30-07-2010
Empowering Refugees by means of Microcredit
Using the theory of Maslow, can situations of extreme
poverty be compared to situations of prolonged refuge;
and what is the extent to which microcredit programs
can have similar effects in both circumstances.
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... 3
INTRODUCTION ... 6
1.
DEPRIVATION OF NEEDS IN SITUATIONS OF EXTREME POVERTY ....13
1.1. Humanistic psychology ... 13
1.2. The hierarchy of human needs ... 15
1.3. Critics to the theory ... 18
1.4. The hierarchy of needs and its use in assessing the dynamics of poverty ... 19
1.5. Maslow’s vision of poverty ... 19
1.6. Understandings of poverty ... 21
1.6.1. Narrow definition ... 22
1.6.2. Broad understanding ... 24
1.6.3. Grass-roots approaches ... 25
1.7. Structural causes of poverty and their implications for fighting poverty ... 26
2.
DEPRIVATION OF NEEDS IN SITUATIONS OF PROLONGED REFUGE ..29
2.1. General characteristics of the situation of prolonged refuge ... 30
2.1.2. Legal definition of refugee ... 30
2.2. Limited access to rights ... 33
2.3. The needs of refugees & the cycle of dependence ... 34
2.4. Coping strategies ... 38
3.
THE CONCEPT OF MICROCREDIT AND THE FULFILMENT OF NEEDS .48
3.1. History of the concept ... 48
3.1.1. Famine in Bangladesh ... 49
3.1.2. Understanding the structural cycle of poverty... 50
3.1.3. Poverty as a human rights issue ... 51
3.1.4. Critics to regular aid ... 52
3.1.5. Microcredit ... 53
3.1.6. Working with women ... 54
3.1.7. Success... 56
3.1.8. From Yunus’ Grameen Bank to a wider application of microcredit ... 57
3.2. The theoretical concept... 57
3.2.1. The financial system ... 57
3.2.2. The national context ... 58
3.2.3. The target group: The extreme poor ... 60
3.2.4. The supply-side: Microcredit products ... 62
3.2.5. The supply-side: Microcredit institutions ... 65
3.2.6. Other factors ... 66
4.
MICROCREDIT IN SITUATIONS OF PROLONGED REFUGE...69
4.1. Microcredit and the needs of refugees ... 69
4.2. The context... 71
4.2.1. The government rules and regulations - economic freedom ... 71
4.2.2. The level of poverty ... 72
4.2.3. The geographical context ... 74
4.2.4. Low levels of conflict ... 74
4.2.5. Relations with local populations ... 75
4.3. The demand side: Target group... 76
4.4. The supply side: Humanitarian organizations ... 77
5.1. The International Rescue Committee - Kakuma Camp Kenya 1992-2003. ... 82
5.1.1. The context ... 82
5.1.2. The microcredit programme ... 83
5.1.3. Evaluation ... 83
5.2. Christian Outreach Relief and Development (CORD) - Mayukwayukwa Camp- Zambia . 86 5.2.1. The context ... 86
5.2.2. The microcredit programme ... 87
5.2.3. Evaluation ... 88
5.3. The American Refugee Council (ARC), Guinea, 1997- ... 90
5.3.1. The context ... 90
5.3.2. The microcredit programme ... 91
5.3.3. Evaluation ... 94
5.4. Hegoa - Tindouf Algeria 2007-2010 ... 95
5.4.1. The context ... 95
5.4.1. The microcredit programme ... 96
5.4.2. Evaluation ... 97
CONCLUSION ... 100
ANNEXES ... 106
1. Providers of financial intermediation services... 106
2. Principles of financially viable lending to poor entrepreneurs ... 107
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 108
Introduction
What do situations of extreme poverty and prolonged refuge have in common? In both cases people live in a dreadful situation of deprivation, with few opportunities to move on, to save money, to invest in the future of their children. In both cases families and individuals are caught in a vicious circle of poverty and dependence. It seems that there is no exit strategy, they are trapped in a situation of ill-being and it appears that the only way forward is a drastic change in the conditions in which they live. They themselves however, do not possess the instruments to influence this context, in order to make that drastic change. One importance difference between both situations is the legal context; in situations of poverty, normally (when included in national population registries) poor people at least are considered to be citizens of the country they live in, and therefore possess the rights and duties of the legal system of that country, the government of the country being responsible for them. Conversely, in the situation of refuge, although international treaties should guarantee rights for refugees, often host countries do not offer them these rights and therefore possibilities to undertake action in order to change one´s situation are limited.
Both situations are of dependence, dependence on external aid to survive. In cases of deprivation caused by extreme poverty this aid is mostly informal and offered by the social network, religious institutions or informal lenders, for instance. Sometimes, the aid is formal, and offered by non-governmental organizations or public institutions. Mostly this aid is palliative only rather than directed at fostering a sustainable improvement of living conditions. There are many ways in which this improvement might be enabled. One of those is through access to microcredit; a small loan that can be used to invest in a micro- enterprise. This micro-enterprise may offer a sustainable and regular source of income, and through additional savings mechanisms it can actually help the family to improve its living conditions, to become self sustainable and to end the dependence on external aid.
humanitarian aid that is offered is palliative and directed at the short term goal to save lives. Many situations of refuge do not end rapidly, the conflicts that are the causes of the refuge are prolonged, or the natural disaster has destroyed the home community in such a way that a soon return home is not possible. Examples of these situations of prolonged refuge are numerous and are more the rule than the exception. (Figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) show that of the total number of 10.4 million refugees 30 % live in camps, and the average stay in a camp is 17 years.)1
Humanitarian organizations have the goal to protect people’s lives and dignity.1 Their
work saving lives is clear, preserving human dignity however is more difficult, especially in situations of prolonged refuge. This is because of the dynamics of the humanitarian aid itself and because of the legal limitations that are placed on refugees.2 These limitations
reinforce the dependence on external aid, and this dependence becomes dehumanizing. It takes away self-initiative, the feeling of control over one’s own life and that of one’s family, the freedom of choice, realistic positivism and hope for a change etc. In the end this diminishes the respect for and the worth of the individual. Is human dignity having just the mere means to survive? Or does it mean more?3
This dependence on aid frustrates people, and henceforth it threatens not only the individual, but also the social cohesion of the community as a whole. The longer this lasts, the bigger the negative effects it has on the population.4 Therefore when trying to
guarantee human dignity, it is necessary to find new ways to bring auto-determination, respect and human growth back to the people. Insights on how to achieve these goals can be found in the strategies the development sector uses for relieving long term poverty. In order to be able to know whether these strategies could also be applied to situations of prolonged refuges, it is essential to know until what extent both situations can be compared.
