 Okay, I think we get started. I need to use a microphone for colleagues online To to hear us before kicking off this discussion. I just want to double-check if colleagues online can hear us Thank you very much Sounds good. Okay. Thanks a lot. Good morning everyone We're very glad to host this event with professor Kaling on Ethiopia's durable solutions initiative, which was endorsed by the Ethiopian federal Authorities not so long ago. We can count them. I guess in in days We're very fortunate to have professor Kaling here to explain this Exciting development to us. I think there is a lot of breakthroughs both in terms of policy But also from engagement from partners and donor community Professor Kaling among many things he's currently committing to or committed to Is the special advisor for the resident and humanitarian coordinator in Ethiopia and as part of this role Has you have played a key role in elaborating this initiative? From our side in the GPC we see a strong link just between durable solutions Initiatives in general the GP 20 as well as centrality of protection We definitely see that solutions are the fulfillment of Of protection and maybe to kick off this discussion before handing over to to professor Kaling and then Having a round of I guess dynamic Interaction with you to dig deeper in into this initiative Wanted to share a short story That to me highlights the importance of of the human dignity as a principle of Protection whenever we're seeking solutions There is a great doctor Swedish doctor called Hans rustling Some of you might know he has been very adventurous in and showing the statistics on on Development and humanitarian issues and in the 90s he was working in In Mozambique and he had a small clinic that was covering Half a million population and he had staff of two as the only health facility covering this population and a couple of days a week He would take the car and goes to villages that cannot That are far away where people cannot walk long enough to the to the clinic One day he arrived to a village where people were calling him the tall doctor doctor And if some of you have seen the TED talks or met doctor rustling who is no longer with us He is not a very tall guy So he asked them why are you calling me doctor tall and he said because they said or the chief of the village said Because we respect you so much And he said but I've never been to this village. Why do you respect me so much? said well because you have treated a lady that came from our village in your in your health clinic and he said oh great Can I meet her and they said no sorry? She died while you were operating her and Then Hans was getting a bit nervous and he said I'm so sorry to hear that I cannot recall this incident and they started telling him the complications that he had and He remembered the story and he said but I failed as a doctor. Why do you still respect me? And he said it's because of what happened after that after that You have actually used the only ambulance car that you have to bring the body back to the village in a proper wrapped cloth and We have never been respected as such in our life let alone when we pass away and this is why we respect you so much And I'll pause a bit because To let this concept sink in in all our processes of development nexus solutions durable solutions Keeping this the anchor on on a human dignity at the center of it is so crucial I think for all of us and that makes things go durable in in many senses and and populations accept support that we bring so I wanted to kick off a bit with this with this story and Hand over to professor Cale and to tell us about the work in Ethiopia So over to you Thank you so much willing for opening with such a beautiful story. Yes, in fact solutions is about them giving dignity back to people who have lost everything helping them to rebuild their their lives and that's also what the Europe solutions initiative in Ethiopia is about and next please so in the first part of my presentation I Will say a few things about what the Europe solutions initiative is about how we conceptualized it in the second part Then I will look at them the more practical work being done now and in the coming months in the Somali region of Ethiopia next the Europe solutions initiative in Ethiopia really builds up on the model of the DSI in Somalia Where we started back in 2016 the idea really there was to build an access between development humanitarian actors work together with the government and all of that on the UN side being kind of Supported by durable solutions unit within the RCO and this model was replicated now in Ethiopia what We achieved this far was agreement Among the UN Actress and with the government on a DSI concept note or paper it's available to you if you're interested in and This sets out what the DSI is about It's not a program It's a principled operational framework as we say kind of Building consensus expressing that consensus on the notion of durable solutions the understanding of it and That's very important in the context of Ethiopia where we know earlier this year first half of this year Many people many IDPs were brought back to their place of origin Sometimes voluntarily sometimes less voluntarily and at highest levels there were messages of like well the problem is solved They are back The good thing is that the government agrees that durable solutions are only achieved if Returns local integration or resettlement relocation are sustainable and IDPs no longer have needs That are linked to their having been displaced it's also about some Programming principles we agreed on and then also the levels of actions and the approaches So it's a platform a platform to facilitate Collective action to bring the different actors together and of course it's based on the relevant the international standards next please Who is involved? Yes, the government of Ethiopia? At different levels very much right now the federal level And we'll come back to who at the federal level because this is one of The problems we still have to look at then of course the United Nations INTOs donors We have I must say a lot of traction that government levels at the federal level and then also Particular in the Somali region by the Somali regional government and I also have met the president vice president of or omia who also Said that they are Support in support of it, but there we are a bit less advanced in terms of really action and other of the federal reach Regional states remains to be seen We have a durable solutions working group at the federal level and Here I'm coming to as I said a little bit of problem We have this is chaired by the National Disaster Risk Management Commission. That's NDR MC National Disaster Risk Management Commission Which is really a body to provide from the government side humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of