People-Oriented Planning at Work: Using POP to Improve UNHCR

Programming

A Practical Planning Tool for Refugee Workers

by
Mary B. Anderson

Collaborative for Development

Action, Inc.
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

Geneva
December 1994

1 Getting Started: Why, How and When to Use POP

1.1 Introduction

The People-Oriented Planning Tool was developed to improve UNHCR's programming with refugees
worldwide. It is based on the fact that, for staff to do the best job possible in providing protection and
assistance to refugees in any particular situation, they must know specific things about who the
refugees are in that particular setting. The POP programming tool helps UNHCR staff and partners

• identify the important facts about any group of refugees

• organize that information in a way that can be used to make programming decisions and to
implement effective programmes

1.2 Why This Book is Needed

Many UNHCR staff have been trained in People-Oriented Planning. Many of these people who
have participated in POP training say. . . Yes! Okay! Now I understand POP and I agree that
it's important to know these things about refugees. But now I need more skills. How does POP
 relate to my job? I need more ideas about what I can do to implement POP.

This handbook - A Programming Tool for POP - is a response to this demand.

1.3 How to Use This Book

You should read through the entire book in order to get familiar with the ideas and experiences it
presents.

To use it in any refugee situation, you must read sections:

1.4 A Reminder: What Is People-Oriented Planning Anyway?

1.5 How to Get the Information That You Need for POP Programming

2.1 Two Things You Need to Know in Every Refugee Situation

In addition to reading these three essential sections, in a crisis situation turn directly to the section(s)
that involve your own work for a quick reminder of the important issues. For example, if you are in charge
of food distribution in an emergency, you should turn to Section 2.2 and familiarize yourself with the
principles, ideas and examples it presents. At the end of each section, there is a brief list (collected
from the experiences of UNHCR staff of problems that you might encounter and possible solutions to
these problems. These listings will help you think of ways to avoid or solve problems in the situation you
are facing.

As UNHCR staff, you will probably not be directly responsible for implementation. Still, to work with
implementing partners, you need to know these things and to insist that the implementing agencies also
understand and incorporate POP. You must hold them accountable for their work. With this tool, they
should do better, timelier, more appropriate and more cost-effective work.

1.4 A Reminder: What is People-Oriented Planning Anyway?

The basic concept Refugee groups are not the same. Nor is any refugee group homogeneous.
Experience shows that it is important to find out specific information about every particular refugee group
in order to provide efficient, cost-effective and humane protection and services to them. The POP
Framework identifies these specifics in three steps:

Step 1: Refugee profile

and context includes Refugee profile: Composition of the refugee group before they became refugees
and changes in that composition under the conditions of being refugees or, later, returnees

Context: Factors that affect this refugee situation. The two factors that are most important for
programming are:

• the reasons that these people became refugees (war? famine? ecological disaster?)

• the cultural mores that influence how these refugees act

Step 2: Activities

analysis includes Who does what (Identifying the division of labor): Among these refugees, what
are the jobs and activities that men do? What are the jobs and activities that women do? What are the
jobs and activities that children do? How strictly defined is this division of labor? Can people easily
switch jobs or is "women's work" off-limits for men and vice versa?

This information should be linked to the knowledge about the refugee profile. If refugees are mostly men,
the jobs that women normally did cannot be done in the usual way, or if refugees are mostly women,
then the jobs done by men cannot be done as they previously were. This is especially true if cultural
mores strongly dictate who can do what.

When and where do they do it: Are the tasks done by these refugee men/refugee women done
seasonally? Every day? Each week? Do they take a lot of time? Where are they done? At home? In
private? Somewhere at a distance (so that someone spends time getting there and back) ?

The locations and times of jobs are important since these affect whether refugees will be able to
participate in programmes or get access to resources and servi ces provided for them.

Step 3: Resources

analysis includes What resources do people have/what did they bring with them: Before you can
identify what resources people need as refugees, you must know what they already have. This includes
both the physical things they brought (such as tools, animals, food, etc.) as well their skills, knowledge,
family and community structures and culture. Without this information, you may provide unnecessary
things and waste resources. You may also undermine the capacities of refugees to do things for
themselves, leading to more dependency on UNHCR.

