Remote Learning

A guest blog from my colleague Maureen Ouma who is part of our admin team at Xavier Project

As a mother of four currently working from home ,I’ve been required to multi-task by taking up the role of teacher on many occasions to my children and by doing so , I’ve encountered numerous challenges especially because they are all at very different levels of education. I was used to helping my children with their homework whenever they return from school but I never envisioned that someday I would be required to monitor and assist them In their studies on a daily basis without the help of the teachers, but this is the new normal ,for me and many other parents for now anyway.

 Currently the schools in Kenya have adopted an online learning model, where they send classwork to the learners via either Email or WhatsApp to the Parents to relay to the kids and for this to work effectively, the children need access to internet services as well as access to devices such as smart phones and laptops. All these are things that I did not budget for and therefore I have to had to share my devices. This has been a bit of an issue, simply because I have had to try and balance my work obligations whilst doubling up as a teacher and sharing the same devices with my 3 children who are of school going age has enabled me to truly appreciate the art of patience. In addition to this access to the internet has exposed my kids to a lot of content. It has been really hard for me to monitor the content that my kids access and on several occasions I have really had to sit them down and discuss what they are searching online. On more instances that one they often decide to explore when I am not around and therefore require constant monitoring. In my experience turning our home into a classroom has had its own challenges.

 Creating the right learning environment for the kids has been an uphill task compared to school where they run on a per set schedule, being at home is different, it has taken so much out of me to explain why they need to try and stick to a certain way of doing things .My kids attention span and learning environment is affected by numerous factors such as their friends who come looking for them so that they can go out and play to neighbours who play loud music not to mention various activities going on within the neighbourhood that attract them . From my observation studying from home requires self-discipline which the kids lack, I’ve noticed they are really struggling to establish a daily learning routine in that whenever my husband and I are around they study, but when we step out they also stop studying and start playing despite the numerous warnings and threats we give them. This makes us reprimand them every now and then and has ended up affecting our relationship with them. I have to admit that I too have fallen short of my own expectations as sometimes I can’t resist the urge to send my kids on errands. I also have a toddler whom they baby sit while am busy or not around , and In so doing they end up wasting a lot of time helping me with the chores in between their studies and this also affects their concentration .

 On occasion I also find it difficult assisting my children when they have a questions that require clarification, I’ve forgotten most of the things they ask about and find that I lack the proper way to explain others in a way that they would understand easily, especially for the one who is in kindergarten who believes her teacher is the only one who knows any of the content even if it’s just shading within to lines. All in all I would like to mention that having my kids learning from home has given me as a parent the opportunity to understand their strengths and weaknesses in the various subjects .I have noted areas where they need assistance and I am able to make plans on the possible ways of resolving them. On the flipside, there is also a lot of time to bond with the kids and make learning more interesting .Who knows maybe I should branch into teaching……hahaha .

Localising humanitarian aid has been shown to be even more urgent by the COVID-19 crisis

This blog was originally published on www.xavierproject.org 

on April 9th 2020.

The refugee led agencies we work with, during normal times generally either worked in Education and Livelihoods, but all of them are now, during COVID-19, pivoting their work to providing basic human needs to their communities. I say “normal times” with the proviso that all the refugees we work with in East Africa are living in a semi-permanent state of crisis, with uncertainties and concerns around their asylum/refugee status, sources of income and basic needs such as food, healthcare and security. 

Uncertainties on an individual level are magnified several times when looking at the perspective of uncertainties on an organisational level. Existential threats come at refugee led organisations from every angle. I have observed refugee led organisations unable to pay staff salaries for up to six months at a time. I have witnessed government officials doing everything they can to shut down a refugee led initiative. I have seen refugee led organisations get evicted for being a year behind on rent. I have seen management teams hollowed out overnight by leaders leaving without warning due to security issues, or even being locked up. I have even seen donors renege on contracts and commitments to refugee led organisations, saddling them with debts and despairing beneficiaries. 

In view of challenges like these it is all the more remarkable that people who have gone through the gutting experience of displacement would choose to put their communities first and take on the mantle of humanitarian aid themselves. I am permanently in awe of the leaders of our 12 partner organisations and have learnt more from them than any other experience at Xavier Project. 

Resilience and resourcefulness are particular characteristics that are common to all of our refugee led partner organisations. For me to imagine going for months without paying salaries is incomprehensible and I don’t know if I would have the mental resolve to continue operating through such a situation. However, our partner agencies regularly do it and achieve it by drawing on the immense reserves of community solidarity they have built up over years of generous service. Their constituents, including their employees but also others in the community, are willing to make sacrifices to ensure their good work continues, with the hope of seeing better days in the future. 

