The study showed that differences between IDPs and migrants are small when it comes to their experience in Nairobi, but quite different from that of non-migrants. IDPs and migrants had lower levels of education than non-migrants and were less likely than non-migrants to live in a freestanding house. On the other hand, we found that IDPs were more likely than migrants or non-migrants to live in high-risk areas and less likely to own their dwelling as well as items such as television, radio, computer and to have access to electricity.
With regard to living experience in the city, we found no statistically significant differences between the experience of IDPs, migrants and non-migrants of being forced to move within Nairobi because of evictions. On the other hand, our measures of people’s experience and attitudes suggest that IDPs and migrants’ social capital is much lower than that of non-migrants. As mentioned, however, these indicators were very blunt measures. Further analysis of the findings presented in this report can be found in the study carried out by ODI and IRC entitled “Sanctuary in the city: Urban displacement and vulnerability in Nairobi”.
Displacement is increasingly common (affecting one in every 122 people) and also increasingly protracted (over half of the world’s 14 million refugees in 2015 have been displaced for over ten years). Circa 90% of these refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) remain in the global South, and most of them, in turn, reside in urban spaces. However, while it clear that we are facing a period of protracted displacement in (peri- )urban settings, it is less frequently acknowledged that this is also a period of overlapping displacements. This is the case in at least two senses. Firstly, refugees and IDPs have often both personally and collectively experienced secondary and tertiary displacement, as in the case of Palestinian and Iraqi refugees who had originally sought safety in Damascus only to be displaced once more by the on-going Syrian conflict, and of Sahrawi and Palestinian refugees who had left their refugee camp homes in Algeria and Lebanon respectively to study or work in Libya before being displaced by the outbreak of conflict in that country in 2011 (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2012). Secondly, refugees are increasingly experiencing overlapping displacement in the sense that they often physically share spaces with other displaced people in diverse spaces of asylum: Turkey hosts refugees from over 35 countries of origin, Lebanon from 17, Kenya 16, Jordan 14, Chad 12, and both Ethiopia and Pakistan 11 (Crawford et al: 2015). However, in spite of the widespread reality of these overlapping groups, and given the interest in ‘superdiversity’ and ‘cosmopolitanism’ in urban spaces across migration studies writ large (Vertovec, 2007; Derrida 2007), it is particularly notable that refugees’ positions, identities, beliefs and behaviours in relation to other groups of refugees remain almost entirely unexplored to date.
It is often taken for granted that local communities hosting refugees are composed of settled and established groups of citizens. However, newly displaced populations not only share spaces with or aim to integrate into communities of ‘nationals’ but also into communities formed by established or former refugees and IDPs, whether of similar or different nationality/ethnic groups.[1] This is especially the case given three key trends in displacement: the increasingly protracted nature of displacement, the urban nature of displacement and the overlapping nature of displacement.
While a great deal of academic and policy attention has been given to the first two, very little research has been conducted into the nature and implications of ‘overlapping’ displacements, including with regard to local communities. I use this term to refer to two forms of ‘overlap’. Firstly, refugees and IDPs have often both personally and collectively experienced secondary and tertiary displacement. This is the case of those Sahrawi and Palestinian refugees who left their refugee camp homes in Algeria and Lebanon to study or work in Libya before being displaced by the outbreak of conflict there in 2011, and of Palestinian and Iraqi refugees who had originally sought safety in Syria only to be displaced once more by the conflict there.[2] Secondly, refugees are increasingly experiencing overlapping displacement in the sense that they often physically share spaces with other displaced people. For example, Turkey hosts refugees from over 35 countries of origin, Lebanon from 17 countries, Kenya 16, Jordan 14, Chad 12 and both Ethiopia and Pakistan 11.[3] Given the protracted nature of displacement, over time these refugee groups often become members of communities which subsequently welcome and offer protection and support to other groups of displaced people.
Since the beginning of the current humanitarian crisis in Iraq, more than three million school-aged children and adolescents have experienced disruption to their education. Providing continuity of learning and protection for affected children demands that agencies such as World Vision adopt a flexible design and agile implementation approach.
In February 2015, World Vision commenced the Let Us Learn project to support 12,240 internally displaced people living in the Berseve I and Berseve II camps, and in host communities in the Dohuk governorate of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).
The project aims to deliver education and child protection interventions that contribute to the learning continuity, psychosocial well-being and increased resilience of children affected by displacement.
A 2009 review of community-based child protection mechanisms, which are frontline mechanisms for responding to threats to children’s well being, reported that externally facilitated groups such as Child Welfare Committees were often limited in their effectiveness and
sustainability. This owed largely to the fact that they were not community owned and driven but were seen as projects of outside agencies. The same review reported that higher levels of effectiveness and sustainability were associated with community-driven groups such as
endogenous, faith-based groups who had organized around helping vulnerable children. The report noted that Child Welfare Committees were frequently set up without learning about and building on the existing community mechanisms.
The purpose of this research was to learn about community-based child protection processes and mechanisms in two mostly rural areas of Kilifi, Kenya. The research is intended to complement and extend the learning that came from previous research by the Inter-Agency
Learning Initiative in two urban slums of Mombasa, Kenya. By using a mixture of urban and rural sites, the Inter-Agency Learning Initiative, which guides this research, aimed to provide a glimpse of the diversity that exists within Kenya
Worldwide, the field of child protection in humanitarian settings is undergoing an historic shift toward strengthening child protection systems on a national scale (African Child Policy Forum et al., 2013; Davis, McCaffrey, & Conticini, 2012; UNICEF, UNHCR, & World Vision, 2013; Wulczyn et al., 2010). This approach aims to provide comprehensive child protection supports and promises to invigorate efforts to prevent problems of abuse, violence, exploitation, and neglect regarding children. This systemic approach is important and encouraging, but many challenges have arisen in implementing it. Many efforts at mapping and strengthening child protection systems have been top-down and failed to listen deeply to families and communities or to recognize adequately their contributions to children’s protection and well-being.
A more comprehensive approach to child protection system strengthening is to intermix and balance top-down, bottomup, and middle-out approaches. Top-down approaches help to ensure that governments have the laws, policies, and capacities that are essential in protecting vulnerable children. Bottom-up approaches work from grassroots level upward, feature community action, build on existing community strengths, and stimulate community-government collaboration. Middle-out approaches, which emanate from actors such as city councils that are situated between the national and grassroots levels, embed the child protection agenda in regional centers of power. These three approaches are complementary
Partnering through Faith
South Sudan Context and overview
This essay examines local and international Christian efforts on Mount Kilimanjaro to educate children. A prevailing idea among people who live on the mountain is that children engender trust and trade. This idea is illuminated through the adage ‘Take the gift of my child and return something to me’ and is embedded in the concept of Chagga trust. The latter is both an ethical mode and a social entity. Local ideas of children and trust partly overlap with but also differ from American evangelical missionaries’ views of children as needing to be safeguarded. Analysis of differences reveals that while religious missions have long played a role in providing education, the dynamics of privatization have changed the manner in which local leaders and international missionaries interact. Previous interactions were regular and routine; today’s are fewer, more contractual, and more formalized. The analysis presented here broadens and qualifies existing research that simply states that evangelicalism and the privatization of education helps the poor.
