The document discusses using technology as a development tool in refugee camps. It provides background on refugee camp planning literature and presents a case study of Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. The document analyzes how information and communication technologies like cell phones and computers were used in Dadaab for economic activities, education, and family connectivity, but notes complications from lack of basic infrastructure. It concludes that technology-based development has the potential to improve conditions in refugee camps if implemented alongside other programs.

1. Refugee Camp Development &
Communications Technology
Mitchell Sipus 2008

2. Presentation
• Research Background
• Thesis Problem
– Brief Overview of Dadaab, Research and Conclusions
• Technology as Development Tool
– Literature
• Information Technology
• Telecommunications
– Dadaab Case Study
Conclusion

3. Research Interest
Poverty
Political Landscapes
Social Ethics and Responsibility
International Development
Informal Economies
Self Constructed Housing
Migration Social Justice
Liminal Space Economic Equity
Dadaab Conflict Resolution
Y Planning Environmental Sustainability
Architecture Refugee Camps
X
Desire for Thesis worthy of publication
Desire for Relevant Professional Experience
Desire for Objective Knowledge
Personal Objectives

4. Problem
• Although a great deal of literature exists
for the planning of refugee camps, such
camps continue to pose a threat to the
natural environment and are
concentrations of human inequity.

5. Problem
• If such camps will continue to exist, how
can they be better planned to offset the
negative environmental impact and
support the empowerment of the
refugee community?

6. Camp Planning Literature
• Transitional Settlement / Displaced Persons, Oxfam and University of
Cambridge 2005
• UNHCR Handbook on Emergency Settlements, 2004
• SPHERE – Human Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster
Response 2004
• Temporary Human Settlement Planning for Displaced Populations in
Emergencies, Overseas Development Institute 1998
• Studies on Emergency and Disaster Relief: Shelter Provision and
Settlement Policies for Refugees, Nordika Afrikaininstitutet 1995

7. Case Study: Dadaab

8. Somalia
Kenya

9. S
O
K
M
E
A
Dadaab N
L
Y
I
A
A

18. Dominant Structures
• Historical
• Political
• Social Camp Planning
• Physical
• Theoretical

19. Access to Goods and Services
• Firewood
• Rations
• UN
services
• medical
20
Minutes

20. Access to Goods and Services
• Firewood
• Rations Protected
• UN Block
services
• Medical
20
Minutes

21. Impact of Existing Plan
• Environmental Deterioration
• Aid Assistance vs. Aid Dependence
• Poor distribution of goods and services
• Segregation
• Reinforcements of existing power
structures
• Lack of focus on development
• Presents complications to data collection

22. Social Consequences
• Violence
• Sexual Abuse
• Difficult to raise animals
• Incurs greater expense on refugees
• Deteriorates opportunities for agriculture
• Forces stronger security protocol by UNHCR, creating
greater friction between agencies and refugees
• Breakdown of traditions, social institutions, and needless
increase of poverty

23. Conclusion
• Given the existing frameworks which determine refugee camp
planning, a more sensitive approach to the local environment and
existing social capital will reduce costs and need for security/
protection measures for agencies as scarce resources will be more
equitably distributed.
• Solutions which redistribute the balance of power within existing
structures are unlikely to ever be implemented
• Thus there is a demand for creative solutions for Planning of
refugee settlements
• One strategy is to engage refugee camps as projects of community
development, not as political fiascos.

24. Development Based Approach
• Infrastructure can move beyond basic necessities: high technology,
communications, money transfers, modern finance and judicial
systems should be considered relevant options to refugee
populations
• Perhaps approach development as the removal of “bottlenecks” to
development, vs. installation of expensive infrastructure and
services, thus considering social overhead as a starting point and
not a later consideration – after all, ‘building capacity’ is generally of
greater interest to consultants and agencies than the actual
populations.

25. Information & telecommunication
infrastructure as a method for
economic development

26. Four concepts for technology
based development strategies
• Business development
• Improved public services
• Increased connectivity
• Job creation
Spencer, James. “Technology and Urban Poverty: Understanding the Barriers to Equality,”
Projections MIT Student Journal of Planning, Vol. 2, Spring 2001, pp 24-50

27. Business Development
• Provides opportunities for entrepreneurs to both start businesses
and provide services in high-poverty neighborhoods where
computer use is not high.
• Ideal for heavy demand for connectivity but lack of infrastructure.
• Example 1 - Grameen Phone, offshoot of Grameen Bank. Provides
phones for farmers with phones to access up to date information
about market prices, road conditions, potential buyers etc. able to
circumvent middlemen.
• Example 2 – ATMs for banking services in small shops where banks
have otherwise disappeared from inner city areas (but not a
sustainable solution).