Refugee led organisations understand the needs of their communities, because the leaders are experiencing similar needs. What do their communities need most right now? In one refugee hosting location food prices are rocketing and have already doubled on February’s prices. Fear is stoking food hoarding and this puts pressure on demand. This in turn hikes the prices. One of our partner teams want to buy food in bulk from outside the settlement and sell it slowly at cost over a prolonged period, so that for their constituents food prices will be stable and they will know what to budget for. They will also get their original money back and be able to recycle similar initiatives. This for them is the most strategic move right now, and who can question it? 

This is an organisation that focused primarily on youth education, but they are diverting their efforts to food at the moment. It is not easy to imagine an international NGO being so flexible and adapting so rapidly. In fact, due to decrees from national governments here, most international NGO staff are not in the vicinity (or even in the country). 

What is an unprecedented crisis to most of us humanitarian actors, is to refugees and the organisations they lead an additional challenge to be overcome, not so different from many of the other challenges they face. While the rest of us are restricted to quarantine (and rightly so) the refugee led agencies are showing that against the odds they not only keep up with the humanitarian response but they can lead it. Imagine what they could achieve if they could overcome the massive challenges they face in running organisations. Imagine if refugee leaders could be given the support structure they need and deserve in running large projects in a permanent state of uncertainty.

This is what Xavier Project wants to see happen. We have been saying that localisation is urgent, but more importantly it is the “how” that we are perfecting. We have developed a capacity strengthening and sharing course, with version one printed with funds we received when winning UNHCR’s Innovation Prize. It is always being added to, and the most recent drafting covers community initiatives in times of social distancing. Almost all the content in the course is based on either suggestions from our refugee led partners, or experiences of Xavier Project staff in working with refugee led organisations over many years. (It’s open source, so please use it and share it.)

Meanwhile, other organisations are doing great work to strengthen capacity, such as Urban Refugees and their course for refugee led organisations working in urban areas, and Street Child’s work developing a course for local agencies working in emergency contexts. The Global Refugee Led Network has quickly been growing advocacy efforts on behalf of refugee led organisations and The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network is leading the charge from the enterprise angle in Europe.

There are several others and there is more we can do. Capacity is only one element of localisation. More has to be done to strengthen chains of accountability, to promote principles of partnership that value the assets of all parties, and to accelerate mechanisms that can see worthwhile funding reach refugee led organisations without too much red tape. While more of us get to work on this it mustn’t be forgotten that we still need a wider consensus that this way of working is vital from across the sector. The COVID-19 crisis is showing that shifting power to refugee led organisations is not just a good way of working – it’s the best way. 

Who are we talking about when referring to Local and National Humanitarian Actors?

At Xavier Project we want to see organisations founded and led by people affected by humanitarian crises having control of the resources and decisions that will affect their future.

At the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit commitments were made towards localising humanitarian assistance. Eventually 25% of humanitarian funding is to be channelled via “Local or National Humanitarian Actors”. Actors with a more relevant connection to a humanitarian crisis, such as mass displacement, or a natural disaster, will play a more significant role in terms of decision making and control of resources. This is still a worthy target despite the fact that it is no closer to being reached in 2019 than it was in 2016, with only 0.2% of humanitarian funding going directly to local or national responders in the last year.

12.4% of this funding reaches local and national responders but via intermediary international organisations, but I think it is important to look at who local and national humanitarian actors (LNHA) are considered to be. Included as claimants to this tag are national and local governments, parastatals, national NGOs, national faith based congregations, national civil society groups, the national private sector including associations and co-operatives and community based organisations among others. More controversially, NGOs that are part of an international “federation”, clearly run by a centralised leadership, have claimed a “national” classification for their in-country representatives. Rarely, is the concept of “local” separated from “national”, and rarely is the concept of “local” really scrutinised. What is not rare for organisations founded and led by affected populations, such as refugees, to be side-lined from the conversation, or left-out entirely from the LNHA designation.

This is particularly significant in a refugee hosting context. A report on Dignity and Humanitarian Action in Displacement by ODI found that whether humanitarian responders were international, or national was not of concern to new arrivals as long as they get the protection they need. In fact, respondents in the report stated that they could not tell the difference. Statements like “all NGOs are the same” were recorded during the research.

