Despite new peace agreements, continued conflict among and between armed militias and government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the last year has seen thousands of new internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the east of the country, many of whom have poured into camps seeking shelter and safety. This is a new development in DRC. Unlike Darfur and Uganda, IDPs in DRC have usually stayed with host families, returning intermittently to their homes, rather than fleeing to refugee-like camps. Around 70 per cent of DRC's IDPs are still living with host families, but the unprecedented upsurge in the number of those heading towards camps raises difficult questions. Have humanitarian organisations done enough to help IDPs in host families, and the host families themselves? If they have not, have they in fact encouraged the drive to the camps? Most importantly, how can IDPs with host families (as well as those in camps) be adequately assisted?
Until now, these questions have been difficult to answer because of uncertainty on whether the rising number of people in camps has been caused purely by the sharp increase in IDPs as a whole, or whether changes in the response by international agencies also played a role. Oxfam's new report - Out of site: Building better responses to displacement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by helping host families - concludes that the main drivers of the increasing population in camps has been the increasing 'saturation' of communities with IDPs, and the longer periods for which people are displaced. Those are not, however, the total explanation. Humanitarian agencies have increasingly directed energy and resources towards camps, while assistance to IDPs in host families and host families themselves at the household level has mostly not been provided. Once established, camps create a multiplying effect as people follow one another in search of food and basic needs such as water and health services.
The study, based on recent interviews and field research in eastern DRC, provides new evidence to support a far higher priority to be given for assistance to hosted IDPs and their host families. This is not simply because these are vulnerable groups whose needs have been traditionally under-addressed. It is also because displaced people usually prefer living with host families rather than in camps, because they are seen as more 'physically, emotionally and spiritually' secure. Providing assistance mainly through camps undermines traditional coping mechanisms that can provide safer and more effective aid, and effectively limits the choices available to displaced people. The basic principle is that people should be able to go where they feel safest and assistance should be provided in ways that support livelihoods and help to keep families together.
Assistance to camps in DRC has been accompanied by certain theft and diversion practices. These include the setting up of 'phantom' (fake) camps, and attempts to steal or divert aid, as for example when non-IDPs register in camps or IDP families divide their members between host household and camp. In general, these practices should be seen as a sign that assistance strategies need to be adjusted. They tend to reflect more fundamental problems with the way in which relief aid is structured, including insufficient links with longer-term responses or livelihoods approaches that build on people's abilities to cope and survive during crisis.
Decisions about whether to provide aid in a site, transfer people, or dedicate an existing site as a formal camp need to be improved. The complex decisions that field staff must make are not adequately supported by institutional knowledge and guidance. The criteria for these decisions should be better defined and should consider:
The hosting capacity of the local community
The potential for a camp or site to create imbalances in the quality and quantity of aid between different populations in need, and
The protection risks and the possibilities for exacerbating communal conflicts.
There is also a need to make decisions in ways that support the role of local authorities but ensure independence from undue pressure to create formal camps. These decisions should not be seen as 'either/or'. In many situations where a camp is necessary, increased assistance will also need to be given to surrounding communities, including host families.
If international humanitarian agencies are going to continue to rely on host families as a back-up, 'out of sight' way to assist IDPs, they must provide these families with far better support. A year after the surge in the number of IDPs in camps, the time is right for innovation. New or expanded approaches to help host families could not only address an acute situation in DRC, but also serve as a model to expand the range of tools to help displaced people in other countries.
At the programme level, the study suggests that livelihoods interventions, such as cash transfers, cash for work, vouchers, increasing market access and emergency micro-credit could play an important role in helping host families and IDPs to survive. Such responses need to build on people's strengths and capacities, differentiate between the effects of hosting and those of general insecurity, use local expertise, and involve careful strategies for communication with communities.
At the policy level, Oxfam offers the following recommendations to donors, the UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in DRC, OCHA, UN humanitarian agencies, international NGOs, and others:
1. Develop and agree on a strategy to assist host communities as a vital part of the DRC 2009 Humanitarian Action Plan, and to be built into contingency planning. The strategy should include a strong component of assistance to host families and IDPs in host families at the household level. It should distinguish between two kinds of communities: those in areas where there is an immediate risk that hosting will become 'no longer a viable option' and all other communities. For the first priority group, actions should be designed to meet both immediate and medium-term needs. To succeed, the strategy will need expertise, implementation capacity, and funding. This in turn requires UNHCR and other organisations to develop expertise on supporting host families, international NGOs and others to launch programmes to help host families, and donors to provide funding for this approach.
2. Improve monitoring of population flows. Improved response will be impossible without improved information on IDP and host populations. This should include regular monitoring of potential 'saturation' in host communities and surveys of the decision-making processes of IDPs. Displaced people should be consulted regarding the kinds of shelter and assistance arrangements they prefer. The humanitarian community, in particular OCHA and/or UNHCR, should invest in improving ways to track basic statistics on the length and frequency of displacement. This information should be compiled and distributed regularly, feeding into existing 'early warning' systems to help the humanitarian community to decide when it is crucial to increase support to host families.
3. Clarify criteria for and the process of camp creation. UNHCR and other relevant organisations should clarify the criteria used to provide aid in sites, to establish or formalise camps, or to move IDPs between camps. These criteria should build on existing insights and should take into account the need to preserve the choice of hosting; to ensure protection and minimise conflict; to manage the role of local authorities; and to ensure that the need to adhere to standards does not prevent action. Creating formal camps should be considered as only one tool among many and generally used as a last resort. Furthermore, when camps are necessary, assistance to host families is also likely to be necessary alongside them. In the longer term, UNHCR needs to develop expertise to weigh the merits of camps alongside other viable response options.
4. Intensify efforts to reduce people's expenditure on social services. Humanitarian actors must redouble their efforts to ensure that individuals and communities affected by displacement do not face the added burden of finding money to pay for primary-school fees and basic medical costs. This requires closer links with relevant development actorsÃÂfor example, accelerating in areas of high need, such as host communities, efforts currently underway in the government's poverty-reduction plan to reduce or eliminate fees for basic services.
For a full copy of the report go to: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/conflict_disasters/research_report_drc.html
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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