disasters not only those linked to natural hazards, but also disasters in the sense of conflict and The problem is that of course you need a whole of government approach You would need to have all the line ministries on board to really achieve durable solutions and That's things we are looking at Then at the UN level there is in UN team on durable solutions, which is Established under the federal level durable solutions working group and then the durable solutions coordinator and Little bit of support staff Being built up in the office of the resident coordinator My role is to support that as a special advisor to the RC Hc next So what is the idea to work on which levels? first level is policy And it's about mainstreaming durable solutions into a key Strategies policies Here very much Mainstreaming it into development planning. This is a lesson learned from Somalia when we got it into their national development plan It was much much easier to get the development actors on board. It was much easier to access Also development funding because I mean the national development plan That's really the vision of the government and the international community Supporting it. So this is an instrument to get it into that those plans to build the nexus And my view it's one of the most efficient not the only one but one of the most efficient Instruments to build the nexus then we're talking about the legislative level The government has announced that it is ready to ratify or in misaging of course You have to go through all the proceedings to ratify the compiler convention on IDPs and as you know the compiler convention requires implementing legislation to domesticated Uniciar is leading that process my colleague and professor Jaloka Bayani is working on that We're closely coordinating particularly on those parts of the law that deal with durable solutions and institutional setups the institutional level is very much about First Strengthening as you can see here Coordination we do have as I said the federal durable solutions working group. You have a Solutions working group here at the Somalia in the Somali region and other regions either have already started or will start to build up those durable solutions working groups that are again government and The international community, but then it's also very much about Enhancing a whole of government approach and I come back a bit later on how to do that Planning is important planning in the sense of spatial planning urban planning because we do have a Urbanization trend also in Ethiopia maybe a bit less fast and acute Compared to other countries in the region Somalia is much much faster urbanizing, but still and Some of the cities of the towns are looking at the city expansion and if you can get Durable solutions into those plans, of course We would have a long-term perspective that is very important and then of course the operational level Next please where I can explain it a little bit. So what are the ideas right now what are the colleagues in Ethiopia working on first the more long-term perspective the systemic issues as I had said to get it into The development planning. We have an opportunity Ethiopia right now is preparing what they call a 10-year perspective plan and then based on that The next it's a third five-year growth and transformation plan, which is really the national development plan It's very much oriented towards macroeconomic trends The idea is to create environment that is conducive for investments But it has it has eight pillars, but some of the pillars are really interesting and relevant for us Agriculture for instance, and there's also human development as a separate pillar that is important and some of the other pillars and very first discussions have been taking place a colleague from Nairobi and I fed up with from habitat Was had meetings with the National Planning Commission, not as happy that person, but with the RCO had on and it looks like there are some Chances to get it into those plans, but it requires work because Of course those also within the UN system dealing with the national plan they They don't know much about in journalist placement. So we are bringing together the durable solutions team with the counterparts who are involved in the planning process Also, there are right now work being done To to work sector-wise with the health with the education, etc I already mentioned that and then of course on the UN side The Singh formerly known as undef now UN SDCF The UN sustainable development cooperation framework and again, it has to be there And I think colleagues also will start to work to get it into The copper new cooperation framework. So it's the right time to do it and it's great that we have these possibilities Law I already mentioned Kanpala convention the law at the institutional level what we have seen For instance in the context of return. It's it's just anecdotal, but in a way it really illustrates what I mean I've been visiting Returnees in areas along the border between the Somalia and the Oremia region That were literally just sitting under trees In the middle of the rainy season, it still would have been possible to plant But there was nothing no tools no seeds and where we were they need to plow and then we saw the tractors just next door Where you have more commercial farming Nobody's thinking about how to link them up how to have these tractors hired some vouchers, etc something they did for instance In Kenya when they closed the IDP camps 2008 9 After the post-election crisis, but the Ministry of Agriculture was on board and really helped the Returnees This plowing basically and seeds and tools here, of course. Yeah, the Minister of Agriculture has nothing to do with IDPs so it is important to start to engage this these Ministries the line ministries and again, we have a good institutional entry point under the And the so-called DAG the development assistance group. That's the development donors They have set up these sectoral working groups bringing together donors agencies and the line ministry So it's one on health on education on agriculture and so on and no agriculture not yet but many of the other relevant sectors and The government has asked the colleagues in Ethiopia now to engage with these sectoral working groups At the first meeting on health when I was there and the immediate outcome was that the Minister of Health asked My colleague and that roughly the durable solutions coordinator to come to the Minister of Health and Brief all the directors on the durable solutions initiative. I mean, that's really kind of encouraging Then as I said the whole of government approach to me the entry point is to get it into the law All these laws have some institutional mechanism the old laws like with the refugee laws delegated to some Commission or committing Which and again means it's siloed More recent