REGIONAL REFUGEE COORDINATOR NDJAMENA DUTIES AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 STATE 103508

SIPDIS
KAMPALA/ADDIS/NDJAMENA/ACCRA/NAIROBI FOR REFCOORDS
GENEVA FOR RMA
USEU FOR FRANCIS
DOD FOR OSD/AFRICOM LIAISON M SWAYNE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF CD CM CT
SUBJECT: REGIONAL REFUGEE COORDINATOR NDJAMENA DUTIES AND
RESPONSIBILITIES

REF: STATE 69690


1. As noted reftel, Perlita Muiruri has taken up duties as
the Regional Refugee Coordinator (RefCoord) for Chad, Darfur,
the Central African Republic, and Cameroon. The Bureau of
Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM),would like to draw
your attention to the important role played by the
Ndjamena-based RefCoord in programming and monitoring U.S.
Government humanitarian assistance managed by the State
Department. This message outlines the key responsibilities
and priorities for PRM RefCoords generally and for RefCoord
Muiruri specifically. PRM appreciates posts, ongoing
support and collaboration with RefCoord Muiruri as we address
the challenging humanitarian issues confronting the region.

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REFCOORD ROLE
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2. PRM currently has 27 RefCoords deployed in 19 posts
around the world. Most have regional responsibilities while
some focus on a specific country or a complex humanitarian
emergency. The majority of our RefCoords work on issues
related to protection and assistance for refugees and
conflict victims (including internally displaced people-IDPs)
and voluntary repatriation and reintegration in post-conflict
situations, while some others work mainly on issues related
to resettlement of refugees to the United States. They have
responsibility for input into PRM -- and USG -- humanitarian
strategies; overseeing implementation of USG policies and
implementing partner programs for refugees, conflict victims,
stateless persons, and other vulnerable migrants; liaising
with governmental authorities to help resolve spot problems
with protection and assistance programs; and helping
represent the USG -- for example to explain humanitarian
policies/strategies. Their work with other donor countries
and our key implementing partners from UN agencies, Red
Cross, other international organizations and non-governmental
organizations (IOs and NGOs) is essential to the work of PRM
and our management of a budget which was over $1.4 billion in
FY08 (including over $380 million for Africa). RefCoords
also serve as a resource for Embassy-appointed Refugee
Officers, providing guidance and back-up as requested in
responding to refugee issues, including Embassy supported
programs via PRM,s Taft Refugee Fund.


3. PRM,s RefCoord in Ndjamena is the field focal point for
the PRM role in the protection and assistance for some 3.2
million refugees and conflict victims in Cameroon, the
Central African Republic, Chad, and Darfur. Given the
inherently cross-border character of refugee flows, she will
also coordinate closely with the Horn (Addis-based) and Great
Lakes (Kampala-based) Regional RefCoords as well as the
Refugee Admissions RefCoords in Nairobi and Accra. We hope
you will consider RefCoord Muiruri as a key member of each of
your country teams.

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KEY CHAD/CAR/DARFUR ISSUES/TOPICS
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4. The primary issues to be covered by the RefCoord on a
regular basis -- and to be reported on both formally through
cable traffic and less formally through the Weekly Activities
Report (WAR) as "recurrent issues" -- include the general
status of refugee and conflict victim populations in the
region, including treatment of refugees in host countries;
factors influencing protection, assistance, and security
issues; institutional performance of the IOs and NGOs; United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) protection and
assistance programs for refugees, IDPs, and any stateless
populations; UNHCR resettlement procedures (in cooperation
with our Accra-based Admissions RefCoord); International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) protection and assistance

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programs for conflict victims; World Food Program (WFP)
feeding programs for refugees; gender-based violence (GBV),
sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA),and HIV/AIDS issues
related to refugees; NGO monitoring and evaluation (M&E);
coordination among USG agencies, including especially USAID
on IDPs; upcoming RefCoord travel and other activities of
interest.


