Report of our participation in Pre-Summit of Kampala Uganda focusing on Advancing Displaced Women Leadership in the Humanitarian Space in Africa from 27-29th November 2024.
Introduction
The Displaced Women Network known as D-Wonet brings together various forced displaced women initiatives across Africa, and with a funding from Malteser International, D-Wonet managed to put in place this pre-summit which focused on the localization of relief aid and the local solutions to forced migrants issues in Africa.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo D-Wonet is represented by the Global Refugee Leaders Forum which brings together different refugee initiatives and which is now officially represented in the Collective of Youth Organizations for Solidarity in DRCongo. D-Wonet focuses her attention on refugees, Internally Displaced Persons and Returnees, including also stateless persons where they may be.
DRC Representation to the pre-summit
While D-Wonet was willing to facilitate the participation to three (3) refugee women from the Democratic Republic of Congo, this did not happen because the selected women did not manage to get the necessary Refugee Travel Documents despite their efforts and recommendations from D-Wonet. In the process the delegation from DRC was composed of one returnee and two Congolese working on refugee issues. This alone posed a challenge in terms of effective representation because we wanted people themselves to speak up. The Democratic Republic of Congo is not clear on the issue of refugee travel documents. More advocacy is needed in order to make progress on this which will help refugees in DRC to take part in various international forums. Refugees from DRC do not participate in different international forums because of so many factors including the lack of documents.
The DRC representatives came from Kinshasa, Goma and Bukavu, that alone was not a fair representation of DRC and especially that all of the representatives came from the civil society organizations alone.
Participants to the pre-summit
A part the high participation of refugees in Uganda mainly Congolese in Kampala and Nakivale, Somalis from Kampala, Burundians from Kampala, Eritreans from Kampala, South Sudanese from Bidi Bidi and Rhyno Camps, the pre-summit was also attended by representatives from Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Cameroon, while others from Malawi and Ghana attended online.
Again as you can see most of African countries which host refugees were not represented and this may be related to the funding challenges.
International Organizations present
The Pre-Summit was also attended by some international organizations which are based in Uganda and operating in various countries such the Norwegian Refugee Council, Malteser International and COHERE. In total 15 international organizations including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Office of the Prime Minister Department of Refugees Uganda Government. Surprisingly both the Government of Uganda and UNHCR who are generally responsible of the policy of localization did not participate in the sessions.
The presentations at the Pre-Summit
Day One: Opening Remarks and the general situation of refugees in Africa
After various speeches by the organizers, the funder and those invited, now it was time for the review of the refugee situation in each country that was represented.
DRC:
The participants were shocked to learn that there refugees who are hosted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in the process even among participants some lived as refugees in DRC before crossing to Uganda, in the same way participants were shocked to learn that there are Ugandans who are hosted in DRC as refugees.
Generally all countries indicated that there are local policies and laws governing refugees in their countries but these laws were not implemented. It was observed that there is a need of strong advocacy which we should get involved in as a group. However some participants expressed fear about advocacy as it may be security sensitive and expose them to security threats. Participants also observed that in all countries the situation of refugees was a disaster including Uganda which is sung as the role model. Participants believed that they should work hard in order to improve the situation because only refugees can push for what they think is best to them. Participants also observed that in all countries refugees are fully involved in the whole decision making process, and there are serious questions about refugee representations in countries where refugees are invited generally to be on the list but not to drive the change and not to influence the debate.
The first day was concluded by funding opportunities from some donors who are driving the localization Agenda.
Day Two: Focus on the D-Wonet Development
The structure, the documents, budget and the work-plan of D-Wonet for the next five years.
Currently D-Wonet works as a Company Limited by Guarantee and now efforts should be made to register as an Organization based in Uganda, in other countries D-Wonet will work under member organizations as time comes to become more independent. A five strategic year plan was suggested and key particular focus was brought forward and this was put into the hands of a selective team, similar also about the budget.
The Pre-Summit ended with a vote of thanks and the possibility of the bigger summit next year 2025 in case funds are available.
What we observed
We observed that this summit may also face the same challenges like what others do, generally because the participants did not have funding in order to organize various meetings in order to account to others at the country level, efforts will much more needed to organize refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo and capacitate them on so many issues so that they bring high their voices. Generally the localization agenda is still a mere slogan and does not appear visible at the local community.
In order to move forward refugee women should be empowered in advocacy in order to create an environment which can favor service delivery, and this efforts should be deployed for the protection of those who may face security risks because of their advocacy work.
Thanks
Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos
Executive Director
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