INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Driven by a combination of conflict, cyclic climatic and development shocks, and underpinned by poor governance, food insecurity, environmental degradation and poverty, displacement in East and Horn of Africa is consistently high, protracted and dynamic. At the end of October 2017, East Africa was home to over half of Africa’s internally displaced people (IDPs) and there were 13.1 million people displaced in the region- with the majority of displaced coming from or inside South Sudan and Somalia, and at least half are children.

ReDSS analysis of solutions programming in urban contexts focuses on urban refugees in Nairobi, Kenya and IDPs and refugee-returnees in Mogadishu and Baidoa in Somalia. The report aimed to better understand and address displaced people’s vulnerabilities and aspirations in urban centers and to rethink support in more sustainable and empowering ways. The methodology was based on participatory and consensus building approach including consultations and validation workshops with displacement affected communities, policy makers and practitioners.

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND

Ethiopia is the second largest refugee hosting country in Africa, with 889,071 refugees and asylum seekers as of November 2017.2 At the Leaders’ Summit held in New York in September 2016, and co-hosted by Ethiopia, a day after the adoption of the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants, the Government of Ethiopia made the following nine pledges to relax its reservations to the Refugee Convention and encampment practices, and to strengthen support to refugees.

Situation analysis

The search for durable solutions to the protracted displacement situation in the region is a key humanitarian and development concern. This is a regional/ cross border issue, dynamic, with a strong political dimension, and which demands a multi-sectorial response that goes beyond the existing humanitarian agenda.