Uganda helps pave a new way for refugees
But a test case for a more sustainable response to migration — based on international co-operation and responsibility-sharing — is still hugely underfunded
It is the world’s largest refugee camp, but Bidi Bidi doesn’t look very much like one. It is spread over a large area, with small mud huts gathered in village-like formations, and there are few visual clues that the people living here aren’t indigenous to the area. In fact, locals and newcomers cohabit in parts of the sprawling settlement, and share resources and services. Refugees from South Sudan are free to come and go as they wish, or even to leave the camp to seek employment. Sharing land with the host communities, they are given a small plot on which to cultivate food. This, the UN hopes, is the future of refugee settlement. Uganda is the site of a pilot project for an approach to the global refugee crisis that emerged from last year’s high-level summit in New York, when UN member states signed a declaration of commitment to the comprehensive refugee response framework. The document forms the basis of a ground-breaking compact on refugees due for adoption this year, and is bas...
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