Paper short abstract:

This paper assesses different East African camp and settlement policies. It contextualizes Uganda's self-reliance model by looking at other historical and regional approaches. Research is based on a multi-sited field research (between 2015 and 2018).

Paper long abstract:

Uganda has been a pilot country of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF). It currently hosts the largest refugee population in Africa. Political and humanitarian actors have widely praised Ugandan refugee policies because of their progressive nature. In contrast to many other countries that host refugees, refugees in Uganda are de jure allowed to work, to establish businesses, to access public services such as education, to move freely and have access to a plot of land.

This paper assesses Uganda´s self-reliance and settlement approach. It scrutinizes Uganda's aspiration to provide refugees and host communities with opportunities to become self-reliant by focusing on three aspects: Access to land, access to employment and education, and finally intra- and intergroup relations. Looking at other historical and regional approaches of self-reliance of refugees, the findings show that refugees in Uganda are currently neither truly self-reliant nor de facto socially integrated. The findings illustrate how nominal self-reliance does not ensure local integration. Uganda's refugee policy has progressed and is providing refugees more opportunities than countries such as Kenya or Tanzania allow today. Yet it is dubious whether it is fully a role model for the local integration of refugees. The lessons to be learnt are rather both negative and positive. The paper draws on a multi-sited, socio-anthropological orientated field research of several months between 2015 and 2018.