1
‘The humanitarian charter’, Sphere Project <http://www.sphereproject.org> (accessed 7-11-2009).
2 James C. Hathaway, The rights of refugees under international law (Cambridge 2005) 730-786. 3 Dignity, according to The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English, means: ‘the state or quality of
being worthy of honor or respect’, The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com> (accessed 24-05-2010).
4 Barbara Harrell Bond, ‘Can humanitarian work with refugees be humane?’, Human Rights Quarterly
A useful way of analysing and comparing both situations; that of extreme poverty and of prolonged refuge, is by using the theory: The hierarchy of human needs, developed by Abraham H. Maslow.5 According to his theory, every human being has the same hierarchical list of categories of needs and drives that motivate their behaviour. The most basic needs are those that are shared with other living species. They are the physiological need for water, food, shelter, reproduction and homoeostasis, the bodily needs necessary for basic survival. In both situations of extreme poverty and prolonged refuge these are the only needs that are barely covered. However, what makes people human, what differentiates people from other living species, according to Maslow, are their higher needs. In increasing order, the need for safety, the need for love and belonging, the need for self-esteem and the highest need is the need to obtain self-actualization. A common feature of every individual is its strive for achieving maximal personal growth; the fulfilment of all levels of human development, the full exploration of all personal capabilities and talents. This not only brings people happiness, moreover, when reaching overall higher levels of human development in communities, it brings social and civic benefits to the greater society.6
An example of an instrument that can help to empower people living in situations of extreme poverty to fulfil their higher needs is microcredit. The application of this tool not only offers the possibility to enable people to increase their income, which in effect can lift people out of poverty, moreover it has far reaching effects on the physical and emotional well-being of people. It may help the beneficiaries among others to increase their safety, to take control over their life and that of their families, to improve their self-esteem, their social status, and so on. To conclude, indirectly microcredit helps them to reach higher levels of human development, and to bring dignity.7
Conscientious of the limitations of traditional humanitarian aid, humanitarian organizations are currently exploring new strategies to fulfil the higher needs of refugees that protect their dignity and improve their well-being. An example is the livelihoods
5 Abraham H. Maslow, ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review 50 (1943), 370-396. 6 Maslow, ‘Human motivation’, 370-396.
7
programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for the Refugees (UNHCR).8 One of the programmes that UNHCR explores within these livelihoods strategies is a programme that provides microcredit to refugees.9 This new focus of UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations is still very recent, and so far not a lot of research has been conducted that shows the impact micro credit has on the wellbeing of refugees.
Therefore, in order to continue investigating the possibility microcredit may offer for reaching higher levels of wellbeing for refugees, first we will use the theory of Maslow that might give us more insights in the possible comparison between situations of prolonged refuge and extreme poverty.
The objective of this investigation is, taking into account the political, practical, organizational and legal limitations which may exist in a situation of prolonged refuge, to explore the possibilities microcredit programmes may offer to fulfilling the higher needs of the refugee population, thereby decreasing their vulnerability in situations of prolonged dependence on external aid.
The question leading this thesis will be the following;
Using the theory of Maslow, can situations of extreme poverty be compared
to situations of prolonged refuge; and what is the extent to which
micro-credit programs can have similar effects in both circumstances.
The hypotheses this thesis will test are:
1. Situations of extreme poverty and prolonged refuge can be compared using the theory of Maslow.
2. Microcredit programmes that help extremely poor people fulfil more human needs and thereby reach higher levels of human growth can have the same effects for refugees caught in situations of prolonged refuge.
8 Machtelt de Vriese, 'Refugee livelihoods: A review of the evidence', UNHCR
<http://www.unhcr.org/4423fe5d2.html> (accessed 10-06-2010) 1-53, 11.
9
‘Grameen Trust signs agreement with UNHCR to boost livelihoods programme’, Alertnet
In order to answer the central question and test the hypotheses, in this thesis the following sub-questions will tried to be answered.
1. How can the theory of the Hierarchy of needs of Maslow be used to explain situations of extreme poverty?
2. How can the theory of the Hierarchy of needs of Maslow be used to explain refugees’ dependence on external aid in situations of prolonged refuge and in what way do humanitarian organizations address those needs?
3. Using the theory of Maslow, to what extent can the situation of extreme poverty and that of prolonged refuge be compared?
4. What is the concept of micro-credit and how can micro-credit programmes empower extreme poor people to fulfil more than their basic needs?
5. What are the practical possibilities of micro-credit programmes to improve the living conditions of refugees by empowering them to fulfil their needs?
These questions will be the focus of the proceeding chapters. In the first chapter the theory of the hierarchy of needs of Maslow will be explained and applied to assess the situation of extreme poverty.
Subsequently in the second chapter, the theory of the hierarchy of needs will be applied to explain the situation of prolonged refuge. There, among others we will pay attention to the legal limitations that host governments place on refugees, which add up to and increase the vulnerability and dependence on aid. Also, in this regard, the role of humanitarian organizations and their approach to address the basic needs of refugees will be discussed. In the end of the chapter we will interpret this situation of ill-being using Maslow and as a conclusion, we can accept or reject the first hypothesis.
In the third chapter, the concept of micro-credit will be explained. We will start with its historical background taking the Grameen Bank as an example. Then we will analyze the current application of microcredit by different institutions, using the analogy of the market; the context in which the institutions operate, the financial system, the demand and supply side, with the objective to analyse the way in which micro-credit offers possibilities to people living in deprivation empowering them to fulfil their needs.
similarities that are external to the programme; the context in which the refugees live and secondly the internal similarities that are the characteristics of the microcredit programmes, the objectives, the supply and demand side of the market and the outcomes. We will try to identify risks, opportunities and consider minimum external preconditions and internal adjustments that are necessary to apply micro-credit in situations of prolonged refuge. On the basis of this chapter we will reject or accept our second hypothesis.