Who has which resources: You must know who has which resources and who does not have them. This
is linked to information gained through activities analysis about differences in men's and women's roles,
because different roles require different resources.

What resources must be provided to the refugees: After working with the refugees to assess what
resources they have and who has them, you will be able to determine what resources they still need.

When you know who is in the refugee population (refugee profile), which roles different groups
perform (activities analysis and culture), and which resources they already possess that can
be used (resources analysis), you will be able to identify which resources and services need to
be provided, who needs them, and where, how and when to provide them in order to reach the
right people. This will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of UNHCR's programming.

1.5 How to Get the Information That You Need for POP Programming

You have five ways to get information. You should use all five in order to be sure that your information is
accurate. Remember, information gathering is not just a one-time thing! Systems for learning about the
refugees must be ongoing. Getting information is a key element in early needs assessment, and it is
essential for continual project monitoring. You should make sure that implementing partners are involved
in ongoing information gathering.

1. Observation Look at what people are doing and listen to them. Careful observation gives
enormous information. Keep your eyes and ears open for information about the refugee profile. What do
you see men and women doing? What do you see and hear about the resources people have and who
has them?

2. Common sense You have a reference point for a lot of information when you know the cause of
the refugee flight. For example, if it is war, you can assume that families will be disrupted in one of
several ways. Are refugees young men escaping conscription? Are they women with children fleeing the
war zone without their husbands? Or are entire communities fleeing together? If the cause of flight is
ecological disaster or famine, families may arrive intact, or weaker family members may have perished in
flight. You need to investigate to check whether your common sense assumptions are right or wrong and
why. You should not operate on assumptions without first checking them. Do, however, use your
common sense as one starting point for information gathering.

3. Simple surveys A one- or two-day camp "walk-through" by several observers who ask the same
questions can provide a sufficiently accurate data base for first-order decisions where family composition
is the critical factor. 1(1)1 Home visits must be part of any survey. Without them, you run the risk of
missing highly critical information. Refinements in survey findings can occur as refugees are registered.

4. Registration Registration data must always be collected in a way that daily tabulates the
percentages of households of different types. At a minimum, you must find out the numbers of
two-parent families, MHH, FHH, UNAM and UNEL. 2(2)2 The success of emergency actions and moving
to sustainable solutions depend on the early availability of this information. At the end of each day, you
should review the family composition of refugees and consider how it affects delivery of resources,
services and protection.

5. Expertise Often, there are people around who can be asked about special cultural factors,
normal family types, and traditional activities and resources of men and women. These are people who
are familiar with the culture of the refugee group. Some of them may be refugees themselves. Remember
to distinguish between individual refugees who report only their own personal ideas and experience and
others who are "experts" in the sense that they are able to analyze and report on the refugees' lives and
culture in general.

Remember: What you want to know is the Refugee Profile - the usual division of labor in
roles and responsibilities of men and women and children, the usual system of resource use
and distribution, and how all of these usual patterns of life of the refugees have been changed
by the fact that they are now refugees. These facts provide the necessary basis for designing
an effective refugee programme that is economically efficient and that serves the well-being of
all refugees.

1.6 Using People-Oriented Planning in Programming for the Provision of Protection,

Resources and Services

UNHCR is always responsible for the physical and legal protection of refugees. Every UNHCR
programme also involves the provision of some resources, such as food, shelter, water and other
necessities, and of some kinds of services, such as health care, training, education, or counseling.
Often these must be provided under circumstances of extreme and urgent need and where logistical
problems are immense.

When something goes wrong with the provision of protection, resources or services, refugees may suffer
and, in extreme cases, die.

Many problems may occur. For example, the "package" of food may include items that are inappropriate
for the given group of refugees. Distribution of resources and services may go awry so that some refugee
groups get more than their share while others are left out. Certain groups may be exposed to dangers
and risks which protection systems are not set up to prevent. When these kinds of problems occur,
UNHCR can be soundly criticized by the press and/or EXCOM for its failure to serve refugees equitably
and efficiently.

People-Oriented Planning can help in planning and programming for protection and for the delivery of
resources and services. Using it can ensure:
 • that certain groups do not suffer from lack of adequate or appropriate protection

• that existing refugee resources are utilized

• that the resources and services provided are the right ones

• that the resources and services provided get to the right people

• that the systems for allocating and distributing resources and services do not put certain
groups at unfair risk

In the rest of this book, People-Oriented Planning is related to issues surrounding protection for refugees
and to each of the principal resources and services that UNHCR provides.

