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FROM THE FIELD

As Millions Flee Conflicts, Women's Refugee Commission Urges New Focus on Livelihoods for the Displaced
03 Jun 2009 18:54:00 GMT
 Website: Website: http://www.womensrefugeecommission.org

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Without Work, Average 17 Years as Refugees Means 17 Years of Dependency and Despair

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Emily Whitfield, (917) 686-4542 Grace Cheung, (212) 551-3088, GraceC@wrcommission.org

NEW YORK - As large-scale refugee crises in Pakistan and Sri Lanka continue to make headlines, the Women's Refugee Commission today urged the humanitarian community to end dependency-inducing programs and focus as early as possible on helping crisis-affected populations - who spend an average of 17 years displaced - to resume their lives and their livelihoods.

"It is imperative that we begin to rethink the role of humanitarian assistance and shift away from handouts and enforced dependency," said Dale Buscher, Director of Protection at the Women's Refugee Commission. "The people we are seeing uprooted today are likely to spend years in camps or otherwise displaced, only to return to shattered villages with no viable economies. All too often, livelihood assistance is about pocket money and busywork, rather than helping people to find dignified, market-driven, sustainable jobs."

Toward that end, the Women's Refugee Commission today announced the launch of Building Livelihoods: A Field Manual for Practitioners in Humanitarian Settings. The 353-page manual is the first of its kind to provide humanitarian workers with important information and practical tools for designing and implementing more effective livelihood programs.

A "livelihood" refers to the capabilities, assets and strategies that people use to make a living and develop self-reliance; examples include employment-readiness programs like vocational training, micro-financing, animal husbandry, agriculture programs, cash-for-work, and supporting and growing small and medium-sized enterprises.

As the manual highlights, more than 40 million people are currently displaced by armed conflict and human rights abuses. Almost completely dependent on international food assistance and often not allowed to work, they are idle and frustrated. This lack of economic opportunities often results in increases in domestic violence and alcohol abuse, with many forced to resort to harmful behavior to survive, such as prostitution and trading sex for food.

"Without opportunities to make use of or further develop their skills during displacement, women and young people will not be able to fully participate in rebuilding their communities and lives when they return to their homes or settle permanently in a new location," said Carolyn Makinson, Executive Director of the Women's Refugee Commission. "Our findings make clear that the humanitarian assistance community must develop effective, sustainable livelihood programs that focus on giving people the training, tools and support they need to be able to feed and care for themselves."

The Building Livelihoods manual is based on two-and-a-half years of research and 10 field assessments covering all contexts of displacement: refugee, internal displacement and returnee situations, in camp settings, as well as in rural and urban areas. It is informed by several pilot projects, lasting from one to three years, funded by the Women's Refugee Commission in places such as the refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border; with women at-risk of gender-based violence who have returned to Burundi; and in the slums of Bogotá, Colombia, home to a large displaced population.

Extensive field research conducted by the Women's Refugee Commission identified numerous examples of successful livelihood projects, including:

- In Nepal, a public/private partnership that provides Nepalese formerly displaced by the civil conflict with the tools to distill aromatic herbs and plants for the Aveda cosmetics company instead of selling the plants in hard-to-reach markets for far less money.

- In Peshawar, Pakistan, vocational training for refugees with disabilities in trades that do not require much mobility, such as tailoring and weaving. The project has resulted in over 90 percent employment as well as reduced stigma for people with disabilities.

- In areas of South Asia devastated by the 2004 tsunami, cash-for-work programs that allowed participants to earn money rebuilding their own communities and provided incentives for people to return home and speed the recovery efforts.

As part of its multi-year project, the Women's Refugee Commission is now convening workshops in key areas of the globe to assist local practitioners in strengthening their livelihood interventions by improving the program choices, design, assessments, and tools used to ensure that programs are market driven and participatory.

The first workshop took place in Accra, Ghana last month; additional workshops are scheduled for Nairobi, Kenya (June 23-26) and Bangkok, Thailand (August 11-14).

The workshop in Kenya will include organizations working with Somali refugees in Kenya and those internally displaced within Somalia as well as organizations working with Sudanese refugees in Kenya and Uganda and returning populations in Burundi and Rwanda. At the workshop in Thailand, the Women's Refugee Commission is inviting organizations that are currently dealing with the refugee crisis in Pakistan, where an estimated 2.5 million people have fled their homes in recent weeks.

The Women's Refugee Commission will also be presenting the manual at the InterAction Forum in early July, the largest gatherings of NGOs, donors and policy makers in the United States.