approaches like in Somalia really try to Have a whole of government approach in Somalia for instance what they set up is a durable solution secretariat In the Ministry of Planning and it's not a secretariat in the sense of computers and desks It's where all the relevant parts of the government are coming together And if you could do something it will not be exactly the same thing because they have different Administrative setups, but if you could get something into the law that doesn't silo it That doesn't delegate it that goes beyond just the humanitarian response Then again, we have a good entry point. So this is very much about entry points Nothing has been achieved. Everything is new, but the entry points are there next please At the level of programming We have developed what we call a toolbox Different programming tools again if you're looking at what needs to be done to achieve durable solutions You're familiar with the durable solutions framework all the different eight elements In the region that regional durable solutions secretariat rats, which is Brings together INGOs has simplified it a little bit what we need is physical safety What we need is material safety. That's about housing services, etc. For our livelihoods and then also legal safety. That's documentation Transitional chassis and these kind of of things And to achieve that now at an operational level We are the Concept note distinguishes between Three categories approaches. The first one is really area-based interventions not beneficiaries That area-based that's a concept of displacement affected communities And you see that very clearly. We had a meeting It's a local community hosting one of the biggest IDP camps in the Somali region Kolochi camp and the local community for instance told us that some of their people had been displaced By the arrival of the IDPs So in another relocation site the local authorities told us um Yeah, we have one 380 families arriving who will be relocated now We have a big problem with our health post Because we get yearly assignments of tracks of medicines And they are already depleted because this was based calculated on the basis of the previous population So that's why it is area-based What is also very important in the Ethiopian context is really a risk analysis There are areas where you can't go for durable solutions Could you get your certainly not And even in the Somali region and the authorities when we were there last week are very open about it There are areas which are still too volatile So one has to do a risk analysis to look at how far is the reconciliation advanced how durable will it be Uh, what is very important is community-based planning That's again a lesson from Somalia that If you really want to have ownership and again from a peace building perspective bringing communities together It has to be community-based planning. They have to decide on what Are their priorities what they really need? Of course, it's about providing basic services and very important livelihoods. It's very much about livelihoods We know we are all very weak on livelihoods, particularly when it's about sustainable livelihoods and not short-term interventions and the second approach is Helping IDPs at the household level individualized solutions. Many of the IDPs are traders small business people For them, it's about micro grants micro credits Uh, in the rural areas again micro grants micro credits to build up small cooperatives When people particularly go back or are relocated Facilitating access to livelihoods But all of that will be limited. I mean we're talking about very large numbers I will present to the numbers for just the Somali region in a moment We never will have the resources To achieve durable solutions to a substantial extent with a projectised approach And that's why it is so important to integrate solutions into ongoing and planned programs On the government side on the international side WH there's a lot of money in Ethiopia From the development side and there are large programs WHO for instance has now a new program health for peace That looks at health but from a peace building perspective There are the resilience programs and if All these programs that are active in areas where there are IDPs Returnees displacement affected communities if all these programs systematically would integrate Solutions into their programming then we would have the kind of scale that is needed This is what I call it solutions marker like the gender marker if the development actress the line ministries Systematically would ask are we operating in areas with displacement affected communities? Are we covering them? If not, do we have good reasons or not? If not, are we still addressing the specific needs Of displacement affected communities which might be different From communities that have not been affected by displacement then we really would go a long way next please Okay Maybe I should interrupt here and if you have any questions on the DSI in general before I will move on to the Somali region Let's see. Yes Um perhaps just one on the history. How difficult was it to get there? Because it's a model that you're following and improving from Somalia, but obviously Ethiopia would have its own challenges. Yeah First um It's not copy pasting Somalia. It's kind of the idea of a country-based european solutions initiative as a platform under the Rco with a unit house in in the in the RC under the RC with a unit house in the Rco and then Trying to build the nexus. It's at that abstract level. The rest is different It was on the one hand It took less time than in Somalia there it was really about over several years because we could build on that experience Uh, there was also a lot of exchange of knowledge experiences. This was very helpful It was um in a way easier and more difficult at the same time looking at the history of the discussions about the forced returns There some donors were very very reluctant to engage Even on this discussion on durable solutions saying well, this is just playing into the hands of the government and it's a fig leaf And it took some time to to overcome that but um, this was now I would say a few months for the Somali region because now, um, I think everyone accepts that there are real opportunities And with that we the fact that in other parts of Ethiopia, it's still difficult We should not wait, but we should use those opportunities So in that sense, it was I think sunk easier um, I also felt that it was quite It was very positive in Somalia to see that some of the development agencies Particularly Habitat and FAO but also UNICEF Very early on were were on board and in Somalia. It took some time to get these guys on board Uh, I mean it was still perceived very much as yeah, that's let's leave it to the humanitarians I've got symbol first David and colleagues online if you want