From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement: Findings from 15 Countries
Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda
(PRDP), which included as a strategic objective the
facilitation of the voluntary return and resettlement of
IDPs from camps, became operational in July 2008. 21
While the PRDP aims to address the root cause of marginalization
in the North and therefore is important
in providing durable solutions for IDPs, in reality, as
of August 2009 few IDPs had benefited from the “resettlement
packages” referred to in the National Policy
for Internally Displaced Persons. 22 However, the PRDP
was expected to run until at least mid-2012, with a total
budget of around $600 million. 23
The vast majority of IDPs—1.1 million of the more than
1.8 million displaced in the north—were displaced in
Acholiland between 2002 and 2005, at the height of the
conflict. 24 By July 2009, roughly 80 percent of the 1.8
million IDPs had returned to their homes or to transit
sites near their places of origin; even so, a significant
number of people remained displaced in camps. 25 As of
Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement, June
2011 (www.brookings.edu/events/2011/01_protracted_
displacement.aspx). See also UNHCR, “Ending
Displacement: Report on Workshop on the Framework
for Durable Solutions, Kitgum, 17–18 June 2008” August
2008 (www.internal-displacement.org); Government of
Uganda, Office of the Prime Minister, “Camp Phase Out
Guidelines for all Districts with IDP Camps,” May 2008
(www.internal-displacement.org).
21 Government of Uganda, Peace, Recovery, and Development
Plan for Northern Uganda (PRDP), 2007–2010, p. 63
(www.prdp.org.ug).
22 IDMC, Uganda: Returns Outpace Recovery Planning: A
Profile of the Internal Displacement Situation, 19 August
2009 (www.internal-displacement.org).
23 Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA), Uganda Humanitarian Profile 2011, p. 18. IDMC,
Overview: Uganda: Difficulties Continue for Returnees and
Remaining IDPs as Development Phase Begins, p. 6, 28
December 2010 (www.internal-displacement.org).
24 Government of Uganda, “Department of Disaster
Preparedness and Refugees, Office of the Prime Minister,”
(www.opm.go.ug/departments.php?center_id=5).
25 Follow-Up Working Visit of the Representative of the UN
Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally
Displaced Persons to Uganda, 13–17 July 2009:
Memorandum on Key Findings and Recommendations
134
June 2010, only some 190,000, or 17 percent of the 1.1
million displaced in Acholiland, remained displaced.
According to RSG Kälin in his report on his follow-up
visit to Uganda in July 2009, returns were possible in
large part due to the
restoration of freedom of movement for all
IDPs and the significantly improved security
situation in the war-affected Acholi subregion.
The shift of responsibility to uphold the law and
order from the Uganda People’s Defence Force
(the Ugandan army) to civilian authorities and
the redeployment of civilian police to Northern
Uganda was an important contributing factor. 26
While officially the government supported all three durable
solutions, some IDPs indicated that their decision
to return was not fully voluntary in light of the fact that
the government’s plans for camp closure pressured them
to return. 27 Research commissioned by the Brookings-
LSE Project on Internal Displacement examining local
integration in Northern Uganda found that “[s]ome
Government officials have exhibited bias towards return
as a preferred durable solution (subtly through messages,
or overtly by issuing deadlines to leave camps).
However, agencies and other officials have made efforts
to clarify or counter such messaging, emphasising that
return is voluntary.” 28
The conditions in return areas, in particular insufficient
basic services, land issues and inadequate economic opportunities—in
addition to insecurity in some areas and
the presence of unexploded ordnance—continue to preclude
sustainable returns. 29 On a positive note, however,
(www.brookings.edu/projects/idp/rsg_info.aspx#Kalin).
26 Ibid.
27 Oxfam “From Emergency to Recovery: Rescuing
Northern Uganda’s Transition,” Briefing Paper 118 (www.
oxfam.org); UNHCR, “Ending Displacement: Report
on Workshop on the Framework for Durable Solutions,
Kitgum, 17–18 June 2008.”
28 Michelle Berg, “A Sort of Homecoming: Local Integration
in Northern Uganda,” p. 127.
29 See further, Michelle Berg, “A Sort of Homecoming: Local