From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 1 Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement: Findings from 15 Countries
of ministries responsible for IDPs to include provincial
and municipal authorities as well as others who come
into contact with IDPs. It would be helpful in that
regard for governments to include a section or module
on IDPs in any standard training curricula for government
officials, police, social service agencies and other
key actors. By doing so, they could reduce their reliance
on external actors for training material, adapt generic
material to a specific context, and institutionalize their
commitment to strengthening their capacity to address
internal displacement.
Overview of Research Findings
To varying degrees, all of the fifteen countries surveyed
have received—and in several cases actually sought
out—training for their authorities on the rights of IDPs
and on other issues related to internal displacement.
The research reveals that the bulk of the training is conducted
by international actors, but this may be a reflection
of the fact that the available materials describing
these trainings are in English; the research also indicates
that national human rights institutions often undertake
training as one of their principal activities regarding
internal displacement (see Benchmark 8) and that often
civil society groups also are active.
The focus of the research was on identifying training
that specifically addressed internal displacement. When
examples were found of displacement issues being
integrated into broader training programs on disaster
preparedness and response, this type of training also
was included in the analysis.
Authorities from all of the case study countries have
received some training on various specific issues related
to internally displaced persons. Of all of the countries
surveyed, authorities from various branches of government
from the Central African Republic, Colombia,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Georgia, Iraq,
Kenya, Nepal, Sudan, Turkey, Uganda and Yemen have
been trained specifically on the UN Guiding Principles
on Internal Displacement. Uganda was the first country
in the world to receive such training, after having
requested it in 1998, the same year that the Guiding
Principles were presented by RSG Francis Deng to the
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United Nations. Discussed below are some examples
of training conducted for national and local authorities
over the past several years. Evidence of documented
follow-up to training was generally not available.
Various UN agencies and international organizations
have been involved in conducting training
and workshops for government authorities on internal
displacement, often including training on the
Guiding Principles. These entities include the RSG, the
Brookings Project on Internal Displacement, UNHCR,
the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre of the
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), OHCHR, the UN
Development Programme (UNDP), UN peacekeeping
missions and the International Organization for
Migration. IDMC has played a leadership role in providing
training on internal displacement, particularly
on the Guiding Principles, in many different countries
for more than a decade. Indeed, it was in response to a
request from the government of Uganda’s Department
of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees for training on
the Guiding Principles that IDMC began to provide
training, in that case in collaboration with OHCHR, in
1999. The training modules developed for that workshop
for government officials, including police and
camp administrators, as well as IDP representatives,
civil society groups, UN agencies and NGOs, provided
the foundation for a training program that now
has been provided in more than twenty-five countries
around the world. IDMC often provides such training
in response to a request from and in collaboration
with a UN agency or NGO working in the country.
For example, in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC), the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and NRC/IDMC organized
workshops and training sessions on the Guiding
Principles in 2003 and 2004, both jointly and individually,
for government and nonstate actors in areas affected
by displacement. 2 OCHA’s Training Program on
Internal Displacement Principles aimed to review the
2 In Goma, Kalemie, Masisi, Kinshasa, Gbadolite, Bukavu,
Kasongo, Beni and Bunia. OCHA, Democratic Republic
of the Congo 2004: Consolidated Appeals Process, 2004,
pp. 9–10 (http://ochadms.unog.ch/quickplace/cap/main.
nsf/h_Index/CAP_2004_DRCongo/$FILE/CAP_2004_
DRCongo_SCREEN.PDF?OpenElement).