Africa

2012 Regional Operations Profile - Africa

Working environment

In 2011, UNHCR's working environment in sub-Saharan Africa was dominated by emergencies in the East and Horn of Africa and in West Africa. Armed conflict, persecution and natural disasters have forced large and growing numbers of people to flee their homes in search of safety and protection. While it is expected that some refugees from Côte d'Ivoire and internally displaced persons (IDPs) within that country will be able to return to their homes in 2012, more displacements can be expected, if violence and famine persist in Somalia, and tensions along the border region between Sudan and South Sudan increase.

One of the worst humanitarian crises in decades continues to unfold in Somalia and the region. Fighting in the southern and central parts of the country, coupled with widespread famine and drought, has forced a quarter of a million Somalis to flee their country during the first nine months of 2011. UNHCR has registered more than 917,000 Somali refugees in the region; and more than one-third of the entire refugee population in sub-Saharan Africa is of Somali origin.

The Somali influx into Ethiopia and Kenya has put a heavy strain on services and facilities in refugee camps in these countries. However, efforts are under way to open new camps to meet the growing needs. Inside Somalia, UNHCR has scaled up its presence along the border regions and in Mogadishu in order to protect and assist IDPs, who number some 1.4 million.

West Africa continues to recover from the post-election political crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, which resulted in the internal displacement of an estimated 500,000 Ivorians, and saw at least 200,000 more seek protection abroad, particularly in Liberia and Ghana. While returns in Côte d'Ivoire have since begun, the situation remains fragile and requires close monitoring.

The largely peaceful referendum on the independence of South Sudan has since been followed by armed conflict in the border area between the new country and Sudan, triggering significant displacement both within the two countries and across borders. Concerns also remain about the possible loss of nationality among tens of thousands of individuals on both sides of the new border. In Darfur, ongoing inter-tribal fighting and clashes between the Government and rebel movements are causing fresh displacement.

Armed conflict continues unabated in parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where UNHCR continues to respond to the needs of the displaced, in particular women who have been victims of sexual and gender-based violence. The extension of the mandate of the United Nations Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) through 30 June 2012 will help to mitigate the risk of a deterioration in the security situation before and after presidential elections in November 2011. Planning is already under way, however, to respond to increased displacement should violence nonetheless erupt.

While southern Africa has remained peaceful, the effects of conflict, drought and poverty elsewhere on the continent, especially in the East and Horn of Africa, have resulted in growing flows of refugees and migrants. For the third year in a row, South Africa has been the recipient of the highest number of asylum applications worldwide. Governments have reacted to the increase in these movements by imposing more restrictive entry measures including stringent border checks, returns to former countries of transit and denial of access to asylum-seekers from third countries.

Strategic priorities in 2012

In line with its Global Strategic Priorities for 2012 and 2013, UNHCR will pursue the following priorities in sub-Saharan Africa:

Promoting access to territorial protection and asylum procedures

UNHCR will seek to ensure that the cornerstone principles of non-refoulement and access to territory for refugees and asylum-seekers are respected. While this past year saw States receive and provide protection to large numbers of refugees fleeing armed conflict, the ongoing flow of refugees from countries such as Somalia has resulted in increasing attempts to close borders and restrict entry. UNHCR will work closely with States receiving refugees to ensure that their borders remain open and to supply the support and assistance required to provide protection on their territories.

Ensuring access to protection in the context of mixed migratory flows remains particularly challenging. With increasing numbers of refugees and migrants moving from the East and Horn of Africa northwards across the Gulf of Aden, and southwards to southern Africa, UNHCR will promote the development of protection-sensitive regional and national migration policies and practices, in line with its 10-Point Plan of Action. Individual registration will remain a vital component of the overall protection strategy in southern Africa.

