Thinking ahead: displacement, transition, solutions (Forced Migration Review 52)

Attempts to address the drivers of forced displacement and to provide sustainable solutions for refugees, IDPs and returnees need a more nuanced understanding of the drivers of violence and of war-to-peace transitions.

The viability of the ECOWAS integration scheme implemented as a solution for those Liberians who continued to stay in Ghana is seen to be limited.

With the prospect of peace comes the need to find solutions for those displaced during 50 years of fighting.

The World Bank brings distinctive qualities to the role it can play in furthering the humanitarian to development transition and is significantly scaling up its engagement on forced displacement.

There is value in creating space within a humanitarian response to invest in interventions that go beyond addressing the immediate risks and needs.

Elderly people are likely to face specific constraints in displacement, yet the durable solutions devised by many states tend to follow a one-size-fits-all approach.

The international community has been piloting an integrated humanitarian, development and government response to the crisis in the region of Syria.

Development has its place in dealing with the roots of displacement but it is not an alternative to important measures.

While refugee families lack access to work and struggle to survive, there are skills gaps around the world that could benefit from skilled refugees’ talents.

Palestine refugees in Lebanon, being classified as foreigners or migrants, suffer restrictions on their employment.

Engaging refugees in the economic development of Ecuador’s Esmeraldas Province would provide them with livelihoods and also combat the perception that they are a burden on society.

The Solutions Alliance is exploring ways of better engaging with the private sector to harness their capacity to turn displacement challenges into development opportunities.

In situations of internal displacement, a variety of political, operational, ethical and practical challenges complicate our understanding and response and the adequate implementation of durable solutions.

If protection capacity building is successful, it can contribute to establishing asylum systems that lead to local integration.

Energy services are essential to the most basic human needs.

Uganda has chosen inclusion over marginalisation; rather than coerce refugees into camps, Uganda upholds their rights to work, to attend school and to move freely.

In camp-like settlements, the aid provided by aid agencies with a development orientation can do little more than improve livelihood conditions.

Oral histories provide a means to productively include forcibly displaced people in the work and practices of those looking for solutions for displacement crises.

Many of the hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees to whom Yemen offered prima facie refugee status over the decades are having to return as a result of the fighting in Yemen.

Securing refugees’ access to work opportunities would help to ameliorate the problems associated with a primarily humanitarian response.

The Brazilian government has extended an allowance, which was created to assist poor Brazilian families, to refugees.

The continuation of the predicament of those who remain displaced from the Kashmir Valley since 1989 results from the unintended consequences of past policies.

Gender and kinship intersect with a variety of other important factors in differential experiences of return.

Tanzania’s offer of citizenship to some 200,000 refugees received international attention and support.

Tanzania’s refugee integration could serve as a blueprint for expanding the framework of durable solutions globally.

Refugees can contribute significantly to the economy of countries of refuge.

Loud nationalistic voices and powerful vested interests stand in the way of cooperation between the Rakhine and Muslim communities and solving displacement.

Incorporating refugee-run organisations into development programmes.

Over the last three years, the Solutions Alliance has gradually emerged as a multi-stakeholder initiative to overcome the so-called humanitarian-development divide.

Huge numbers of people in Nigeria's north-east have been affected by poverty, environmental degradation and Boko Haram violence.

It is questionable whether current planning practices can safeguard against the risks associated with displacement and resettlement.

By the end of February 2016, Canada had fulfilled its promise to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees.

Assisted Voluntary Return programmes often send women and children back to places of insecurity and uncertainty.

Poor age assessment procedures may have devastating consequences.

Sweden's recent turnaround on asylum was triggered by various factors, including insufficient domestic preparedness and the humanitarian failures of other EU countries.

Following the passage of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act in December 2013, hundreds of LGBT individuals fled to Kenya seeking safety.

There is little protection and assistance available for Iraqi refugees in neighbouring countries, especially as these countries are predominantly non-signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention. It is consequently hard for refugees to support themselves.

Communication of information has emerged as a particular concern for camp residents in Thailand since discussions about repatriation gained momentum in the past few years.

From a statement made to the United Nations General Assembly, 20 November 1967.

Our belief in the need for and the efficacy of humanitarian action is partly based on its actual effectiveness over the years in addressing the needs of, among others, forced migrants. Our belief in the need for and the efficacy of humanitarian action is partly based on its actual effectiveness over the years in addressing the needs of, among others, forced migrants. But this belief is tempered by the obvious and manifold failures of such action. The existence of people in very protracted displacement, the inadequacy of the solutions proposed for them and the inevitability that many people now becoming displaced will face the same fate all point to the pressing need for improvement that cannot reasonably be achieved through humanitarian action alone. Far more could be achieved if development and peace-building actors were also involved in responses to displacement. This is not a new idea in itself, as shown by the statement made in 1967 by Sadruddin Aga Khan, then High Commissioner for Refugees, which we publish on the back cover. This issue of FMR continues to explore the more recent ideas and practices that are being tried out in order to engage development and humanitarian work in support of ‘transitions’ for displaced people and a variety of ‘solutions’. FMR 52 also includes a range of ‘general’ articles on other aspects of forced migration. We would like to thank Alyoscia D’Onofrio (International Rescue Committee) and Kathrine Starup (Danish Refugee Council) for their assistance as advisors on the feature theme of this issue. We are also grateful to the Danish government which has provided financial support for this issue on behalf of the Solutions Alliance of which it is vice-chair. The full issue and all the individual articles in this issue are online in html, pdf and audio formats at www.fmreview.org/solutions. Please help disseminate this issue by circulating it through your networks, mentioning it on Twitter and Facebook and adding it to resources lists. This issue will be available online in English, Arabic, French and Spanish. Also available is the FMR digest – formerly called ‘Listing’, now in a new format – to help you gain easy online access to all the articles published in FMR 52. If you would like printed copies of either, please email us at fmr@qeh.ox.ac.uk. For details of Forthcoming issues see www.fmreview.org/forthcoming. FMR 53, Local communities: first and last providers of protection (October 2016). FMR 54, Resettlement (February 2017). Submission deadline: 10th October 2016. Join us on Facebook or Twitter or sign up for email alerts at www.fmreview.org/request/alerts. Our thanks to the many people who responded to our Readers Survey. We are collating the results and will report back in the coming months. We also hope to be able to take up some of the suggestions you had for us as to how to improve on what FMR can offer. Marion Couldrey and Maurice Herson Editors, Forced Migration Review

In post-conflict Liberia and Sierra Leone, partnerships that were mutually supportive and that included the displaced themselves facilitated rapid and enduring results.

So-called stabilisation contexts are risky for repatriation and therefore it is especially important to maintain the legal and practical difference between mandatory and voluntary repatriation.

A non-signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, Lebanon does not grant refugee status to Iraqis, many of whom end up spending long periods of time in detention.