Existing measures deal with immediate problems but fail to promote long-term independence, condemning hundreds of thousand to poverty, claims joint study
The World Bank and the UN refugee agency have called for a “paradigm shift” in the way the world responds to refugee crises such as the Syrian emergency, warning that the current approach is nearsighted, unsustainable and is consigning hundreds of thousands of exiled people to poverty.
A new joint report from the bank and the UNHCR claims that 90% of the 1.7 million Syrian refugees registered in Jordan and Lebanon are living in poverty, according to local estimates. The majority of them are women and children.
The refugees hosted in the two countries are particularly vulnerable as they cannot work formally and tend to be younger, less educated and have larger households. The vast majority live in informal settlements rather than refugee camps, have few legal rights, and struggle to get access to public services because of the strains the unprecedented demand has put on the infrastructures of host countries.
Although the report notes that current refugee assistance initiatives – such as the UNHCR cash assistance programme and the World Food Programme (WFP) voucher scheme – are “very effective”, it says that they are not a solution in themselves.
“These programmes are not sustainable and cannot foster a transition from dependence to self-reliance,” say the study’s authors.
“They rely entirely on voluntary contributions and, when funding declines, fewer of the most vulnerable refugees are able to benefit. Moreover, social protection on its own does not foster a transition to work and self-reliance if access to labour markets is not available.”
If refugees are to escape poverty, adds the report, they need to be economically integrated into local communities rather than merely offered short-term assistance.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/dec/16/syrian-refugee-crisis-world-bank-unhcr-sea-change
