Refugees living in Aysaita camp in Ethiopia and Dadaab in Kenya struggle to meet their own basic needs. Despite severe hardship, interviewees describe sharing the little they have with others in more severe need.

Refugees in protracted displacement are often among those most affected by funding cuts and least visible in media and humanitarian reports compared to those affected by emerging crises. Research conducted among refugees in Ethiopia and Kenya between 2021 and 2022 shows the impact funding cuts have for refugees in camps. It also demonstrates that where refugee responses lack finance, these most vulnerable populations fund some basic service provision collectively. However, this does not mean that more financing is not required, rather the research shows the severe consequences of refugees being trapped in underfunded camps.

Aysaita[i] refugee camp in Ethiopia and the Dadaab complex of refugee camps in Kenya are, like many of the world’s refugee camps, both situated in economically underdeveloped areas affected by droughts and conflict. For many years there have been insufficient funds for camp services, shelter and food in both Aysaita and Dadaab. In 2024, UNHCR’s Ethiopia country programme has only received 11% of its required funding and its Kenya country programme has only received 23% of its required funding.

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) set out to compare refugee wellbeing and livelihoods in camps and cities in four countries.[ii] This article draws on a quantitative survey with 366 Eritrean refugee participants in Aysaita and 382 Somali refugee participants in Dadaab, combined with 48 semi-structured interviews involving 12 men and 12 women in each location. The research revealed extreme poverty in both camps.

Basic needs unmet

Refugees residing in Dadaab and Aysaita struggled to meet basic needs with the provisions they received, while opportunities to work were extremely limited. In Dadaab, this situation was exacerbated by the fact that special permits are needed to leave the camp, and accessing work is not included on the list of reasons for granting such permits. In Aysaita, on the other hand, residents were free to move in and out of the camp, but interviewees explained that it had become too expensive to move as cash support was cut.

A majority of survey respondents in both camps stated that they did not have enough food to eat in the last seven days, and interviewees highlighted reductions in the aid provided for them. In Aysaita, 75% of survey respondents stated that their shelters were not adequate and dignified, often because they were built with inadequate materials and exposed to sunshine, heat, wind and rain. Many respondents described their homes as risky and potentially dangerous during the rainy season.

In both camps, the majority of residents relied on aid as their main income as work availability was scarce. In Aysaita camp, only 8% of survey respondents were earning money from work, while 76% stated that aid was the main income in their household. In Dadaab, 25% of respondents were working and 48% relying on aid as their main income. Reduced aid provisions combined with the lack of livelihood opportunities and mobility leave important income gaps. While only 2% of respondents in Aysaita and nobody in Dadaab stated that they are part of an organised savings group, interviewees revealed a culture of collecting money in support of neighbours in need.

Community support

Despite many being concerned about having enough food for their own families, interviewees in Aysaita camp stated that they often share what they have with others in need. For life events like marriage, the birth of a child or the death of a family member, the community gathers and contributes what they can to the family, including food, livestock and money. One interviewee, a 60-year-old woman from Eritrea, explained:

“Everyone provides what they have. Those who have goats give goats, those who have money give 50 birr, 100 birr, or more based on their ability, others collect firewood, or prepare food. We stayed with those who lost their relatives for weeks. The same for marriage, we celebrate religious and cultural events here together. We are one family in this camp.”

This kind of support in Aysaita is not limited to special events; the community also supports new arrivals who have not yet registered to receive food and shelter. If there is no immediate family available, someone else in the community will take the newcomers in, as another Aysaita resident, a 30-year-old man from Eritrea, explained:

“For people who do not have anything to eat, we share what we have and regarding death and disease, we do not say this is his or her issue. We consider it as our shared issue, and we help each other and do it together.”