In the fifth chapter, four case studies of micro-credit programmes executed by humanitarian organizations in refugee camps will be used to validate and illustrate the previous analysis and to extract lessons learned. Also, some recommendations for designing micro-credit programmes will be made.
Finally in the concluding section, the main research question will answered and an explanation and evaluation will be given. Also some recommendations for further research will be made.
The relevance of this analysis is that it is necessary to find new ways to improve the dreadful situation millions of refugees are living in. Programmes, such as microcredit that have proven to successfully increase the wellbeing of people living in poverty may be effective tools for relieving illbeing of refugees too. Therefore it is useful to first draw a theoretical framework that enables the comparison of situations of prolonged refuge with situations of poverty, in order to support the choice of using similar strategies in both situations. The findings may especially be of use for humanitarian organizations; international and local NGOs, UNHCR, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, to include alternative strategies that improve their work aimed at protecting the lives and dignity of the refugees. The focus on microcredit might also benefit donors, because micro-credit programmes might require less investment than continuous humanitarian direct aid. Furthermore, national policy makers may use the analysis as a justification in order to create a friendly legal and economic environment to implement micro entrepreneurship in refugee camps. And finally it might serve as an academic contribution to the ongoing debate on filling the gap between humanitarian assistance and development aid.
this theory and other works of A.H. Maslow have been analysed. For understanding poverty, we have tried to analyse an overview of different approaches and studies, and for understanding of the situation of prolonged refuge, we have used legal texts and academic studies on the rights and needs of refugees and the factors influencing their lives in camps. Furthermore, in order to test the value of the theoretical analysis, we have compared it to real experiences, evaluations and interviews of microcredit programmes applied to refugee situations. America Refugee Council (ARC)10, Christian Outreach and Relief Development (CORD)11, Hegoa 12, and the International Rescue Committee (IRC)13.
10 T. de Klerk and T. Nourse, ‘Developing micro-enterprise in refugee camps: ARC’s experience in West
Africa’, Humanitarian exchange 28 (2004) <http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/lib.nsf/db900sid/SSHN-77TAJU/$file/humanitarianexchange028.pdf?openelement> (accessed 15-08-2009) 43-46, 44.
11 Jane Travis, ´Credit-based livelihood interventions in a Zambian refugee camp´, Forced Migration
Review 20 (2004) <www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR20/FMR2004.pdf> (accessed 16-08-2009) 10-11.
12
Information based on: Luis Elizondo, Microempresas en el Sáhara: refugio y desarrollo (Bilbao 2010). Luis Elizondo et al., Microcréditos en el Sáhara: manual para la solicitud de crédito en los
campamentos saharauis (Bilbao 2008). Interviews with Luis Elizondo.
13
Jason Phillips, ‘Challenges to the effective implementation of microfinance programmes in refugee settings’, Forced Migration Review 20 (2002)
1. Deprivation of needs in situations of Extreme poverty
How can the theory of the hierarchy on needs of Maslow be used to explain situations of extreme poverty?
‘It is quite true that man lives by bread alone - when there is no bread. But what happens to man's desires when there is plenty of bread and when his belly is chronically filled?’14
In this chapter the theory on the hierarchy of needs of Maslow will be introduced. First, the theory of Maslow and its basic propositions will be explained, and then we will clarify why this theory is useful to assess the situation of extreme poverty. In continuation, the general characteristics of a life in poverty will be discussed, and finally these characteristics of extreme poverty will be interpreted using the theory of Maslow. This way we can assess until what extent people living in poverty are limited in the realization of their human needs and talents. This understanding is serving two consequent goals, first the theoretical explanation enables us to explain the way in which microcredit programmes help people to achieve higher levels of human needs; second, it gives us a framework to understand to what extent the deprivation of human needs in a situation of prolonged refuge is similar to that in a situation of poverty. Maslow's theory allows us in the end to be able to assess whether microcredit programmes could enable also refugees to achieve higher levels of human growth.
1.1. Humanistic psychology
The theory of the hierarchy of needs was developed by the American psychologist Abraham H. Maslow. His theory was first published in 1943 in the magazine Psychological Review. Maslow can be considered a humanistic psychologist, focusing explicitly on the human dimension of psychology. His theory is widely accepted by other humanistic psychologists.15
14
Maslow, ‘Human motivation’, 370-396.
The branch of humanistic psychology was developed in the United States in the 1950s by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Humanistic psychology is also known as the Third Force, and was developed as a critique to behaviourism (the First Force) and psychoanalysis (the Second Force).16 It differs from those branches of psychology by
focusing on subjective experiences and consciousness, on the free will and personal responsibility. Humanistic psychology objected to the perspective of behaviorism of human beings driven solely by animal instincts such as sex, violence and selfishness, thereby omitting the unconsciousness, the free will etc. It also objected to the focus of psychoanalysis on only the unconsciousness and the starting point of the psychopathology; the psychologically sick person, and instead focused on the healthy person; the unconscious and conscious drives of behaviour of psychologically healthy and happy people. The Third Force opposed to behaviourism's mechanic explanation of human behaviour and its inability to explain complexities of human behaviour, reducing behaviour to impulsed responses (I.e. Skinner). Instead humanistic psychology focuses on human’s capabilities and on the free will. 17
Humanistic psychology was based on the philosophy of existentialism. Existentialism was developed by philosophers like Kierkegaard and Heidegger. Their view of mankind is based on their belief in personal responsibility, the free will, the strife to personal growth and human fulfilment According to existentialism, human beings are conscious of what is happening around them and are able to make personal decisions to change their future. Therefore, it stresses the importance of individuality, of an individual perception of morality and truth, rather than the existence of a universal truth and morality. In line with existentialism, the goal of human existence, according to the humanists is to reach maximum self realization, to obtain personal growth through the exploration of all talents and capabilities, to become self-determining. Humanistic psychologist studied the lives of successful people such as Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt and Mother Theresa to
16 John P. Crane, ‘Humanistic psychology: Maslow’, International School of Prague
<http://cranepsych2.edublogs.org/files/2009/08/Empirical_research_Maslow.pdf> (accessed 10-08-2009) 1-6.
