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| Destination: Nairobi |
When Miss W arrived in our lives in September last year I definitely thought it would be a while before I'd be blogging about my African travels again. I haven't even finished writing my posts from 2012. But here I am in Kenya, just over eight months later! This was an opportunity too good to pass up, and thanks to a wonderful husband (with a bit of help from loving grandparents) here I am in Nairobi at the Nansen Initiative's Horn of Africa Regional Consultations.
According to their website, the Nansen Initiative is 'a state-led bottom-up consultative process intended to build consensus on the development of a protection agenda addressing the needs of people displaced across international borders in the context of natural hazards, including the effects of climate change.' It was launched by the governments of Norway and Switzerland in recognition of the fact that people who are forced to leave their homes and flee across borders due to hazards such a drought, floods, wind-storms and earthquakes typically fall outside existing international protection mechanisms, such as international refugee law. In the context of climate change, the number of people affected in this way is likely to increase. The Nansen Initiative is primarily about identifying what the protection needs of such people are, and the extent to which these are being met by existing laws, regulations and practice around the world. As part of this process, the Iniative is conducting consultations with governments, international organisations (such as UNHCR) and NGOs in various regions around the world that have been affected by natural disasters. The Horn of Africa has been chosen as one such area, primarily due to the 2011 drought, which resulted in widespread famine and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, largely from Somalia.
As part of this process, I was invited to prepare a background report on existing laws and policy frameworks that address (or could address) disaster-related displacement in the Horn of Africa. This is really exciting to me, not only because it is my first official international consultancy (though that is definitely exciting!) but also because it is an opportunity to try and make my academic work useful in practice. And this is why I decided to pursue a PhD in the first place - in the hope that I could make some positive difference, however small, to the protection of some of the world's most vulnerable people. In particular, the Nansen Initiative provides an opportunity to advocate for broader protection under the 1969 African Refugee Convention than has hitherto been applied (this is the topic of my PhD - read more here). As an added bonus, I get to spend a week in Kenya!
The Horn of Africa Regional Consultations are being attended by around 70 representatives from African governments - including Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti, South Sudan and Somalia - as well as the UN and local NGOs. It is impressive to see how invested many governments are in this issue - Ministers responsible for refugee affairs or the environment from at least three countries are here. My own job here in the regional consultation is to present a preliminary report on existing regional laws and frameworks that might be relevant to disaster-related displacement (of which more later) and then to participate in the various discussions and workshops throughout the three day program. After the consultations are done I will write my final report, which will feed in to the international consultation in Geneva next year.
Kenya is a long way to come for just a few days. I told one of the other participants in the consultations that the trip had been a last minute decision. He laughed and said there is no such thing as a last minute trip from Australia to Africa - he then hypothesised that I had left home before he even knew the consultations were going to take place. But the trip is totally worth it - it is inspiring to be part of a process which will (hopefully) address some of the massive hardship caused by natural disasters to millions of people every year. And great to be back on a continent where legal issues are so real and so alive. My taxi driver from the airport when I arrived on Monday was keen to chat about the constitutionality of several of the government's current activities - a conversation I rarely have in taxis in Sydney!
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| Nansen Initiative Horn of Africa Regional Consultations |
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| Doing some preparations - Abu Dhabi airport |
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| A room with a view (of cattle in Nairobi) |
