A new three-year grant from Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) has just been approved and will enable the Danish Refugee Council to continue its advocacy and policy work in the Great Lakes region of Africa until 2016. The new funding will serve to strengthen the efforts of DRC and its partner organisations and to consolidate the results reached in the region since 2010.
The second phase of the Great Lakes Programme will be a continuation of the programme that has been running since 2010. The programme supports civil society organisations in Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Central African Republic and South Sudan in conducting research and analysis on conflict and displacement and in carrying out advocacy at the local, national and regional levels. The programme currently works with seven local partner organisations in the six countries. And with the new funding of 20 M SEK (approx. 3 M USD), it is possible to continue the implementation of the programme.
“We are very happy with the renewal of the Sida grant as it reflects a commitment on the part of our donor to engage in long term processes of policy development and to secure the sustainability of our work and our partners’,” says Alexandra Bilak, Programme Manager for the Great Lakes Programme.
Over the next three years, the programme will be focusing on the following regional thematic areas: security and protection of displaced persons in border areas, return and reintegration, IDP policy development, and transitional justice. The programme also plans to expand its geographical area of intervention to Rwanda and Tanzania.
The first phase of the programme has just been concluded with the publication of a new study by DRC and its partners on the daily conditions and future prospects of Burundian and Congolese refugees in Tanzania, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo. The study makes a number of recommendations about regional and national protection frameworks and calls for tailor-made solutions that take individual refugees’ needs into account.
“We will be using this research as an advocacy and awareness-raising tool, and the recommendations will provide the basis for a number of activities at the local, national and regional level which will be implemented in the coming months,” says Alexandra Bilak.