to speak up please type in Flag it so we uh, we get it to you. So symbol Okay, thank you very much. This is extremely a sort of thank you for the phone And you already So do you mind speaking on the phone for people? Sorry, sorry, sorry about that. I'm sitting so close. I thought I could just It doesn't want me to speak. Okay. So risk analysis is very important And thank you for pointing that out and you name guji ghetto and there are several other regions as well in that context And you also mentioned that for the Somali region some of the skeptics on For obvious reasons on on on the voluntariness aspect of the situation had come around What would you advise as the way forward in the more contentious areas for the humanitarian community? There are so many actors here Because most obviously and this is well acknowledged now that we should not have to wait for situations change The fact is how do we best impact people who are in need? Thank you My I have three questions. My first one is the same as symbols I'm actually quite pessimistic about the future of Ethiopia I'm worried about the aromal region I'm worried that a leader has emerged from the aromal people who is directly challenging the prime minister I'm worried that 70 people were killed in 48 hours after the prime minister won the Nobel Peace Prize So is it the correct moment to be investing in durable solutions in the Somali region? Where maybe we need to do prevention activities in other parts of the country and in particularly aromal region Number two relates to leadership of the durable solutions initiative Where is UNHCR in this? Because it is my understanding that that initiative is being led by IOM in the Somali region And how do you see UNHCR positioned? Number three relates to the Kampala convention And while the federal state may talk about ratification It's actually the regional states that have their own very strong regional law Where we may need to see ratification also happen So my question to you is and maybe this is more of a question of of law But if Ethiopia ratifies And if incorporation is then made into federal law, but incorporation is not made into regional law Is ratification actually effective? Thanks Lots of questions. Let me start with the last one Of course the Regional states cannot ratify an instrument international instrument. That's International law it's Ethiopia as a nation state Second it's very clear that Domestication just at the federal level is not good enough. It has to be followed by Or even done in parallel by the regions and again, we will have very different Dynamics at at at those levels Leadership varies UNHCR UNHCR at traditionally didn't really engage In Ethiopia on IDP issues because UNHCR work there is really on refugees But the position has changed. We had the mission So bull was there. This was there and I think that This really has brought a change my discussions with UNHCR were really very encouraging and I am was very much in the lead, but there is an agreement between the two surprise surprise that For instance Now in the Oromia region where a durable solutions working group will be Established it will be a co-lead and in terms of then The operations the areas it's simply then a question where who goes where because It's so vast and so much to do there's more than enough space for everyone And I really felt a very positive dynamic. I must say so I'm very very happy about that And worries in about The future of Ethiopia. Yes, everyone shares those worries At the same time simply to say we are waiting And then we have to catch up Then we are contributing to the protractedness of the Internal displacement. So all the work at policy level makes a lot of sense And again, it might be undone. We don't know that we might be lucky and it will be more limited to the difficulties They will be able to manage it But because this is a long term. This is not about just the present caseload There will be new displacements and we would hope that if there is a new crisis the government would be better a to would be In a position to handle it in a better way. So this makes sense At project levels Yes, there is a dilemma the way I see it is To invest into durable solutions for instance in Areas of return where you have a conducive environment is preventive action Because if you have these communities just sitting under trees And getting handouts once and then Then it's about again survival With very limited resources And then it doesn't take much and we'll have a wave of violence at that level. So to me, this is about A contribution to peace building at least at that level And then there are areas like the relocations in the Somali region is far away from the conflict zones Even if there will be bad things bad things happening They would be much less affected and there again, it makes a lot of sense So it's really the risk analysis And then we know how long it takes to get all these things taking off to have the donors on board So the message to say because of all these risks, um, it's um It it's a problem. We shouldn't start now Release the wrong message um Sorry your your question Related Exactly yes in the difficult regions. Yes, sorry um again There are areas I see kind of three categories Of areas now area based those where it's really just humanitarian actually But even there one can should think of like building a more Long-term perspective into the humanitarian response How can we shape it so in a way that it is contributing to Building resilience to some limited extent or is it just the next six months? Without anything beyond that and this can be done Then there are areas kind of for your quick impact projects Early recovery type But again starting to build up The relationships with the government to build the capacities the understanding If you're looking at the uh veligas for instance, but it's still very volatile. Um Particular west velaga and kamashi's own east velaga kamashi's own is a bit better But therefore instance we have this bilateral peace and development bureau Which is government And they report to the regional presidents directly and they now want to include gambella into that So we have a government structure that looks exactly at solutions And uh to work together with them again in a long-term perspective makes a lot of sense If it's just waiting till it's stable And then So to me it's all looking at it as a process and looking at identifying Windows of opportunity doing exactly that kind of analysis. What makes sense here? What does not make sense there? Thanks, any Other question online. Let me turn to to the colleagues listening and do we have any questions at this at this stage? Okay I have a question You tell me whether it's the right time on donor interest and especially development and nexus related Interested donor interest Especially for the con the complicated contexts