Building Communities of Practice for Urban Refugees: Workshop and Roundtable Reports

"Horizontal partnerships in the form of networks or other collaborative structures provide a better platform for service provision and information dissemination."

This is one insight from a series of reports sharing outcomes from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) workshops and roundtables designed to broadcast and replicate good practices for urban refugee programmes. The workshops are an opportunity for UNHCR staff and their partners in each region to learn from each other through sharing their good practice examples, as well as the challenges and lessons learned along the way. The workshops are a product of the Building Communities of Practice for Urban Refugees project funded by the United States (US) Department of State's Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration (BPRM). The aim of the project is to deepen and expand upon regional networks of professionals working with refugees and asylum seekers in cities through this exchange. It is also designed to reinforce UNHCR's implementation of its policy on refugee protection and solutions in urban areas. UNHCR recognises that well over half of the world's refugees and asylum-seekers live in urban and peri-urban areas, and that their ability to peacefully coexist in these cities is fundamental to their well-being. UNHCR understands that refugees and asylum-seekers cannot make a living or contribute to the social, economic, and cultural life of a city without the support of their neighbours and the many different government agencies and offices of the host country.

The regional workshops and roundtables held in selected cities in each of the geographic regions are an opportunity to convene many stakeholders from various sectors of the municipal government and civil society to discuss the most positive ways to integrate refugees into the city. The available reports include:

