We are excited to announce the release of a new publication titled: by Rachel McNally, Pascal Zigashane, Abdikadir Abikar, Arte Dagane, Mark Oyat Okello, and Ochan Leomoi, published in

This study delves into the complex dynamics of waiting for resettlement faced by refugees in Kenyan refugee camps, specifically focusing on the strategies individuals and communities develop as they navigate uncertain futures. By examining the psychological, social, and economic dimensions of waiting, the publication sheds light on the resilience and adaptability of refugees in the face of prolonged displacement and uncertainty of resettlement.

Abstract

This research was co-produced with equal participation of researchers with lived experiences of displacement, currently residing in Kakuma and Dadaab, Kenya. This work is essential for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners working in refugee studies, migration, and humanitarian aid.

We hope this research sparks meaningful conversations and contributes to advancing our understanding of displacement, waiting for resettlement, and resilience in refugee communities.

Related Publications

Policy Brief: Waiting for Resettlement Increasing Transparency in the Resettlement Process in Kenya

The post New Publication: “The ‘Not Yet’ and ‘Never’ Resettled: Individual and Communal Waiting Strategies Among Refugees in Kenyan Camps” appeared first on LERRN: The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network.

Working Paper 10

Akalya Atputharajah, University of Ottawa

Javans Wanga, Moi University

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 Aldrichā€™s (1976) resource dependence model, we highlight major barriers specifically related to the organizationsā€™ 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.

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PRINT-The Impact of Resource Dependence on the Localization of Humanitarian Action The Case of Kenya

The Impact of Resource Dependence on the Localization of Humanitarian Action The Case of Kenya

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

View the full LERRN Working Paper Series here:

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).

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Working Paper 7

Mohamed Duale, 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 ā€œproblemsā€ 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 ā€œinvisible,ā€ 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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ā€œTo be a refugee, itā€™s like to be without your arms, legsā€: A Narrative Inquiry into Refugee Participation in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Nairobi, Kenya

PRINT-To be a refugee, itā€™s like to be without your arms, legsā€: A Narrative Inquiry into Refugee Participation in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Nairobi, Kenya

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

View the full LERRN Working Paper Series here:

DOI:

Citation: Duale, M. (2020). “To be a refugee, itā€™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).

The post ā€œTo be a refugee, itā€™s like to be without your arms, legsā€: A Narrative Inquiry into Refugee Participation in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Nairobi, Kenya appeared first on LERRN: The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network.

By Pascal Zigashane

The world is facing a health threat and Kenya is finding it very crucial to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Kakuma refugee camp is an arid place with no agriculture activities. Refugees fully depend on food stock from other counties in Kenya, especially Kitale County. Fear rises amongst refugees if they become disconnected from other parts of Kenya. I talked to Chance Bahati, a business owner, who said that

With restrictions put in place by the Government of Kenya and the UNHCR, refugees are hopeless to navigate this global health crisis. Several government services to asylum seekers and refugees have been suspended. This includes welcoming refugees and registration. The Refugee Affairs Secretariat has suspended all its activities in Nairobi and Kakuma refugee camp.

UNHCR Kakuma has passed information to refugees in Kakuma through a public system managed by FilmAid International. They have warned refugees not to leave the camp and that they will be arrested by Kenyan Police out of the camp. UNHCR will not take any responsibility and will not provide assistance to anyone who will test positive with COVID-19.

Health care providers in Kakuma, IRC (International Rescue Committee) and AIC (Africa Inland Church) are at risk. They donā€™t have COVID-19 prevention kits. They are very exposed to this pandemic disease. Distancing measures are not applicable. There are many patients who are suffering from other diseases at the clinic and they donā€™t understand distancing measures.

Monicah Atiek, who is a South Sudanese woman, shared with me her worries about women in Kakuma becoming the most victimized people.

She is also worried that her fellow refugees will contract the virus and die without medical personnel to attend them.

Despite many people not respecting the measures put in place to prevent the virus, few refugees are observing wash hand measures when they are at the police station and market places. More efforts are required to protect refugees from this deadly virus.

Pascal Zigashane is the executive director at  in Kakuma, Kenya. He worked with Kenya Red Cross Society, Refunit and Jesuit Refugee Service. Pascal also volunteers at Sky School as an education coordinator and IT support.

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 By Mohamed Duale

The International Day of Education on January 24^th was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly on December 6, 2018 as a day of action to highlight the role of education in sustainable development and peace, and to ā€œensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels.ā€[i] In this blog post for LERRN, I reflect on what I believe is the barrier to the realization of this goal in the Horn of Africa: the lack of sustainable solutions to build and maintain local capacity in education.

I have worked as a teaching assistant and course director for the , a trailblazing initiative led by York University, which provides access to university education for refugees in the Dadaab refugee camps in northeastern Kenya.