Now I'll come back to that. So let's look at the asomali region and next please so lots of red dots Which are the one 401 idp sites Along the border Here on the left That's a border to and the oromia region. That's conflict Those more in the interior. That's mainly drought We're talking about something like entry 800 000 plus idps 60 percent conflict 40 percent drought And we should look at both That's also from the go not everyone in the government but at the somali region level very much at the perspective also the government next It's rather complicated because we have different categories We have Somali ethnic Somali Idps who were displaced within the Somali region. That's the people who Were living along the border have been displaced many of those as I said had already returned Then we have idps of Somali origin Who came from the interior of the oromia region? sometimes 400 kilometers away 600 kilometers away from the Oromia Somali border And these people don't want to go back. Most of them refuse to go back Then we have the drought idps most of these idps it's kind of Short distance displacement. Well, you know passers-by are moving around But of course they belong to a community And that's the community within voreta, which is kind of the equivalent of of a big municipality And when they drop out of their pastoralist lifestyle, they settle there But then sometimes they cross voreta borders, but it's not long distance next If you're looking where idps are right now some are still in camps and sites Uh, that's mainly the idps from oromia, but then also drought idps Then you have idps in the areas of return Some back home Some simply in the area of origin Uh, that's along the border to oromia. And then you have idps already in Areas of relocation. That's those from oromia We don't want to go back. The plan is to resettle them to areas of their subclans You don't find much about local integration here um The question is what means local integration first If you have these sites somewhere more or less in the middle of nowhere Of course, you go to build towns there Uh, we don't have that many idps in urban Center, so that's one of the big differences compared to somalia for instance where it's mainly urban idps But I will come back to that in a moment next This already indicates that we have multiple challenges and different groups that require different responses in areas of return the government really started to Facilitate into community peace processes That's mainly at the level of elders And it has not gone down to kind of the grassroots level When you're asking for instance women Are you involved? We have contact with women from the other Community and before they had that because it was the same Waterpoint where they got their water for instance It's nothing or very little again. It depends on the location. You see very different situations There is security in several areas in the sense that people feel that the last um ium dtm The displacement tracking matrix Indicated that many of the returnees now feel reasonably safe not all of them. They are There are volatile situations too. The gulet for instance is one for those who are familiar with the region is a tricky place Because they were brought back and Without much preparation There is not much humanitarian assistance following them at the beginning Some of it now has been reoriented It's still emergency needs A lack of services I mentioned lack of early agricultural inputs. So in a way they are really very much still in an idp like a situation next But in a way If the situation is stable If the reconciliation the peace building works Then that's relatively easy It's about money. It's about repairing schools shelters, etc The real trick issue are the relocations Uh, the government has started to relocate some This is one of the relocation sites we have visited in, um, July magaload And I mean it doesn't really look like relocation. It looks like an idp site And in fact, yes, humanitarian needs again humanitarian responses did not really follow these people housing needs lack of livelihoods land water HLP related challenges And then it these relocation sites in are in rural areas And many of the idps are coming from urban backgrounds trade to small business people And of course for them to find livelihood opportunities is difficult I visited last week one of the Relocation areas in Somalia region called called channel And the idea was to relocate from the kaluchi camp 4000 families households And initially the local community had said yes These are our brothers and sisters the same subclan They are welcome But then they came back when they were starting to think about what it means And I said no 1000 families When we were there, there were 200 families who had been relocated and 180 families who had spontaneously followed They were sitting in a camp like this in a site like this But apart from some food distributions, no humanitarian assistance. It didn't follow them At the same time, they were not the government is building houses, but they were not Involved in cash for work programs. So they were worse off than they were before Simply because nobody had been thinking about how to transition Another challenge the government built 200 houses very nice houses a little bit later you will see a picture But now of course the local community says well and what about us Shouldn't some of the houses go to us? You have very vulnerable people here The type of houses is townhouse. It's not what the building standard is I was asking will these people get What kind of of of documents will they get what kind of 10-year property? Oh, we will hand it over as property Very generous But people don't have access to livelihoods They have Family having a real Expensive house case And I the rich guy coming here are 500 dollars The house is worth five thousand dollars I'm not sure that these people will two years later still be in those houses So again, nobody has really been thinking about these kind of issues The burden on the host community already mentioned the health post And that's a systemic issue because allocations are made on the basis of the last census the regular population not the de facto population It doesn't work the way Relocations were approached next So What we were working on the last week Was very much to Look at how to do it better Because keeping these people simply in camps is not a solution And if you go to these camps And it's mainly those who are waiting for relocation Quite quite a difficult Atmosphere because people want to be relocated. It's we want to get out of these camps. We want to rebuild our lives So what to do? There are different things that are now underway and were agreed last week First, um, colleagues are developing relocation guidelines Based on international standards Um for the Somali region to be adopted by the