2 Using POP: Sector by Sector from Emergencies to Repatriation

2.1 Two Things You Need to Know in Every Refugee Situation

1. The Refugee Profile

Who is in the refugee population? Who is not in this population who was a part of it before they became
refugees? What changes in the family composition and community structure will directly affect
programming? Specifically, you need to know:

Pre-refugee

In their pre-refugee status, what was the average household type? a father? a mother? some
dependent children and/or elders? Or was there some other norm? e.g., each man had several
wives? a large number of families (over 50%) headed by women without husbands? On average,
how large were families?

Before becoming refugees, how did people live in communities? What were the typical
organization and structure?

As Refugees/Returnees

As refugees, or later, as returnees, what is the family composition? Who is in the returnee
group?

1. Percentage of two-parent households

2. Percentage of households headed by a man without a woman

3. Percentage of households headed by a woman without a man

4. Percentage of children without parents or guardians

5. Percentage of elderly without family support

2. The Socio-Cultural Background of the People

What factors in the traditions and practices of these people will directly affect programming?

Specifically, you need to know:

Taboos/Constraints

Are there any deeply held, traditional and/or religious beliefs that will affect:
 1. How UNHCR or its implementing partners gain access to certain groups of refugees
(e.g., women)?

2. What food is suitable?

3. What medical/health care is suitable?

4. What shelter is appropriate or how water and sanitation should be arranged?

Rural/Urban Origin

Do refugees come from rural or urban backgrounds that will affect:

1. How UNHCR or its implementing partners gain access to certain groups?

2. What housing arrangements are appropriate? How one arranges sanitation?

3. What kinds of employment/income activities can be planned? For whom?

2.2 Using POP in Programming for Food Delivery

ð Your Goal: Your goal is to get the right kinds of the right amount of food to all the refugees in
the most efficient way possible.

The Right Kinds

What you need to 1. Cultural background

know about this 2. Cooking/food preparation conditions
particular group 3. Refugee profile
of refugees 4. Activities analysis
5. Resources analysis

Why you need to know this

Culture: If there are clear and prevalent food taboos, either for the general population or for particular
groups within it, you must know them so that you do not waste food and/or fail to meet the nutritional
needs of certain groups. Examples include pork for Muslim populations or foods forbidden for young
children or for pregnant or lactating women.

Cooking/food preparation: If there is limited fuel or water, or these resources must be gathered at a
distance, the refugees will not be able to prepare raw food. Examples include beans or grains that
require long soaking and cooking when either water or fuel is limited or when time or labour constrains
collecting water or fuel.

Refugee profile and activities analysis: If the people normally responsible for preparing food (or gathering
fuel and water for its preparation) are not part of the population of refugees, and others do not know how
to do these activities or are proscribed by tradition and culture from doing these things, then providing
raw rations to people will nor ensure that they can eat them. For example, groups of young male
refugees who have no experience cooking have suffered high rates of nutrition-related illness and death
until programmes were redesigned to address their lack of food preparation knowledge.

Resources analysis: If refugees have not been able to bring household utensils with them, cooking
equipment must be provided. If time, as a resource, is limited for some groups and not for others, extra
provisions may be required to meet the special needs of those for whom time is limited. Urban refugees
may not know how to cook under rural conditions or vice versa.
The Right Amount

What you need to 1. Numbers

know about this 2. Refugee profile
particular group 3. Context
of refugees

Why you need to know this

If food packages are based on average adequacy for a "normal" population distribution but the refugee
group is not "normal," you will need either more or less food than normal. If many are growing young
men or if there is a large proportion of pregnant or lactating women, you will need more calories than in
an average package; if there are cold weather conditions or many of the refugees are elderly, you will
need foods with particular nutrient densities.

To All the Refugees

What you need to 1. Refugee culture

know about this 2. Refugee profile
particular group 3. Activities analysis
of refugees 4. Resources analysis

Why you need to know this

Because food is an essential resource for refugees, the control of food represents power which can be,
and often is, misused or abused. Therefore, decisions about allocating and distributing food are among
the most critical that refugee assistance workers make.