In the Dadaab camp complex, interviewees shared their experiences of collectively raising money to pay for hospital bills. In one case, a 34-year-old Somali woman needed surgery following medical complications after childbirth. She could not receive the treatment she needed in Dadaab and had to seek care outside of the camp. Her extended family and neighbours then raised money to pay for surgery in Nairobi. She expressed gratitude to the whole Muslim community for this, suggesting that people from further away also contributed to her treatment. Even after this surgery, she was not well enough to work, which she described as suffocating. While recovering she had to rely on others to feed her three children and lived rent free in someone else’s house. Despite this support, she still had to ask for loans to meet the needs of her children. She stated:

“I used to go and work at the hotel, but now I cannot… I stay at home and depend on people to help me. Whatever I get is what I will use to make breakfast for my girls and whatever is left I leave it for dinner. We skip lunch because we cannot afford it.”

Sharing scarce resources

Others in Dadaab told similar stories of raising money for others, which indicates that neither food nor the healthcare provided for camp residents is enough to meet their needs:

“If a person is sick, we come together as a community to raise funds for them in order to get better healthcare. And also, we give the person foodstuffs such as oil and rice in order for them to have something to eat.” Somali woman, aged 39

“We also come together to raise funds for people who have huge financial burdens or debt.” Somali woman, aged 45

When provisions of food and money are not enough, food vendors are the ones who step in. Running a shop or a market stall within a refugee camp frequently means selling goods on credit, as too many of the customers would otherwise not be able to shop at all. In Aysaita camp, this was a recognised system among those receiving cash support, where shop owners could be confident that customers would pay them as soon as the next cash instalment was due. However, interviewees observed that this trust-based system crumbled as the cash support became infrequent and unpredictable. The underfunding placed a burden on those who sell food and other goods, as well as the buyers who may end up in long-term debt as a result.

Childcare is another form of mutual support among women in Dadaab. Recognising that taking care of someone else’s children, cooking or cleaning for them, enables them to work and earn. A 52-year-old Somali woman in Dadaab stated:

“I help the best I can. When my neighbours are not around, I look after their children. I give them food, and they do the same for me. […] During weddings or when someone is sick, I contribute the little I can. If I don’t have any money, I help in kind, like looking after their children, cooking for them, and so on.”

This woman was a widow who worked in the camp as a casual labourer, cleaning and cooking for others who could afford to pay her. As such, her income was not regular, and she did not always have money to give. She then provided the same services for free to her neighbours when she could not support them in any other way, and expressed that they do the same for her. At the same time, she described the strain of not earning enough money to feed her family. When her husband was alive, they both did casual jobs and could use his income for their daily needs and save hers for clothes and emergencies. With only one income, there is not always enough for their basic needs, as she explained:

“Whatever food we get is not enough, we need to buy clothes by ourselves. Like yesterday, we did not have any cooking oil in the house and it was too expensive. I also did not have tomatoes or onions, but I had potatoes. I asked my kids if it was okay if I boiled potatoes for them and if I got some money we would have a better meal in the evening.”

Funds from the poorest

Where refugee support is severely underfunded, the most vulnerable are being left to raise money for themselves. Refugees based in camps, where their rights and ability to move in search of better opportunities are restricted, are trapped in a situation where their most basic needs are not met. In such a dire situation, refugee communities still support each other with what they have.

While it is well-known and documented that poor communities often rely on this type of collective support, previous research has pointed to the danger of designing refugee support built on the assumption that any community providing such support for each other must be doing well enough for donor support to be withdrawn.[iii] This data clearly demonstrates that such community support takes place even in situations of grave difficulty, while also showing that refugee camps do not provide the support they promise for the most vulnerable. IIED’s broader research shows that towns and cities hold better opportunities to support refugees at a much lower cost.[iv]

 

Boel McAteer
Researcher, Human Settlements Group, International Institute for Environment and Development, UK
boel.mcateer@iied.org
X: @boelmcateer

 

[i] Aysaita is also spelled Asaita, Asayta or Asayita depending on the source.

[ii] This data was gathered within the Global Challenges Research Fund-funded project Out of camp or out of sight? Realigning response to protracted displacement in an urban world: www.protracteddisplacement.org

[iii] Omata, N. (2017) The myth of self-reliance: Economic lives inside a Liberian refugee camp, Berghahn Books

[iv] IIED (2024) Displaced people: the need for an ‘urban first’ approach www.iied.org/22526iied

 

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