Cities of Refuge and Return: Negotiating (Re)integration

The final episode brings together everything the series has heard across five cities and asks what it adds up to. It revisits Naciimo, Maria, Ali, Mohammad, Belay, and James,  and introduces the five pilot models that emerged from LLEARN's Participatory Forum process: 
Bosaso's Local Financing and Service Accountability Model
Kakuma's Multilingual Service Access and Accountability Model
Aweil's Women-Led Water Point Governance Model
Dessie's Documentation and Service Access Model
Koboko's Enterprise Formalisation and Financial Inclusion Model
 
It explains why the three-forum structure is itself the most exportable part of what LLEARN built and makes a direct call to action: LLEARN is seeking partners to support implementation, invest in what's next, apply the methodology, and build the evidence base.
 
The episode closes with the Mayor of Koboko's voice and a final reflection on what five cities have proven, that reintegration is not something delivered to a place; it is something a place builds for itself, once it is given the room to lead.
 
Hosted by Mwara Namelok. Produced by Samuel Hall for LLEARN. Funded by the European Union and contracted by ICMPD through the MMD Grant Facility.
 
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author (s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or ICMPD. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Koboko, a municipality in Uganda's West Nile region at the tri-border point with South Sudan and DRC, is the clearest evidence in five cities that locally led reintegration can genuinely work. Refugees and host community members call themselves Kobokians. Trust in local government sits at 75 percent across both populations. Schools, clinics, and markets are shared spaces. Koboko was the first municipality in Uganda to receive EU funding for displacement-focused urban development, built on the principle that local government, not a humanitarian agency, should lead inclusion. 
Through James's story, a South Sudanese refugee carrying bricks for under two dollars a day, unable to afford school fees, but still committed to Koboko and to finding a path forward, the episode asks: what does a model look like when it's working, and who isn't yet benefiting?
Three Participatory Forums, produced the Koboko Enterprise Formalisation and Financial Inclusion Model: 30 young people, a real labour-market-assessed skills pathway, formal certification, and business formalisation support.
Hosted by Mwara Namelok with support from LLEARN local partner in Koboko: South Sudanese Refugee Association
 
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author (s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or ICMPD. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Dessie, the capital of South Wollo Zone in Ethiopia's Amhara region, is a city that has experienced displacement from multiple directions: it hosts IDPs from the Oromia–Amhara conflict, returnees forced back from Sudan after April 2023, and a host community that was itself briefly displaced when the northern Ethiopia war reached South Wollo in 2021. Three different relationships to displacement, competing for the same limited housing, jobs, and services. 
Through Mohammad's story, an IDP from Wollega who fled violence at night across the Abay desert, and Belay's story, a returnee from Saudi Arabia whose employer beat her and who came back to Dessie injured and without means, the episode surfaces what recovery actually looks like when it is uneven and slower than the new buildings suggest. 90 percent of IDPs report high stress, much of it tied to fear of forced return. LLEARN's three Participatory Forums in Dessie moved from naming these tensions to a specific, agreed pilot: a mobile national-ID registration and cost-support model,  documentation that opens doors.
Hosted by Mwara Namelok with support from LLEARN local partner in Dessie: The Consortium of Ethiopian Human Rights Organizations (CEHRO)
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author (s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or ICMPD. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Aweil, in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan, is absorbing large numbers of returnees and displaced people in a town with limited infrastructure and systems not designed for the current scale of arrivals. Unlike many cities in this series, Aweil's challenge is not primarily social,  the community is welcoming, chiefs open their compounds, neighbours share what they have. The challenge is structural: land cannot be documented fast enough, water infrastructure hasn't grown with the population, and returnees,  who are technically 'home',  fall through the gaps of humanitarian systems calibrated for camps. 
 
Through Ali's story, a Sudanese refugee who arrived exhausted and separated from his family and who wants nothing more than a house and a business of his own, the episode surfaces the central finding: 66 percent of host households have secure housing; only 8 percent of displaced households do. LLEARN's three Participatory Forums produced a land documentation pilot, a 12-water-yard upgrade plan with community governance structures, and a Village Savings and Loan Association expansion. 
 
Hosted by Mwara Namelok with support from LLEARN local partner in Aweil: Bridge Network
 
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author (s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or ICMPD. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Kakuma and Kalobeyei in Kenya's Turkana County are undergoing one of the most significant shifts in refugee governance in East Africa: the gradual conversion of a long-standing refugee camp into a fully recognised municipality. Kakuma has hosted refugees since 1992. Today, under Kenya's Refugee Act of 2021 and the Shirika Plan, it is officially in transition. But transition on paper and transition in practice are two very different things. 
 
Through Maria's story, a South Sudanese woman who arrived in Kakuma in 2023, was injured on her first night, cannot find paid work, and has never been invited to a single community consultation, this episode shows what the gap between policy and daily life looks like from the inside. LLEARN surveyed 445 households and found that only 35 percent of displaced residents feel safe in their neighbourhood. Documentation barriers, the food categorisation system, and a weak education-to-work transition are the three structural tensions the episode unpacks. 
 
Three Participatory Forums have produced concrete pilot ideas: a multilingual service access campaign, a career clinic, and a one-zone spatial mapping exercise.
 
Hosted by Mwara Namelok with support from LLEARN local partner in Kakuma:  Youth Voices Community (YVC).
 
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author (s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or ICMPD. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Bosaso is the commercial capital of Puntland, Somalia, a port city shaped by trade, movement, and a long-standing reputation for open doors. This episode explores what reintegration looks like when a city's identity is built on arrival and transit, but its systems are not designed for people who stay. 
 
Through Naciimo's story, a returnee from Yemen who came back to Bosaso in 2015, built a small business, lost it, and now survives on neighbours' kindness after a car accident ended her ability to work, the episode surfaces the central tension in Bosaso: nearly four in five displaced households lack secure housing, 93 percent have no savings, and seven in ten have no formal income. 
 
LLEARN's Participatory Forums brought together over 100 people to identify what needs to change, from coordinated service planning in informal settlements to credit models that work without collateral.
 
Hosted by Mwara Namelok with support from LLEARN local partner in Bosaso: Tadamun Social Society.
 
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author (s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or ICMPD. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.