There are numerous examples of instances in which food distribution systems have disadvantaged
particular groups of refugees. These include:

q young girls and women who were forced to provide sexual "favors" to receive their food
allotments

q female-headed households or women whose husbands were absent in the refugee camp setting
who were unable to collect food because only males were recognized as heads of household (HOH) for
food receipts

q elderly who were pushed to the end of the food distribution queues and were shortchanged when
there were food shortages

q second and third wives (and their children) who did not receive adequate provisions because
food distributors assumed that the male head and first wife would organize a fair, intra-family distribution

UNHCR does not have a single good "model" for food distribution which has been proved to work in all
(or even most) situations. Thus, more experimentation with different approaches needs to be done.

In general, food distribution is more likely to reach all refugees in an equitable way when the
usual, pre-refugee systems for food allocation are used. Often, this means that women - who are
usually responsible for food in their families - should be centrally involved in food distribution in
refugee settings.
Information about the family composition and household structures of the refugee group, about cultural
mores for family representation in the external world, about who usually carries responsibility for food
decisions and about the systems for inter- and intra-family resource distribution are all important for
setting up an effective and fair food distribution system.

If you cannot get all of this information (and often in the early days of an emergency you cannot), then it
is important to set up a system that, at a minimum, keeps those who are usually responsible for food
(generally women) very much involved in decisions about and operations for food distribution.

2.3 Lessons Learned from UNHCR Experience in Food Programming

UNHCR experience provides many examples of POP issues in food allocation and distribution
programmes. Some of these are:

Problems that Arise Possible Solutions

Young women must provide sexual favors for Put women in charge of food distribution.
food.

Men do not know how to cook. Provide wet rations; organize some women to
cook; teach the men how to cook.

Foods are culturally inappropriate. The food package must be changed.

Weaker members of society cannot get access Have more on-the-ground control and special
because of being pushed aside. distribution points for these people (e.g.,
elderly or FHH).

Pilfering means that those who come last, get Ditto to solution 4 above; change and control
least. the order in which refugees queue up for
rations (e.g., eldest first, FHHs next, etc.).

2.4 Using POP in Programming for Refugee Shelter

ð Your Goal: Your goal is to provide safe shelter and suitable shelter to everyone in the refugee
population.

Safe Shelter

What you need to 1. Refugee profile

know about this 2. Pre-refugee protection hierarchy
particular group
of refugees

Why you need to know this

If there are many unaccompanied women, minors or elders in a refugee group, they may be particularly
vulnerable to abuse or sexual attack. If there are many single men rather than full families, there may be
an increased incidence of sexual harassment. The layout of shelter in a refugee camp can either provide
suitable protection or exacerbate the likelihood of unsafe conditions. In particular, people vulnerable to
sexual attack (both women and young children) must have access to well-lighted, nearby toilet facilities
as this is one area which has often proved dangerous for unaccompanied users. In addition, placement
of vulnerable people in outlying camp sections increases their risk of physical/sexual assault.

When refugee groups are not in camps but have been absorbed into communities, housing
arrangements can also increase or decrease the likelihood of their vulnerability. Too often, young women
and girls are welcomed into receiving families, only to be forced into becoming the concubines of the
host male.

Suitable Shelter

What you need to 1. Refugee profile

know about this 2. Culture
particular group 3. Activities analysis
of refugees

Why you need to know this

If there are female-headed households (refugee profile) and it has been men's job to construct houses
(activities analysis), it may be impossible for women to construct their own houses without additional
assistance. Other activities, such as mode of cooking, also should be accommodated in shelter
provision. If most refugees live in polygamous or extended families (refugee profile), clustering of housing
units should reflect these groupings whereas in refugee groups of nuclear families, units should be
designed for this family type.

If tradition dictates (culture) that women should be secluded within household compounds, housing
styles and latrine locations must be designed to respect these traditions. In addition, the locations of
wells and food or other service distribution points must take account of women's mobility if women are to
be ensured access to them.

Shelter arrangements for women without husbands in situations where women are usually secluded
must also take into account the tradition of seclusion. Two possible approaches include: 1 ) providing
shelter that "pairs" women who do not have men with families where men are present; 2) building and
reserving special areas for groups of single women and their dependents.

