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Mr Leeks
Reference..
NOTE FOR THE FILE
37TH EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF UNHCR: ITEM 6: REVIEW OF UNHCR PROGRAMMES: 9 OCTOBER 1986
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CODE 18-77
AWO Ltd.
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1.
The Deputy High Commissioner introduced this item and the heads of the regional bureaus introduced the country issues. The Deputy High Commissioner referred to the need for a systematic defined timetabled approach to assistance for refugees so that refugee problems did not become self perpetuating. He therefore saw various distinct phases in assistance: a) early warning and contingency planning. This required field reporting from field offices, other UN agencies and governments on the latest developments in a region. Another aspect of this was the prepositioning of food and other supplies.
b) the emergency phase of providing basic food and shelter and ensuring physical security. c) the post emergency phase. This was the most demoralising and costly. Self reliance projects must be implemented as soon as possible so as to make this phase as short as possible, thereby reducing the percentage of UNHCR's budget spent on care and maintenance assistance. d) self reliance projects helped restore the dignity of refugees, taught them skills which would be applicable for their integrational resettlement, kept alive hopes for repatriation, and reduced the dependency syndrome. Income generating projects were also important as they achieved all four of these and also benefited the local community. e) durable solutions. These must be achieved as soon as possible with the early involvement of other agencies imperative eg UNDP. UNHCR's role in this phase was more that of a catalyst encouraging cooperation between
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refugee settlements and development agencies.
2.
So far the bulk of development funds available to UNHCR or through other UN organisations was spent on local integration and income generating projects. It was important where there was local integration to link refugee assistance with development needs. ICARA II set the framework for this. In this phase UNHCR must cooperate with UN agencies especially the UNDP and the World Bank. It must stay within its mandate by transferring responsibility to these agencies at the appropriate time in accordance with the UNHCR/UNDP memorandum of understanding. So far 6 million out of the 7 miilion dollars available under ICARA II had been pledged. UNHCR must encourage the full use of these funds.
3.
Evaluation of projects was essential for more effective planning and programming and in order to ensure precise and credible projects. In this respect UNHCR's role was operational in the sense that they were responsible and accountable to the international community and to the refugees themselves for design, control and evaluation*projects. This should not detract from the implementing role of governments and agencies.
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