Reconsidering the framework of aid for sustainable income generation in Zimbabwe's Tongogara refugee camp

Abstract

The recent global refugee crisis, which peaked between 2015 and 2016, triggered an influx of refugees in host countries globally, most of which are low-income nations (Edmond, 2017:1). These high volumes of human displacement have worsened the fragility of refugee livelihoods globally as well as in Zimbabwe where refugee poverty has always been rife with the average household earning approximately USD$1 per day (UNHCR & WFP, 2014:20). Against this background, the goal of the study was to utilise a critical ethics of care perspective to reconsider the framework of aid for sustainable income generation in Zimbabwe’s Tongogara refugee camp. Bozalek et al. (2014:3) define care as a theoretical framework which “foregrounds relational and connection-based aspects of human beings rather than seeing humans as atomised individuals.” The study utilised a qualitative research approach and the intrinsic case study research design. Purposive sampling was used to select a total of 47 participants. They included refugees undertaking income generation activities (IGAs) in the Tongogara refugee camp, frontline members of staff for the NGOs funding and facilitating IGAs, managerial staff of these NGOs and the Government of Zimbabwe. Data was collected by means of one-on-one interviews, which was triangulated with data from Tongogara camp income generation project documents. The findings show that the framework within which income generation aid is provided has three main flaws that compromise projects’ sustainability. First, income generation is impaired by the isolation of refugees through encampment. Secondly, the income generation project cycle is mostly controlled by funding and implementing agencies, leaving refugees with little decision-making power. Lastly, a general unwillingness by government and NGOs to fully accept the moral and democratic responsibility towards refugee wellbeing resulting in inadequate assistance and low responsiveness to the plight of refugees. iii The study concludes that the social, political, ideological and economic challenges in refugees’ income generation activities stem from structural issues like restrictive refugee hosting policy and legislation, unequal power arrangements and an aversion to responsivity by government at the higher end, and NGOs at lower end of the care chain. Therefore, achieving project sustainability requires a reconsidered framework of aid that promotes notions of human connectivity, more egalitarian power relations and acceptance of the moral responsibility to act to secure the wellbeing of refugees, as well as reconsideration of their social positioning as outsiders. The main recommendation is for government and NGOs to employ practical strategies to implement the reconsidered framework of aid for sustainable income generation.