But in research such as this, “local” usually refers to national NGOs rather than responders who were themselves from affected populations, such as refugees or hosting communities transformed by a sudden influx of displaced people. The refugee led community based organisations that we work with at Xavier Project, however, should be included in this category as local responders. Our experience, documented over five years, has been that a response led by affected populations, albeit not in all sectors at all stages of a crisis, can lead to a more effective sustainable and dignified response; dignified both for the responders as well as those engaging in the services they offer. It is in examples such as we have seen that the full potential of the concept of “local” is realised.

An example of this would be our valuable partner SIR (Solidarity Initiative for Refugees) founded by enterprising young refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp. SIR have just opened a new training hub where they teach refugees, and host community members in northern Kenya relevant skills for income generation, largely centring on technology. Indeed, the have just started printing useful day to day items on their 3D printer, which acts as an opportunity for training while being productive at the same time (see left). Stories about groups such as SIR still seem to be told by the humanitarian press as if they are exceptional, but innovative leaders in all pockets of refugee hosting areas of Kenya and Uganda (and surely beyond) are looking for ways to have a positive impact on their immediate community.

There is no doubt that increasingly handing over the humanitarian response to genuinely “local” actors has associated risks. For example, when friends and family are potential beneficiaries or participants in a provided service, it is harder to remain unbiased. Other risks to do with security and accountability have been documented.[1] Also, a lot of work will need to be carried out by the International NGOs to build the capacity of genuinely “local” responders to be able to bring the potential of the Grand Bargain to reality and I would advocate that we should all allocate more resources to doing this. For by leaving out organisations led by members of affected populations, the localisation agenda is at risk of neglecting the best opportunity for a vital shift in the power dynamics of delivering humanitarian aid.  

[1] MSF Emergency Gap Series 3 The Challenges of Localised Humanitarian Aid in Armed Conflict November 2016

Why Localise and Why Now

Celebrating the huge increases in global humanitarian assistance since the start of this century is still the accepted norm in the sector. But recent data shows that the increases are stalling. The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance has been increasing rapidly in recent years. Between 2016 and 2017, the number increased from 164.2 million to 201 million people.[1] These are people in need of ‘last resort’ international humanitarian assistance just to cope and survive. During the same period, humanitarian aid budgets increased by just three percent from $26.4 billion to $27.3 billion[2]. Among these people are 70.8 million displaced people, up from 65 million in 2017. Displacement situations have also become more protracted, averaging between 10 and 25 years. [3] Despite the increase in displaced people, the deficits in the budgets of agencies whose mandate is to protect them has been widening annually. Humanitarian crises have also been complex in recent decades, affected by a rise in radical extremism, environmental disasters, and reduced freedom of movement across borders.

Through localisation, government, civil society, NGOs and affected people themselves should have an increased capacity in responding to challenges within their own communities. Localisation increases the effectiveness and immediacy of a response, by leveraging the flexibility of smaller agencies and community leaders already on the ground. Excessive programmatic costs are avoided by reducing bureaucracy. Local responders ensure that root causes are addressed and that interventions remain relevant long after the international community has moved on to another humanitarian crisis. And localisation is not only appropriate because it is effective – it is the only way of working that preserves the dignity of the affected populations. In this video my good friend and colleague Robert Hakiza says it better than anyone else I know:

For another example of "localisation" working see my last blog, in which I talk about the great work being done by our partner organisation "Tomorrow Vijana" in Rwamwanja, Uganda.

The "Grand Bargain" and Localisation

Prompted by emerging trends in humanitarian crises and humanitarian assistance, in May 2016, representatives from 18 donor countries and 16 aid organisations (including the UN, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement (RCRCM) and NGOs) agreed a ‘Grand Bargain’ outlining 51 separate commitments to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of international humanitarian aid. The Grand Bargain has broad targets, with ten objectives broken into ten work-streams.

Two work-streams touch on what could be referred to as localisation:

Work-stream 2 – More support and funding tools to local and national responders

Work-stream 6 – A participation Revolution: including people receiving aid in making the decisions that affect their lives. 

A commitment under the Grand Bargain was that 25 per cent of humanitarian aid should be channelled through national and local actors by 2020. It has got off to a slow start -in 2017, 97% of humanitarian aid was dispersed to international responders, with 3% going to national and local responders. Of this 3%, 2.5% was given to national governments, leaving only 0.5% for local and national NGOs or other community led initiatives. (Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2018 p51)

Localisation in Education in Emergencies

Localisation is particularly important in the education sector. Local communities are better placed than anyone to determine what constitutes a relevant and good quality education for themselves and their children, even in emergency contexts. Communities are best placed to ensure that the education received in an emergency context can be linked to education systems that may have been in place before a humanitarian crisis, and that it will continue effectively when comprehensive solutions to a crisis are realised.  Like any other sector, education is more effective, sustainable and appropriate when decision making and control of resources is localised.