Reducing the protection risks faced by people of concern

UNHCR will continue efforts to create a favourable protection environment for people of concern, and to ensure that their material needs are met. UNHCR will pay particular attention to the needs of displaced women and children and will continue to bring considerations of age, gender and diversity into the mainstream of its programme activities. Sexual and gender-based violence remains a principal concern, and UNHCR's updated strategy to deal with such violence will guide its prevention and response efforts. Key priorities with regard to the protection of children include registration and documentation of displaced children at birth; equal access to education, especially for girls; completion of Best Interest Determination (BID) for unaccompanied, separated and at-risk children; and reduction of malnutrition and mortality through the provision of greater access to health care, supplementary nutrition and therapeutic feeding.

The prospects are strong for the 2009 African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa to come into effect in 2012, providing an important new international legal framework for the protection of IDPs in Africa. UNHCR will focus its efforts over the coming year on assisting States to incorporate their obligations under the treaty into national laws and policies.

In the area of statelessness, much remains to be done to ensure that all people in the region enjoy the rights and protection that come with having a nationality. As of October 2011, only eight countries in sub-Africa were party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness while thirteen had signed and ratified the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons. The commemorations related to the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness helped raise awareness of this issue and provided a platform for future action. In the coming year, UNHCR will continue to urge States to ratify the two conventions on statelessness, as well as assist States to identify stateless or potentially stateless people within their borders and to formulate laws and policies to prevent or reduce statelessness in general.

Addressing the basic needs of people of concern

UNHCR strives to meet the basic needs of people of concern and to provide them with essential services, primarily in emergencies. In 2012, it will give priority to reducing malnutrition and anaemia and improving standards in the provision of shelter, domestic energy, water, sanitation, hygiene, and access to education.

In line with its urban refugee policy, UNHCR will continue to advocate for increased access to services, such as health care and education, for urban refugees; access to livelihood opportunities, including the right to work; and access to refugee status determination (RSD) procedures and documentation. In Nairobi, Kenya, a pilot site for UNHCR's urban refugee policy, the Government has now assumed responsibility for the registration and documentation of asylum-seekers and refugees in urban areas. Refugees now also have access to city health clinics, with referrals for secondary and tertiary treatment possible to designated health clinics. In early 2012, UNCHR will be completing a survey that will facilitate the design and implementation of livelyhoods strategies and programmes in Nairobi.

Facilitate durable solutions

UNHCR will make further, intense efforts to achieve progress in its comprehensive strategies for Angolan, Liberian and Rwandan refugees, preparing the ground for invocation of the cessation clauses for these refugees in 2012. The central components of these comprehensive strategies includes exploring all possibilities for voluntary repatriation to countries of origin and the pursuit of local integration or an alternative legal status in countries of asylum, in order to reduce the number ultimately affected by cessation, as well as ensuring continued refugee protection for those who cannot return home for valid reasons.

The search for local integration opportunities remains a key priority. UNHCR and UNDP will soon start implementing a joint programme under the Transitional Solutions Initiative in support of self-reliance activities in the refugee camps in eastern Sudan. These interventions aim at transforming some of the camps into Sudanese villages and closing others. In the United Republic of Tanzania, UNHCR will work with the Government to integrate some 162,000 recently naturalized Burundian refugees.

Resettlement continues to be a central element in strategies to unlock protracted refugee situations in the region. In addition to being a vital protection tool and a durable solution, it is also seen as a concrete form of solidarity and responsibility-sharing by many host Governments. In this context, the Office will be prioritizing the resettlement of Somali refugees in Dadaab, Kenya and Eritrean refugees in eastern Sudan. Resettlement efforts in the region, however, face important challenges, including limited resettlement places, the absence of an agreement on group resettlement, increasingly stringent security clearance procedures, and difficulties for staff from resettlement countries to gain entry to certain asylum countries. The obstacles may keep the number of resettlement submissions below UNHCR's targets.