This in turn undermines the building and maintenance of local capacity both in the refugee-hosting and refugee-producing areas of the Horn of Africa. I can draw four lessons about this challenge to the long-term future of education systems in Dadaab, Kenya, and nearby Somalia.

 Lesson 1: Maintaining adequate funding to sustain gains in education in refugee camps

Refugee camps tend to be located in economically and politically marginalized parts of a country, and often the needs of refugees and host communities are indistinguishable. Students in primary and secondary schools in Dadaab town and the surrounding camps regularly underperform the rest of their peers in Kenya as a result of overcrowded classrooms, poor quality of instruction and a lack of curricular resources. Though the situation has improved since the camps opened in the early 1990s, funding for education in Dadaab has sharply declined in recent years due to the looming closure of the camps and the reduction in the refugee population. Schools in Kambios and Ifo 2, refugee camps that have been closed and handed over to the Kenyan government, are currently in disuse owing to a lack of financial and human resources, a fate that awaits other camps in the years to come. This jeopardizes important gains that have been made in school participation and completion rates, particularly of girls and young women. Funders and NGOs need to work with the county government to find ways to sustainably fund access to education after the camps close. Rather than dismantle or allow the schools in closed camps to deteriorate, it would be better to turn Dadaab into a hub of excellence in education in Kenyaā€™s northeast region.

Lesson 2: Training and properly compensating refugee teachers to retain their capacity

Refugee teachers, which constitute the majority of the teaching force in the camps, are deprofessionalized by a national refugee policy that limits their compensation to an ā€˜incentive wageā€™ (a fraction of the typical salary). Certified teachers from southern Kenya often stay in Dadaab for a short period of time owing to the difficulties of living and working in a refugee camp. Providing teacher training at the tertiary level, certification and pay equity to refugee teachers will help to retain crucial human resources to support improved educational outcomes in the camps and the wider Horn of Africa. Last year, I co-wrote an article that talks at greater length about refugee teachers, which you may find here: .

Lesson 3: Supporting the rebuilding of education systems in refugee producing countries

Access to education is one of the key pull factors for displaced people to come to refugee camps as schools are often destroyed during armed conflict. I have heard repeatedly that the lack of schools in Somalia continued to be one of the main barriers to repatriation among those who considered return. As the Dadaab camps gradually close over the next several years, funders and NGOs should support the Somali federal and state governments as well as credible civil society actors to rebuild Somaliaā€™s education system. This will require funding to build and resource schools and train teachers among a variety of other structural supports.

Lesson 4: Providing access to higher education in refugee camps and conflict affected countries

For much of the 1990s and 2000s, there was no access to post-secondary education other than a few international scholarships which took a small number of the youngest and highest performing students for study abroad. The emergence of camp-based university education programs such as BHER has changed the landscape of education in Kenyan refugee camps. A larger number of people can now access tertiary education without needing to leave the camps. Nevertheless, programs like BHER have struggled to maintain sustainable year-on-year funding despite its significant impact on education in the camps and the broader region. Many of the graduates from BHER have returned to Somalia to open schools or to work for NGOs. Others have gone onto study for a Masterā€™s degree with Yorkā€™s Faculty of Education and are emerging scholars and leaders in their own right.

Similarly, the international community needs to invest in the reconstruction of public universities in refugee producing countries to build capacity for overall national reconstruction. Many of these universities are reopening with limited resources and little outside support. In 2014, the Somali National University, the first and only public university in Somalia, was reopened after it closed in 1991. The university trained and graduated the first cadre of qualified teachers in three decades in 2018. As many of the university professors were killed or exiled during the conflict, there is a critical shortage of qualified university instructors, and a need to partner with global universities to gradually replenish exhausted academic capital.

Final thoughts

These four lessons highlight the imperative of thinking beyond the humanitarian paradigm towards a developmental and regional approach that is responsive to the need to build and maintain local capacity for education in the Horn of Africa. This will require partnership, funding and localization of programs by international NGOs. In particular, it will also necessitate that funders and large international NGOs work closely with the county government in northeastern Kenya and the Somali federal and state governments, as well as civil society, to support national and local education strategies. Although the points made in this blog post draw from realities in the Dadaab camps and Somalia, the situation is much the same with other refugee camps such as Kakuma and conflict affected countries such as South Sudan.

Mohamed Duale is a PhD candidate in Education at the Faculty of Education at York University. He is a course director with the BHER Project and a researcher with LERRN.

[i] UN General Assembly. (2018, December 6). Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 3 December 2018. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/73/25

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By Mohamed Duale, PhD Student, York University

This August 2019, I had the opportunity to research refugee participation in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwest Kenya as part of the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN). Kakuma Refugee Camp was established in 1992, and consists of four sub-camps (Kakuma 1, 2, 3, and 4). Today, Kakuma is home to an estimated 185,000 refugees from various countries in Eastern and the Horn of Africa.

