The IDP crisis today and the protracted IDP situations in Africa

1
The IDP crisis today and the protracted IDP
situations in Africa

• Mahnirban Calcutta Research Group, India
• 5 December 2007
• Khassim Diagne, Senior Policy Advisor, UNHCR
  Geneva

2
Background

• Current estimates by IDMC place the number of
  conflict related IDPs at 24.5 million in 2006.
  The bulk of it in Africa.
• Countries with the highest number Sudan (5m),
  Uganda (1.7m) and DRC (1.1m). Other situations
  include Cote dIvoire (700,000), Somalia
  (400,000) and Chad (150,000)
• West Africa. A new terminology is arising called
  climate change displacement. While majority of
  displacement is due to conflicts, increasingly
  displacement is due to natural disasters as
  recently seen with the floods in Uganda, Somalia
  and parts of

3
Who is an IDP?

• IDPs are persons or groups of persons who have
  been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their
  homes or places of habitual residence, in
  particular as a result of or in order to avoid
  the effects of armed conflict, situations of
  generalized violence, violations of human rights
  or natural or human-made disasters, and who have
  not crossed an internationally recognized border
  (Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement)

4
An attempted definition of a protracted IDP
situation

• New field of research
• Using the refugee analogy, 25,000 IDPs or more
  who have been in exile for five or more years.
  NRC estimates that the average length of the
  conflicts that caused displacement and prevented
  return stood at 14 years in 2004.
• However, caution about using an arbitrary figure
  such as 25,000, or even a particular timeframe.
  Instead the focus should be the absence or
  failure of solutions as such.
• At Brookings Bern/UNHCR seminar in June 2007,
  protracted IDP situations are those in which
• The process for finding durable solutions is
  stalled, and/or
• IDPs are marginalized as a consequence of
  violations or a lack of protection of human
  rights, including economic, social and cultural
  rights.

5
Causes of protracted displacements in Africa

• Starting point is that protracted displacement in
  Africa occur on the territories of fragile or
  collapsed states
• Overwhelming majority of displacement situations
  in Africa are the result of civil wars,
  inter-communal violence or government repression.
  Some of these conflicts are either frozen
  (Uganda, Chad, Cote dIvoire) or active
  (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan). In
  2000, an intra-state conflict, war between
  Eritrea and Ethiopia, however, resulted in
  massive displacement.
• Intense ethnic and communal violence (Burundi,
  DRC, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Chad), high
  levels of organized violence and destruction

6
Features

• In general displaced do not settle in camps, but
  rather locate in or nearer host communities or
  in urban areas making them harder to access.
• Mostly populated by a large proportion of people
  with special needs such as children, women and
  the elderly
• Live in great deprivation and danger, SGBV
• Protracted IDP situations rarely seen as
  humanitarian emergencies

7
Features

• Vested economic interest by various parties in
  the continuation of the armed conflict
• Lack of international interest
• State reluctant to open their borders. Policy of
  containment. Safe zones particularly where
  peacekeeping operations exist. Asylum fatigue
• Residual caseloads
• Political hostages and vested economic interests
• Inadequate national responses

8
Visible consequences

• Destabilizing effects on regional security
• Material deprivation
• Idleness, despair and low self worth,
• Social tension and violence
• Dependency syndrome, passive recipients of
  assistance
• Perception of burden, resentment and hostility
• Discrimination based on being an IDP
• Lack of adequate housing
• Lack of protection of property left behind

9
Consequences

• Lack of (access to) work/livelihoods
• Lack of documentation
• No or limited access to health and education
• Sometimes lack of food/food security
• Difficulties accessing pension rights and
  asserting tenancy rights
• Discrimination related to the fact of their
  displacement
• Limitations on their free choice of durable
  solutions

10
What could be some of the solutions preliminary
remarks

• Invariably, the policy options for dealing with
  protracted IDP situations revolve around the
  three solutions under section V of the GP.
  Ultimately political commitment is key to
  resolving the conflicts that are at the root
  causes of most protracted IDP situations. To
  quote former Assistant High Commissioner, Kamel
  Morjane, for every protracted situation, there
  is a political origin. Camps and idle
  populations do not simply appear as a natural
  consequence of forced displacement they are
  established in response to political realities
  and constraints. Solutions, then, must
  ultimately be sought in the political arena.

11
Solutions preliminary remarks

• While presented separately, comprehensive plans
  of actions for IDPs, involving a mix of the three
  solutions, have a clear conceptual logic. They
  require as former High Commissioner Ogata said a
  convergence of interests covering humanitarian,
  political, and security action by states,
  international and regional powers

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Solution 1 Return to communities of origin

• Return to communities of origin may include the
  identification of particular sub-groups sharing
  certain characteristics (political affiliation,
  ethnic, religious, language and/or cultural
  background) and/or originating from a specific
  part of the country of origin where conditions
  may be more conducive for return

13
Solution 2 Integration in host communities

• Integration in host communities given the
  considerable time that IDPs have spent in the
  area of displacement, local integration may be
  the only viable option. Economic self-reliance
  will be key. However, comprehensive package
  providing concrete benefits for the host
  communities must be developed. Role of
  development actors will be crucial. Ensure that,
  from the outset, assistance programs for IDPs
  have a limited emergency relief and care and
  maintenance phase. Early recovery, self reliance
  built in the operations from the start

14
Solution 3 Relocation to another part of the
country

• Relocation and reintegration elsewhere in the
  country
• Community based programs also necessary to ensure
  brassage between the two groups

15
Other solutions

• Prevention and mitigation of displacement. Are
  there steps which can be taken early in
  displacement from becoming a protracted
  situation. See Guiding Principle, no 21 (para 3)
• Education, peace education programs,
• Regional initiatives such as the AU Convention on
  IDPs preceded by a Heads of State Summit on
  Forced displacement in Africa. International
  Conference on the Great Lakes region and Regional
  IDP Protocol
• RSG Framework for Durable Solutions offers
  guidance to policy makers

16
Role of national actors

• Primary responsibility for IDPs rests with
  national authorities since IDPs remain under the
  jurisdiction of their national governments. See
  in particular Principle 6 and Principle 28
• Need for expanded attention to capacity building
  for national/local authorities
• Negotiation with non state entities
• Legislation
• Public policy
• Improving accountability
• Advocacy efforts with a special focus on women
  and children

17
Role of international community

• Lead agency concept
• Collaborative approach (lack of predictability,
  accountability, partnership)
• Cluster approach to improve humanitarian response
• RSG for the HR of IDPs and the Guiding Principles
  in 1998.
• Need to inscribe IDP issues in the agenda of the
  Peacebuilding Commission and other development
  initiatives

18
Inputs by the IDPs

• Focus on vulnerabilities of both IDPs and host
  communities
• IDPs and peace processes (research being carried
  out on the subject by the Brookings Bern Project
  on Internal Displacement) Track one and two
  Diplomacy and People to People Diplomacy.

19
Research questions

• Dedicated research on the subject in comparison
  with refugee programs i.e. what are the
  similarities, the differences.
• Case studies from Africa and Asia regions and
  what they tell notably on coping mechanisms
  issues