Reinforcing UNHCR's operational response

The humanitarian emergencies of 2010 and 2011 have brought into sharp relief the need to ensure UNHCR's capacity to respond to displacement crises as they unfold. UNHCR will continue to strengthen its contingency planning in areas where conflict may lead to displacement, while also ensuring that funding mechanisms and deployment arrangements are in place to respond to emergencies as they occur. Sudan and Somalia remain countries of particular concern and will require close monitoring over the coming year. UNHCR is also preparing itself for eventualities that may arise from the upcoming election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Strengthening partnerships

With the growing multitude of actors responding to displacement crises in Africa and elsewhere, the need for clear and predictable coordination between government, UN and NGO actors has become very apparent. UNHCR, as the agency mandated to provide protection to refugees, as well as the lead agency in the protection, camp management and emergency shelter clusters in IDP situations, will continue to engage with partners in the Field and in New York and Geneva to ensure that coordination mechanisms are effective and efficient. The organization will also work closely with both international and national NGOs in Africa as operational or advocacy partners, to improve their capacity to respond to displacement challenges in their regions, and to mobilize funds to support their operations.

Improving management, performance and accountability

In line with UNHCR's 2012-2013 Global Strategic Priorities, the Regional Bureau for Africa will strive to improve management, including financial diligence, performance and overall accountability in the programmes under its purview. The strengthening of UNHCR's results-based management system has been accompanied by the introduction of new processes and tools, such as the four-pillar budget structure and the new programme management software, Focus. In addition to improving its own financial management capacity, UNHCR will also undertake concerted efforts in 2012 and 2013 to train its partners in Africa. Ensuring staff security, including full compliance with the UN Minimum Operating Security Standards, will remain another key priority.

Challenges

Asylum fatigue, once considered a defining feature of industrialized countries, is increasingly evident in sub-Saharan Africa. Restrictive asylum polices in countries of transit and destination, as well as efforts to create "refugee-free" zones at the national and/or subregional level, are evidence of a growing reluctance to provide protection and to keep borders open. Security concerns contribute to more restrictive asylum policies and to undermining support for asylum.

When delivering protection and assistance in conflict zones, UNHCR and other humanitarian actors face the challenge of defining the parameters of engagement with military actors, be they national forces, non-State armed actors, or peacekeeping missions. UNHCR must strike the right balance between engagement, to ensure access to populations of concern, and distance, to maintain the humanitarian character of its activities.

Ensuring the security of humanitarian personnel in both conflict and non-conflict environments remains a major challenge for UNHCR, sister UN agencies and NGO partners. Attacks against aid workers continue, resulting recently in the death of a World Food Progamme (WFP) staff member in southern Sudan. The attack on the UN House in Abuja, Nigeria, in August 2011 by a terrorist group, which resulted in the death of 23 people, including 11 UN staff members, already tragically highlighted the extent to which humanitarian workers are seen by some as legitimate targets of violence.

Financial information

The introduction of budgets based on the comprehensive assessments of the needs of people of concern to UNHCR has resulted in a significant increase in financial requirements for operations in Africa, while at the same time the level of contributions for Africa has stagnated over the last few years. At the beginning of 2011, the comprehensive budget for Africa as approved by UNHCR's Executive Committee stood at USD 1.5 billion. The crises in West Africa and the East and Horn of Africa resulted in significant additional requirements which were presented in several supplementary appeals. At the start of the fourth quarter of 2011, the total requirements for sub-Saharan Africa amounted to USD 1.83 billion. The 2012 comprehensive budget for Africa stands at USD 1.64 billion, while the requirements for 2013 are estimated at USD 1.52 billion.

The gap between needs and available resources remains large. Without adequate funding, UNHCR will be unable to meet even the most basic needs of many of those it is meant to assist. Life-saving services, such as health, water, shelter, nutrition and sanitation, will be jeopardized, as will protection and other activities intended to ensure the safety, dignity and basic rights of the people UNHCR serves. Assistance to the communities that host displaced people will also suffer, risking a rise in tensions and conflict.