5. The Chad/CAR/Darfur situation has been dubbed a "complex
regional protracted emergency." With the conflicts in Chad,
the CAR, and Darfur far from being resolved despite a number
of peace agreements (particularly in the case of the CAR and
Chad),PRM focus in the region in the coming year will
continue to be on preparedness for new refugee flows,
emergency response, maintaining minimum standards of
protection and assistance, such self-reliance measures as may
be possible with CAR refugees, and ensuring that the
humanitarian response architecture is well coordinated and
free of any sexual exploitation and abuse. Difficult
challenges over the coming year will include shrinking
humanitarian space owing to insecurity and/or to governments
being unable or unwilling to support humanitarian efforts,
security and neutrality of refugee and IDP camps, and the
carrying capacity of eastern Chad in particular. We expect
public interest in the Darfur situation to remain high,
resulting in multiple VIP-type visits to Chad, including
CODELs for which RefCoord Muiruri will likely have some
control officer responsibilities.


6. Key situations of interest include:

A. Sudanese Refugees in Chad
-- Protection, especially of children, from recruitment into
fighting forces.
-- Preventing militarization of camps, including through
relocation.
-- Maintaining protection and assistance standards, including
in treatment of vulnerable children and women and a reliable
food aid pipeline, in what has become a protracted refugee
situation.
-- Possible solutions to fuel wood and water depletion.
-- Impact of refugees on affected Chadians.
-- Coordinated security measures among the many implementing
partners in eastern Chad.
-- MINURCAT and EUFOR. Deployment of the MINURCAT-trained
Chadian police to enhance refugee and IDP security.
-- Contingency planning for additional refugee inflows.
-- Referral of appropriate vulnerable cases to the U.S.
Refugee Admissions Program.


B. Sudanese Refugees in the CAR
-- Protection, especially of children, from recruitment into
fighting forces.
-- Reaching and maintaining protection and assistance
standards, including in treatment of vulnerable children and
women and a reliable food aid pipeline.
-- Contingency planning for additional refugee inflows.
-- MINURCAT and EUFOR.


C. Chadian IDPs
-- Improved and coordinated UN and ICRC attention to
IDPs/conflict victims; monitoring UNHCR,s coordination role
in addressing IDP protection/camp coordination-camp
management/shelter needs; monitoring OCHA,s role.
-- Ensuring complementarity of USAID and PRM programming.


C. Chadian Refugees in Darfur and Cameroon
-- Protection of Chadian refugees in Darfur from possible
manipulation in the Darfur conflict; ensuring that return to
Chad is not foreclosed by land redistribution in Chad.
-- Reaching and maintaining protection and assistance
standards, including in treatment of vulnerable children and
women and a reliable food aid pipeline for Chadian refugees
in Darfur and in Cameroon.
-- Appropriate measures to shape repatriation from Cameroon.


D. CAR Refugees in Chad and Cameroon (and Darfur)
-- Reaching and maintaining protection and assistance

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standards, including in treatment of vulnerable children and
women among the CAR refugees, in refugee camps in Chad and in
Cameroon where refugees are not encamped.
-- Self-reliance strategies for CAR refugees with access to
land for farming and grazing.
-- Addressing conflict between Peul refugees and local
populations.
-- The situation of CAR refugees who have sought safety in
Darfur.
-- Referral of appropriate vulnerable cases in southern Chad
to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.


E. CAR IDPs
-- Role of rebel and FACA forces in displacement.
-- UN and ICRC attention to IDPs/conflict victims; monitoring
UNHCR,s coordination role in addressing IDP protection/camp
coordination-camp management/shelter needs; monitoring
OCHA,s role.
-- Ensuring complementarity of USAID and PRM programming.