17
Roy José de Carvalho, ‘A history of the Third Force in psychology’, The Journal of Humanistic
analyse their motivations for behaving the way they were, and compared that to the lives and motivations of less successful people.18
The method of the school of humanistic psychology is phenomenology. This method has the purpose to study the phenomena of human experiences, without any influence of cultural or scientific presuppositions, causal relationships or subjective associations, to focus only on the relations of the phenomena in the consciousness.19
1.2. The hierarchy of human needs
20The theory on the hierarchy of needs is Maslow´s most famous work. Maslow developed the theory on the basis of observations on the behaviour of monkeys. He noticed that in cases of deprivation, some needs take preference over other needs. This, he assumed was also normal for human beings. For instance, if a person is are very hungry, the only thing he or she can think of is filling his or her stomach. The drive for obtaining food is stronger than any other drives, the drive to have social relations for instance.
With this basic idea, Maslow created his pyramid of the hierarchy of needs. (Figure
1)
18 Carvalho, ‘History of Third Force’, 35-40. 19
‘Humanistic psychology overview’, Association for Humanistic Psychology, <http://www.ahpweb.org/aboutahp/whatis.html>, (accessed 10-05-2010).
On the lowest level of the pyramid we can find the basic needs, which are necessary for survival. These physiological needs are the needs that human beings share with the rest of living species, they are the needs for homoeostasis (maintaining the right balance of elements in your body), for oxygen, food, sleep, sex and clothing.21 When humans are first
born, these are the only motivators for behaviour. During its first months, a baby will cry only because of a deprivation of air, food, water or sleep. Without these elements its very existence is threatened. When a person is severely deprived of any of the basic needs, one cannot even think of the fulfilment of other needs; when hungry, a person will not think of anything but filling its stomach. Only when these needs are satisfactorily fulfilled, a human being might be motivated to searching for safety, which is one step higher than the physiological needs, he will search for security, then for love and belonging, for esteem, and when a person has reached the highest level he will search for self-actualization.
The fulfilment of all those needs, give a person full individual growth, it gives a person the ability to enjoy all its talents and capabilities. Maslow argued that a person can only achieve the next level of personal growth as soon as the previous level is reasonably satisfied. And whenever the person reaches the next level, he or she will value those aspects of its life much more than those of the lower levels. For instance, if a person is no longer hungry and is able to experience the warmth and safety of a caring family, he or she
will value the last aspect much more than having a filled stomach. Whenever the person experiences a severe deprivation of its lower needs, these temporarily gain importance, until they are met.
‘The utopia of a very hungry person is a place with plenty of food’ 22
When an individual is hungry, and at the same time is not respected by its family, it will probably search for food first, and only then resolve its problems with its family. Also, when in general a person has reached a higher level of human growth and temporarily the physiological needs are severely being lacked, all the capabilities a person has acquired (intelligence, judgement, habits) will become dormant until the physiological needs are met again. The level of human growth acquired also influences one’s whole perception of the possibilities and desires for the future.
When the physiological needs are gratified, then a person will search for safety. Again, safety is a drive that may dominate all other drives. This important drive for behaviour might be expressed best by children, who react openly to anything that threatens their safety. This is because they do not yet like adults, inhibit the reactions to those threats. A child reacts to any change in its physical wellbeing or its environment. An important determinant for safety is order and structure, children feel at ease when things happen in a predictable manner. This on a smaller scale also determines the feeling of safety of an adult. Safety is a subjective term, it means a structured, organized and predictable life. In reality one can think of a safe environment and social security.
According to Maslow, the first two years are the most important years in human development to acquire the basic needs, if they are not met in the first two years, a person will react less efficient in the case of the deprivation of one of their needs. This is because in the first two years one develops a strong character, to be able to deal with those thwarts. One of Maslow’s hypotheses follows this argumentation; people who in their life have never been deprived of certain needs may react more efficiently when later on in life confronted with this need. For instance a person that has never experienced an unsafe situation will react more efficiently in a situation of insecurity later on. Ideally, people live in safety. They are secure from violence, extreme changes of their environment, etc. Safety drives will dominate behaviour again in emergency situations.
The same explanation might be given with regards to the next levels of love and belonging, for self esteem and esteem from others, and finally the need for self-actualization.
Self-actualization is the highest of Maslow’s needs, and represents the maximum level of personal growth, the fulfilment of all the capabilities and talents one possesses. This level can only be reached after satisfaction of all the lower needs.
There are various side marks Maslow gives in explaining his own theory. Most importantly, he says his hierarchy is not a hundred percent fixed. For various reasons, persons may have different preferences. Extremely creative people might value their creativity more and be driven for the need for self-actualization, even when they are hungry. Also, it should be said, that Maslow agreed that these drives are not the only determinants for behaviour, also cultural, biological and situational aspects influence behaviour.23 This is also logical when understanding his critique on the deterministic view
on human nature of behaviourism, and his support for the idea that, although biological and external factors condition human behaviour, the relation between behaviour and these factors is not linear and subjective experiences do matter.24
1.3. Critics to the theory
Critics of Maslow’s theory argue that he has an overly optimistic view on human nature. He argues that every individual has the possibility to become self-actualized, and relates different characteristics to self-actualized persons. However it is doubtful if every person has the ability to possess those characteristics, and people that do possess them often lack some of the more basic needs. (Many highly creative people lack self-esteem or social skills). The value of this critique for this thesis lies in the consideration that through stimulation of proactive behaviour, which stimulates personal growth, some people might be capable of reaching higher levels of well-being, nevertheless, it may not be expected that every human being has the same capacity to fulfil their individual needs, and this knowledge may shape expected outcomes of microcredit programmes. Secondly, a weak point of Maslow’s theory many critics point at, is his assumption that his hierarchy of needs is universal; that every individual strives for personal growth. Nevertheless, in
23
Maslow, ‘Human Motivation’, 372.
many cultures personal growth is not the ultimate goal, as community level well-being is considered much more important. His perception of people striving for individual growth can be considered true for American individuals; it does not count for example for Japanese people.25 It is interesting to see, however, that Maslow reasons that when people
obtain higher levels of personal growth, their place in society improves and based on their positive characteristics they will have a beneficial influence on the community as a whole. So in the end it may be true indeed that in some cultures individual growth is not considered to be an important drive for behaviour, leaders, also in these communities have been able to obtain personal growth and have benefited from it. Also, it may or may not be true that although it is in human’s nature to strive for individual growth, some cultures have suppressed this behaviour.
Although these critiques are important discussions on the universal validity of Maslow’s theory, it is our opinion, that his theory offers a very interesting and valuable starting point to analyze individual and social realities.