For more information, go to: www.womensrefugeecommission.org/programs/protection/livelihoods

###


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Background information

Briefings
AIDS in Africa - [Who works where]
AIDS in Americas - [Who works where]
AIDS in Asia - [Who works where]
AIDS in E.Europe/C.Asia - [Who works where]
AIDS in M.East - [Who works where]
AIDS pandemic - [Who works where]
Aceh peace - [Who works where]
Afghan turmoil - [Who works where]
African hunger - [Who works where]
Angola recovery - [Who works where]
Asia extreme cold - [Who works where]
Bird flu - [Who works where]
Burundi transition - [Who works where]
California wildfires - [Who works where]
Cambodia recovery - [Who works where]
Caribbean-Atlantic storms - [Who works where]
Central African Republic troubles - [Who works where]
Chad troubles - [Who works where]
Chechnya war - [Who works where]
Chikungunya - [Who works where]
China earthquake 2008 - [Who works where]
China floods - [Who works where]
Colombia displacement - [Who works where]
Congo (Brazzaville) troubles - [Who works where]
Congo (DR) conflict - [Who works where]
Cyclone Aila - [Who works where]
Cyclone Ivan - [Who works where]
Cyclone Sidr - [Who works where]
Darfur conflict - [Who works where]
Dnestr-Moldova dispute - [Who works where]
E. African floods - [Who works where]
E. African hunger - [Who works where]
East Sudan insurgency - [Who works where]
East Timor nation-building - [Who works where]
Eritrea-Ethiopia border - [Who works where]
Ethiopia Ogaden crisis - [Who works where]
Georgia, Abkhazia, S. Ossetia - [Who works where]
Guinea unrest - [Who works where]
Haiti floods - [Who works where]
Haiti troubles - [Who works where]
Hurricane Dean - [Who works where]
Hurricane Felix - [Who works where]
Hurricane Gustav - [Who works where]
Hurricane Hanna - [Who works where]
Hurricane Ike - [Who works where]
Hurricane Katrina - [Who works where]
Hurricane Kyle - [Who works where]
Hurricane Stan - [Who works where]
India religious violence - [Who works where]
India's northeastern clashes - [Who works where]
Indian Maoist violence - [Who works where]
Indian Ocean tsunami - [Who works where]
Indonesia earthquakes - [Who works where]
Indonesia mudflow - [Who works where]
Intense hurricane Bertha - [Who works where]
Intense hurricane Norbert - [Who works where]
Intense hurricane Omar - [Who works where]
Intense hurricane Paloma - [Who works where]
Intense tropical cyclone Fanele - [Who works where]
Iraq in turmoil - [Who works where]
Israeli-Palestinian conflict - [Who works where]
Italy earthquake 2009 - [Who works where]
Ivory Coast unrest - [Who works where]
Java earthquake 2006 - [Who works where]
Kashmir dispute - [Who works where]
Kenya violence - [Who works where]
Kosovo future - [Who works where]
Latin American floods - [Who works where]
Lebanon crisis - [Who works where]
Liberian reconstruction - [Who works where]
Madagascar cyclones - [Who works where]
Malaria - [Who works where]
Marburg virus - [Who works where]
Meningitis - [Who works where]
Myanmar cyclone - [Who works where]
Myanmar troubles - [Who works where]
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict - [Who works where]
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Peru earthquake 2007 - [Who works where]
Philippines floods - [Who works where]
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S. African hunger - [Who works where]
S. Asia monsoon - [Who works where]
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Sierra Leone justice - [Who works where]
Somalia troubles - [Who works where]
South Africa violence - [Who works where]
South East Asia Monsoon - [Who works where]
South Pacific quake - [Who works where]
South Sudan fragile peace - [Who works where]
Southern Africa floods - [Who works where]
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Sudan conflicts - [Who works where]
Swine flu - [Who works where]
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Tropical cyclone Nicholas - [Who works where]
Tropical cyclone Pancho - [Who works where]
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Tropical storm Mekkhala - [Who works where]
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Tropical storm Odile - [Who works where]
Tropical storm Olga - [Who works where]
Tropical storm Ophelia - [Who works where]
Tropical storm Rashmi - [Who works where]
Tropical storm Sixteen - [Who works where]
Tropical storm Three - [Who works where]
Tropical storm Twentyfour - [Who works where]
Tropical storm Twentytwo - [Who works where]
Typhoon Chan-hom - [Who works where]
Typhoon Fengshen - [Who works where]
Typhoon Hagupit - [Who works where]
Typhoon Jangmi - [Who works where]
Typhoon Nuri - [Who works where]
Typhoon Sinlaku - [Who works where]
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Very intense tropical cyclone Hamish - [Who works where]
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Yemen clashes - [Who works where]
Zimbabwe crisis - [Who works where]

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