regional government The federal government already indicated interest and to have them also adopted at the federal level Relocation guidelines, of course in line with international standards because when you do relocations protection Concerns protection challenges are simply huge huge huge I just mentioned the hlp issue At the institutional level We felt that things are starting to turn a little bit In circles because the approach didn't work So the government agreed to the suggestion to Uh, set up a relocation task force. I will come get back to that Planning a good entry point habitat has been asked to do a chichiga That's the capital the regional capital city x attention plan and their IDPs for urban integration Particular again business people etc Offers a great chance to do that And then also the relocation sites clearly need spatial planning Again, it can't go into all the details At the operational level It's important first to get money and then to do it right So the idea is to develop two project proposals for kind of proof of concept Next please Let's go quickly through these things So the these are the houses In that site that are built one house for a family two rooms. I mean, it's really good But each piece is five thousand dollars There's water there Link to a kind of a reservoir But the reservoir is not linked to a borehole. It's water tracking So how long is this sustainable? Anyway, the relocation task force will be bringing together all the relevant bureaus At the regional level the ministers are called bureaus Disaster risk management education house, etc Then that un one or two iNGO Representation maybe even donors and it will be headed by the vice president. So Authority will be there and it's the whole of government approach They will have to develop a menu of options because Just relocations to rural areas have identified 22 sites are not really working So about local integration about urban Solutions about individualized solutions the whole ambit of again in line with The concept note of interventions They will have to do technical Assessments for all the sites. We had some quick assessments for the sites But the deep technical assessment not so much are they suitable but rather What needs to be done to make them suitable? What do we need in terms of investments into water? What kind of approaches to housing, etc But then also the risk analysis a protection analysis all of that and then Based on that come up these technical plans for Not all the relocation sites, but at least for a few for them their relocations already kind of have started next Proof of concept. It's one project that route. This is an iOM habit that FAO project It's about their very much local integration of the community The key idea is community-based planning bring the local communities the IDPs together Let them decide about what the best solutions for them are Here for instance the idea is they can't go back to traditional Pastoralism, but if you can produce during the rainy season Fodder along the river The local community can kind of sell that to those who are Producing meat and milk more intensive ways of agricultural production not the extensive Production methods and you link it to urban markets. You can do quite a lot Conflict areas of return again community-based planning There it's a bit less clear what the communities will come up with But the idea is to have money for two projects one Infrastructure services the order for livelihoods And then for the rest of the priorities really Link them with ongoing programs that are relevant. That's the solutions market integration You're smiling Sam. That's very much your approach from Somalia That will be used there Next Yeah That's already thank you. But before that the question. What about donors donors indicated when we It was a good coincidence because there was And the heads of mission visit to the Somali region By the humanitarian Humanitarian humanitarian resilience donor group But some of these people are double-headed also development and there was really a big interest and Several of the donors after the visit came and said, please send us these concept notes. We are interested in others said yes, we have to start Internally to discuss the Solutions market idea to integrate so I feel Money is not yet on the table But I feel that the attitude really has changed and that there is really interest to engage Both from the humanitarian and the development donors. That's really positive questions Do we have time or yes, we do. Let's take a couple of questions. I have Sam And online questions, okay fam go ahead I think my question is well, first of all It's an astonishing amount of progress and what took years in Somalia seems to be I mean being achieved in in months in Ethiopia And the government's now bought into the DSI Ethiopia, which is also great My question being a bit sort of playing devil's advocate, you know, is there a risk that the governments Signing up for this rubber stamping it, but we the NGOs and the UN are running a bit too fast We might leave them behind online questions The first question is how how do we see the risk that the DSI could become Bolivarized by the federal government given that internal displacement doesn't reflect well on the government and the positive reforms and government is taking Between brackets the PM also announced a few months back that IDB have returned and that the government's plan was successful There's also a second question In connection to this Would working with local authorities help to do politicize durable solutions and internal displacement And to what extent is this level of government already engaged? Thanks, uh Will we answer these questions and flag it if you have I mean all the three questions are related to politicization and risk and first um the I take the second question first because it's a good entry point Is this just a fig leaf the government has said yes the problem is solved there are no IDPs the really interesting thing is At the top level president primaries, so this is the discourse Just below that level everyone talks about IDPs. It's absolutely no problem No one told me the problem is solved And the reason is because they realize in the meantime that in fact Yes, there are huge problems in the areas of return through locations are difficult So it's quite a realistic assessment At those levels and that's the minister of peace and there's a history of ministerial peace of peace and international community having rather unpleasant discussions But uh there it's really very open and and and a good technical solution technical discussion But it's not The other point it's really not the federal level that will implement solutions It's the regional level And in that sense the third question It's in that sense the local governments. I mean the regional governments and then below but