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the sprawling expanse of Dadaab constitutes the largest refugee camp in the world by population， according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees （UNHCR）. Situated in Kenya’s Garissa County near the border with Somalia， this camp has been a city of exiles since 1993 and currently hosts almost 257，000 refugees who mainly come from Somalia. To put it into perspective， if Dabaab were a normal urban settlement， it would be Kenya’s fourth largest city by population with an economy worth about $100 million， a result of donor funds delivered here every year.
In addition to the massive challenge of Dadaab， since 1991， the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya’s Turkana County has hosted people fleeing wars in South Sudan， Somalia， Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. According to the UNHCR， there are 160，000 refugees at this camp today.
But the area is also prone to poor rainfall， water scarcity and ultimately massive drought.
“We often observe that numbers of refugees rise during droughts and this compounds the humanitarian situation especially since the violence in the region has not subsided，” explained Raouf Mazou， UNHCR Representative to Kenya. “When we have drought， it means there is a threat of famine， indicating that local communities are also vulnerable.”
This state of affairs has been part of the process behind a new strategy to support both local host communities and refugees in Africa， in a bid to find a sustainable solution to a growing problem.
Reviewing humanitarian policies
As is the norm around the world， refugee camps are often situated in poor neighborhoods where infrastructure is either non-existent or underdeveloped. In Kenya for instance， the Kakuma and Dadaab camps are both situated in arid parts of the country often prone to drought.
Yet after years of sending relief to these camps， donors now admit the humanitarian policies employed in camps in Kenya， and many others around Africa， were not helping refugees， while host communities have to learn how to fend for themselves.
Mazou explains that sending relief aid to people in camps is expensive， and has shown that beneficiaries become addicted to humanitarian assistance， meaning they can’t break the habit even when the conditions for return home become favorable.
“This camp-based care is no longer sustainable financially， because the aid money that used to be readily available for humanitarian needs is not enough. There are many crises around the world today，” he told ChinAfrica. “But we have seen other unintended consequences of having people assisted in camps： Most end up being unable to do anything for themselves.”
In February， the World Bank and UNHCR released a report showing that some people in refugee host communities in Africa had wished they were refugees themselves， because they felt neglected when relief services are brought to the camps.
The report， known as In My Backyard？ The Economics of Refugees and Their Social Dynamics in Kakuma， focused on the lifestyle of people in and around Kakuma Refugee Camp and found that refugees would generally contribute more to the wellbeing of the area if they integrated with host communities.
Because refugees are situated in poorly developed areas， the report argued， “equal attention needs to be paid in developing these areas” and shifting policies from emergency financing to development and long-term support.
It is a new strategy， which the World Bank calls a paradigm shift， directing development aid to host communities rather than refugees and trying to change their attitudes toward refugees.
“Integrating refugees into the economy generates positive economic effects in aggregate terms and also diffuses such effects across all regions in Kenya，” the report argued.
$2 billion windfall
So what is going to happen？ In December 2016， the World Bank and other donors launched an ambitious $2 billion project to support both host communities and refugees around Africa. This means that countries like Uganda， Ethiopia， Nigeria， Cameroon and Rwanda， which host refugees in the region， stand to benefit.
“We did a previous study on the situation of refugees in the whole of Africa and what we found out was that the refugee host communities are worse off than refugees themselves and there have been a lot of deficits in development，” Varalakshmi Vemuru， Senior Social Development Specialist at the World Bank told ChinAfrica in Nairobi.
The bank says it will not build a new school or health center for locals to match every of those set up for refugees， but it will send in more resources to ensure these facilities can serve communities.
“We will bring all partners on board. We will put county governments in the lead and they will take charge and set the agenda. The idea is to ensure that those development deficits are cleared，” said Vemuru.
According to the World Bank， this five-year project aims at helping the host communities “fill this gap of development，” by helping local pastoralist communities in Turkana move to more market responsive practices. The bank has planned to approve a $100-million project for Kenya’s Kakuma and Dadaab camps in April， which is expected to test how effectively this program can work. Additional funding will depend on the “absorption capacity” of these two counties， the World Bank official said.
In Kenya， the project will begin with Dadaab， and then move to Turkana’s Kakuma. In both cases， the World Bank said it will channel the money through local governments as a way of maximizing usage.
“Refugee camps have often been isolated from the local people. So you could see everything going to them and there were so many complaints from the host communities. Some locals even felt being a refugee is a good thing because they saw these people in camps getting assistance，” Turkana Governor Josephat Nanok told ChinAfrica.
“What we wanted is to innovate， and I think the whole world is thinking of new strategies to support refugees and host communities. The idea is， once Kakuma is closed and the refugees return home， Kakuma should not be a ghost town. The people should be empowered to go on with life even after refugees have gone.”
Refugees an emotive issue
Mazou thinks the new strategy will calm some tensions often seen between locals and refugees and allow host nations to benefit from refugee skills.
“We must make sure that we do not lose the opportunities， talents and resources that refugee populations have，” he said.
Experts think that while it is important for the benefits of refugee relief to reach local communities， it is also important for host governments to think of a balance between humanitarian obligations and long-term solutions.
