NDJAMENA REGIONAL REFUGEE COORDINATOR DUTIES AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 STATE 095074 SIPDIS NDJAMENA ADDIS ACCRA KAMPALA NAIROBI FOR REFCOORDS GENEVA FOR RMA USEU FOR BTHOMAS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF CD CM CT SU SUBJECT: NDJAMENA REGIONAL REFUGEE COORDINATOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ¶1. The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) would like to thank outgoing Regional Refugee Coordinator (RefCoord) Perlita Muiruri and welcome Michael Zorick who has taken up duties as Regional RefCoord for Chad, Darfur, the Central African Republic, and Cameroon. This message outlines the key responsibilities and priorities for PRM RefCoords generally and for the Ndjamena-based RefCoord specifically in programming and monitoring U.S. Government humanitarian assistance managed by the State Department. PRM appreciates posts, ongoing support and collaboration with RefCoord Zorick as we address the challenging humanitarian issues confronting the region. -------------- REFCOORD ROLE -------------- ¶2. PRM currently has RefCoords deployed in nineteen (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 has been over $1.8 billion in FY09 (including over $350 million for Africa). RefCoords also serve as a resource for Embassy-designated "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, IDPs, and conflict victims in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Darfur. Given the inherently cross-border character of refugee flows, he 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 Ambassadors will consider RefCoord Zorick as a key member of each of your country teams. -------------- KEY CHAD/CAR/DARFUR ISSUES/TOPICS -------------- ¶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 Report of Activities (WRA) 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 STATE 00095074 002 OF 005 and assistance programs for conflict victims; World Food Program (WFP) feeding programs for refugees and air operations (UNHAS); gender-based violence (GBV),sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA),and HIV/AIDS issues related to refugees; civil-military coordination between the humanitarian community and the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT),including the Chadian Detachement Integre de Securite (DIS); NGO monitoring and evaluation (M&E); coordination among USG agencies, including especially with USAID on IDP issues; 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 particularly 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, coordination between a growing military and humanitarian presence in eastern Chad, the carrying capacity of eastern Chad, and the growing threat from the Lord,s Resistance Army in the CAR 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 Zorick 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: Deployment of the MINURCAT-trained Chadian police (DIS) to enhance refugee and IDP security and general civil-military coordination. -- 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: civil-military coordination. -- Displacement due to LRA activity in SE CAR. ¶C. Chadian IDPs -- Improved and coordinated UN and ICRC attention to IDPs/conflict victims, particularly with regard to IDP returns; 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. ¶D. Chadian Refugees in Darfur and Cameroon -- Protection of Chadian refugees in Darfur from possible STATE 00095074 003 OF 005 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. ¶E. CAR Refugees in Chad and Cameroon (and Darfur) -- Reaching and maintaining protection and assistance 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 Peulh 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. ¶F. 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. ¶G. Darfur conflict victims and IDPs -- Monitoring UNHCR,s coordination role in addressing IDP protection/camp coordination-camp management; evaluation of "protection through presence" programming, following prospects for UNHCR,s expansion into North and South Darfur. -- Camp security/neutrality. -- ICRC,s protection and assistance efforts for conflict victims (including IDPs, the Gereida IDP Camp in particular) -------------- --- KEY SKILLS AND RESPONSIBILITIES (REPORT, ANALYZE, TROUBLESHOOT, SOLVE PROBLEMS) -------------- --- ¶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. He 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, UNICEF, OCHA, and IOM) -NGOs working in refugee support (Implementing and STATE 00095074 004 OF 005 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) -------------- MONITORING AND REPORTING ON UNHCR, ICRC, and OTHER IOs -------------- ¶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 STATE 00095074 005 OF 005 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. -------------- MONITORING AND REPORTING ON NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs) -------------- ¶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 countries that have/will have Partnership Framework should become active participants in the PEPFAR inter-agency country teams to advocate for the inclusion of refugees in proposals for PEPFAR funding. While none of the countries covered by RefCoord Ndjamena is currently a PEPFAR-focus country, he, 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 Reports on Activities (WRAs) to PRM highlighting points related to key issues above. WRAs 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. CLINTON