Changing the way humanitarian aid is delivered will not be easy. There are structural challenges currently preventing international humanitarian responders localising their work, varying from funding, fundraising and accountability structures, political and diplomatic condiserations to a need for capacity building at the local level. To address these structural challenges strategic steps need to be made now so that the root causes are addressed and not just the symptoms. We need to hold each other, as well as the signatories of the "Grand Bargain", to account and take some bold leaps into the unknown. If these steps are not made now, the gap between the need and the capacity to respond will grow further out of control.

I don't have all the answers as to how to make these changes and address entrenched structural challenges to localisation. At Xavier Project we have been committed to this effort for five years plus. If you believe in localisation, or you are already making concrete, effective steps towards making it a reality, please get in touch, let's share ideas. 

---

[1] Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2018 p5

[2] Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2018 p9

[3] UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2015, 20 June 2016 p20

Community Ownership in Rwamwanja, Uganda - World Refugee Day Blog

At Xavier Project we are fully committed to promoting community ownership in the delivery of services and activities that lead to positive social change. This has become the accepted modus operandi in the development context, but it is still a way of working that is all too rare to see in an emergency or humanitarian context. 

Our plan is to prove through our partnerships with Community Based Organisations in refugee hosting areas that building the capacity of community leaders in forming their own vision for a better future is the most effective, the most sustainable and the most appropriate work that NGOs should be doing, even in an emergency context. 

Community ownership to us does not just mean tokenistic community participation in decision making, or recruitment of refugees and host community members to salaried positions. To give an example of what I mean I would like to provide a case study of Tomorrow Vijana, a CBO we helped launch in 2015. 

Tomorrow Vijana is made up of a group of Congolese refugees, whom we met teaching each other English under a tree in a remote corner of Rwamwanja Settlement in South West Uganda several years ago. Despite the challenging environment, the Tomorrow Vijana team had a clear vision as to how they wanted to play a role in delivering services. We were struck by their motivation and their resilience and we began a partnership that still remains strong. In 2016, we helped them raise £18,000 to construct a three classroom learning hub, complete with computers and solar power. This was only possible because the community contributed their own resources and people-power to the construction. It represents a bill that is far less than 50% of what it would have cost Xavier Project to build the hub ourselves using local companies. We have worked with Tomorrow Vijana consulting on their strategy, providing learning course content, assessment tools and access to funding. Now in 2019, Tomorrow Vijana are the main organisation providing services in their part of Rwamwanja, ranging from adult literacy, to English, basic computers, tailoring, savings and loans, and agriculture courses. Over 500 people per year, including numerous local Ugandans, complete courses in their hub and all data is disbursed to Xavier Project staff who support with analysis. 188 participants have graduated from adult literacy, 212 from basic computers. 66% of all participants have stated that the course helped them increase their income.  

Tomorrow Vijana cover their own running costs with centrally run enterprises, such as a tomato growing co-operative and a catering company. They still turn to Xavier Project for investment in strategic guidance and new ideas. Currently, these include the launch of the first minibus service in the refugee settlement, and a solar powered chicken egg incubator. In partnership with Tomorrow Vijana, Xavier Project have also launched a 23 acre farm on the periphery of Rwamwanja settlement. The farm will create local employment and training for 300 people per year, with trickle down effects on the productivity on all farmers in Rwamwanja. By experimenting in new crops and better post-harvest crop management the farm will open up new markets to all farmers and exploit opportunities all along the value chain. The tangible social changes in these examples are entirely owned by the community members themselves. In Rwamwanja you will not see any Xavier Project branding or sign of our presence aside from what we offer behind the scenes.

What excites me about watching Tomorrow Vijana grow their impact is that I know it will survive Xavier Project’s presence in Rwamwanja. Their work is far more effective than anything we could have done directly because they fully understand the problems faced by their communities, and with the right support they are best placed to settle on solutions. They can tap into existing community resources that none of us can know exist, let alone access. 

