News

AERC in collaboration with World Bank held an Inception Workshop on June 13 – 16, 2023, under the project Kenya Analytical Program on Forced Displacement (KAP-FD). The thematic research project is benchmarked on application of datasets collected by the World Bank and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in collaboration with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) on living conditions of refugees and host communities. The motivation of the project is to provide important evidence and lessons to better inform measures that improve their socioeconomic opportunities for the people living in forced displacement. This is through gathering more granular evidence under the Kenya Analytical Program on Forced Displacement (KAP-FD).The data sets are the: Socioeconomic Surveys (SESs);  Kenya Continuous Household Survey on Refugees and Host Communities (KCHS Integrated Survey);  and Kenya COVID-19 Rapid Response Phone Survey (RRPS) produced broad socioeconomic data on host communities and forcibly displaced in Kenya.

KAP-FD seeks to, among other things, to build the capacity of early-career researchers in Kenya to use displacement data. The project envisages building the capacity of early career researchers by facilitating and utilizing the data produced under KAP-FD and/or previous projects. The early career researchers are mentored through expert reviews and peer learning, to conduct forced displacement related research while ensuring the wide use of data collected in World Bank-supported surveys.

During the Inception workshop, 12 proposals were presented by 17 early career researchers in attendance. Of the 17 researchers, 8 were female and 9 were male. Three of the researchers had experienced forced displacement settings. The Inception Workshop had four resource persons, namely, Prof. Rosemary Atieno and Prof. Germano Mwabu, both from Department of Economics and Development Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya: Prof. Tomson Ogwang, Faculty of Social Sciences, Brock University, Canada; Prof. Erick Nyambedha, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Maseno University, Kenya.  The World Bank team consisted of: Dr. Precious Zikhali, Dr. Patrick Mutinda Muthui, Antonia Johanna Sophie Delius and Anne Kittony.