Reviewing humanitarian policies
As is the norm around the world, refugee camps are often situated in poor neighborhoods where infrastructure is either non-existent or underdeveloped. In Kenya for instance, the Kakuma and Dadaab camps are both situated in arid parts of the country often prone to drought.
Yet after years of sending relief to these camps, donors now admit the humanitarian policies employed in camps in Kenya, and many others around Africa, were not helping refugees, while host communities have to learn how to fend for themselves.
Mazou explains that sending relief aid to people in camps is expensive, and has shown that beneficiaries become addicted to humanitarian assistance, meaning they can’t break the habit even when the conditions for return home become favorable.
“This camp-based care is no longer sustainable financially, because the aid money that used to be readily available for humanitarian needs is not enough. There are many crises around the world today,” he told Chinafrica.
“But we have seen other unintended consequences of having people assisted in camps: Most end up being unable to do anything for themselves.”
In February, the World Bank and UNHCR released a report showing that some people in refugee host communities in Africa had wished they were refugees themselves, because they felt neglected when relief services are brought to the camps.
The report, known as In My Backyard? The Economics of Refugees and Their Social Dynamics in Kakuma, focused on the lifestyle of people in and around Kakuma Refugee Camp and found that refugees would generally contribute more to the wellbeing of the area if they integrated with host communities.
Because refugees are situated in poorly developed areas, the report argued, “equal attention needs to be paid in developing these areas” and shifting policies from emergency financing to development and long-term support.
It is a new strategy, which the World Bank calls a paradigm shift, directing development aid to host communities rather than refugees and trying to change their attitudes toward refugees.
“Integrating refugees into the economy generates positive economic effects in aggregate terms and also diffuses such effects across all regions in Kenya,” the report argued.