In refugee settings humanitarian aid is often delivered for many years. Therefore, refugee camps are advantageous settings to develop and strengthen links between humanitarian action and development work. KUNO presented an expert meeting with Richard Sandison and Bram Jansen on this nexus.
Richard Sandison brought a practical perspective on implementing various nexus approaches in specific refugee settings, based on his experiences in Malawi and Tanzania. Sandison discussed the challenges in implementing a nexus approach in Malawi, looked at the linkages between informal and formal CP systems and first-hand experience in implementing the CRRF in Uganda and how it is aligned (or not aligned) with the nexus.
Bram Jansen brought an academic perspective, based on his anthropological fieldwork in South Sudan and Kenya. Jansen explored the idea of refugee camps as ‘drivers for development’. Jansen shared examples of development interventions in camp contexts, but also of more organic processes of change that have emerged in protracted refugee contexts. A specific topic of interest of Jansen is the expansion of humanitarian governance into wider refugee hosting regions and the opportunities and challenges this brings on a practical as well as a more theoretical level.
Together with practitioners, policy makers, and academics several cases were discussed to explore how the nexus idea materializes and what challenges and concerns emerge from this.
A report on this meeting will follow shortly.
