COVID rules were helpful public health measures, they were woefully inadequate considering the huge need and scarcity of resources (i.e., face masks, hand sanitizers, etc.) and health personnel in the camps. As well, it had the effect of amplifying the isolation of encamped refugees who were already on the social, economic, and political outskirts of the country. The indefinite nature of the pandemic for the foreseeable future compounds other negative social effects of encampment such as limited mobility and lack of employment rights.

After the first upsurge of the pandemic, when life in the camps became normal again following the lifting of many of the public health restrictions, businesses still experienced multiple challenges. Most small-scale businesses collapsed because the owners used the capital. Even some private organizations, like the African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC), have moved to Dadaab to support refugees and the host community to thrive in business, government policies of refugee immobility and documentation are still some of the barriers in Dadaab.

Lack of proper planning in the design of markets in the three camps have also contributed to many losses. Businesses in the Dadaab camps are prone to fire, leading to major financial losses. Last year, in December 2021, the market in the Dagahaley camp was completely consumed by fire.  The market in the Ifo camp has also experienced two consecutive attacks by fire. The worst one happened in the middle of the night in June 2022 and left many people with serious losses of their property. The fire was caused by electrical short-circuiting in one of the shops. People managed to contain its spread to other places, but not before the fire burned a quarter of the market.

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Finally, the war between Russia and Ukraine is causing unprecedented challenges in the Dadaab refugee camps. Prices of basic commodities are rising at an alarming rate. This is a big problem in the camps, where most incentive workers earn less than one hundred US dollars a month.

Overall, from the pandemic to fires, the last few years have been devastating for refugee businesses and for the ability of refugees to be self-reliant. Combined with a rising cost of living, it is increasingly difficult for residents of Dadaab to access necessities.

Working Paper 18

By Okello Oyat, Ochan Leomoi, Arte Dagane, Abdikadir Abikar, Dadaab Response Association

Executive Summary

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in school closures globally, including in the Dadaab refugee camps. This study explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education in the Dadaab refugee camps. Based on semi-structured interviews with refugee educators and service providers in the camps, we found out how the pandemic has negatively affected young refugees’ lives. While the schools attempted to implement distance education, it was ineffective overall. In addition to disrupting learning, there were many negative consequences of the school closures, including the cancellation of school feeding programs, worsened social issues, and a rise in mental health issues and suicides. While the issues highlighted in this paper are connected to the impacts of COVID-19, most of the issues were long-standing structural problems that already existed in the camp, including limited resources, funding shortfalls, overcrowded classrooms, a shortage of trained teachers, and limited Internet infrastructure. As a result, it has been challenging to reopen schools and to offer quality education to students. If donors and NGOs want to tackle the adverse social effects of the pandemic for students, they will have to not only reopen schools and mitigate the risks of contracting the coronavirus, but also address the underlying challenges of living, learning, and teaching in a space that is organized to exclude and immobilize refugees.

This study makes several recommendations on how to “build back better” to improve refugee education going forward in Dadaab. Although the pandemic brought significant challenges in Dadaab, it also provided an opportunity to explore how refugees can work out their own agency for survival, without the physical presence and intervention of the humanitarian workers and the Government of Kenya. This opportunity for agency was especially important in a camp setting that is designed to sequester refugee residents and make them vulnerable, voiceless, and dependent on humanitarian handouts. Future education initiatives must include meaningful refugee participation and leadership from refugee-led organizations and initiatives. There is a need to hire more qualified teachers on the ground to address the significant teacher shortage. The agencies handling education should ensure that all schools can access learning through digital platforms by providing all the required infrastructure and technologies. Teachers in Dadaab should receive training on how to use technology to deliver lessons to students, to take advantage of alternative teaching methods in case schools close again. Finally, as schools reopen, it is important to make sure that different groups of learners are not left behind, especially refugee girls.

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DOI

Citation

Oyat, M. O., Ochan, R. O., Dagane, A. S., Abdikadir A, B. (2022). The Impact of COVID-19 on Education and Youth Well-Being in the Dadaab Refugee Camps. Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN).

