OAMI 2130 - Managing and Solving refugee Problems: UNHCR & UNRWA

This course focuses on how critically refugee and IDPs situations are managed and solved. It draws from the course convener personal experience with UNRWA and UNHCR in different parts of the world and in various positions. It will also benefit from the contribution of guest speakers from the same organizations who will offer current and previous perspectives.
The course is based mostly on case studies drawn from practices to illustrate how decisions were taken and problems solved in specific refugee and IDPs situation. The course aims at showing the insight of global international humanitarian organizations, how they related with governments, donors, NGOs, refugees etc, how they are managed and transformed with time, how they addressed ethical, moral and accountability issues that may question their fundamental principles and ultimately how refugee rights are advocated and protected in challenging political environments.
The overall aim is to gain a critical sense of what is the real nature of global humanitarian organizations and how they balance in practice refugee interests with their own. .

Learning Outcomes :

1) Learn how UNHCR and UNRWA work, their constraints, and the skills to analyze the work of global international humanitarian organizations dealing with displacement
2) Understand the geopolitics that surround refugee work today and how concretely solutions can be envisaged to their plight.
3) Know how to operate in countries or in situations where refugee rights are not respected, the skills to overcome those difficulties to improve their conditions.
4) Develop techniques to publicly advocate for refugees and the skills to successfully promote respect for refugee rights.
5) Recognize the importance of communications in today refugee matters and acquire skills to communicate effectively and diplomatically when required
6) Study situations where values, accountability and ethics are under scrutiny and learn the ethical standards required to become a United Nations official.
7) Understand how assistance to refugees is given by the international community and acquire skills to implement successfully programs for refugees.

Professional Skills :

1> Ethical behaviors required to become an international civil servant
2> Communication and advocacy skills
3> Responses in emergency situations or under precarious security conditions
4> Finding creative solutions to protect refugee rights when there are not many available
5> Negotiating with the “enemy”
6> Compassion, respect for the most destitute populations

Salvatore LOMBARDO

Séminaire

English

- In Class Presence: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
- Reading and Preparation for Class: 12 hours a semester
- Research and preparation for group work: 12 hours a semester
- Research and writing for individual assessment: 40 hours a semester.

Spring 2024-2025

Participation – 10%

Working Group Presentation – 30%
- The class will be divided into groups of 4-5 students to research and to prepare a collective presentation based on a given geographical situation involving a challenging refugee or IDPs situation. Each group has the freedom to decide the refugee or IDPs situation. The topic will be agreed with the course convener ahead of time.
- Each presentation should contain an outline of the policies in each region, country place etc, how this collide or match with international obligations, explain the challenges and opportunities and offer a realistic and innovative way forward.
- For the presentation, the groups can choose between two approaches: either "managing" or "solutions". In case of the managing approach, the group should focus on the following issues: overall political situation in the country of asylum, current protection issues related to asylum, data, asylum govt. position, access to rights, programming and operational elements, UN and NGOs cooperation, funding, management risks and opportunities.
- In the case of the solutions approach, the group is expected to do a profiling of the refugee or IDPs population, explain the reasons for fleeing and current situation in the country of origin, explore perspectives of preserving asylum and protection in the country of asylum, contextualize the regional political and economic situation, highlight the opportunities to secure one or all three of the potential solutions (volrep, resettlement and local integration), as well as the funding of the operation.
- Presentations will be 15-20 minutes long followed by a brief class discussion. All members of the group should participate with one- or two-persons maximum speaking on behalf of the group. Presentations will be judged on quality of the content, its realism, presentation outlets, and the ability to engage in the discussion following the presentation. All members of the group will receive the same grade.

Final take-home exam – 60%
- Short essay: 4000 words maximum, in Times New Roman font, size 11, standard margins including the footnotes. Add a bibliography in annex.
- A tentative title of 300 words outline must be submitted by February 25 once topic has been agreed with the convenor. The outline consists of the research questions and problems. Students are free to add a short, annotated bibliography. The outlines (and bibliography) are not graded. Since writing a paper is a time-consuming activity that cannot be improvised in the last three weeks of the semester, the outline is supposed to help students, ensuring they make consistent progress throughout the semester. Course convenor provide participants with an individual and thorough feedback.
- Deadline to send your work: by Sunday April 27 (midnight).

Important dates/deadlines:

- Composition of Working groups teams by February 10 (email to be sent with 3 preferred choices listed by February 5
- Topic for the final paper chosen by February 16 (email to be sent with two choices by February 15)
- 300 words outline 4000 words paper to be submitted once topic agreed with convenor. Outline to be sent by February 25, 2025
- Presentation by Groups Session (on 17 and 18 March 2025)
- Deadline to send final take home exam by Sunday April 27, 2025

Students will be regularly stimulated during the lessons. They will be asked to engage in teamwork. In all such cases students will be encouraged to make short presentations and to work in group. Individual feedback will be offered after the final take-home exam which will help students to draw lessons from the paper that could help them to guide for future endeavors.