F. Darfur conflict victims and IDPs
-- Monitoring UNHCR,s coordination role in addressing IDP
protection/camp coordination-camp management; evaluation of
"protection through presence" programming.
-- Camp security/neutrality.
-- ICRC,s protection and assistance efforts for conflict
victims (including IDPs, the Gereida IDP Camp in particular)

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KEY SKILLS AND RESPONSIBILITIES (REPORT, ANALYZE,
TROUBLESHOOT, SOLVE PROBLEMS)
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7. The information that RefCoords gather and analyze helps
PRM enhance the operational capacity and efficiency of our
partners, and is therefore the key to the Department,s
accountability to both beneficiaries and U.S. taxpayers.
With performance increasingly tied to resources, monitoring
and evaluation continue to play a critical role in justifying
budget requests. RefCoord/Ndjamena should also approach
refugee issues in the region from a holistic standpoint with
an eye towards highlighting both humanitarian and USG foreign
policy implications and possible courses of action for PRM
and the Department. She should not only collect information,
but also critically analyze it and offer options for action.
Ideas of how PRM as a bureau (and AFR as an office) might
work more efficiently towards its performance goals
(including better M&E practices) would be highly valued.


8. RefCoord,s activities, including input for the various
Mission Strategic Plans, should promote key PRM objectives
and indicators, as outlined in PRM,s Bureau Strategic Plan,
the OMB Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART)s, the Annual
Framework Agreement with UNHCR, and in the Operational Plans
(both country and global) and Country Assistance Strategies
developed with guidance from the Director for Foreign
Assistance (F). (Note that, given the contingency and
regional nature of PRM programming, PRM funds are part of the
global operational planning rather than country plans in the
F framework.)


9. RefCoord should cultivate relationships with key members
of the following groups:
-UNHCR (both national and local offices)
-ICRC
-Other IOs (mainly WFP, IOM, UNICEF, and OCHA)
-NGOs working in refugee support (Implementing and
Non-Implementing Partners
of UNHCR)
-Governmental Authorities (primarily in Ndjamena and Bangui)
-Embassy and USAID Mission contacts in all embassies, as well
as appropriate
other USG personnel such as Defense Attaches, CDC
staff working on
HIV/AIDS and malaria, DHS.
-PRM Missions and Colleagues (Washington, Geneva, Brussels,
Addis, Kampala,
Accra and Nairobi)

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MONITORING AND REPORTING ON UNHCR, ICRC,
and OTHER IOs
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10. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR),which has the international lead on all refugee
situations in Africa (and generally in the world apart from
the Palestinian refugees in the Middle East) is PRM's largest
financial
partner, receiving over 40% of PRM,s overseas assistance
funds, and is the agency with which we have the broadest and
deepest relationship. Humanitarian reform in the United
Nations has also given UNHCR additional responsibilities with
respect to IDPs under the "cluster approach". The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),which is
similarly present in almost every conflict situation, is
second with approximately 20%. Support for other IOs varies
from situation to situation. In general, USG food aid for
refugees through WFP is provided in kind by the Food for
Peace Program managed by USAID. PRM may provide some cash
support to WFP to fill critical gaps in the refugee food
pipeline. RefCoords are tasked with coordinating with USAID
to report on refugee feeding activities by WFP and to report
on any coming food shortages and pipeline breaks.


11. RefCoords are to report regularly on the performance of
UNHCR and ICRC in each country, against the objectives laid
out in their annual appeal documents. Findings are used not
only at the field level in terms of pressing UNHCR to make
changes that the USG might deem useful/necessary and/or in
encouraging other donors to join in support of a particular
program approach; they are also used in the USG engagement on
the Executive Committee of the UNHCR which meets in plenary
once a year and in Standing Committee at least three times a
year. Findings on ICRC,s performance are used primarily at
the field and HQ levels in pressing for any program changes
that the USG might deem useful/necessary and/or in
encouraging other donors to join in support of a particular
program approach. The ICRC does not have a multinational
governing board as UN agencies do, but there is a Donor
Support Group mechanism in which the USG participates and the
USG is a full member in the quadripartite Red Cross Movement
(ICRC, the International Federation of Red Cross/Crescent
Societies, the National RC Societies, and the National
Governments).