Aside from being effective and sustainable, this approach is also urgently needed. Since 2017 international budgets for supporting displaced people has gone down in real terms, while the number of people of concern has increased from 65 million to 68 million. Sadly, I believe this trend is going to continue. The implications of this are already being seen in drastically reduced scope of services to refugees, from education to healthcare to food handouts, leading inevitably to worsened living conditions. Only increased community ownership can tackle this trend in a way that enables refugee well-being to improve, and relations with the local host community to grow positively. In Uganda, where 1.2 million refugees are being hosted, this is a particularly fragile balance that must be found.

And this approach is the most appropriate, not just because it is effective and urgently needed, but because it enables refugees and the populations hosting them to envisage and realise a better future together. This achieves a sense of dignity for a population whose dignity and rights have been suppressed through the experience of forced displacement. Today, World Refugee Day, is the day to collectively reflect on what dignity for refugees really means, even if it means drastically changing the way a lot of us work. 

The Rwamwanja Farm 

Kampala to Nairobi by Road -borders / police / mechanics / hot tea and a very handy twig

“18,000 for a second hand part?? This isn’t even from a Defender or a Discovery it’s from a series ii meaning it’s definitely over 20 years old.”

I had heard one of the mates saying kumi na nne (14) under his breath and I used that to show that they were definitely ripping me off – I had been prepared to pay around 4k I said. This created some disapproving gasps among the spare parts dealers in Nakuru – this mzungu is offensive! 4k for a steering pump.

Look bro, this is genuine. If it doesn’t work bring it back and we will give you another one. I will sell it for 12,000 I’m not going any lower. My mechanic gave a nod that said this is what he would have expected to pay. The sun was dropping on my second day on the road between Kampala and Nairobi. I conceded.

The "miraculously to plan" part

Embarking on a road trip to Uganda with two toddlers in a 1993 Discovery seems a bit brash looking back, but everything went miraculously to plan until the last two days. My journey back, with its wide list of friends and foes, opened up new truths to me about the countries I have called home for seven years.

There were far more friends than foes and despite the challenges this is what warmed me the most.

Chris (just before his third birthday) and I set off at 6am from Kampala, trying to beat the Mukono traffic, which we did. He wide awake struck in the eyes by the sun bursting through Mabira forest in the East. The going was so much better than on the way, maybe because the lorry drivers were all still asleep. As soon as you are past Iganga it is a wonderful open road. I overtook a caravan of South African landrovers creeping at 70km on their journey across the continent – I guess one of them had a bust steering pump – ha!

Well they all overtook me a few minutes later when I was stopped for speeding doing 73km in a 50km zone by a patrol of four policewomen, all aged under 40. Surely, you should get zapped when you have properly entered the 50km zone? The footage shows me driving past the sign at 73km and immediately slowing down – OFFENCE! That will be 200,000 UGX to be paid in court, and there is no way you are leaving the country if you don’t pay. I don’t have that kind of money on me! I already changed all my money into Kenyan Shillings. You live in Kenya? You have married a Kenyan? That is your son? He’s a British or a Kenyan? Haha why didn’t you marry a Ugandan? You made a mistake! Look we won’t charge you this time just give us something for tea.

Friends or foe? Felt like friends by the end.

It was 9 so we dropped in on a typical Ugandan ‘hotel’ in Bugiri for something to eat. There happened to be a group of young boys walking past with juicy fresh watermelon so we stopped them and devoured some of that. The tea was brought out piping hot in those tin/enamel mugs and before I’d had a chance to blurt out a warning, Chris had picked his up and poured it all over his lap. There were real tears, which from Crocodile Chris means it must be serious. He tried telling people the story of the burning tea for days afterwards whenever there was a gap in adult conversations. The staff at the hotel were very sympathetic – the word “bambi” was definitely used.

Reaching the fork in the road where you choose Busia or Malaba border crossing was momentous because it marked the full circle of our Ugandan road trip – on the way in we had gone right towards Malaba/Tororo. We were heading towards Busia in record time, but anyone at this point, surely even the most hardened Somali truck drivers, must start getting butterflies in the stomach when they start wondering what hurdles the border crossing will throw at them. I get it when I’m on my own, but now I had two humans and a vehicle to get across the minefield.

On the way we had used a fixer called Oti. He has sweet eyes and a look of vulnerability which must be perfect for his job, You would never suspect he is pulling the wool over your eyes. But at the border everyone is a foe until proven otherwise. This time Oti told us there was a 1000 ksh charge for removing the car off the list on the Ugandan side – a fee I had never heard of which didn’t make sense to me. But when I eventually gave it to him (how long can you just look at those eyes saying “that seems strange”?) he waved it around and called his friends to help him with the process in a way that made me think ‘if this was a sly expense would he really be waving it around like that…?’. Well I found out later it is a sly expense Oti just doesn’t need to hide it.