1.4. The hierarchy of needs and its use in assessing the dynamics of poverty
The theory of the hierarchy of needs of Maslow can be used to explain the human drives that motivate behaviour and as a framework to understand and analyse the psychological dimensions of poverty. That way poverty can be understood to be more than just economical scarcity. Poverty can be described as the deprivation of physiological and mental needs, and the impossibility to reach higher levels of human growth.
In the following paragraph the basic assumptions of the theory of the hierarchy of needs will be related to the human dimension of deprivation experienced in the situation of extreme poverty. This will later help us to understand in which way microcredit programmes can empower people to reach higher levels of individual growth.
1.5. Maslow’s vision of poverty
‘No longer need we rest on sheer viability and survival as our only ultimate proof that poverty or war or domination or cruelty are bad, rather than good. We can consider them
bad because they also degrade the quality of life, of personality, of consciousness, of wisdom’.26
This is the only account Maslow gives in his writings about poverty. Although Maslow never deliberates about poverty, we can deduct from his theory some understandings which are related to poverty. Poverty, according to Maslow’s above citation, not only threatens pure human survival, poverty also degrades the quality of life, of personality of consciousness and of wisdom. Henceforth we understand that Maslow’s views poverty as a state which is opposite to having a high quality of life, a fully explored personality, an awake consciousness and the possession of wisdom. Poverty thus is the opposite of reaching the highest levels of human growth.
Maslow explains in what way people can achieve this highest possible level of personal growth. For that, people must fulfil not only their physiological, but also their psychological needs. Well-being is not only being well-fed, having money, a house and a car, well being means, having a rich social live, feeling loved and respected, feeling happy with one’s choices, being able to explore one’s creativity, the maximum level of human growth is the full exploration of humanness, it is the state which Maslow called self-actualization.
As a consequence we can define the status of ill-being or poverty, according to Maslow as lacking these psychological and physiological assets.27 Ill-being then is a state in which
humans cannot explore their full capability, their talents, a state in which they are not loved and respected, they do not feel save and in the worst case, their bodily necessities are not being met. Although well-being is not equated to being wealthy, whereas the synonym of well-being is not richness, ill-being is often used as a synonym of poverty.28
Being deprived of your needs has important social implications, Maslow explains that the higher the level of human growth one can reach, the more socially positive the effects
26
Abraham H. Maslow, Motivation and personality (third edition; New York 1987).
27 ‘Abraham H. Maslow from ‘toward a psychology of being’ (1955 - 1957)’, PanArchy
<http://www.panarchy.org/maslow/being.1955.html> (accessed 12-02-2010).
28
Deepa Narayan et al., Crying out for change, in: Voices of the poor (Oxford 2000)
are; a person that is hungry will be egoistic and competitive in the search for his bread, since this threatens the basic elements of his survival. On the other opposite, higher levels of human growth will have more socially beneficial consequences; although driven from the personal egoistic motivation to reach higher levels of well-being; a person who is self-actualized will enjoy sharing with other people and helping needy ones. This is an important consideration when trying to understand the social circumstances of poverty. When resources are scarce, competition over resources may be higher.29
An important part of Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of human needs, is that once a person has experienced higher levels of human growth it will value these more than the lower needs. This has important implications for the understanding of human motivation and the hierarchy of needs in a situation of poverty. It would be too simplistic to deduct from Maslow’s theory, that poor people simply do not have access to fulfilling their higher needs, and thus what is necessary for them to reaching higher levels of human development is to ensure the fulfilment of the lower levels first. Instead, whenever a poor person once in his life, has been able to enjoy higher levels of human needs, such as the possibility to study in school, the opportunity to be accepted by a social group, this afterwards will be appreciated more, and except in cases of life-threatening deprivation of the lower needs, these higher ones will be stronger drives for motivation. For instance, a woman who is keeping memories of the loving family she grew up in, may even when she does not live in a very safe environment, be aspiring to being loved more than to being safe.
1.6. Understandings of poverty
Now we have related Maslow’s theory to the meaning of ill-being or poverty, we can try to analyse what different understandings and applications of poverty reflect the understanding of Maslow and the goal of human growth most.
Poverty is a term that has different definitions. Consistent with the different understandings of poverty different causes of poverty might be found and consequently different ways of attacking those causes of poverty are shaping policies. For this reason here we will explore which different understanding of poverty currently shape policies
29
and which of these would be most consistent with Maslow’s theory on human motivation and the hierarchy of needs, to reach the highest levels of human growth.
1.6.1. Narrow definition
The classical way of understanding poverty is in economical terms on the national level. In this narrow sense, poverty is understood as a lack of income and a lack of consumption. People are poor because they don’t earn enough wage and because they don’t spend enough. This understanding is attractive because it enables measurement of levels of poverty and comparison between countries. The subsequent goal of alleviating poverty according to the narrow understanding is by raising the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This understanding has various shortcomings, the first being that GDP on itself does not say anything about the distribution of income, nor does economical wealth say much about well-being. For instance, the praised risen levels of gross national income in Argentina and Chile during the 80’s does not reflect decreasing levels of poverty, nor does it reflect rising levels of well-being.30 This is why the World Bank developed a method to
measure levels of poverty as following:
They measured the average cost of meeting basic needs and the linked necessary income to cover those costs. At this income-level the poverty-line is set. Every individual who does not earn enough to meet its basic needs is living in extreme poverty. In 2005 the World Bank set the global poverty line at $1.25 a day.31 Based on this definition, in 2005,
around 1.4 billion people lived in extreme poverty.
An example of an international organization using the narrow definition of poverty as a strategy to fight poverty is the United Nations. Especially the first of their eight Millennium Development Goals, to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty by 2015 reflects
30
Naomi Klein, De shock doctrine, (Breda 2007) 1-608, passim.