that's again very hierarchical Uh, there's little autonomy for at the sonal level at the vorita level at the cabello level And there we have the strong engagement in the Somali region Of course, we are lucky because the president is former ocha And several of his staff are former un So it's very easy again to communicate The risk of leaving moving too fast and and leaving them behind exactly lies there Because um We have those entry points And the dialogue is in that sense easy because we share some common concepts and and years And this is a whole change they brought in lots of technocrats lots of diaspora We don't know what's behind that level and that's again coming back to the risk for the future This is just now kind of yeah superficial a superficial layer Where we can work well And there of course again, it's about risk analysis But again, it's not an argument to start all of that because you've seen it's a very ambitious program And we just have started it. It's entry points. That's why It's this thing what I presented is not the solutions. It's the entry points for solutions entry points for for engagement and certainly Right now it looks good. Maybe in two months. We will have backlashes and usual thing It's going up and down and down, but at least we have the entry points and in that sense, um I I do think that Yeah, it provides for good opportunities and to me to do nothing is creating protracted displacement And this is doing harm to people So You have to be wise. We have to be careful, but let's use all these entry points Good David Um I wanted to know if as part of the durable solutions initiative in the Somali region Um, anyone is looking at the legal aspects of reintegration and in particular whether or not The internally displaced persons will have the ability to vote in the general elections that are coming up in May The reason why I ask this question is as as we discussed before The durable solutions initiative in the Somali region is being steered through iom with iom as in a leadership role You do have the global the protection cluster in the country and you have iom possibly doing Sorry, unites here are possibly doing durable solutions activities In the aroma region, but not in the Somali region Um, I do think that the elections in may are going to be the flashpoint issue where the country would be at most severe risk The previous three elections have all been violent Um, so will idp's be able to vote and is anyone looking at that issue? Thanks We have another question from Christian Um coming back a bit again to the Well, you said it's an awful lot of work that is ahead of us and it's it's Or for for those in the field Capacity issues, uh, who who is going to do all of that the integration into the Incorporation into the national development plans the sectoral development plans I guess there will be regional or the regional development plans Who is who is leading and carrying out all that work? and the the second question Is linked again to the donors the sort of the donor coordination development donors now Is there you mentioned the the development assistant group How strongly are they already on board how Actively are they pursuing it out of their own initiative or drive by now or is it still driven by People like you and and and and your your your support team Or are they already carrying some of the weight forward? Okay, uh, we are really very early stages much of what I said was kind of achieved two weeks ago So in terms of Really getting the commitment from the development actors and donors will require a lot of work But we have the entry points. We no longer have to rejection or the total disinterest and even there Are differences between for instance on the un side different agencies as I said habitat FAO really being proactive I haven't mentioned UNDP for instance Not being against it but not yet really fully on on on on board This Link to the issue of capacity. This is effectively again a challenge Of course the difference between Ethiopia And many other countries we're operating is that they do have a functioning bureaucracy It has its limitations. It needs capacity building But there are people who are doing things and can do things uh, for instance for the Somali region, um, there is a Swiss funded project to Provide additional capacity there on hlp issues on planning And and and other things. So that's a kind of activities and we need to get Particularly the double-hearted UN agencies To engage As I said, who is a program health for peace already has that notion In the title of a rather large program of going beyond kind of traditional health health policies And it's those colleagues who have to take up these things And that's why it is important to have these dialogues with these sectoral working groups But that's all long work as I said It's less than two weeks ago than It was decided to engage with with the sectoral working groups uh legal aspects Have been largely neglected Hlp issues, etc As I had mentioned using the example So, uh, this will be very much also a task of the task force of the relocation guidelines to bring in these things Many kinds to elections Uh EPA has issued kind of instructions To the RC and IDPs are on that list That's good Uh, what is the problem? And the problem is not so much. Well, the way they do it is Uh, before any every election They go around at the lowest level the cabello level and register all those who are eligible As as voters again, that's fine and in areas of returns. I mean, that's a people. So this will happen In areas of relocations if the clan feels strongly, we need more voting power They have an interest to make sure that they will be riches. That's not the problem The big problem is that you need an ID card So it's linked to um To to identification And this needs to be addressed and I mean, that's very much UNHR. You are very strong on that And unless this is being done, then many IDPs might not be able to vote Again, that's the Somali region and then you have regions where it's still volatile and where maybe the political dynamic will be to refuse The right to vote but again, I've been really now looking at the Somali region So I cannot tell you about those other regions, but it is something that has to be Carefully looked at I don't see a problem in terms of politics in the Somali region again We have more voting power if we have many voters But it's the practical issue of of the ID cards because it's very difficult in their system to have an ID card there replaced Thanks, professor. We have a question The question is from Dalia. There are actually two questions. First one is What are the plans to include communities? Displaced and host and the process more than specifically including members of the community whose voices are not always listened to The second question is Other than return Voluntarily or not