Updated October 2026: this post was first published in July 2019 to share the workshop report. We have expanded it with a summary drawn from the report, which is now hosted on our website with the outcomes and agenda.
Collective efforts in the search for durable solutions have led to longer-term programming with longer-term funding, and development actors have become more engaged in supporting displaced and host communities. With leadership from IGAD and national governments, actors have been able to monitor progress on the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) and address its challenges. Yet development programming still needs a better understanding of what protection means and how to measure progress towards durable solutions. For practitioners across the region, comparing what is working is one of the fastest ways to close that gap.
On 26 and 27 June 2019, we held our first regional programme learning workshop in Nairobi to discuss emerging trends in durable solutions programming in the Horn of Africa, build a common agenda with expert stakeholders, and help set the agenda for the first Global Refugee Forum. According to our 2019 annual report, 112 participants attended from government, humanitarian and development agencies, regional bodies, academia and the private sector, with examples from Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda.
What was discussed
Plenary panels covered social cohesion and area-based planning, and economic opportunities and inclusion. Working groups looked at government engagement and capacity development; community engagement and social accountability; integrated access to services and education; early solutions and preparedness; area-based and settlement planning; housing, land and property and access to justice; private sector engagement; social protection; and collective outcomes and measuring local integration in Somalia. A final session considered the use of research and evidence, including adaptive management, and preparations for the Global Refugee Forum.
Emerging trends
The report identifies calls to complement people-based approaches with area-based ones; growing use of conflict analysis to guide targeting, protection and social cohesion work; market-driven and private sector approaches to economic inclusion; community-based protection; and more emphasis on evidence, adaptive programming and learning. Presenters shared examples: Baidoa municipality had received 323,691 internally displaced people since 2016, the PRIME project in Ethiopia reported a 22 percent increase in household incomes over six and a half years, Equity Bank estimated that it had extended services to about 40 percent of the refugee population in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, and in the BRCiS programme, 95 percent of communities displaced in the 2011 famine were not displaced during the 2017 drought.
Lessons and challenges
Participants found that social cohesion needs clear definitions and a theory of change; that conflict analysis should be continuous and address root causes; that area-based, locally led planning supports sustainable outcomes; that long-term, pooled funding and institutional capacity development work better than one-off training; and that adaptive management needs flexible finance and room to reflect. They named gaps in common understanding of social cohesion, inclusion and protection, limited consensus on measuring sustainable (re)integration, siloed and parallel coordination, limited data sharing with governments, and weak protection of land rights for women and youth.
Recommendations
The report recommends framing key concepts clearly, especially for local authorities; supporting authorities to lead and coordinate solutions; minimum standards for measuring (re)integration; multi-year and pooled funding; involving communities and local organisations, including women-led groups, in planning and decisions; strategic private sector engagement based on market analysis and shared risk; prioritising prevention and preparedness; wider sharing and uptake of research; and, for the Global Refugee Forum, documenting CRRF lessons from the region and engaging refugees and internally displaced people meaningfully.
Read the workshop report, the outcomes and the agenda.
References
Mung’ala, N. for ReDSS (2019). Regional durable solutions learning workshop report, Nairobi, 26 to 27 June 2019. https://www.regionaldss.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ReDSS-regional-programme-learning-workshop-report-2019.pdf
ReDSS (2020). Annual report 2019. https://www.regionaldss.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2019-Final-Annual-report.pdf