With staff of Resilience Action International (formerly SAVIC), a refugee led NGO in Kakuma 2.

The camp is a vast and culturally diverse complex with large communities of displaced persons from South Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, as well as the local Turkana people, who are the host community. Sections of the camp are thriving business centres, namely the Somali and Ethiopian markets, and refugees run a large number of small businesses within Kakuma Town, making refugees key economic actors in Turkana County. Many of the residential blocks in Kakuma have been named after global cities, such as Dubai, Hong Kong, and Mexico City, speaking to the cosmopolitan consciousness and aspirations of the refugees in Kakuma.

Given the significant role played by refugees in the economic and social life of Kakuma, I was curious to know how involved refugees are in the programming and overall governance of the camp. My research was centred on the role of refugees and refugee led community-based organizations (CBOs) in refugee programming in the camp.

Community leaders, refugee incentive workers, and refugee-led organizations in particular play critical representative, consultative, communication and service provision functions. They work with international and national NGOs which fund and deliver humanitarian programs in the camp. Refugee participation is thus seen by refugees and policymakers as an integral part of the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs and services, and essential to the overall functioning of the camp.

In my time in Kakuma, I spent a lot of time talking to community leaders, refugee incentive workers and general members of refugee communities and learned that refugees are heavily involved in the delivery of programs and the dissemination of information but excluded from decision-making regarding the design and evaluation of humanitarian programming. It was also evident that restrictions on mobility and employment continue to frustrate refugee workers in the humanitarian sector, as they are only paid an ā€˜incentiveā€™ wage, typically a fraction of what a national is paid in the same role.

Problems with registering refugee-led CBOs in an increasingly security-conscious country have hampered many initiatives. As well, ongoing tensions between the refugees and the host community occasionally boil over to conflict, and some refugees from certain communities expressed fears for their safety in the camp, dampening the enthusiasm of some to be civically engaged.

Despite these challenges, Kakuma is replete with many examples of refugees partaking in the social development of their communities, including refugee-led CBOs and NGOs providing English language, computer literacy, entrepreneurship, health, and social protection programs often with the support of the UNHCR and NGOs.

As such, refugee-led CBOs can serve an important role in addressing gaps in services whilst working in complementarity with overall humanitarian programming. The leaders of refugee-led organizations are often young, well-educated, English-speaking and fluent in three or four other languages. Though they are among the elite of the refugee community, they are often called on to serve as the ā€œvoice of refugees,ā€ advocating for and relaying information to their respective communities.

One of the key learnings for me was realizing the untapped potential of refugee leaders and incentive workers, who possess substantial academic capacity and could play a more participatory role in knowledge production in forced migration research beyond being key informants. I was amazed at the cultural diversity and cosmopolitan worldviews within refugee led CBOs, which signaled to me the importance of refugeesā€™ civic engagement as a source of peacebuilding within the camp and the wider region.

I will be analyzing the data Iā€™ve collected and will be writing a working paper in the next few months, which will be posted on LERRN’s website.

As a team, I believe we have laid the groundwork for future LERRN researchers to dig deeper and continue where we left off in summer 2019. Iā€™m grateful for the hospitality and support of so many, particularly of those in refugee-led organizations.

The post Refugee Participation in Kakuma Refugee Camp appeared first on LERRN: The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network.

The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN) was excited to participate in an innovative training program on forced migration issues. The week-long program opened Monday, 26 August, in Nairobi, Kenya.

Organized by the Peace Institute at , under the seasoned leadership of the Instituteā€™s Director, Dulo Nyaoro, the Regional Forced Migration Training offered a week-long intensive introduction to refugee and forced displacement issues to a select group of scholars, practitioners and policy makers from Kenya and beyond.

The training program was developed in cooperation with Kenya’s Refugee Affairs Secretariat, the Africa Migration and Development Policy Centre (), the Refugee Consortium of Kenya () and LERRN, with generous support from Partnership Grant program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada ().

While the training program was built on a long tradition of offering foundations in refugee and forced migration issues for practitioners, policy-makers and journalists, this year’s program was truly unique and innovative as it included participants not only from Kenya but also from LERRN’s Working Groups in Tanzania, Lebanon and Jordan.

In this way, the course represented an exceptional opportunity for civil society actors from major refugee-hosting states in the global South to share experiences and develop more effective responses.

While more than 80% of the world’s refugee are hosted by states in the global South, most training opportunities on refugee issues are based in the global North. This creates significant barriers to participation for civil society actors so closely involved with responses to refugees as the cost of travel and access to visas for travel can be significant barriers.

The need to host a collaborative and comprehensive training program in the global South was identified by LERRN partners at the launch of the seven-year initiative in September 2018.

LERRN is committed to understanding and enhancing the role of civil society to help realize meaningful protection and durable solutions with and for refugees.

For more details on the training program in Kenya, contact: LERRN@carleton.ca

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