Central African Republic

Profiling the displacement situation in inaccessible communities in Markounda & Kabo (2012)
Following 20 years of internal conflict and upheaval, the security situation in CAR improved sufficiently in the late 2000s for many IDPs and refugees who had fled to Chad, who began to return. Little, however, was known about these dynamics. A series of profiling exercises, launched in 2011, aimed to learn more about the displacement situation in previously inaccessible communities.

The exercises in Markounda and Kabo built on the previous profiling process implemented in Bamingui-Bangoran. They brought humanitarian and development stakeholders together to collaborate in establishing a shared understanding of the situation.

The profiling exercises had a number of significant impacts, most importantly the results from the Kabo exercise were used in the data section of the 2013 Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP). They also prompted the establishment of a coordination mechanism to respond more effectively to the protection and other challenges that returnees faced in Markounda and Kabo.

They also informed the development of a more comprehensive protection strategy with the ultimate aim of identifying durable solutions, and provided IDPs, returnees and host community members with an evidence base for their advocacy. Other impacts of the profiling exercise included:

• The findings led humanitarian donor agencies such as the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) to recategorise Markounda as requiring ongoing monitoring, surveillance and response. In Kabo, the profiling results prompted ECHO to undertake an evaluation of the water and sanitation situation.
• The exercise helped to consolidate local capacity for profiling, with Echelle taking on an ever more prominent role in designing and adapting the survey, methodology and tools, and in sampling and canvassing. Following stakeholders’ interest in additional information on social cohesion and psychosocial status, a module was added to the questionnaire to capture information that would provided such insight.
• The findings led stakeholders to expand their concept of displacement in CAR to include populations such as refugee returnees, rather than simply considering them IDPs.
• They also highlighted the importance of resettlement programming taking into account the preparedness of return areas to absorb large influxes of people.

The exercise also yielded a number of lessons learned:

• Profiling exercises should be tailored to the context in question, but this does not mean that each one needs to reinvent the wheel. The original methodology and tools used in Bambingui-Bangoran were successfully adapted for use in both Kabo and Markounda.
• It reiterated the importance of profiling a displacement situation as a whole, rather than a single group of people. A methodology that considers all population groups and the different impacts of displacement upon them paints a more comprehensive picture as the basis for targeted advocacy and response.
• It is important for profiling managers to be flexible in their research and operational planning, so they are able to adapt to unexpected developments. The researchers in Markounda were not expecting to encounter such high number of refugee returnees, but they were able to alter their approach to capture information effectively.
• Bringing in specialised organisations during the data analysis and reporting phases can be hugely beneficial. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF-Holland) took part in these stages of the exercise and subsequently used the findings to provide targeted services. Echelle also received valuable insight on health issues. Similarly, the exercises demonstrated the benefits of thorough capacity-building initiatives. The expertise Echelle has built up has helped it to establish itself as a displacement profiling resource for the humanitarian and development community in CAR.
• All three exercises highlighted the importance of informing and sensitising local and national authorities, community leaders and survey staff. Echelle’s profiling project manager in Markounda, Crepin Konzabi, said: “We realise that you can’t underestimate the importance of communicating your survey objectives to the authorities. It can make or break the process.”

The profiling exercise had a number of tangible impacts:

• It provided impetus to improve humanitarian access in Bambingui-Bangoran, despite security challenges in some areas.
• By involving enumerators and implementors right from the start, the process encouraged further collaboration with Echelle. As DRC’s Lukas Rüst put it: “Echelle made the profiling happen. Not only was their capacity enhanced, their credibility also increased.”
• The findings highlighted the need for joint humanitarian and development interventions, given the similar challenges facing both displaced and host communities.
• They also helped humanitarian partners to understand the vital importance of increasing the provision of basic services to the populations of concern.

It also yielded a number of lessons learned:

• Profiling should consider both IDPs and non-IDPs to paint a more comprehensive picture of the overall displacement situation.
• Working with Echelle demonstrated the importance of building the profiling capacity of local organisations.
• Information campaigns are a vital element of profiling exercises, because they encourage participation in the process and raise awareness of the displacement situation more broadly.