Akalya Atputharajah, PhD Candidate, School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa

Javans Wanga, Master of Arts in Forced Migration Student, Moi University, Kenya

Executive Summary

Localization is not a new agenda, but it re-emerged as a major area of focus for global refugee policy during the World Humanitarian Summit (2016) with the Grand Bargain and more recently in the 2018 Global Compact for Refugees. There are many benefits of localization, including reduced costs, deeper connections to vulnerable populations, and reduced duplication of services (Geoffrey and Grunewald 2017). However, there are also numerous barriers to localization, including due diligence and risk management systems, indirect funding structures, and the perception of international NGOs that local NGOs have insufficient capacities (Emmens and Clayton 2020). In Kenya, the refugee situation is becoming increasingly long-term after more than 20 years of hosting refugees and funding is dwindling, making the country an important case study. To this end, we conducted four weeks of fieldwork in Kenya. This research characterizes the extent of the localization of humanitarian action in Kenya as limited localization. Examples of localization included training, inter-agency and sectoral steering committees, and local hiring by international NGOs. Barriers included gatekept funds by UNHCR and a lack of trust in local NGOs. Informed by Aldrich’s (1976) resource dependence model, we highlight major barriers specifically related to the organizations’ dependence on resources. First, INGOs must mitigate risks in a UNHCR-dominated field and are limited in their ability to localize if they are in implementing partnerships themselves, since they must mitigate their own risks by not deviating from what is outlined in those partnerships. Second, exchanges between the UNHCR and other NGOs have established a strong domain consensus, in which the UNHCR is at the centre, INGOs are close to the centre and LNGOs are at the periphery. Third, LNGOs lack access to resources to engage in equal partnerships. To address these barriers, this paper concludes with three policy recommendations: a stronger UNHCR stance on direct funding to LNGOs, a reconceptualization of localization as an imminent priority instead of an eventual transition, and a formalization of INGO exit strategies to encourage concrete steps toward localization.

View the full LERRN Working Paper Series here:

Watch this video to learn more about Akalya and Javans’ research in Kenya.

DOI

Citation

Atputharajah, A., Wanga, J. (2020). The Impact of Resource Dependence on the Localization of Humanitarian Action: The Case of Kenya. Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN).

Merve Erdilmen, McGill University

Witness Ayesiga Sosthenes, University of Dar es Salaam

Executive Summary

The idea of strengthening local humanitarian actors’ capacities, and access to funding and information, as well as making local non-governmental organizations essential partners in strategic decision-making processes, has been around globally since the early 1990s. Localization efforts have gained momentum since the World Humanitarian Summit (2016), alongside other international platforms and commitments, including the Charter for Change (2015), the Grand Bargain (2016), and the Global Compact on Refugees (2018). Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the essential role local actors play in responding to the crisis.

Amid greater efforts to realize localization ideals in different parts of the world, many have raised concerns about the issues at stake in these initiatives, and the factors that affect their success or failure. Hence, it remains important to better understand localization efforts in various contexts, the opportunities they provide, and challenges they pose.

This paper provides a general overview of opportunities and challenges for localization initiatives in Tanzania. Our research has aimed to understand the impediments faced by local nongovernmental actors and the sources of impediments to localization of humanitarian assistance and refugee protection initiatives in Tanzania. During our five weeks of field work in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, we employed a mix of in-depth stakeholder interviews, participant observation and process tracing. Our findings show that even though the localization process has made important progress globally, it remains to be studied how international political economy concerns and power inequalities embedded in humanitarian action inform localization initiatives on the ground. Our paper provides the first analysis of this link in localization between global and local. Furthermore, we also provide several recommendations for policymakers and future research.

View the full LERRN Working Paper Series here:

DOI

Citation

Erdilmen, M., Sosthenes, W. A. (2020).Opportunities and Challenges for Localization of Humanitarian Action in Tanzania. Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN).

Mohamed Duale, PhD Candidate, Education, York University

Executive Summary

Although not a new concept, refugee participation, or the involvement of refugees in decision making and service-delivery for refugees, has been gaining currency as a result of a recent shift in global refugee policy from humanitarian towards neoliberal developmentalist approaches. Refugee inclusion, self-reliance, and resilience, among other terms, can be seen as proxies for refugee participation in recent global refugee policy discourse. These policy shifts speak to the imperative of integrating refugees in host societies and of including refugees in decision-making about their lives and in refugee programming.

On the one hand, these terms can imply an opening of sorts for refugees to be given more substantive social and economic concessions within the global refugee regime. On the other hand, these keywords gesture to a conception of refugee participation as a solution to the “problems” of refugee aid dependence and irregular migration. It can also present new challenges for refugees as the push for self-reliance runs the risk of abandoning them to the forces of the market without social political rights in the host country. As well, the emphasis on self-sufficiency, among other neoliberal policy imperatives, leaves out all the ways that refugees have already been participating in civic and economic activities in their host countries, and global refugee policy, in that regard, somewhat trails the realities on the ground.

As my research in Kenya in 2019 has revealed, there is a major disconnect between recent global refugee policy formulations and refugee experiences of participation. In the Kakuma Refugee Camp, refugee-led organizations have increasingly been providing education, health awareness, sports and recreation programs. Despite inclusion in the implementation of refugee programming, refugee leaders are excluded from meaningful input in decision-making and planning. In Nairobi, urban refugees, often “invisible,” are forced to be self-reliant due to the relatively low-level of humanitarian operations in the city and, as a result, tend to have few connections to UNHCR and the NGOs, and even less access to participatory mechanisms than their counterparts in the camp. Despite some potential for recent refugee participation policies to modify the way refugees are consulted, involved, and served by humanitarian actors in Kenya, there are significant limitations as a result of the national encampment policy as well as the securitization of refugees. Policymakers will have to embed safeguards and protections into refugee participation processes to legitimate and allow refugees and refugee-led organizations to be heard and have their views meaningfully considered.