This conference brought together refugees living in Kenya and in other countries to speak about inclusion and what it looks like from their perspective. The conference was a good example of “Nothing �Ӱ�ԭ�� us Without Us” since it gave refugees a platform in discussions and offered recommendations on how best to include refugees in discussions about policies and programs going forward. It engaged participants from Africa, Europe, and North America in the fields of academia, implementing agencies providing services to refugees, and funders (EUTF), to understand how migration has changed due to COVID. The conference also showcased art produced by refugees in partnership with local artists and supported by UNHCR. It was a very successful event that highlighted striking differences between Kakuma/Kalobeyi and Dadaab which relate to the framing of Dadaab as a security risk and a space about to disappear, and the framing of Kakuma/Kalobeyi as a space of self-reliance.

Event details and recordings available here.

In the second of a series of webinars on the ethics of forced migration research co-hosted by the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN) and the , our panel of speakers reflected on the theme of building research relationships and setting the agenda. The panel featured Dr. Alice Nah, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Politics at the University of York, UK and one of the founding members of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, as well as Mark Okello Oyat, Director of the Dadaab Response Association. During the webinar, Dr. Oroub El-Abed joined the panel, bringing her experience as Regional Research Coordinator for LERRN in Jordan and Lebanon, and as Lead Researcher in Jordan for the Centre for Lebanese Studies.

The panel began by reflecting on the importance of questions on research partnerships and agenda-setting. Moderator Susan McGrath, reflecting on the experiences of the RRN and the challenges of sustaining a research network, highlighted the , entitled . Alice Nah, who started her work on displacement as an advocate and activist,  discussed how institutional incentive structures can take academics away from relevant research by emphasizing theoretical contributions to academic disciplines over relevance, practical impact, or solutions to the problems displaced communities face. That can make it challenging for academics to do reciprocal and impactful research.

For Mark Okello Oyat, who lives in an encampment, this conversation is personal because researchers usually come from outside of the camp with their own research agenda and set of questions, which limits the participation of refugees themselves. It is important to empower refugees to tell their own stories and to conduct their own research on topics that they consider to be important. An alternative approach, like the one taken by LERRN, has provided researchers  from Dadaab a platform to  publish their research on refugee education as LERRN Working Papers. These papers examine topics that have been neglected in previous research and global discussions, such as Mark’s paper on the issue of corporal punishment in refugee schools. Mark emphasized that refugees who are empowered to be independent researchers are then able to connect with scholars around the world.

The panelists criticized how refugees are sometimes brought into research partnerships as subordinate research partners. Oroub El-Abed asked “What is the role of refugee researchers being involved? Is it just getting them to do the work or are we really empowering them?” The speakers advocated for involving refugees and local researchers from the beginning of conceptualizing the problems and asking the questions they see as important in their communities, rather than recruiting refugees to implement existing projects.

Mark suggested that research cannot only be about knowledge production, but needs to have a purpose. The evidence collected in research is an important foundation of advocacy for policymakers to lobby for changes in policy and practice. Oroub suggested that research can be part of standing against the authoritarian oppression of refugees and disturbing states involved in that oppression. Making space for refugees in research can involve theatre, exhibitions, or documentaries in addition to traditional written research publications. Alice also emphasized the importance of making the research relevant in different forums, including within scholarly, practitioner, and refugee communities. Well-respected institutions and scholars in the North can also lend legitimacy to the research findings of refugees and local researchers, and stand with them in solidarity when there are potential risks for speaking up.

The discussion raised important questions about trust, power, and resources. Unfortunately, some recent scholarship has not connected with long-standing conversations on these debates. Without reflecting on these questions, we risk reproducing power asymmetries, inequalities, and problematic policy paradigms. Alice questioned how some ever-present issues get onto research agendas in the first place and asked “Who has the power to turn something into something worthy of investigation, worthy of investment?” As explained in a recent open-access article by LERRN researchers (), localizing knowledge production will require transferring power – including power to set the research agenda – to researchers in the South. One of the key features of the LERRN partnership is that the research agenda is set by working groups in East Africa and the Middle East. One thing we have learned during the pandemic is that virtual spaces open up possibilities for more inclusive and global conversations.

Stay tuned for future webinars in the series in 2022!

This report was prepared by: Rachel McNally, LERRN Knowledge Mobilization and Translation Officer; Amanda Klassen, LERRN Project Officer; and Kail Schlachter, LERRN Project Writer.

The LERRN-RRN Webinar Series on Ethics in Forced Migration Research is coordinated by Rachel McNally, LERRN Knowledge Mobilization and Translation Officer. For further information or ideas please contact us here.