EXPERTS, in a new study, have said the efficiency in the care of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in camps is weak and recommended an improvement in camp management leadership effectiveness to strengthen IDP response and facilitate protection of their rights, while allowing a systematic exit instead of creating an IDP conundrum.

They declared that leadership effectiveness can improve the care of IDPs and the management of camps in Africa, based on the recent surge in the number of displacements resulting from insurgency, militant activities, natural disasters, several conflict-related displacements and the uncoordinated camp structure.

This cross-sectional descriptive study adopted focus group discussion, structured interviews and key informant interview (KII) guides to undertake two stages of study, including situation analysis in selected IDP camps on management practices.

The study was carried out in selected IDP and refugee camps visited in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone between 2012 and 2016.

The camps visited in Nigeria were Fulfore, Malkohi, NYSC IDP camps in Yola (North-East), Bakassi Resettlement Camp, Calabar, ICC IDP Camp Benin (South-South) and Oru Refugee Camp (South-West). In Ghana, Budumburam Refugee Camp in Accra was visited, while in Sierra Leone, the team visited Grafton IDP (amputees) camp in Freetown.

According to the researchers, the leadership of IDP camps can efficiently manage inadequate resources for IDPs by formulating structural theory that aligns survival strategies with social needs for efficiency.

In addition, they stated that camps can be structured in phases for effective management to overcome the identified challenges of overcrowding, sexual and gender-based violence, insecurity, poverty, malnutrition, domestic violence and protracted displacement, among others, in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The four phases to align survival strategies to social need in IDP camps were: after-shock (IDP-phase 1), the immediate period after the occurrence of the event; and stabilisation (IDP-phase 2), the phase of settlement into a camp routine with a predictable system of meeting basic needs.

The other phases are empowerment (IDP-phase 3), the stage of acquisition of vocational and necessary management skills towards economic independence and re-integration (post-IDP-phase), the phase of coordinated exit from the camp and reintegration into society as self-sustaining individuals.

The findings of the study showed that there was overcrowding in all the camps visited. There were insufficient welfare items, leading to malnutrition and the deaths of children and pregnant women. Issues of gender-based violence were common against women and girls, and the insecurity of the lives and properties of camp residents was discovered as there was an incidence of bombings of IDP camps in Yola, Adamawa State.

Sexual assault and forced prostitution among young women to earn income for personal care and family support were identified. Domestic violence against women by their intimate partners as a transfer of aggression was also reported.

The study concluded that the IDP camp management structure was weak generally, there were no streamlined management protocols and all IDPs were clamped together in overcrowded accommodation and given the same intervention available.

It added that though all the camps have traces of providing some psychosocial help and empowerment programmes, they are weak and these are not offered on a need basis, leading to overstretched availability of inadequate resources and insufficiencies and also inefficiency in camp management.

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