Somalia: Report on profiling of internally displaced persons - Baydhaba

1 INTRODUCTION

The IDP Profiling Project Somalia is a Somalia Protection Cluster/IDP Task Force pilot initiative that has developed and tested tools for profiling of internally displaced persons (IDPs) with the aim of providing overall information on IDPs for global monitoring as well as proving context specific information to facilitate preparation of local assistance to IDPs. The project has been guided and monitored by a core group of agencies consisting of UNHCR, UNOCHA, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and Danish Refugee Council (DRC), with support from UNHABITAT, UNICEF and other members of the Protection Cluster Work Group/IDP Task Force. Implementation in the field has been led by DRC while UNHCR has been handling data management and proving support to report production. The project has been based on the draft Guidelines for IDP Profiling developed by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

The project applied simple random sampling in defined IDP settlements. Given the nature of these IDP settlements, this sampling method was found appropriate and sufficient. The sampling was made on the basis of an estimation of the IDP population in any given settlement. This estimation, in turn, was based on previous surveys, reports and updates from agencies operating in the area, and information from local authorities and IDP settlement leaders. The tools applied were focus group discussions/participatory assessments and household interviews. Focus group discussions were held with small groups of selected settlement representatives such as elder, religious leaders, and settlement management. They served partly as a 'door opener' to the settlements and partly as a way of providing a certain basic knowledge of the settlement against which the interviewers could assess the information obtained in the household interviews. This basic knowledge also served as a simple frame of reference in the subsequent process of data analysis. Household interviews were considered the most appropriate and effective way of systematically gathering the type of data wanted for the profiling.

The project developed a long questionnaire and a shorter version with a selection of the questions from the long version. However, after testing both of these in Bossaso, it became clear that the long questionnaire took too long time and discouraged people to take part in the interviews. It was therefore decided that after Bossaso, the short questionnaire should be the only one used, but in a slightly extended version.

Data from the questionnaires were transferred to the database at UNHCR Branch Office Somalia in Nairobi. A Standard Report was then been produced on the basis of the raw data in the database. In principle, such a report lists all the answers provided by the respondents in the household interviews. Based on the Standard Report, the present profiling report provides simplified overviews of selected parts of the raw data, makes minimal analyses, and points to potential fields of interests for further analysis. While this will be sufficient in some situations, there will in other situations be a need for more sector-specific in-depth analyses or a need to focus on specific settlements or sections of the IDP population. This may be done by consulting the database directly, thus getting more details than the present report provides, and by linking the different data fields in the database. The present report provides examples of such linking. Agencies with more detailed or sector-specific interests are encouraged to contact Protection Unit, UNHCR Branch Office Somalia, Nairobi, for assistance in more advanced data extraction.

The project carried out surveys in five locations: Bossaso and Gaalkacyo in Puntland, Mogadishu and Baydhaba in South/Central, and Burco in Somaliland. Reports on findings have been prepared for each of these locations. In addition, a separate Process Documentation Report has been prepared describing and analysing the process of developing and implementing the project and lessons learned. Some of the lessons concerning inappropriate formulations of questions in the questionnaire were learned so late in the process that they could not be corrected before the work was done. Where this is the case, a note is made in the present report to explain apparent discrepancies.

1.1 Baydhaba

The town of Baydhaba in South/Central Somalia was the fourth location for IDP profiling under this project.

On 16 March 2007, staff from UNOCHA in Baydhaba and Nairobi requested assistance from the project to conduct an emergency IDP profiling in Baydhaba. The town had at that time recently seen the arrival of a growing number of IDPs fleeing fighting in Mogadishu. It was expected that some of these IDPs would actually be on their way back to their place of origin in Bay Region while others for various reasons would not be able to go home yet and would establish themselves for shorter or longer periods of time in IDP settlement in Baydhaba. Agencies operating in Baydhaba wanted to be able to plan the best possible support to these IDPs and would therefore like to have a profiling done very fast.

The IDP Profiling Project, unfortunately, did not have staff resources available at that time to carry out training of interviewers and monitor the field survey. However, it was agreed that we should make this a test case on how we could anyway facilitate a profiling in an emergency situation. With the potential interviewers (staff of different local agencies) all being in Baydhaba, it was decided to give a crash course in profiling to the head of the UNOCHA Baydhaba office while he was in Nairobi, after which he would then train the interviewers in Baydhaba and act as supervisor.

GPS readings were taken for the surveyed settlements in Bidoa with the aim of producing a map showing their exact location. However, as an appropriate electronic background map of the Baydhaba area is not yet available, the map of the settlements can not be produced yet.