“[A] host government must have its own agenda first of all， on what it wants in hosting refugees. Otherwise， it will become a playground for all manner of things，” said Kenya Red Cross Society Secretary General Abbas Gullet.
“When policy makers have a sense of direction， everything will fall into place. There should never be a separation of relief and development aid.”
In addition to the massive challenge of Dadaab， since 1991， the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya’s Turkana County has hosted people fleeing wars in South Sudan， Somalia， Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. According to the UNHCR， there are 160，000 refugees at this camp today.
But the area is also prone to poor rainfall， water scarcity and ultimately massive drought.
“We often observe that numbers of refugees rise during droughts and this compounds the humanitarian situation especially since the violence in the region has not subsided，” explained Raouf Mazou， UNHCR Representative to Kenya. “When we have drought， it means there is a threat of famine， indicating that local communities are also vulnerable.”
This state of affairs has been part of the process behind a new strategy to support both local host communities and refugees in Africa， in a bid to find a sustainable solution to a growing problem.
Reviewing humanitarian policies
As is the norm around the world， refugee camps are often situated in poor neighborhoods where infrastructure is either non-existent or underdeveloped. In Kenya for instance， the Kakuma and Dadaab camps are both situated in arid parts of the country often prone to drought.
Yet after years of sending relief to these camps， donors now admit the humanitarian policies employed in camps in Kenya， and many others around Africa， were not helping refugees， while host communities have to learn how to fend for themselves.
Mazou explains that sending relief aid to people in camps is expensive， and has shown that beneficiaries become addicted to humanitarian assistance， meaning they can’t break the habit even when the conditions for return home become favorable.
“This camp-based care is no longer sustainable financially， because the aid money that used to be readily available for humanitarian needs is not enough. There are many crises around the world today，” he told ChinAfrica. “But we have seen other unintended consequences of having people assisted in camps： Most end up being unable to do anything for themselves.”
In February， the World Bank and UNHCR released a report showing that some people in refugee host communities in Africa had wished they were refugees themselves， because they felt neglected when relief services are brought to the camps.
The report， known as In My Backyard？ The Economics of Refugees and Their Social Dynamics in Kakuma， focused on the lifestyle of people in and around Kakuma Refugee Camp and found that refugees would generally contribute more to the wellbeing of the area if they integrated with host communities.
Because refugees are situated in poorly developed areas， the report argued， “equal attention needs to be paid in developing these areas” and shifting policies from emergency financing to development and long-term support.
It is a new strategy， which the World Bank calls a paradigm shift， directing development aid to host communities rather than refugees and trying to change their attitudes toward refugees.
“Integrating refugees into the economy generates positive economic effects in aggregate terms and also diffuses such effects across all regions in Kenya，” the report argued.
$2 billion windfall
So what is going to happen？ In December 2016， the World Bank and other donors launched an ambitious $2 billion project to support both host communities and refugees around Africa. This means that countries like Uganda， Ethiopia， Nigeria， Cameroon and Rwanda， which host refugees in the region， stand to benefit.
“We did a previous study on the situation of refugees in the whole of Africa and what we found out was that the refugee host communities are worse off than refugees themselves and there have been a lot of deficits in development，” Varalakshmi Vemuru， Senior Social Development Specialist at the World Bank told ChinAfrica in Nairobi.
The bank says it will not build a new school or health center for locals to match every of those set up for refugees， but it will send in more resources to ensure these facilities can serve communities.
“We will bring all partners on board. We will put county governments in the lead and they will take charge and set the agenda. The idea is to ensure that those development deficits are cleared，” said Vemuru.
According to the World Bank， this five-year project aims at helping the host communities “fill this gap of development，” by helping local pastoralist communities in Turkana move to more market responsive practices. The bank has planned to approve a $100-million project for Kenya’s Kakuma and Dadaab camps in April， which is expected to test how effectively this program can work. Additional funding will depend on the “absorption capacity” of these two counties， the World Bank official said.
In Kenya， the project will begin with Dadaab， and then move to Turkana’s Kakuma. In both cases， the World Bank said it will channel the money through local governments as a way of maximizing usage.
“Refugee camps have often been isolated from the local people. So you could see everything going to them and there were so many complaints from the host communities. Some locals even felt being a refugee is a good thing because they saw these people in camps getting assistance，” Turkana Governor Josephat Nanok told ChinAfrica.
“What we wanted is to innovate， and I think the whole world is thinking of new strategies to support refugees and host communities. The idea is， once Kakuma is closed and the refugees return home， Kakuma should not be a ghost town. The people should be empowered to go on with life even after refugees have gone.”
Refugees an emotive issue
Mazou thinks the new strategy will calm some tensions often seen between locals and refugees and allow host nations to benefit from refugee skills.
“We must make sure that we do not lose the opportunities， talents and resources that refugee populations have，” he said.
Experts think that while it is important for the benefits of refugee relief to reach local communities， it is also important for host governments to think of a balance between humanitarian obligations and long-term solutions.
“[A] host government must have its own agenda first of all， on what it wants in hosting refugees. Otherwise， it will become a playground for all manner of things，” said Kenya Red Cross Society Secretary General Abbas Gullet.
“When policy makers have a sense of direction， everything will fall into place. There should never be a separation of relief and development aid.”