31
the World Bank method; in practice, the United Nations strive to halve the number of people living of less than one dollar a day.32
Although through this method it is indeed possible to get a more representative overview of the number of people living in economic poverty, than it is through measuring average GDP, it is still limited to measuring poverty in financial terms and therefore it does not allow us to measure qualitative aspects of poverty, or the dimensions of ill-being. The assumption underlying this way of measuring is that by raising income, automatically other dimensions of poverty will be solved. Thus the goal of generating a higher income would be equal to relieving people out of poverty. This however is a very simplistic way of understanding poverty. There are innumerable reasons why people, although they gain 1.25 dollars a day may be considered poor. One of these reasons is that every situation is different, market prices may differ, geographical situations differ, so 1.25 dollar in a situation where food is plenty and cheap may provide people with more than the minimum to cover their basic needs, but what about access to health, or access to clean water? What about the cost of housing? What about environmental conditions? With the 1.25 dollars a day a person indeed might be able to cover its basic needs in a specific situation. On the other hand, what about people that don´t earn 1.25 dollars a day, for instance populations living in remote natural areas that are hardly connected with the economy, are they poor, although they do meet their basic needs, and much more on the scale of Maslow?
An example of a study that demonstrates that poverty and ill-being are not linked directly to income is the result of a research conducted in India, in Rajasthan. Although levels of income in a specific town over a certain period rose, the levels of well-being, according to the criteria of the population, fell.33
Another flaw of the financial understanding of poverty is that it does not reflect immaterial dimensions, such as safety, acceptance from and belonging to a social group, the possibility to explore one’s talents and achieve one’s personal goals in life, etc. In other
32 ‘A gateway to the UN system’s work on the MDG’s’, United Nations
<http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtml> (accessed 10-02-2010).
33
words, the financial understanding of poverty is not compatible with Maslow´s theory on well-being.
1.6.2. Broad understanding
In critique to the narrow understanding of poverty, a broader understanding of poverty was developed, which can be found in the human development approach. This understanding is multidimensional; it accepts that poverty consists of different elements which are not merely income-related, as Amartya Sen puts it: ‘Human development, as an approach, is concerned with what I take to be the basic development idea: namely, advancing the richness of human life, rather than the richness of the economy in which human beings live, which is only a part of it.’34
In broad terms poverty generally is understood as the deprivation of physical resources; access to good health, income, sanitation and shelter, and includes more subjective and socially constructed components of poverty such as exclusion, isolation, vulnerability and powerlessness.35
One way in which this broad definition was adopted by international institutions such as the UNDP is through the Human Development Index (HDI). This index, which was based on a number of studies conducted by Amartya Sen among others, in addition to measuring poverty in purely economic terms, weighs access to education and health indicators in order to measure human development.36 The theory that forms the basis of the HDI agrees
that the human development is hampered by more different factors than only financial ones; the theory includes important aspects of ill-being, such as limitations to exploring human capabilities. Although in theory this way more insights are given to the quality of life, the HDI itself, it still leaves many aspects of poverty out of the picture.
This understanding of poverty comes closer to Maslow’s understanding of well-being and ill-being. Not only the financial aspects determines whether a person is poor or not, also access to health and education are important in measuring poverty. This way a more
34 Nermeen Shaik, ‘Interview with Amartya Sen’, in Nermeen Shaikh, The present as history: critical
perspectives on contemporary global power (New York 2007) 3-5.
35
Chambers, ‘Poverty and livelihoods’, 173-204.
realistic picture of people living in poverty can be drawn since this combination of factors can reflect the access to basic needs. Where a lack in income can translate itself in a lack of food, water, sanitation, shelter and safety, it does not necessarily do so, and on the other hand a higher income might not guarantee access to health and education, indeed these three factors together say a lot more about the fulfilment of basic needs, and about the possibilities to achieve higher levels of human growth. The inclusion of these two parameters is useful since in a country where people independently from their income have access to social services as basic health and education, their overall well-being will be higher and the fulfilment of their needs according to Maslow will be higher.
However, by income, health and alphabetization indicators, still one cannot measure if a person indeed feels secure, if a person has a social environment which gives him security, if a person is secured against negative shocks. Education and basic health and income give a wider picture of the possible level of well-being but there are individual and psychological aspects to defining poverty which are better understood by using other approaches.
1.6.3. Grass-roots approaches
Grassroots-approaches criticize the dominance of the discourse and policy-making on poverty of people who are not poor, and have not experienced poverty in their lives. Grassroots-approaches therefore in their understanding of poverty take the subjective perception of poverty as the starting point; they focus on the priorities of the poor. Because who can better define what poverty is, than the poor themselves? By focusing on the poor’s realities, qualitative and local aspects of poverty can be understood and serve as the basis of programmes developed for each specific reality. This way a more representative and multidimensional understanding of poverty can be reached.
This approach is represented in the study conducted by the WorldBank: Voices of the Poor.37 This study challenges the predominant economical paradigmata, constructed by
the non-poor and powerful, and instead puts the actual subject in the centre, visualizing the poor’s own vision of living in poverty. In order to do this, experiences, views and aspirations of over 60,000 poor people from 60 different countries have been collected.
37
Voices of the poor differs from other studies on poverty in its qualitative approach, it explores different dimensions of poverty; geography, health, exclusion, education, livelihoods, security, empowerment and the role of the state and institutions. The study departed asking people to define the state of ill-being, which is more subjective and more far-reaching than being poor. Poverty causes the state of ill-being, and this state is a mental and material state. Ill-being is the opposite of the state of well-being, which poor people define as encompassing aspects of: material well-being, physical well-being, social well-being, security, and freedom of choice and action. The basic problem of poor people is that they are trapped in this situation of ill-being; they do not have the tools to change their situation. They are dependent on external aid and if this does not reach them they are trapped in poverty. Their situation poverty influences every aspect of their life. This study emphasizes the multidimensionality and the individual experience of poverty. 38
This is an understanding of ill-being and poverty which is coherent with Maslow. Being poor means being trapped in a daily strive for covering the very lowest levels of human needs. Being trapped in this level of the pyramid, according to Maslow negates access to higher levels of human growth, and to obtain a status of well-being. Using Maslow, poverty is a condition which impedes reaching full human potential. When physiological needs are not met an individual will be predominantly driven by securing those needs. Furthermore Maslow from the existentialist view, stresses the importance of individuality, the necessity individuals have to decide upon their own future. Therefore, in their strive for reaching higher levels of human growth, individuals should have the means to decide on what path to take, they should feel they control their life and their faith. Nevertheless using Maslow, we can see that people trapped in poverty are dependent on external actors, or changes in circumstances they do not have influence on to get out of poverty, thus do not have the means to take these steps. Their poverty is heavily defined by the sense of powerlessness and of dependence.
