From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 2 Case Studies: Georgia, Kenya, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka
miss the deadline for registration or their application is
rejected for other reasons. Further, as noted above, the
government no longer enforces these requirements in
an effort to avoid fraud in the current program, which
provides durable housing assistance, in some cases cash
compensation, to IDPs currently living in substandard
housing. Presumably for that reason, during the 2007
registration exercise IDPs were required to register only
their 2004 address, even if they had since moved. IDPs
living in private accommodations face additional barriers,
as they must have permission of the owner of the
property to notify the authorities of their actual residence.
The lack of accurate residency data can create difficulties
for IDPs in claiming their monthly IDP stipend or
having their communal expenses covered if they live in
a collective center. Moreover, having the wrong address
registered risks preventing IDPs from participating in
the privatization of collective centers which is currently
under way, from being protected from eviction, and
from obtaining compensation. 54
The data collected through IDP registration are limited
to the personal details of IDPs. More detailed information
on the living conditions of IDPs and their access
to rights tends to be generated mostly by nongovernment
sources: local and international NGOs, UNHCR
and other UN offices, and researchers working in the
country. 55 However, analysts note that those sources
tend to offer only partial snapshots of specific issues
or analysis based on very specific research questions
and small samples of empirical data, so there is a paucity
of comprehensive data. 56 In particular, the Internal
Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) points out
that additional, updated data are needed on the socioeconomic
and health status of IDPs, including data
comparing employment, health status and access to
education of IDPs with the same information on the
54 Ibid., pp. 22–23.
55 See, for example, IDMC, “Sources,” IDPs in Georgia Still
Need Attention: A Profile of the Internal Displacement
Situation, 9 July 2009 (www.internal-displacement.org).
56 E-mail correspondence with staff of international NGO
based in Georgia, May 2011.
190
nondisplaced population. 57 Moreover, data on number
of households is not necessarily accurate. Especially
considering the protracted nature of displacement, families
have grown and expanded into second and even
third generations of IDPs. While children born to IDPs
have the right to be recognized as IDPs and granted IDP
status under national legislation, the division of households
beyond the original family unit registered needs
to be taken into account; this is especially important for
issues of allocation of adequate housing space. 58
There has been a persistent gap in data collection on
the large numbers of IDPs living in private accommodations
(living with host families or in rented flats
or purchased homes)—more than half (55 percent in
2007; 61 percent according to May 2011 statistics)—as
opposed living in the government-managed collective
centers. The government flagged in the State Strategy
for Internally Displaced Persons–Persecuted Persons
the problem of lack of sufficient information about IDPs
in private accommodations. To fill the gap, the strategy’s
revised action plan of May 2009 provided for a survey
of the conditions of IDPs in private accommodations.
In 2009, a temporary expert group of the Steering
Committee on IDP Issues (see Benchmark 6, below) developed
a methodology for profiling IDPs in private accommodations.
Pilot IDP profiling exercises have since
been undertaken by UNHCR and NGOs in the areas of
Samegrelo, Adjara and Tbilisi. 59 The Public Defender’s
Office (see Benchmark 8) also was reported to be undertaking
a survey of IDPs in private accommodations;
57 IDMC, “Georgia: Towards Durable Solutions for IDPs,”
IDMC Briefing Paper, September 2010, pp. 3–4 (www.
internal-displacement.org).
58 E-mail correspondence with representative of IDP
association, June 2011.
59 UNHCR, Field Office Zugdidi, Report on Pilot Profiling:
IDPs in Private Sector of Samegrelo and Adjara Regions
of Georgia (November 2009); Danish Refugee Council
(DRC), Survey Reports on Privately accommodated IDPs in
the Samegrelo Region and Tbilisi: An Analysis of Housing
Situations and Conditions as well as Durable Housing
Solutions in Private Accommodation (Tbilisi: DRC and the
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency,
January 2011).