The international community provides protection and assistance to 350 000 Burundian refugees in 10 camps in western Tanzania. With 10 000 Burundian refugees entering adulthood in the camps each year and the prospect for return uncertain, there is much scope for boredom, apathy and crime. What form of education is relevant and stimulating for such refugee populations?
A paper from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) entitled ‘Vocational training for refugees: a case study from Tanzania’ evaluates ongoing skills training programmes for Burundian refugees. It assesses the scope for expanding them into a wider training programme based on the concept of education for repatriation – developing and enhancing skills that will be of use on return from exile.
Formal training currently on offer and supported by scholarships only reaches very few of the refugees – mostly those who have been in Tanzania for a long time or were born there and who have English-language and Kiswahili skills. Non-formal training is carried out by skilled refugees in the form of group training. Trainers are not paid, which is a source of resentment as they could otherwise spend their time and skills on income-generating activities. Programmes are managed by NGOs and have reached some 2 500 people.
The evaluation found that:
- No consistent problem analysis has been carried out, with the result that there is considerable variation between the approaches of different NGOs.
- While training is mainly practical, the quality is often low: little attention is paid to issues of quality control, pricing, book-keeping and credit management.
- Vocational training has not had a high priority for overworked NGO staff and few of those who graduate have gone on to engage in meaningful economic activity.
- There has been an imprecise and inconsistent targeting of women, out-of-school youth and other categories of the ‘vulnerable’.
- Monitoring is limited to basic reporting and accounting of the spending of funds: reported costs per trainee vary considerably.
- Many skilled micro-entrepreneurs and artisans do not participate in training opportunities but go about their own small businesses instead.
The report highlights the need for enterprise-based training. Selection of candidates must be improved with emphasis on their potential for entrepreneurial activity. Trainers should be provided with greater incentives and micro-entrepreneurs offered tools and materials in return for taking on apprentices. A training centre should be established in each camp to strengthen theoretical instruction and offer upgrading courses to craftspeople.
The author also recommends that:
- UNHCR-supervised camp education management structures should be linked to education specialists and the relevant institutions in Burundi in order to ensure the accreditation of qualifications gained in exile.
- Horticulture should be organised as training rather than as an income-generating activity and extended to as many refugees as possible.
- New environment-friendly technologies (especially for brick-making) should be tested in order to support training in building work.
- Non-vocational activities aimed at achieving the social objective of encouraging a positive attitude to body and mind could include support for sports clubs, competitive games and internet cafes.
- Women trainees should be offered a wider choice of vocational training than the traditional crafts of baking, sewing, handicrafts and hairdressing.
- The international community should do more to persuade the Tanzanian authorities to lift restrictions on refugee movement as these hamper their livelihood activities.
Source(s):
‘Vocational training for refugees: a case study from Tanzania’, in
‘Learning for a future: refugee education in developing countries’, edited by
Jeff Crisp, Christopher Talbot and Diana B. Cipollone, Evaluation and Policy
Analysis Unit, Health and Community Development Section, UN High Commissioner
for Refugees, Geneva, by Erik Lyby, January 2002 Full document.
Funded by:
Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, US State Department and
DANIDA
id21 Research Highlight: 12 June 2003
Further Information:
Erik Lyby
Jacaranda Consult
Staget 2
DK-3070 Snekkersten
Denmark
Tel:
+45 4922 4947
Fax:
+45 4922 4947
Contact the contributor: erik.lyby@inet.uni2.dk
Jacaranda Consult, Denmark
Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Case Postal 2500
1211 Geneva 2
Switzerland
Tel:
+41 22 739 8249
Fax:
+41 22739 7344
Contact the contributor: hqep00@unhcr.ch
Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, UNHCR
Other related links:
'Responding to displacement: Balancing needs and rights' Insights #44
See id21's links page on displacement issues
'Building blocks. Reconstructing education after a crisis'
'Involvement and empowerment. Better HIV prevention and education for
Britain's refugees'
'Meeting the needs of refugee children: is UNHCR protection sufficient?'
The Children and Armed Conflict Unit provides reports on the impact on
children
UNICEF focuses on Children in war