The good thing with a fixer like Oti is he literally does everything for you – he even tells you where to park. I don’t know how fixerless people have a single clue where to park. He got everything stamped and picked up my log book which I honestly might have forgotten. But don’t trust a fixer to give you all the right prices - you have to negotiate on everything when it comes to the car. For example, we negotiated our Uganda Car Insurance premium from 12,000 ksh to 6,000 ksh with the insurance rep, even though he had already printed the sticker – how do you negotiate an insurance premium? It’s annoying. I would recommend using Oti rather than anyone else though, because he charges 1000 ksh for his fee rather than rumours of 3000 I have heard. +254721725487 just don’t assume that because I’ve given you his number and he has nice eyes that he is your friend. The difference in your life experience is crossing in under one hour vs taking five hours like a Dutch couple I met in Uganda who said they refused to use fixers – ever. You choose.

At immigration one of the border officials fast tracked our passports past a queue of bus trippers who were causing a fuss.

The rest of the trip to Kisumu was pretty friendly, we even had two police checks with pretty friendly policemen. We were in Kisumu in time for a late lunch with my sister in law and it seemed that the journey was going really well.

*

The next morning we set off at 7am. We were accompanied by Chris’ grandmother and were to pick up his great aunt Betty an hour later. Again we were stopped by the cops and this time my mother in law was not wearing her seatbelt so we had a bit more chatting up to do. I think he was entirely confused by the demographic make-up of the car – two middle aged African women and a tiny point 5 boy being driven by a mzungu in a clapped out vehicle. This concerned him far more than the seatbelt. But we got off without a fine, which was friendly of him.

By the time we reached Londiani I was developing fantasies along the lines of “this journey really isn’t too bad, I reckon with a pint of coffee and some good music you could do Kampala-Nairobi in a day.” At Sachangwan it all went downhill. Suddenly the power steering was heavy and fluid was being loudly splattered against the tin of the bonnet. I pulled over immediately, where by chance there was a local petrol station, and a mechanic within waving distance. This village has seen more road deaths than any other in Africa I am sure. In December 2017 over a hundred people died during the month – not in one massive crash but in almost daily deadly crashes. 36 people died on New Year’s Eve alone. It is also the spot where in 2009, 113 people died in an instant when an oil tanker that had gone off-road exploded. I gave a thought to the friends who helped us here and the horrors they must have witnessed over the years. Checking out a broken steering pump must be small fry compared to the emergencies they must all have been called to.

The mechanic was a nice guy, though not a particularly good mechanic. He told me the pipe to the steering pump had a leak and all the power steering fluid had drained. As long as I didn’t mind driving a heavy wheel back to Nairobi I could just press on without power steering. This seemed fine to me as power steering is only important when you are three-point-turning. He also pointed me in the direction of some expertly crafted wicker chairs which we were to strap to our roof – apparently this is the only place in Kenya we could get them, and despite the breakdown I was determined to stick to my promise to Mama Chris of picking them up. Again the wicker chair manufacturers were incredibly friendly. They gave me a discount, took mpesa (without asking for the withdrawal charge as extra– a classic heist) and helped me strap them on the roof before calmly herding me back into the murderous traffic.

The reason Sachangwan to Salgaa is so dangerous is because it is 20km of 30% descent with twists and bends, plied hourly by every truck and vehicle in the country moving west-east across the continent. On the way down it is hard to resist putting your stead in neutral and coasting down, or even switching off the engine. If you have eight tonnes of goods behind you this doesn’t allow for much control when faced by a phalanx of overtaking matatus, subarus and prados. I would learn this later.

Finally we were at Salgaa after edging down the hill at 60kmph. And here the temperature gauge on my dashboard started freaking out. The battery light started flashing and my rev counter collapsed. I later worked out this was because my alternator wasn’t turning, but because my whole dashboard was going nuts I decided the temperature gauge was probably faulty too. But then then some lights came on which I doubt have raised their head since the car came out of the factory in 1993. They seemed to be warning of an apocalyptic nuclear holocaust so I thought it was time to have a look inside.