• Asia Regional Workshop Report [PDF], by Mary Beth Morand and Claudia Cruz Leo, 59 pages, March 19 2015 - The Bangkok workshop hosted 42 participants (23 UNHCR staff, 19 partners) from 13 countries. There were 9 panels on topics including partnerships, expanding protection space, livelihoods, accessing national systems for education and health, legal assistance, safe houses, social assistance, and mapping services. Each of these panels consisted of presentations of good practice activities followed by questions from the plenary and then the grounding of the discussion by a subject matter expert. The overall findings from the workshop's good practice presentations point to: 1) the importance of UNHCR's role in supporting networks and connecting civil society to the government on refugee issues; 2) the criticality of ongoing assessments that map the human capital in the refugee community as well as opportunities and services that may be available to them in the host communities; 3) the need to sustain and monitor investments in refugee groups, community-based organisations (CBOs), and other small or newly formed organisations, especially if they are serving vulnerable segments in society; 4) opportunities for capacity exchange between the refugee and host community and areas for capacity building of refugee communities; 5) the need for a dedicated, continuous advocacy strategy when accessing national systems, which provides a level of social protection, and 6) attention to issues around access to work, which is a highly nuanced discussion that involves a wide variety of stakeholders.
• Africa Regional Workshop Report [PDF], by MaryBeth Morand, 53 pages, March 18 2015 - The Pretoria workshop hosted 37 participants (22 UNHCR staff, 15 partners) from 10 countries. There were 11 panels on topics including: livelihoods, education, health, legal assistance, safe houses, social assistance, mapping and sharing data, outreach methods, outreach centres, and outreach strategies. The overall findings from the workshop's good practice presentations centre on 3 principles: conducting frequent assessments, proactive partnerships that enable refugees to mainstream into national systems, and expanding upon the financial and social capital that exists within refugee communities. Presenters on the majority of the panels described how the assessments they conducted, often in partnership with other organisations, informed their programming. Assessments that mapped host community services and the actual access to these services by refugees were promoted. The panellists emphasised the frequency and rigor of assessment methods, as well as the importance of triangulating assessment data with other datasets, e.g., data from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), other UN organisations, and government statistics. Panellists presented examples on how they were able to include refugees into national programmes for health care and health insurance, education, and social security. All these examples were the result of inter-agency advocacy campaigns. In all cases, refugee participants in the programmes are called upon to be accountable toward and contribute to the system at the same level as host country nationals. Successful programmes presented in the livelihoods panels were based on refugee communities accessing financial capital generated from within their own communities or through online sources. Again, careful assessments were necessary in measuring the cohesion and capacity of the community or individuals to generate capital or use web-based funding. Mapping stakeholders and social capital in the host community needs to be done in parallel with mapping the refugee community in order to find mutual interests and how best to meet the needs of the combined community.
• Americas Regional Workshop Report [PDF], by Claudia Cruz Leo, MaryBeth Morand, and Juan Carlos Murillo, 72 pages, October 9 2015 - The São Paulo workshop hosted 37 participants (15 UNHCR staff, 22 partners) from 11 countries as well as 3 refugees. There were a total of 17 panels on topics including: residence and naturalisation, social protection initiatives, and cross-cultural and livelihoods programming, among others. "The overall findings from the workshop's good practice presentations are anchored in one simple concept: support, starting with the notion of supporting governments in their efforts. Governments across the region have committed to establishing more sophisticated reception and assistance mechanisms by strengthening coordination structures amongst different levels of government, with a special emphasis on the municipality, as well as to promote quality asylum procedures. UNHCR's role in bolstering these efforts cannot be emphasized enough. This general goodwill amongst host governments in the Americas is evident in the inclusion of refugees and asylum-seekers in social protection schemes that promote their gradual integration. Achieving full legal integration is critical in this process and, to assist in this, many governments in recent years have begun introducing more flexible procedures that provide refugees access to national services. The panel of refugees only validated the need for such initiatives."
• Europe Regional Workshop Report [PDF], by Claudia Cruz Leo and MaryBeth Morand, 55 pages, February 19 2016 - The Budapest workshop hosted 35 participants (11 UNHCR staff, 24 partners) from 11 countries. There were a total of 17 panels on topics including, but not limited to, coordination, public awareness campaigns, community work models, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), mentoring and volunteering, and livelihoods. The overall findings from the workshop's good practice presentations revolve around 3 main themes: the primacy of the government's role, the potential to engage local communities, and the importance of minding refugee and asylum seekers' language needs. "The tone of the central governments' messages in leading interventions that provide context-specific solutions for refugees cannot be underlined enough. Government leadership across the region has the potential to improve coordination and response mechanisms, sustain dialogue amongst diverse organisations - governmental and other - as well as to provide humane and dignified treatment of refugees and asylumseekers. However, in some countries where this has not been the case, and even in those where policies are more welcoming to refugees and asylum-seekers, it is the local community who actually plays a key role in providing assistance and services that fulfill new arrivals' most urgent needs. Those who come forward as volunteers and mentors have had an invaluable impact because it is the communities that reside side by side with refugees in urban areas which comprise the bulk of this benevolent workforce. It is with their help that outreach is not only facilitated but greatly enhanced. The local community also plays an important role in ensuring that refugees meet basic needs through housing and employment. Lastly, while language needs across the region are being addressed, more needs to be done formally in this capacity. For example, making information available in refugees' mother tongues and having empathetic, culturally-proficient interpreters at reception centres and other places such as multi-stakeholder meetings and psychological consultations. To promote integration from the start, rather than exclusion, governments could fund and prioritise language instruction for new arrivals."
• Brazil Roundtable Report [PDF] - by Claudia Cruz Leo, MaryBeth Morand, and Vinicius Feitosa, 39 pages, October 6 2015 - The São Paulo roundtable event took place at the São Paulo Cultural Centre, a community gathering space in the heart of the city. The event co-facilitated by the UNHCR Representative Andrés Ramirez and a well-known TV personality, social activist, and native to São Paulo, Cazé Pecini. In attendance were key members from the Government of Brazil along with community figures and refugees to speak about the various aspects of local integration in Brazil and specifically in the city of São Paulo. Other stakeholders from faith-based organisations (FBOs), CBOs, international NGOs, and academics were also invited to contribute their perspectives to the roundtable. Directly following 5 presentations, the participants were asked to break into 5 working groups to brainstorm and provide recommendations on how to improve the integration of refugees through these 6 key sectors: documentation, health, education, housing, employment and culture.
• South Africa Roundtable Report [PDF], by MaryBeth Morand, 23 pages, April 30 2015 - The Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) joined the UNHCR in hosting a roundtable on coexistence in Gauteng Province in South Africa. Speakers from the Government of South Africa, well known community figures, and refugee group representatives gave presentations on the various dimensions of coexistence. UNHCR and MRM also invited representatives from community groups, FBOs, trade associations, and NGOs who work in the townships of Atteridgeville, Snakepark, and Mamelodi to participate in the discussions. "Representation from the host community and foreign national communities appeared to be balanced well enough to provide equal time for opinions and inputs from foreign nationals and South Africans alike. Both communities spoke of the underlying issues that contribute to the failing coexistence dynamic: increased migration into South Africa; entrenched poverty; high youth unemployment combined with the prevalence of drugs in the township, especially nyaope [a cheap mixture of low grade heroin, marijuana, cleaning detergents, rat poison, and chlorine]; insufficient police patrols; and the inconsistency of the application of by-laws for businesses in the townships. The discussions indicated agreement that these were contributing factors to the breakdown of coexistence and at times triggers for xenophobic incidents."