1.7. Structural causes of poverty and their implications for fighting poverty
38
Deepa Narayan et al., Can anyone hear us?, in: Voices of the Poor (Oxford 2000)
So far we have discussed only the understandings of what poverty is, and what effects it has on the well-being of the person. Yet, what is necessary for effectively attacking the problems of poverty is by understanding the structural causes of poverty.
The various different explanations of what poverty is are related to different understandings of what poverty causes.
In the first, strict understanding, poverty is a lack of income and spending. What causes this lack of income? In this line of developmental thinking, poverty is measurable through measuring GDP growth rates. Low levels of growth are caused by the economic correlates of poverty. A lack of income is measured, at the household and the country-wide level, as caused by a lack of production and the solution henceforth is increasing production. This production is intended to increase national GDP and therefore decrease poverty in the strictest sense. 39
According to the broader, multidimensional and grassroots understandings of poverty, poverty can be seen as a socially constructed situation. Broader understandings do not solely focus on the income dimension but on the psychological and social dimension too. The social cause of poverty is then understood among others as a situation of exclusion; exclusion of access to income, health, education and so on, which may cause a situation of mental ill-being (Indeed,
d
ecades of research have found that poverty is strongly correlated to psychological distress and distress and diagnosable mental disorder.40)These causes of poverty can be measured to some extent using the Human Development Index, which measures some elements of social exclusion, as social exclusion causes poor health, malnutrition, illiteracy and the opposite is also true. Therefore when the factor of the impotence or powerlessness to change this situation is added to this logic, the situation of social exclusion is sustained and becomes structural. When households lack the access to assets to lift them out of this poverty and dependence, they cannot break the cycle of poverty. Here the cause is thus social exclusion and accordingly the objective should be social inclusion. Strategies to foster social inclusion should be focused on providing access; access to formal institutions providing health care, education, financial
39
Maia Green and David Hulme, ‘From correlates and characteristics to causes: Thinking about poverty from a chronic poverty perspective’, World Development 33, 6 (2005) 867-879, 876.
services, and assets giving them opportunities and resources, to obtain inclusion and which will in turn have effects on their mental well-being.41
Although there are important critiques on this understanding of poverty, because it focuses only on the poor as a group that is excluded from society and it does not take into account structural flaws in the organization of society as such, it does help to understand poverty this way to find sustainable ways of changing circumstances in which the poor live by giving them access to resources and institutions, which can have positive mental and social implications 42
Coming back to Maslow, we concluded that the multidimensional and grassroots approaches of understanding poverty reflect best Maslow’s understanding of well- and ill-being. Ill-being is a state in which a person might not be only deprived from its most basic needs, which causes mental ill-being, moreover ill-being might also be caused by other dimensions of well-being being unsatisfied, which can be found in the pyramid of the hierarchy of needs. These other dimensions are individually different, since every single individual has different talents and aspirations in its life and every situation of ill-being is circumstantially and culturally different, but may have certain similar characteristics which are also reflected in the study Voices of the Poor. These characteristics are: a sense of powerlessness, the lack of control over one’s life and the circumstances one lives in. This is in line with Maslow’s emphasis on the importance of individual growth and reaching the full potential of the individual capabilities, freedom of choice is key in this process.
In this chapter we have been able to relate and analyse the situation of poverty to the theory of Maslow, we have created a basic theoretical framework from which we can make the same analysis on the deprivation of needs in situations of prolonged refuge. This will enable us to compare both situations, and on the basis of this comparison we can continue analysing a possible solution (microcredit) to ending the deprivation of needs which may work for both situations.
In the next two chapters we will start describing the needs of refugees and the role of humanitarian organizations to relate them with the theory of Maslow.
41 Green, ‘Correlates and characteristics', 871.
2. Deprivation of needs in situations of prolonged refuge
How can the theory of the hierarchy of needs of Maslow be used to explain refugees´ dependence on external aid in situations of prolonged refuge and in what way do humanitarian organizations address those needs?
In this chapter an intent will be made to compare situations of poverty to situations of prolonged refuge using the theory of Maslow. The objective of this comparison is to be able to consider whether programmes which have shown to be successful in attacking the underlying and structural causes of poverty and ill-being, may be successful too in bringing higher levels of well-being to the individual lives of long-term refugees.
As we have seen, using the multidimensional and grassroots approach to understanding poverty, ill-being can be seen as the appropriate term that describes the effect of poverty on a person’s life. This term enables us to use the theory of Maslow to understand what the different causes can be of this situation of ill-being (deducted from his theory on the hierarchy of needs), and how to direct the focus to reach higher levels of well-being.
We have seen that ill-being is a physical and psychological situation which can be caused by deprivation of basic needs, (also called deprivation needs) or a lack of access to higher levels of human needs, (also referred to as growth needs) such as a lack of the 3rd
level of the hierarchy of needs; the need to belonging to a group. This higher need may be experienced as having the biggest influence on the situation of ill-being of a person, whenever two conditions are met; first whenever the person at some stage of his life has experienced the feeling of enjoying the fulfilment of this higher need, and second whenever the deprivation of a lower need is not directly life threatening. In every occasion these two conditions are not met, a person will be motivated predominantly by the need to fulfil his lower needs.
different for every single human being, depending on one’s capabilities, culture and circumstances.
The shared determinants, however to almost all situations of ill-being, as we found, using the Voices of the poor are those of powerlessness to change ones situation.43 This
last point is very important in explaining the link between the situation of poverty and the situation of prolonged refuge, which we will analyse in continuation.
2.1. General characteristics of the situation of prolonged refuge
The first element which needs to be reviewed, in order to be able to discuss the situation of prolonged refuge is the definition of the term refugee.
2.1.2. Legal definition of refugee
When trying to define which different classes of persons are included in the term refugee, it is useful to take as a starting-point the definition and used by the most prominent international body relating to refugee issues, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who was appointed by General Assembly Resolution 319 (IV) of December 3, 1949, to offer protection for refugees. In the current work of the UNHCR, there are three different kinds of refugees which fall under its competence, these are firstly those referred to in the Statute of the UNHCR;44 secondly,
those referred to in the Convention on the Status of Refugees45, and thirdly those referred
to in the Protocol to the Convention of 196746.47
43
Narayan, Crying out for change, 235-237.