The fan belt had not been turning for perhaps 15km. We had massively overheated. The pulley on the steering pump had effectively come off and the belt was sitting idle on the fan and the alternator pulleys. We had 6km to go to Nakuru and we had no clue what to do. We called a friend of a friend who had used a mechanic in Nakuru and based on conflicting advice from numerous savants we decided it would be OK to edge on down the hill to the city. But we only made it about 500m before world war three lights came back on. By this time we could see Nakuru and it was downhill all the way so I turned off the engine – we were sitting on a go-cart. I was already used to the steering being heavy but suddenly having very heavy brakes is disconcerting. Luckily the police standing at the gateway into Nakuru didn’t notice that we had no engine running as we rolled past – perhaps they thought we had gone electric.

We rolled into the first petrol station, causing a man in an overall to step out of our way. He was holding a spanner and yes he was a mechanic. Whatever he had planned to do with his Sunday afternoon was immediately abandoned and for the next five hours he would have his head in our bonnet. Great guy – he’s called Malachi and if you are ever stuck in Nakuru give him a call. 0716797101.

We needed a new steering pump and the only place we would get one was the second hand spare parts dealers in the town centre. Much later it turned out  that it didn’t work but it was impossible to diagnose this without trying it as the issue was deep inside the pump. At least the bearings and pulleys were sound so the fan belt would work and the car would not overheat. Malachi worked hard all afternoon, helped occasionally by the security guards at the petrol station who didn’t seem to mind us taking up space on their plot for over five hours.

At 3pm I sent Chris home with his grandmother in a matatu and they were home before we left Nakuru at 6. Such a godsend having those elders with us, with their wisdom and patience. Betty and I finally set off when the sun was on its last legs, feeling trepidation about a drive in the dark.

Just 5km into the trip and the lights came on again. Due to the overheating, the plastic plug on the cooling system – the plug you remove to drain the coolant, had burst off and there was nothing to keep the coolant in. How do you use plastic on a system vulnerable to overheating? The pulleys were also starting to make some serious noises. This was going to be a long journey.

We tried everything to plug the coolant valve, desperate to not have to go back to Nakuru. I wrapped an earplug in gaffatape, but obviously the earplug melted. We tried strapping excessive amount of gaffatape around the valve but this didn’t last long. In the end Betty, who was actually a closet car connoisseur, found a twig on the floor which fitted perfectly in the hole and we rammed it in with a hammer. This worked! Betty was pretty proud of this for the rest of the journey. We had lost all the water we were carrying to the cooling system so we stopped at a few places so that Betty could ask for water. Everywhere we stopped people were willing to give us five litres to send us on our way and asked for nothing in return.

The foes on this leg of the journey were the police. You can imagine that my patience at this point had been thoroughly eroded, and the cardinal sin when dealing with the road cops is to lose your cool. They need to feel that they are the gracious ones giving you a free pass out of the goodness of their very good hearts. But when one of them started telling me my driving licence was frayed and that I had therefore committed an offence I found it impossible to employ the grovelling persona. Luckily he let me go but only after telling me that he was fed up of British people telling him what was right and wrong and that colonialism had ended a long time ago – I needed to wake up and stop being a colonialist. The next one stopped me because the chairs on the roof had been attached in a way that was “hazardous and a threat to human life”. FFS just let us get home.

The pulley friction was getting louder and louder, but if I kept at low revs and cruised on the down hills, the car felt like a wounded horse with an arrow in its rump - it would get you to your destination but probably die later of gangrene. I didn’t mind when it died as long as we got home, which we finally did at 10pm, 15 hours after leaving Kisumu.

*

I only managed to take one picture during this journey and here it is. That's Malachi and Aunty Betty and you can just about make out the "hazardous" chairs on the roof. 

A few days later in Nairobi I bought a new steering pump and sent the old one back to Nakuru for Malachi to fix. He claims he has done so and I have it back now, so if anyone needs a second hand steering pump for TDI 300 I have one, going for just 12,000 ksh. 

Blending Objectives between Humanitarian Actors and the Private Sector in Refugee Hosting Areas

Over the last thirty years, Kakuma, which hosts one of Africa’s largest refugee camps has grown from a tiny settlement to a medium sized city. But the economy has not had a chance to develop normally. This is because the economy has developed under the umbrella of international aid while trying to satisfy an increasing labour force, growing consumer market and growing productivity. Humanitarian and development agencies have fuelled growth, but at the same time left the market unpredictable and inorganic.

The humanitarian community first came to Kakuma with the sole purpose of protecting the refugees. The mandate of UNHCR, the agency leading and co-ordinating majority of the humanitarian interventions in the region is still primarily considered a protection agency. It is important to note that Kakuma is still rightly considered to be an emergency context and in any such context, there are populations that require protection first before any other form of integrated development.