How are other solutions being developed to take into the account the reality that many displaced people chose not to return? I have two questions based on both countries. Uh, the first one is It would be good to hear some Reflections from you on the role of protection actors and coordination bodies like the cluster in in these processes What could be good for such entities to commit to and be able to rely on in a predictable way in such processes? that's one the second Of course before before we started this panel we we spoke a bit about Beyond Ethiopia and Somalia. What would be other opportunities in other countries to to kick off such processes? Of course, we have places like Afghanistan where where Many elements of of similar Work has been put But not wrapped together in one go So a bit of also reflections of where do you see possible opportunities? And how do we how do we take that forward? On community inclusion, that's exactly the idea of community-based planning And community-based planning is not just the elders and I think Again with the mignimo project in Somalia. I am habitat with the rain tech project in Mogadishu, UNDP and UNHCR We have gained quite a lot of experience on how to really do community-based planning That includes the use the women and marginalized groups For and and this really needs to be implemented. I am last week did first training of trainers for community-based planning That's just one little piece, but that's the way to do it to ensure That we really have inclusive processes Because that's not necessarily the way a top-down country traditionally top-down country like Ethiopia works a solution soldier than returns In the Somali region, it's very clear the government has said yes those who do not want to return They will be relocated to their sub-clans That's a whole relocation processes. I was talking about This is not a problem at the level of politics The government is totally ready to do that for whatever reasons If you will do a political economy analysis, probably would identify some self-interests Why these people should be relocated within the Somali region The big problem is local integration And local integration there has been kind of a resistance to that because of again the balance between Between the different communities. Let's take the arid dava Which is not Somali region. It's one of the city regions It's or almost it's Somalis Very very volatile They have a power sharing arrangement one year Somalis a mayor and the other is deputy mayor and then it changes again We have there the millenium park site Not a good site and for instance During my last July visit we were discussing this at the deputy mayor about their rental subsidies There's no way to do that Because the other community immediately would react because it would upset the very fragile balance So don't import people. So that's a specific Challenge we have is local integration And again from a perspective of Peace building do no harm. You have to take that seriously and this requires very very careful analysis again of risks Of conflict dynamics Having said that there are areas where local integration is possible And the whole menu of options the task force will have to develop in the Somali region is exactly about that To enlarge kind of yeah the possibilities In other regions it might be more difficult And it might require much more time to have that kind of Openness at the regional level. We we see in the Somali region. They really say yes They are different what we initially wanted to it doesn't work. We we have to be more nuanced And again, then for UNHCR a very important role co-chairing the The oral more durable solutions working group Because their discussions will be probably a bit different Role of protection actions huge Simply because Returns and relocation of the solutions in general. There are lots of protection challenges not the ones you have in an IDP camp It's not so much about SCBV these kind of things Recruitment and so on But for instance HLP Very high up Watching rights Documentation very high up I am very glad to see that in Ethiopia the protection cluster included solutions into the Into their protection strategy And what it requires is close interaction with other actors because this can I mean monitoring is important advocacy is important But then also to kind of sensitize other actors What the protection challenge could be how to solve these problems? That's a more operational role That goes beyond the monitoring and the advocacy But to me it's it's very important And I mean you we all remember the discussions like Some decades ago at least those with gray hair Remember those all the botched relocations done by the World Bank We saw all again from and then the criticism. Where are human rights? So here we have a chance Other countries I don't have really the overview because unlike in my Some of my previous lives. I'm not looking at all these situations But what I heard Sudan might really provide an opportunity because There discussions about solutions are quite advanced. We have a new government so again, we can work because Global solutions only can be achieved if they are government led. This is about the system. This is about the long term And in the past we probably didn't have a conducive environment there in Sudan But that's changing now and again, it's a new window of opportunity new people many technocrats So again kind of a better way to to understand the issues Beyond that I really would have to scan and I think we're reaching Mature level of of interaction today Thank you by by way of conclusion, I think what the points I I detained among others is is of course the importance of looking at these solutions initiatives As creating entry points and that it requires several levels of engagement I think the illustration of the legal and the policy and the planning and the operational aspects Is simple and probably comes natural to you But I think it's a it's a good way to structure and illustrate that and what comes with that is the focus on linking up ministries and private sector and market That that you you pointed I think the idea of a solutions marker in a nexus environment is something that will find interaction and another Playground to to sell the idea and push it forward and maybe with a high-level panel of idp's that could be a A pusher to make maybe materializes I think what my major takeaway I think is the focus that you've put across all your answers that uh Working on solutions is preventative and not doing it could actually do harm And I think that's a bottom line that that that we could carry away from this So thanks a lot for coming and joining us. Thank you all Online and in the room for this I would like to thank Liz Aster in absencia For for organizing this as well as Nancy and Natalie and Nadine For this. Thanks a lot and have a great day