Denmark and Kenya collaborate to overhaul conventional refugee camp design 

Many UN-operated and ostensibly temporary aid camps have snowballed into permanent communities – without any significant organisational handover to local authorities. A new Danish-Kenyan collaboration seeks to support local communities in taking back the reins.

A panorama of the Kalobeyei settlement, located just outside of Kakuma Refugee Camp, in Kenya ; The average refugee at Kakuma spends seventeen years living at the camp. Kalobeyei represents a settlement approach, as opposed to a refugee camp approach, to enable refugees to become more self-reliant in the long term. This not only reduces the burden on donors, but also gives refugees a greater sense of self-worth. Photo: UNHCR

Refugee camps have historically been designed and run as temporary solutions for acute crises – despite the fact that the humanitarian issues they purport to alleviate can go on for years or even decades.This is especially exemplified by certain camps in Kenya, where there is a protracted refugee crisis. Many UN-operated and ostensibly temporary aid […]


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