However, while Kakuma finds itself in an emergency context, it is also now a severely protracted displacement situation. A while ago humanitarian agencies began planning for the people who live in Kakuma to start living lives like everyone else around the world. That is, assuming that if Kakuma is a vibrant town, then the living standards should improve and grow in line with other urban settlements around the world.

In an open market, innovators try to make lives better for everyone through their interventions and investments and generate a range of rewards for themselves at the same time. In the last five years the humanitarian community has begun to sell the idea on a global level that with the right kind of investment, the private sector could improve the living conditions in Kakuma through commercially viable enterprises. The basis for this is that Kakuma and its environs are inhabited by around 300,000 people who are either directly or indirectly engaged in its local economy. Most of the inhabitants have a vested interest in the integrated development of the locality.

Recent studies on economic opportunities available in Kakuma and Kalobeyei say that predictable and organic economic growth in Kakuma will be based on the availability of natural resources in combination with the huge potential in the labour force. Agriculture and high labour intensity industries will leverage off these factors. Successful enterprises will include a combination of both, such as value-adding to agricultural products. Examples of this include tanneries using livestock hides and designing leather products, or tinning locally grown vegetables such as peas and tinned tomatoes. These enterprises will become opportunities for refugees to increase their incomes and eventually become self-reliant and contribute to the host country economy. There are already numerous examples of refugees breaking through economic barriers, supporting themselves and their families with home-grown businesses, and participating in the growth of the local economy.

According to UNHCR and the academic studies, the private sector should be ready and willing to invest in both the consumer market as well as productivity in Kakuma and Kalobeyei. However, so far, the private sector has not really taken up this call and almost no deeply researched investment-ready business plans have been outlined that take into account the distortions and challenges present within Kakuma’s economy as a result of the town and camp’s inorganic, aid-dependent growth.

Kakuma’s story is being played out around the region, such as in Uganda and Rwanda where refugees have freedom of movement, freedom to work and in most cases have been provided with land that offers more in the way of productivity than Kakuma’s. Yet private sector investors have been slow to invest in refugee hosting areas and site numerous barriers to doing business there. Firstly, distorted economies have led to complicated power dynamics, with examples of local actors monopolising services and setting up cartels. Local administrative leaders hold an unusual interest in business going on in refugee settlements because of the power they hold over physical access to the space, both of refugees and investors. Secondly, they site need for large scale investments that will improve ease of doing business in refugee hosting areas. Large scale irrigation schemes, access to power, and improved roads are examples of this. Refugee hosting areas are generally very remote and far from existing import/export hubs or major commercial centres. Connected to this third reason sited is that while refugee hosting areas might be commercially viable, the private sector looks at the most commercially viable location for any given project when making investment decisions. On that basis refugee hosting areas must put forth a comparative advantage over other locations in the region and this is often difficult. A fourth reason is connected with the workforce. After taking into account all of the above, the private sector fear that refugee population does not have the requisite skill levels to engage in business and more alarmingly, that after decades of a dependency culture they will lack the motivation needed for successful enterprise.

To address these barriers the humanitarian sector will continue to play a role, beyond that of providing protection. While the national governments take on more responsibility for refugee hosting areas, there is a need for streamlined lobbying for more transparent power dynamics within refugee hosting areas. The humanitarian community, using organic business growth success stories as examples, will be the key player advocating for these large scale investments. Moreover, the humanitarian community will still be relied on to educate and prepare the population with skills that respond to the demands of the emerging organic economy.

Most importantly, thorough business plans will have to be conducted taking into account these barriers not just focusing on the opportunities. We have found that deeply researched business plans bring out these barriers clearly without providing concrete answers to how to reduce the barriers in the short term. The barriers are complex and so instead these business plans must lay out a range of strategies that may or may not be successful, and an approach of design, iteration and analysis.

In this context any company, implementer or investor going into a refugee hosting area should have a long term view and an eye for blended outcomes between pure market-based opportunities while still learning and playing the role of protecting and building the capacity of the vulnerable population. We have found that investors who support this approach exist, but to bring them in the language has to change from diving straight in with the “commercial viability” narrative. A community of actors who can build the dialogue between the protection focused humanitarian sector and the commercially focused private sector has been the missing piece until now. There is an emerging group of agencies, companies and investors willing to play this role and I believe the time has come to bring them together so that they can greater understand the role they play and path to achieving success. This could possibly take the form of a network or working group, a series of conferences or meet-ups, and alliance of like-minded actors, or even a tightly-knit consortium. Any thoughts welcome.