In a remote corner of northwest Kenya, 800km from the capital Nairobi, lies a sprawling urban settlement built from tin sheet and tarpaulin provided by various UN agencies. Kakuma, the name shared by a town and one of the largest refugee settlements in Africa, is a remote place in a geographic, moral and economic sense; in Swahili, the regional language, Kakuma simply means ‘Nowhere’. On the one hand, it is a place of respite from conflict and famine for tens of thousands of inhabitants. On the ...
Throughout this series we have highlighted the importance of social protection for forced migrants, despite the political and economic effects surrounding its provision. In so doing, we have now built a guidance framework on how to adapt humanitarian relief into social protection, as part of a long-term effort to ensure a sustainable level of well-being for all. What is ultimately needed is a system that is not only protective but holistically transformative – and this is all the more critical a...
Though most eyes were on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the UN General Assembly adopted another accord in December 2018: the Global Compact on Refugees. While labelled “a powerful expression of multilateralism in today’s fragmented world” by UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, the question remains whether the compact is simply ‘old wine in new bottles’ — as many of its topics have already received attention in the academic and policy ...
Imagine you, a researcher, are given a bag of money, unlimited time and personnel. What research would you do? Dr. Zina Nimeh, university lecturer of Social Protection and Human Development, wants to discover why people no longer appreciate the welfare state. … Solidarity is the basis of the welfare state. Everybody makes a contribution in order to help and protect those who are vulnerable in society, for example by paying more tax than in a country that doesn’t have a welfare state ...
I’ve worked for UNICEF on programme planning, monitoring and evaluation, focusing not only on countries in development but also humanitarian contexts. This has given me a deep understanding of how to tailor programmes in order to ensure a timely and effective response – especially in emergency situations. As I grew professionally, my interest shifted to research, social policy and social protection. I decided therefore to start a PhD on social policy and social protection....
In line with UN commitments ‘to leave no one behind’, social protection is a strategic approach for cutting poverty and improving resilience, based on strengthening the links between humanitarian aid and development. Extending coordinated social protection provisions to refugees could be the bridge from rapid response measures in crisis situations to medium and long-term development targets as sought by the Social Protection Inter-Agency Coordination Board (SPIAC-B). This post tackles the comple...
For over a decade, we’ve been training Asian professionals on the latest developments in social protection. Led by the Universities of Heidelberg, Germany and Hanoi, Vietnam, the International Social Protection Studies Programme also has a Maastricht-based module: covering policy management, monitoring and evaluation. Every other year since 2007, a group of participants has joined us in Maastricht for around 5-6 weeks. A few years ago, discussions began on how to transform the course into a full...
In light of the World Humanitarian Day last Sunday, August 19, this post argues for the need to revisit humanitarian aid and place it alongside social protection. Recognising that over 140 million people relied on humanitarian aid across 37 countries in 2017, there is an urgent need to take up the discussion and look towards the delivery mechanisms of social protection that allow for more long-term development....
In the onset of rapidly evolving military conflict, determining responsibility and the most appropriate and effective response is a challenge. In the event of an armed conflict, displaced persons are likely to either be displaced internally or if they have the provisions in place, flee to a neighbouring state. In case of internal displacement, protecting human rights is the responsibility of the state – the irony being these same people may be fleeing the actions of that same state or its milita...
The paradigm of long-term delivery of short-term aid needs to be reconsidered — because the current system is barely functional or sustainable. This implies building a new bridge between humanitarian aid and long-term human development. But what exactly does that mean? A key part of the process is to examine the many complex factors at play, including the issue of responsibility. This post considers the moral nature of the so-called ‘duty bearer’ in more detail. ...