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02-04-2008

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Location-based Information to Manage Refugee Camps

UNHCR

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly to lead and coordinate international action for the world-wide protection of refugees and the resolution of refugee problems. UNHCR’s primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. UNHCR strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another state, and to return home voluntarily. By assisting refugees to return to their own country or to settle in another country, UNHCR also seeks lasting solutions to their plight.

UNHCR’s Executive Committee and the UN General Assembly have also authorised the organisation’s involvement with other groups. These include people who are stateless or whose nationality is disputed and, in certain circumstances, internally displaced persons. In more than five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives. As of January 2006, a staff of around 6,689 people in 116 countries continues to help 21 million persons.

 
Living in camps is often the only solution to displaced persons and UNHCR manages close to 300 camps worldwide for refugees alone. The challenges in managing such populations in very marginal conditions and with limited resources are huge. The UNHCR identified the need for a location-based information solution to develop and apply tools for spatial analysis for the efficient management of the camps. Given the limitations of central and on-site resources and the institutional and environmental diversities, a simple GIS solution based on uniform models could not adequately provide the solution.

 

by Luc St Pierre


Camp Kashusha outside Bukavu (Congo).

 

The Challenge

Refugee groupings are complex and diverse.  Essentially, concern groups are broken down into seven categories: refugees; asylum seekers; returned refugees, internally displaced protected, returned internally displaced protected, stateless persons and others. Different populations have different needs and require different interventions from UNHCR and its partners during the entire life cycle of their time away from home. Living in camps is often the only solution to displaced persons and UNHCR manages close to 300 camps worldwide for refugees alone (displaced persons having crossed an international border to seek protection). Many camps have population of up to 25,000 inhabitants and a few are close to 100,000 individuals.

The challenges in managing such populations in very marginal conditions and with limited resources are huge. Knowing more about their distribution within the camps and about where and to whom specific services must be rendered is a key parameter for an effective action by the various humanitarian relief agencies. Camps are often set up in emergency contexts; built over just a few weeks, and planning the provision of services (water, sanitation, health, education, security, protection, etc.) has to be based on the location of specific needs to sustain a quasi-permanent status.

Until the late 1990’s geographic planning was carried out by hand, which proved increasingly inadequate as the global refugee problem grew significantly, and effective resources on the ground became untenable. The UNHCR identified the need for a location-based information solution to develop and apply tools for spatial analysis for the efficient management of the camps.  Given the limitations of central and on-site resources and the institutional and environmental diversities, a simple GIS solution based on uniform models could not adequately provide the solution. Key operational factors to be considered were:

 

  • Lack of human resources: two GIS persons at headquarters and six GIS technicians (non permanent) in the field, mostly in Africa.
  • The assimilative capability of field staff (non-GIS) is stretched to the limit, thus bringing-in new tools and new responsibilities is only marginally feasible.
  • The existence, availability, adequacy, timeliness and relevancy of the required data is minimal

Sending a GIS specialist for a camp mapping exercise is costly and can not always be a priority for the camp managers.

 

  • Access to high resolution satellite imagery is costly and availability in arid regions or in tropical forests is low.
  • GPS reception is not guaranteed in those regions and conditions.
  • Funds for updating and supporting the use of information are scarce.
  • Knowledge-based decision making is yet to be streamlined.
  • An address system might or might not exist or even be part of the population census database at the camp level and not all camps maintain a population registration digital database.

UNHCR Camp in Ghana.


The Solution

UNHCR selected Pitney Bowes MapInfo in 1998 as the software and service to support its drive to carry out a comprehensive programme of mapping established camps to create efficient management of populations, resources and facilities. Various partnerships with humanitarian agencies have allowed UNHCR to establish a small GIS Team. However, by the very nature of the partner structure, turnover is high. Using MapInfo Professional, has helped the transition between technicians and continuity in the quality of their output. Adaptation to MapInfo is quick and with the use of standard templates, base layers and common procedures, UNHCR is able to show a high level of professionalism in its camp mapping output, often giving the impression that a larger resource lies behind the operation.

The relatively low cost of acquisition for a basic configuration is also an important factor as partners, either globally or locally, can consider developing their location-based information capabilities to work more closely with UNHCR in the field. The Pitney Bowes MapInfo software and support is facilitating plans to decentralise technical services to bring the analytical capabilities closer to the point of delivery (the camps), simple tools with a proven efficiency are critical to a continuous support of adequate quality.

Ultimately, UNHCR selected Pitney Bowes MapInfo as their location technology partner due to its flexibility and ease of use for continuous operations; ease in the application of customised templates, standards, symbols that are centrally managed at HQ and disseminated to field operators; centrally managed common (global) basic layers; avoidance of users creating their own layers (only local workspaces form same basic layers) and the relatively low cost of licenses.


UNHCR Camp in Kenya.

 

Resourcing and Decentralising

Leaving aside the technical capabilities and the working constraints associated with camp mapping, the coverage of over 300 camps of refugees (and over 200 of internally displaced persons in Northern Uganda alone!) is a challenge in itself for any organisation or enterprise. UNHCR is now starting to engage partners in applying the mapping guidelines developed around MapInfo to map more camps. It hopes that by showing a simple and relatively cheap mapping tool it can attract more implementing partners and hopefully more interested funding parties.

“MapInfo has equipped us with a highly valuable location-based information capability which is beginning to help us decentralise the mapping of camps out to humanitarian partner agencies in the field,” said Luc St-Pierre, Senior Geographic Information Systems Officer, UNHCR. “Resourcing is our greatest challenge and the ability to delegate the critical function of camp mapping to agencies will allow us far greater efficiency in locating services and amenities, such as sanitation. Likewise, the location of services like education, health, security and delivering protection is core to the management of camps which are often like small towns, housing up to 100,000 people.” Underpinning this goal, St-Pierre aims to develop a global web portal to provide governments and agencies with a shared visualisation of data, access to data input and the creation of valuable reports.

Chris Clarke, Client Director at Pitney Bowes MapInfo has worked closely with the GIS team at UNHCR for the last 18 months: “It is a real privilege to work with Luc and his team.  They are addressing a gargantuan problem of global proportions; I know of no other organisation to which location is so critical to the well being of human lives today. “UNHCR’s vision, to decentralise camp mapping management is a major challenge in so many ways, but at least we are able to help with the infrastructure to make this goal viable and engage relief agencies on the ground to input and utilise this invaluable tool.”


UNHCR campin Phonos Peuh (Cambodia).

 

Expand the Coverage

In 2007, camps will be mapped by partners in Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda. UNHCR hopes to expand this coverage to other countries with additional partners. Streamlining location-based information in decision making at the local level for camp management and for long term planning at the global level has to become a reality for UNHCR, which can only be achieved through strong partnerships.

 

Luc St Pierre is Senior GIS Officer, FICSS/DOSS, UNHCR. E-mail: stpierre@unhcr.org More information on www.unhcr.org