UNHCR 2012-2013 budget for Africa (USD)
Operations	2011 Revised budget	2012					2013
		Refugee prog. PILLAR 1	Stateless prog. PILLAR 2	Reinte- gration projects PILLAR 3	IDP projects PILLAR 4	Total
Total	1,825,279,070	1,280,500,303	20,489,630	100,054,740	235,291,069	1,636,335,741	1,516,779,975
[1] Sudan operations have been separated into Sudan and South Sudan as of 2012.
CENTRAL AFRICA AND THE GREAT LAKES
Burundi	44,545,571	28,852,979	663,253	0	1,263,407	30,779,639	26,720,635
Cameroon	23,947,527	19,786,345	826,303	0	0	20,612,649	20,030,293
Central African Republic	34,352,253	16,206,708	825,624	0	10,708,445	27,740,776	27,600,000
Congo	27,969,884	30,603,225	0	0	0	30,603,225	29,581,782
Democratic Republic of the Congo	150,921,401	84,220,618	1,022,751	22,316,660	43,160,059	150,720,089	140,787,594
Gabon	7,832,082	5,649,550	0	0	0	5,649,550	2,221,674
Rwanda	35,233,772	34,862,711	0	779,282	0	35,641,993	29,646,059
United Republic of Tanzania	91,748,795	21,367,903	0	58,510,523	0	79,878,426	36,673,809
Subtotal	416,551,285	241,550,039	3,337,931	81,606,465	55,131,911	381,626,347	313,261,846
EAST AND HORN OF AFRICA
Chad	208,949,721	159,394,146	0	0	17,551,621	176,945,767	174,590,180
Djibouti	26,798,669	26,683,669	0	0	0	26,683,669	24,950,445
Eritrea	17,891,596	7,076,302	0	0	0	7,076,302	6,200,000
Ethiopia	196,877,851	184,637,065	362,383	0	85,000	185,084,448	170,800,000
Ethiopia (Representation to the AU and ECA)	1,846,565	1,495,952	0	0	0	1,495,952	1,514,612
Kenya	230,762,207	235,335,692	301,350	0	441,850	236,078,892	236,125,269
Kenya Regional Support Hub	12,124,122	8,459,942	0	0	0	8,459,942	8,473,792
Somalia	75,466,519	9,438,916	0	0	39,124,374	48,563,290	50,000,000
Sudan [1]	232,472,193	92,804,132	5,926,472	0	51,346,682	150,077,287	142,133,273
South Sudan [1]	0	21,199,719	2,997,545	3,388,411	56,517,944	84,103,620	76,500,000
Uganda	80,968,903	65,835,649	132,428	0	100,000	66,068,077	62,036,000
Regional activities	7,000,001	6,312,924	0	0	0	6,312,924	5,000,001
Subtotal	1,091,158,347	818,674,109	9,720,178	3,388,411	165,167,472	996,950,170	958,323,572
WEST AFRICA
Côte d'Ivoire	47,212,208	9,591,089	3,748,462	4,997,424	13,005,332	31,342,307	26,396,000
Ghana	14,935,725	10,297,161	0	1,289,055	0	11,586,217	9,017,381
Guinea	8,122,003	4,658,142	0	1,435,009	0	6,093,151	6,000,000
Liberia	90,945,253	64,304,327	0	5,045,353	0	69,349,680	65,024,668
Senegal Regional Office	65,092,494	47,387,883	717,761	2,293,021	0	50,398,665	49,852,287
Subtotal	226,307,683	136,238,603	4,466,223	15,059,863	13,005,332	168,770,020	156,290,336
SOUTHERN AFRICA
Angola	9,772,449	9,968,001	0	0	0	9,968,001	7,376,321
Botswana	3,758,897	5,544,260	0	0	0	5,544,260	6,374,614
Malawi	3,486,655	3,443,659	0	0	0	3,443,659	3,099,293
Mozambique	4,636,543	4,659,927	308,784	0	0	4,968,711	4,471,840
Namibia	4,384,196	4,604,888	0	0	0	4,604,888	5,146,778
South Africa Regional Office	40,646,378	32,690,053	2,148,597	0	0	34,838,649	38,838,649
Zambia	14,118,082	17,907,042	0	0	0	17,907,042	14,725,634
Zimbabwe	10,458,555	5,219,722	507,917	0	1,986,354	7,713,993	8,871,092
Subtotal	91,261,755	84,037,551	2,965,297	0	1,986,354	88,989,203	88,904,221

Source: UNHCR Global Appeal 2012-2013