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More about the author

Mohamed Duale is a PhD Candidate in Education at the Faculty of Education, York University, and a Graduate Research Fellow with the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University. He is an interdisciplinary scholar with interests in refugee youth belonging, education and civic participation. Beyond his research with LERRN, his doctoral research examines the lived experiences of Somali refugee youth in the Dadaab refugee camps of north-eastern Kenya.

Watch this video to learn more about Mohamed’s work.

DOI

Citation

Duale, M. (2020). “To be a refugee, it’s like to be without your arms, legs”: A Narrative Inquiry into Refugee Participation in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Nairobi, Kenya. Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN).

Yasmeen Shahzadeh, McGill University

Executive Summary

Syrian and Jordanian youth in Jordan are experiencing challenges with regards to their access to education, their employment, and the transitions between the two. Amidst rising costs, economic fragility, and political uncertainty, youth in the country are rendered increasingly vulnerable.

In this working paper, LERRN researcher and McGill University Masters student Yasmeen Shahzadeh explores the current circumstances related to youth’s education and employment in Jordan, and discusses some challenges in linking both phases based on the field work she conducted in Amman, Jordan in the summer of 2019, as well as using existing academic literature and non-governmental publications.

This paper also introduces several recommendations for research and action that can inform future applied research and discussions of education and employment policy and practice in Jordan and in the region. First, advocacy to work to increase minimum wage for citizens and non-citizens in Jordan is crucial in light of rising costs of living. Second, exploring the possibility of opening professions to Syrians in Jordan is crucial, given the increasingly protracted nature of this conflict – drawing attention to the opportunity of opening up teaching jobs to Syrians. Third, it advocates for a market-based approach to designing training, education, & employment programs to graduate youth with in-demand qualifications.

Lastly, this paper highlights the importance of further research and a focus on knowledge translation to operationalize research into policy response, donor action, and organizational programming.

View the full LERRN Working Paper Series here:

More about the author

Yasmeen Shahzadeh has a Bachelor’s degree from McGill University with a major in International Development Studies, and a double minor in Communications Studies and Social Studies of Medicine. Currently, she is in her second year of her Masters in Education and Society at McGill, and has a concentration in Gender and Women’s Studies.

Watch this video to learn more about Yasmeen’s field work in Jordan.

DOI

Citation

Shahzadeh, Y. (2020). Understanding Syrian and Jordanian Youth Transitions from Education to Employment. Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN).

Leonard Chimanda, University of Dar es Salaam

Stéfanie Morris, University of Ottawa

Executive Summary

In the summer of 2019, Leonard Chimanda, a Masters candidate of Laws in Migration and Refugee Law at the University of Dar es Salaam and StĂ©fanie Morris, a researcher at the University of Ottawa were tasked to evaluate whether there are gaps in Tanzania’s current national legal and regulatory framework.

In the summer of 2019, Leonard and StĂ©fanie were tasked to evaluate Tanzania’s national legal and regulatory framework.

Discrepancies between international law and policy and local practice have proved significant in Tanzania in recent years. As a country that has hosted refugees since its independence, with no end in sight, the protracted nature of this situation has challenged the government’s willingness to cooperate in the implementation of international policies.

Leonard and Stéfanie drew on legal texts, recent academic literature, reports from Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and findings from semi-structured interviews with local and international actors. The research found that the Refugees Act allows for a great deal of flexibility in interpretation, while policies and practices have increasingly restricted the lives of refugees in Tanzania. Additionally, recent actions by Tanzanian authorities have contradicted some of their legal commitments and suggest increased collaborative, local research as a tool for future advocacy.

View the full LERRN Working Paper Series here:

More about Leonard

Leonard is a Tanzanian citizen who received is pursuing a Masters of Laws in Migration and Refugee at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He is passionate about migration and refugee law and spent several years volunteering with various humanitarian organizations such as the and the . Currently, he’s also a tutorial assistant in law at the University of Dodoma, Tanzania.

Leonard is happy to be a part of LERRN because it gave him the opportunity to put the knowledge and skills he learned in university into practice.

“I recommend the LERRN project as one amongst the appropriate forum through which refugee treatments in various countries in the world can be improved. I am delighted to continue with my passion and works on humanitarian assistance especially for refugees and migrants and it is my heartedly wish to keep in touch with LERRN.”

View Leonard’s full bio here.

More about Stéfanie

Stéfanie has a Master’s in Public and International Affairs from the University of Ottawa and a Bachelor’s in Sociocultural Anthropology. She has worked on a number of qualitative and ethnographic research teams on subjects ranging from transnational families in India to refugee family reunification in Canada, and now Tanzania’s legal framework for refugees. She continues to work as a researcher for the University of Ottawa and as an analyst for Immigration Refugee and Citizenship Canada with the hope of contributing to improved conditions for migrant and displaced persons, domestically and internationally.

View StĂ©fanie’s full bio here.

Watch the video below to learn more about Leonard, Stéfanie and their work:

DOI

Citation

Chimanda, L., Morris, S. (2020). Tanzania’s National Legal Framework for Refugees. Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN).