Advancing multi stakeholder engagement to sustain solutions
Since 2016, the response to refugees has gradually shifted in many countries in the East Africa region. This briefing paper aims to document learning around the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) application in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia and at the regional level with the role of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) through a thematic approach. It highlights learning from new ways of working as well as opportunities that the application of the CRRF has enabled in three key areas: (1) return and (re)integration; (2) area-based and locally-led approaches; and (3) regional and national level engagement around the CRRF process. Crosscutting issues such as multi-stakeholder approaches, accountability and adaptability are brought out across all themes. The paper also addresses gaps and opportunities with recommendations for further development that can be used for planning and policy dialogue beyond this year’s first Global Refugee Forum (GRF) to support a common agenda around durable solutions programming in the East Africa region.
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Findings from citizen-led discussions on displacement & durable solutions in Mogadishu
This report outlines the first iteration of the Common Social Accountability Platform (CSAP), developed by Africa’s Voices Foundation (AVF) and launched in partnership with ReDSS and the Banadir Regional Administration (BRA) with the financial support from Danida, DFID and ECHO. The platform was mobilised for a four-part interactive radio series designed to build public dialogue in Mogadishu on critical displacement topics and to gather public opinion to inform ongoing durable solutions programmes and decision-making. The report documents the results and findings of the interactive radio dialogue pilot project.
CSAP is built on an interactive radio method used by AVF: radio debate shows driven by citizen input sent in by SMS, or text messages. It has two primary goals. First, it is designed to tackle a crucial gap in connecting Somali citizens to decision-making by maximising the scale and inclusivity of dialogue between citizens and authorities. Second, CSAP provides a robust digital platform to gather and analyse evidence on citizen perspectives, as articulated in SMS responses and feedback to the specific questions posed during the interactive radio show series.
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Full Report – ReDss Common Accountability Final
Lessons learned from the EU REINTEG Durable solutions consortia (2017-2020)
This report focuses on the EU RE-INTEG interventions of three NGO-led consortia for which ReDSS is the learning partner. The objective of this report is to document learning and promising practices from the EIDACS, JSC and SDSC programmes in the following areas: 1) Strategy and approach, including the use of the IASC indicators; 2) Consortium governance structures and coordination within and between consortia; 2) Engagement with critical durable solutions stakeholders, particularly government representatives and displacement-affected communities (DACs); and 4) Learning and project adaptation. Key lessons learned and promising practices were identified through a desk review of key programme documentation and relevant external documents, and 20 key informant interviews with programme stakeholders, including RE-INTEG implementing and learning partners, the EU, representatives of government, and partners from other durable solutions consortia. Click on the links to download:
Are integrated access to services a step towards integration?
The study examines whether, and in what ways, integrated services contribute to better outcomes for refugees who are in situation of protracted displacement in Northern Uganda. Focusing in particular on host community-refugee relations as instrumental to refugee- hosting conditions, it examines how the policy of integrated services to refugees and their host has been applied and analyses the longer-term implications of this approach. Three main issues are considered:
- What is the current policy in terms of shared services to host and refugee communities in Uganda and how has this been applied in practice?
- From the perspective of refugees and host populations, what are the social and economic implications of shared services? Do they contribute to more positive relationships and greater economic engagement?
- What are the longer-term implications of an integrated service delivery model for refugee hosting in Uganda, including links to the integration of refugees into Uganda?
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Analysis of solutions programming in urban contexts
ReDSS analysis of solutions programming in urban contexts focuses on urban refugees in Nairobi, Kenya and IDPs and refugee-returnees in Mogadishu and Baidoa in Somalia. The report aimed to better understand and address displaced people’s vulnerabilities and aspirations in urban centers and to rethink support in more sustainable and empowering ways. The methodology was based on participatory and consensus building approach including consultations and validation workshops with displacement affected communities, policy makers and practitioners.
The displacement environment in the Horn of Africa is primarily one of encampment however increasingly internally displaced persons (IDPs), returning refugees and to a lesser extent refugees are moving to towns and cities. Kenya for instance hosts some 65,000 urban refugees (or 13% of its total refugee population). In Somalia, over 2 million children, women and men are internally displaced. Most people displaced by drought left rural parts of Bay, Lower Shabelle, and Sool and settled in urban areas such as Mogadishu and Baidoa. The population of Baidoa has doubled in the past 12 months.
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Full Report – ReDSS Urban Study
Executive Summary – ReDSS Urban Study
Summary Presentation – ReDSS Urban Solutions Study March 2018
Early solutions planning and Displacement
Current studies and literature have argued that strategies for solutions should start at the onset of displacement. Solutions planning is most commonly initiated after displacement becomes protracted, by which point refugees are often dependent on humanitarian assistance. Given the unlikelihood of return or resettlement in the early stages of displacement, a solutions-oriented approach must inevitably have a primary focus on building refugee self-reliance and resilience in the country of asylum. Adopting a more solutions-oriented approach in the early stages of displacement is dependent on making a number of wide-ranging improvements on how displacement is responded to and who is involved. These improvements relate to a number of operational factors, including better forecasting of displacement and preparedness; more collaborative humanitarian and development approaches to assessment and analysis and the development of joint, measurable outcomes for refugee-hosting areas; and more flexible, multi-year funding sources to support the achievement of these outcomes.
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Full Report – Early Solution Planning Report – December 2016
Power-point presentation – Early Solution Planning Report December 2016
Review of durable solutions initiatives in East and Horn of Africa
11.7 million people were displaced in the region at the end of February 2016, mostly in Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia. Displacement results from a combination of conflicts, climatic and development shocks driven by poor governance, environmental degradation, food insecurity, and lack of economic opportunities. The lack of a common system, unclear coordination, and missing evidence base, are key structural challenges to finding durable solutions. Over the last decade, key stakeholders have been seeking to unlock solutions through new initiatives and ideas – all of which have been detailed in this report. These initiatives provide fertile ground from which to learn and build a more comprehensive and collaborative agenda in the search for durable solutions in the region. This report explores the junctures at which these initiatives have come together or in some cases, have failed to do so, providing opportunities and entry-points into an actual durable solutions system.
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Full Report – ReDSS SH Report Final
Figure 4: National and Regional initiatives
Figure 5: Coordination gaps within initiatives in the East and Horn of Africa
Devolution in Kenya
The 2010 Constitution of Kenya enacted a process of devolution with wide ranging consequences on the nature of local governance and service delivery. This study assesses whether county governments can provide an opportunity to reach transitional solutions for refugees, recognising that any solution to displacement will require a community-based approach. Host communities and local populations require attention in planning for transitional and durable solutions, and hence county governments may also have a role to play in refugee affairs. In a heated political and security context framing refugee affairs in East Africa, there is an acute need for evidence-based strategies to find durable solutions. This is especially true in light of the “protracted situations of displacement”, by which refugees get “trapped in limbo (…) having been in exile for more than five years with no immediate prospect of finding a durable solution for themselves.”
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A new deal for Somalia's displaced
The main objective of this report was to take stock of potential opportunities for promoting durable solutions for displaced people in the Somalia New Deal Compact. This was done by identifying displacement in Somalia’s development discourse; and assessing stakeholder engagement in the Compact. This presents a unique opportunity to emphasise the importance of displacement in development and stability frameworks. The study will clarify what the Somali Compact says about displaced communities in the country, its implementation, and how INGOs can engage constructively with the New Deal Process in order to ensure that durable solutions is turned into a policy and operational priority. A follow-up to this study has been commissioned by UNHCR Somalia to build a clear roadmap for setting the agenda of displacement within the New Deal’s development discourse and move forward after the Copenhagen High-Level Political Forum conference to be held on the 19th and 20th November 2014.
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