28. Improved public services
• Consideration of online access as a public good to equalize job prospects
between upper and lower classes
• More frequently considered in terms of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) for
federal checks, cost benefits for government and consumer, further
intended to integrate poor into banking and money management
– problems with unfamiliarity of electronic media and computer access

29. Increased Connectivity
• Reduction of “digital divide,” a potential equalizer for
employment and education opportunities. Allows
individuals to access resources outside of immediate
location/society, assumed belief that this will be passed
on into community and environment development
– external factors more greatly determine the
individuals ability to utilize this technology

30. Job Creation
• “High tech as Industrial Revolution of the 21st century”
as technology stimulates supply and production
dynamics of labor market
– within existing research, there is the dominant belief
in stronger secondary and tertiary impact of tech
development for lower class

31. Information Technology

32. “Information Technology and Urban Poverty:
The Role of Public Policy”
by Bish Sanyal
• The poor must not be excluded from knowledge production
• Government should ensure universal access: must consider
provision of infrastructure, affordable hardware, user-friendly
software, the ability and motivation to use software, and the periodic
upgrading of hardware/software.
• A key objective is to create better and equal public education for
children and youth in low-income areas
• Financial strengthening of public schools is a necessary but not
sufficient lone condition for innovative use of IT for educational
purposes
• Public policies should target prospective entrepreneurs
Sanyal, Bish ed. “Information Technology and Urban Poverty: The Role of Public Policy.” High
Technology and Low-Income Communities: Prospects for the Positive Use of Advanced Information
Technology. MIT Press; Cambridge, Massachusetts 1999

33. Strategies: “Approaches to Community Computing:
Bringing Technology to Low-Income Groups”
by Anne Beamish
• Goal: Social empowerment through community networks
• Establishing Neighborhood Technology Centers in Low-Income
Communities
• Equitable Access to the Internet
• Complications: software and hardware availability, training,
technical assistance, access,
• Community generally consists of information consumers not
producers.
• Frequent vagueness of community goals and assumption that new
technology will improve lives of low income residents.
Beamish, Anne. Strategies: “Approaches to Community Computing: Bringing Technology to Low-Income Groups”
High Technology and Low-Income Communities: Prospects for the Positive Use of Advanced Information
Technology. MIT Press; Cambridge, Massachusetts.

34. Telecommunications

35. Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic
Development: A Simultaneous Approach by Lars-
Hendrik Roller and Leonard Waverman
• Telecommunications investment leads to growth
• demand for infrastructure
• economic returns higher the telecommunications returns
• telecommunication improvements reduce business costs
and improve outputs
• allows better business management efficiency
• important spillovers and create externalities
• Appears to have same problems of general infrastructure
in reverse causality and spurious correlations
Roller, Lars Hendrick and Leonard Waverman. “Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Development: A
Simultaneous Approach,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 91, No. 4 (Sep., 2001), pp. 909-923

36. Dadaab

38. Economic Development Impact
Cell phones - small business start ups,
email, agriculture and market use,
connectivity
Computers – newsletter creation, recording
studio, internet access to current events,
online schooling,
Wire Services – overnight money wiring
services to refugees and locals, hadwalla

44. Broad Policy Implications of
Technology Oriented Development
• - Like most Economic Development strategies, the use of high tech
infrastructure is most feasible in relation to a well understood
population
• - however, when look at individually, each one is inadequate to
serve the lower class without the support of additional programs
• - in general terms, the lack of technology within areas of
concentrated poverty is a reflection of other circumstances and
policy makers need to take into consideration the compound effects
of these circumstances when directing investments toward high-tech
infrastructure and tech-oriented policies aimed at the poor.

45. Telecommunications:
Dadaab
• Positive Spillovers
– stimulation of markets and business startups,
– creation of tuition classes
– improved resettlement options
– family connectivity
• Complications
– Lack of Basic Sector Activity, only extends multiplier

46. Technologically Based
Development
The social benefits have the potential to
offset environmental degradation, and
although may not generate new income
it may improve distribution of existing
assets.

47. Sources Cited
• Beamish, Anne. Strategies: “Approaches to Community Computing: Bringing Technology to Low-Income Groups” High
Technology and Low-Income Communities: Prospects for the Positive Use of Advanced Information Technology. MIT Press;
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Nordika Afrikaininstitutet, Studies on Emergency and Disaster Relief: Shelter Provision and Settlement Policies for Refugees,
1995
• Overseas Development Institute Temporary Human Settlement Planning for Displaced Populations in Emergencies, 1998
• Roller, Lars Hendrick and Leonard Waverman. “Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Development: A
Simultaneous Approach,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 91, No. 4 (Sep., 2001), pp. 909-923
Text
• Sanyal, Bish ed. “Information Technology and Urban Poverty: The Role of Public Policy.” High Technology and Low-Income
Communities: Prospects for the Positive Use of Advanced Information Technology. MIT Press; Cambridge, Massachusetts 1999
• Spencer, James. “Technology and Urban Poverty: Understanding the Barriers to Equality,” Projections MIT Student Journal of
Planning, Vol. 2, Spring 2001, pp 24-50
• Transitional Settlement / Displaced Persons, Oxfam and University of Cambridge 2005
• SPHERE, Human Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, 2004
• UNHCR Handbook on Emergency Settlements, 2004