Norwegian Refugee Council Research Articles

Predictors and barriers to vaccination among older Syrian refugees in Lebanon: a cross-sectional analysis of a multi-wave longitudinal study

Vaccination is important to prevent morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19 among older Syrian refugees. We aimed to elucidate the predictors of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among Syrian refugees aged 50 years or older in Lebanon and to understand their main reasons for not receiving the vaccine. This was a cross-sectional analysis of a five-wave longitudinal study, conducted through telephone interviews between Sept 22, 2020, and March 14, 2022, in Lebanon. For this analysis, data were extracted from wave 3 (Jan 21-April 23, 2021), which included a question on vaccine safety and on whether participants intended to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and wave 5 (Jan 14-March 14, 2022), which included questions on actual vaccine uptake. Syrian refugees aged 50 years or older were invited to participate from a list of households that received assistance from the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian non-governmental organisation. The outcome was self-reported COVID-19 vaccination status. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of vaccination uptake. Validation was completed internally with bootstrapping methods. 2906 participants completed both wave 3 and 5; the median age was 58 (IQR 55-64) years and 1538 (52·9%) were male. 1235 (42·5%) of 2906 participants had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The main reasons for not receiving the first dose included being afraid of its side-effects (670 [40·1%] of 1671) or not wanting the vaccine (637 [38·1%] of 1671). 806 (27·7%) of 2906 participants received the second dose of the vaccine and 26 (0·9%) of 2906 received the third dose. The main reason for not receiving the second (288 [67·1%] of 429) or third dose (573 [73·5%] of 780) was waiting for a text message for an appointment. Predictors of receiving at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine included younger age (odds ratio 0·97; 95% CI 0·96-0·98), being male (1·39; 1·19-1·62), living inside informal tented settlements (1·44; 1·24-1·66), having elementary (1·23; 1·03-1·48) and preparatory education or above (1·15; 0·95-1·40), and having a pre-existing intention to receive the vaccine (1·29; 1·10-1·50). After adjusting for optimisation, the final model, which includes these five predictors of receiving at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, showed moderate discrimination (C-statistic 0·605; 95% CI 0·584-0·624) and good calibration (c-slope 0·912; 95% CI 0·758-1·079). There is an ongoing need to address COVID-19 vaccine uptake among older Syrian refugees by improving deployment planning and raising awareness about the importance of vaccination. ELRHA's Research for Health in Humanitarian Crisis Programme.

Humanitarians in court: how duty of care travelled from human resources to legal liability

This article explores the process of legalization as a shift in the way humanitarian actors are held accountable. The analysis is developed at the interface of legal sociology, legal anthropology and at the margins of an anthropology of the Norwegian welfare state. Through an account of the groundbreaking Steven Patrick Dennis v. the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) case litigated in Oslo District Court in 2015, I show how the evolving juridification of humanitarian organizations’ duty of care for their staff is transforming both the content and the framing of the relationship between employers (NGOs) and employees (NGO workers), and perceptions of the moral duties and humanitarian worker subject positions that underpin this relationship. Over the last decade, the NRC has gone through a period of exceptional growth and has evolved to become one of the humanitarian sectors most well-known and respected actors. Despite this prominence, there is no critical academic engagement with the organization’s work or its institutional culture. The article aims to bridge that knowledge gap.

Remote Sensing & GIS for the Assessment of Flood Affected Population “A Case Study of September 2014 Floods in Kashmir J&K India”

The frequency and intensity of natural disasters have increased in the recent past. According to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (Norwegian Refugee Council) 2014 over 19 million people were forced to flee their homes because of natural disaster like floods, storms and earthquakes. Kashmir valley of India experienced the worst floods in the past sixty years during the first week of September 2014, killing more than 200 people and suffered a massive economic loss of about one trillion. The present study makes use of Geo Spatial technology for the assessment of population affected by September 2014 floods and revealed that 398 villages / wards with a population of 2648092 were affected by September 2014 floods.

Humanitarian aid and host state capacity: the challenges of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Colombia

How can humanitarian actors operate in a host state with significant subnational variations in willingness and capacity to meet its obligations? This is an issue of pressing importance, given the expansion of humanitarian aid to middle-income countries with growing state capacity, but with persistent infrastructural weakness in their periphery. The article illustrates the challenges and potentialities of engaging these states through the case study of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Colombia. It describes the way the NRC has located its offices in peripheral areas, and how its activities have fostered the rule of law, successfully using rights-based approaches to strengthen subnational state institutions, activate and mobilise citizen demands and bridge national and subnational administrations. The article concludes that these activities, operated by officers with extensive practical knowledge and local trust networks, can open the way for durable solutions for humanitarian crisis, but can also provoke backlash from subnational actors.

‘Are we becoming bullies?’ A case study of stress, communication, and Gestalt interventions among humanitarian workers

"Abstract: There is an increasing focus on humanitarian workers and stress. At a workshop in June 2015, the author facilitated self-care, group debrief and communication sessions for senior gender advisers deployed by the Norwegian Refugee Council. This paper presents and discusses survey responses relating to the advisers’ experiences of stress, communication, and Gestalt interventions. In certain situations, such as humanitarian crises, people – including humanitarian workers themselves – can easily become stressed and their communication violent, which in turn may contribute to more stress and violence around them. However, this cycle can be broken with sufficient support and awareness. Key words: stress, communication, resistance, group debriefing, humanitarian workers, gender."