44
'Statute of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. General Assembly resolution 428 (v) of 14 December 1950', UNHCR <http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c39e1.html> (accessed 20-03-2010).
45
'Convention and Protocol', UNHCR <http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3b66c2aa10.pdf> (accessed 20-03-2010) 1-56.
46 Ibidem. 47
P. D. Maynard, ‘The legal competence of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’, The
International and Comparative Law Quarterly 31, 3 (1982) <http://www.jstor.org/stable/758999>
Of the above, the first category refers especially to those refugees who as a result of occurrences during WWII became refugees. According to article 6 of the Statute:
‘Art. 6 A(ii) Any person who, as a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear or for reasons other than personal convenience, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear or for reasons other than personal convenience, is unwilling to return to it.’ 48
And paragraph 6B of the statute;
‘Any other person who is outside the country of his nationality, or if he has no nationality, the country of his former habitual residence, because he has or had well-founded fear of persecution by reason of his race, religion, nationality or political opinion and is unable or, because of such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of the government of the country of his nationality, or, if he has no nationality, to return to the country of his former habitual residence.’ 49
The second category are those refugees mentioned in the first category, but the Convention adds another ground for being in fear of persecution; the membership of a particular social group.
A refugee, according to the definition of the 1951Convention on the Status of Refugees is a person who…
‘…owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.’50
48
'Statute of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’.
49
Ibidem.
The protocol was drawn in 1967 as a response to capture those people fleeing as a result of the ongoing and new refugee situations after 1951. The third category of people falling under the competence of UNHCR therefore is:
‘Art 1.2. For the purpose of the present Protocol, the term “refugee” shall, except as regards the application of paragraph 3 of this article, mean any person within the definition of article 1 of the Convention as if the words “As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and ...” “and the words”... “a result of such events”, in article 1 A (2) were omitted.’ 51
As we can see, refugees encompass a wide variety of individuals, and not only those under the terms of the 1951 Convention. Still there is an ongoing debate on the question to broaden the mandate of the UNHCR and the legal definition of refugee, as there are large groups of people excluded which are in need of the same protection. This debate includes; economic refugees, environmental refugees, and internally displaced persons, and other groups of people who are fleeing for reasons other than those included in the legal definition, but who are experiencing, however a threat to their life and basic human rights.52
Following the different definitions used by UNHCR, a person becomes a refugee when this person leaves its home country because its life and basic human rights are in danger, and he cannot receive the needed protection from its home government. This situation might be caused by various circumstances, among others, the outbreak of conflict, political repression, terrorism, but also natural disasters, fierce poverty, etc. These first causes are included in the definition of UNHCR, the others however not. Nonetheless, also for the latter reasons, the lives of people might be endangered and often the home country cannot provide them with the necessary protection, thus the only possible solution for the individual to survive is to flee the country.
When this situation in the home country remains unsafe and the person thus cannot return without risking its life for a long period of time a situation of prolonged refuge
51 ‘Convention and Protocol’. And ‘Resolution 42 *The Palestine Question+’, U.N. Security Council, 3rd
year 5 March, 1948, in: Resolutions and decisions of the Security Council 1948 (S/INF/2/REV.1) (Official Record; New York, 1964.) 14.
comes into being. Refugees search a safe place with family, or acquaintances or they may settle in a camp that is created spontaneously or sometimes when the escalation of events is foreseen with more or less planning by international organizations in a neighbouring country.
It is the latter case, that of refugees living in refugee-camps which is the topic of this research.
When falling under the competence of UNHCR, and as accorded in the Convention on the Status of Refugees and the Protocol, refugees should be guaranteed the same rights as normal foreign civilians with a legal status; these include social and economic rights. When the host government does not guarantee these rights, UNHCR is the international body responsible for ensuring these rights. Nevertheless, it is important to note that UNHCR, since the organization came into being on the basis of a General Assembly Resolution, does not have any legally binding instruments to enforce the protection of refugees, it can only make recommendations.53 Although every individual has the right to enjoy protection
from the UNHCR, no state can be obliged to accept the presence and authority of the UNHCR on its territory. This is problematic since states will always have the option to prioritise their international right of national sovereignty, over the protection of refugees.
2.2.
Limited access to rights
Although refugees according to the international legal articles are entitled various rights that ensure a life in dignity, for various reasons in practice they cannot enjoy these rights.
First of all the host government does not tend to be very supportive towards refugees. Most likely it will want the refugees to return as soon as possible and will try to impede them to establish economic ties with the host country. Hence, governments usually allow refugees only to settle in special designated areas, which are often close to the border with the country in conflict, where they do not have access to fertile farmland or rivers. Often they will forbid the refugees to engage in economic activities, they will limit their freedom of movement, and thereby impede refugees in efforts to construct a
53 ‘Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’, General Assembly
sustainable livelihood, and can encourage engagement in illegal businesses. Governments violate the 1951 Refugee Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which guarantee the freedom of movement, the right to work and the right to obtain a livelihood.54
2.3.
The needs of refugees & the cycle of dependence
Upon arrival to the host country, mostly refugees are weakened, in bad physical and mental state, carrying with them few possessions and the traumas of conflict, or disaster. Sometimes large groups of refugees arrive all at once; sometimes they arrive progressively and take with them some possessions that can only maintain them during the first weeks.55 In the first weeks the refugees have various material and immaterial needs. These
needs are their basic human needs; food, water, shelter, safety and health care, to recover physically, but they also include the psychosocial needs of processing their traumas and fears. It is very important that these needs are met to recover not only physically, but to feel humane and dignified again and to minimize the suffering. When these needs are not met in the first period and people cannot recover, it will be harder all the time to recuperate.
The physical needs can in first periods sometimes be fulfilled partly by the possessions that people took with them, for instance some clothing, food and cooking utensils. But when time goes by, people loose possibilities to provide for themselves anymore because of the limitations the situation puts on them, (limitations to work and earn a living, limitations to have access to markets, limitations to regular health care etc., which is aggravated by the weak physical and mental state people are in). Then, they become dependent on the aid humanitarian organizations and the host government provide for them. This situation of prolonged refuge is also referred to as a protracted refugee situation. The following definition of the situation of protracted refuge as used by UNHCR reflects this situation:
54 Phillips, 'Challenges to the effective implementation', 1-4. 55
'UNHCR/WFP joint assessment guidelines', UNHCR and WFP (2004)
