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This
Refugee Livelihoods Network (RLN) issue focuses on the case
of a specific country and its people: Afghanistan. It brings
together information on refugee livelihood initiatives
and lessons learned from livelihood projects operating
in this region, in order for those working in other areas
to gain from these experiences. Afghanistan has experienced
war and civil strife for over 20 years, and is currently finding
itself in a very slow and extremely fragile process towards
improved security and stability. While it is still the number
one country of origin of refugees world-wide and there are
large groups of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Afghanistan,
over the last two years it has also been the destination of
the largest voluntary repatriation movements. In large parts
of the country, the security situation is still highly unstable
and political developments are slow. On the other hand, huge
investments are made in the country for ‘post-conflict’
reconstruction, and the return of refugees is being stimulated.
Especially highly qualified members of the Afghan diaspora
are invited to contribute to their country’s future.
This
newsletter looks at the impact of these developments on the
livelihoods of stayees, IDPs, refugees and returnees, and
provides information on how organisations are trying to guarantee
sustainable livelihoods for the Afghan people. Especially
the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit's (AREU) extensive
work on livelihoods in Afghanistan has proven extremely helpful,
and can set a good example to data collection on refugee livelihoods
elsewhere.
The
RLN moderator invites subscribers to submit papers, reports,
descriptions of projects and relevant website links for the
two upcoming issues.
 The January
2005 edition will focus on refugee livelihoods upon return.
Repatriation efforts have received increasing attention by
the international community, and many initiatives have developed
to stimulate voluntary return of refugees. Large return operations
are underway, but it is clear that such operations create
many challenges for the livelihoods of all those involved.
Reintegration of returnees and IDPs is a very complex issue,
as they have lost most of their local assets, often have no
proof of property claims, and will return to an area where
the infrastructure may have been destroyed. Stayees on the
other hand will feel the burden of large groups of people
returning to the area, and their livelihood options may worsen
with the return of better-qualified people from Western countries.
The February
2005 edition will focus on tools and methods that can be employed
in conducting livelihood assessments and case studies. We
are looking forward to learning from our subscribers about
livelihood approaches they use, and will present information
on the ‘sustainable livelihoods toolbox’ and other
methodologies in order to improve the usefulness of data collected
on refugee livelihoods.
Deadline
for submissions:January 26th and February 24th
Send
your contribution to Cindy Horst at REF.NET@inter.NL.net
More
information on Refugee
Livelihoods Network
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