Home as a Critical Value: From Shelter to Home in Georgia


 
 
 Providing shelter and housing is a core area of humanitarian assistance for displaced populations. Georgia, a former Soviet republic in the South Caucasus, has experienced displacement since the early 1990s, and housing has proved to be politically contentious and a major concern during the 20-year displacement crisis. In Georgia, as elsewhere, homemaking takes place during displacement in dwellings that are temporary and not supposed to last. The article explores the conditions that enable such homemaking and discusses what Iris Marion Young terms “home as a critical value.” One trial project is used as an example: the building of 42 small houses, termed “block houses,” in Kutaisi, Western Georgia, by the Norwegian Refugee Council in 2002 and 2003. The article explores the relationships and homemaking practices in and around the houses that people have developed since that date. Relative to others, the project has been a positive example of how to enable home as a critical value. The article first defines house-as-home and introduces the case explored; it then discusses internal displacement and “durable housing solutions” in Georgia, before turning to explore how shelter, housing, home, and homemaking can be conceptualized in displacement . By engaging with Iris Marion Young’s “home as a critical value,” the article analyzes how people have adjusted to and adapted the block houses in Kutaisi to understand the relationship between the houses and the homemaking that takes place within and around them. The concluding section discusses how home as a critical value may help to show the importance of identity and social status for housing strategies in protracted displacement. 
 
 

Rebuilding Social Capital: The Soft Impact of Reintegration Programs on Uganda's Child Soldiers

Based on quantitative micro-level data gathered in Uganda, this article contributes to the systematic evaluation of reintegration programs for child soldiers. While prominent studies suggest that These programs make no difference for the reintegration success of participants, I argue that by using a more finely grained measurement of reintegration success, evidence can be found that participation in such programs actually does have a positive effect by enhancing the social capital of individuals. Findings are based on 100 semi-structured interviews with adolescents taking part in an education program established by the Norwegian Refugee Council. Program participants were compared to a control group of 50 individuals with similar backgrounds who have not taken part in any reintegration program. The analysis demonstrates that participating former child soldiers felt a stronger sense of belonging and trust towards their community, had more friends and were more active in social clubs than non-participants. Furthermore, overall satisfaction with life was considerably strengthened.

The Plight of Internally Displaced Children: A Case of Zimbabwe

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are some of the most neglected vulnerable populations in the world. They are often neglected because they are an internationally and legally unacknowledged group amongst the Moving and Vulnerable Peoples (MVPs) due to a lack of legislature pertaining to them. This study seeks to critically assess the educational opportunities available to internally displaced children in Zimbabwe who were affected by the farm invasions, illegal settlements and various government operations like “operation murambatsvina.” The study also assesses the psycho social support afforded them as well as the economic and social issues arising due to their dilemma in Zimbabwe. In this study, a qualitative phenomenological design was used with focus group discussions, interviews and observations as data collection methods with eleven participants comprising of (4) four children, representing every ward in which they have been resettled, one traditional village leader, one ward councillor, two (2) school teachers, Chipinge district education officer, one YEP centre administrator and the education programme coordinator for the Norwegian Refugee Council. Findings from this study revealed that displaced persons face a high level of discrimination and ostracism from the host community arising from differences in culture and traditional beliefs. Jealousies also arise from the host community due to the somewhat elevated status of the resettled persons due to the assistance they receive from service providers which leads to feelings of inferiority in children and consequently affecting educational performance. The study also revealed that IDP children face a host of challenges from home ranging from economic to protection issues that may lead into them dropping out of school with no hope of ever recovering the lost time. The study highly recommends acknowledgement of the existence of IDPs such that they are afforded quick assistance within a legal framework for sustainability of livelihoods.

Rehabilitation and reconstruction of Afghanistan: a challenge for Afghans, NGOs and the UN

Owing to the nature of their funding, hardly any NGO projects in Afghanistan have been long term or geared to the future development of the country. “Donor fatigue” and the fact that much of the previous aid was politically motivated, has led NGOs to begin to question the value of their existing work and to consider whether and how they might do more to promote peace and longterm reconstruction and development. In an attempt to address some of the questions, the Norwegian Church Aid, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Oxfam jointly supported the organization of a workshop aimed at exploring the role of NGOs in peace building. Based on the findings of that workshop, as well as on A. Strand′s five years of field experience.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews Get access INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS: THE GROUND LEVEL EXPERIENCE. By J. Borgen and E. Kraakaas Rasmusson. Oslo: Norwegian Refugee Council, 1995. THE PROTECTION OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS BY NRC: PLATFORM, CONCEPTS AND STRATEGIES. By J. Borgen. Oslo: Norwegian Refugee Council, 1994. INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION FOR INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS: NEXT STEPS. By R. Cohen. Washington, D.C.: Refugee Policy Group, 1994. Kate Jastram Balian Kate Jastram Balian Deputy Representative UNHCR Branch OfficeWashington, D.C., U.S.A Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Refugee Survey Quarterly, Volume 14, Issue 1-2, Spring 1995, Pages 301–303, https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/14.1-2.301 Published: 01 March 1995