12. In addition, in an effort to monitor UNHCR efforts in
support of USG priorities and increase U.S. input into and
knowledge of UNHCR's planning process, RefCoords are annually
requested to perform two specific UNHCR monitoring duties, in
addition to generally monitoring UNHCR activities. One,
RefCoords are asked to meet with UNHCR at the country level
to discuss its Country Operation Plan (COP) for the current
and coming year. Discussions will need to be held in late
winter/early spring, typically sometime in February or March,
as UNHCR offices are putting together their plans for the
coming year (details regarding the consultation will be
provided in an action cable). Two, PRM and UNHCR annually
negotiate a Framework for Cooperation, which lays out shared
expectations for the year. Once finalized, the Framework is
shared with RefCoords who are asked to refer to it throughout
the year in monitoring UNHCR. These two requests and
associated guidance will be provided to RefCoords by cable
early in the calendar year.


13. PRM makes significant unearmarked contributions to ICRC
for the Africa region. Special attention should be paid to
ICRC activities in the region. Front-channel reporting on
ICRC programs, presence, and activities is helpful several
times during the year as the PRM Financial Plan for a given
fiscal year is reviewed and adjusted quarterly. Updates on
PRM,s earmarked contributions to ICRC and/or other
International Organizations such as UNICEF and IOM are also
needed regularly, particularly if continued funding is
anticipated.


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MONITORING AND REPORTING ON NON-GOVERNMENTAL
ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs)
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14. PRM has cooperative agreements with a number of NGOs in
the region to complement and/or to fill gaps in UNHCR
programming in particular. RefCoord responsibilities with
regard to the NGOs that we fund includes at least two site
visits and one M&E cable reporting specifically on the
indicators agreed upon in the cooperative agreement, and
others as written in the NGO final proposal. RefCoords will
receive notification from PRM,s Comptroller that an
agreement has been awarded, along with an electronic version
of the cooperative agreement. Notification will
identify/highlight areas for review and establish a date for
formal reports to be submitted to Washington. In addition,
the PRM "nine Core Questions" should serve as a general
outline for evaluating programs. The deadline date for M&E
reports is generally ninety days prior to the expiration of
the agreement. Washington relies on the RefCoords,
feedback in making funding decisions for future NGO programs.
RefCoords should be familiar with programs, goals,
objectives and indicators, as required in NGO cooperative
agreements, and should work with PRM program officers to
report on objectives and indicators in Interim Performance
Evaluations (IPEs). A monitoring and evaluation report must
be written for each PRM-funded NGO program. The M&E reports
should also report on changes in expected funding from UNHCR
(from the planning figures given initially in the project
proposal). In most situations there are multiple NGOs
operating in a specific locale. RefCoords should make sure
that PRM funding for NGOs is balanced with respect to varying
needs throughout a geographic region.


15. HIV/AIDS: RefCoords with responsibilities in
PEPFAR-focus countries (Cote d,Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guyana,
Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South
Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia) should become
active participants in the PEPFAR inter-agency country teams
to advocate for the inclusion of refugees in Country
Operational Proposals for PEPFAR funding. While none of the
countries covered by RefCoord Ndjamena is currently a
PEPFAR-focus country, she, as all RefCoords, should review
the availability and adequacy of HIV/AIDS interventions on
monitoring trips to identify program gaps that our NGO or IO
partners could address. Active RefCoord involvement has
resulted in increased PEPFAR funding for refugees in recent
years to fill critical programming gaps.


16. WEEKLY REPORTS: RefCoords should send Weekly Activity
Reports (WARs) to PRM highlighting points related to key
issues above. WARs serve to disseminate important regional
information throughout the Bureau.


17. MANAGEMENT OF POST ALLOTMENT/ICASS PARTICIPATION:
RefCoords should alert PRM-Washington of immediate issues of
concern and recommend appropriate responses.
RICE