In and beyond the camp

Abstract

This paper analyzes recent changes in the policies and practices through which displaced populations are governed by humanitarian and state actors. In particular, we examine how the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is increasingly operationalizing its protection mandate by linking the more longstanding logic of self-reliance with the newer idea of resilience, itself composed of both micro (individual) and macro (societal and particularly urban) strands. Using Uganda as a site of analysis, we suggest that the linking of the more entrenched concept of self-reliance with resilience is another step forward in the entwining of UNHCR’s traditional humanitarian mandate with the developmental goals promoted by other global aid organizations. Resilience emerges in this context as a policy ideal that brings together disparate strands of operational aspirations into one multifaceted objective to govern refugees both within and beyond the camp/settlement structure. El artículo analiza los cambios recientes en políticas y prácticas según las cuales poblaciones desplazadas quedan bajo el gobierno de actores humanitarios y estatales. Concretamente, examinamos cómo la Agencia de la ONU para los Refugiados (ACNUR) está llevando a la práctica su mandato de protección al vincular la lógica tradicional de la autosuficiencia con la idea más nueva de resiliencia, compuesta por ejes micro (individuo) y macro (sociedad y, especialmente, lo urbano). Utilizando el caso de Uganda, damos a entender que el vínculo del concepto más arraigado de autosuficiencia con el de resiliencia es un paso adelante en la combinación del mandato humanitario de ACNUR con los objetivos de desarrollo promovidos por otras organizaciones de ayuda globales. La resiliencia surge, en este contexto, como un ideal político que congrega varias corrientes de aspiraciones operativas en un único objetivo polifacético de gobernar a los refugiados tanto dentro como más allá de la estructura del campo o asentamiento.

Humanitarian Ration Cuts: Impacts on Vulnerable Groups

“…Child marriage has also been reported in South Sudan, Uganda, and among Rohingya refugees, to alleviate the pressure of ration cuts: marriages entail the creation of new households that could access other rations (Wilman et al, 2022;Melnikas et al, 2020;UN, 2020). Refugee women in the Nakivale refugee settlement in Uganda have also opted in some cases to have more children to secure additional food rations for their family (Oliver & Boyle, 2019).…”

“…Reproductive labour: Refugees in Uganda have routinely experienced declining WFP food rations, resulting in inadequate quantity and quality of food for refugees to sustain themselves and their families. Refugee women in the Nakivale refugee settlement have opted in some cases to have more children to secure additional food rations for their family (Oliver & Boyle, 2019).…”

Neoliberal Turns in Global Humanitarian Governance

“…Such economic strategies of empowerment have been identified as hallmarks of neoliberal development cloaked under a feminist face (Prügl, 2015;Roberts, 2015). An assumption running through this discourse is that the offerings of vocational trainings or work can lift women and their families out of poverty, reduce the costs of refugee assistance while also contributing to economic growth (Gregoratti et al, 2018;Oliver and Boyle, 2019;Tornhill, 2019). Yet, such promises rarely problematise the location of refugee women within intersecting categories of oppression.…”