Both of these solutions have been tried by UNHCR. Which is appropriate depends very much on the
local culture and how it views enclaves of single women and/or the risk that women will be exploited by
the male of the household with whom they are paired. It is essential to gather information on refugee
culture, and the cultural environment where the refugees are now located, before designing shelter for
this group.

2.5 Lessons Learned from UNHCR Experience in Programming for Shelter

UNHCR experience shows that POP issues are involved in many aspects of decisions about how to
provide shelter. Some of these are:

Problems that Arise Possible Solutions

Materials provided to refugee families to build Know the number of families that do not have
their own houses cannot be used by families anyone who can build their own house; provide
where the person who builds is absent extra assistance.
(sometimes men, sometimes women).
 Problems that Arise Possible Solutions

Provision of resources and services is linked to Unlink provision of resources from housing;
the completion of self-built homes; when provide help to families who do not have a
families don't have a traditional builder, this traditional builder; if there are no cultural
further disadvantages them (usually FHHs). tabboos, teach women to construct their
houses.

Unaccompanied women refugees absorbed This one is difficult. On-the-ground monitoring

into asylum country families have been of safety is the first step. Provision of ways to
exploited sexually by men of the host families. report abuse and of alternative living
arrangements (possibly with asylum country
FHHs) are possible solutions.

Overcrowded shelter conditions can put Know the number of families for whom this is
unaccompanied women at special risk of an issue. Consult with refugees on appropriate,
sexual violence. traditional systems for protection. Group single
women in well guarded places and establish a
refugee committee (of male and/or female
elders, possibly) for oversight and enforcement
of their protection.

Location of residences in relation to water Think through the location of essential services
points, food distribution or latrines can involve and who will be using them to minimize
lengthy and sometimes dangerous trips for danger. Provide guards. Ensure use during
women or children. daylight and safe hours.

Lighting may be inadequate in camp areas Increase Light

(e.g., latrines) increasing safety risks,
especially for women.

2.6 Using POP in Water Programming

ð Your Goal Your goal is to provide sufficient and safe water to all the refugees.
Sufficient and Safe Water

What you need to 1. Numbers/refugee profile

know about this 2. Culture
particular group 3. Activities analysis
of refugees 4. Context

Why you need to know this

Numbers/refugee profile: You need to know the numbers of refugees in order to assess the required
quantity of water. Safety of water quality is also a scientific/technical issue. However, to ensure that it is
available and access to it is safe for all refugees, you need also to know household composition, culture
and activities analysis.

Activities analysis and culture are important for understanding whose task it will be (usually based on
traditional activities) to collect water and the conditions under which water should be provided. If most
water-related tasks belong to women, then the location of water points, the time of day at which these
are operational, and the utensils provided for carrying water will need to be arranged in ways that are
appropriate for women. Water points must be physically safe, nearby and operational at times of day so
that women or children can carry out this task and still accomplish their other responsibilities
(child-care, food preparation, schooling, etc.). Utensils must be of a size that they can handle efficiently.
If men are responsible for water collection, these arrangements should be different.

In some societies, women's social seclusion must be respected in the location and availability of water
points. Water points may also represent the only opportunity for communal interaction and means of
communication for women. The location of the water point may offer additional opportunities for
programming in other areas, such as food distribution, health education, vaccination, vitamin distribution,
or health care. The culture of the refugees will affect whether it is appropriate to add other activities at
the water point or not.

For maintenance of water supplies and equipment, experience shows that involvement of users is
critical. Thus, usually women (rather than men) should be trained to do the required maintenance jobs.

Context can be very important for assuring access, particularly when water is a scarce resource (as in
drought or war). When any resource is scarce, the tendency is for those people with more power to
control access while weaker individuals and groups lose out. Recognition of the context of resource
distribution and of relative power among refugees can prevent unintended disadvantaging of particular
groups of refugees.

2.7 Lessons Learned from UNHCR Experience in Water Programming

POP issues also arise in water programmes. Some of these are:

Problems that Arise Possible Solutions

Limited water can become an object of power Establish many, dispersed water points,
and control; thus weaker refugees cannot get some designated for elderly or women or
access or must provide sexual favors to those children; establish refugee committee to
who control it. monitor and control water access and
ensure that women are involved in this
committee.Their involvement will both
increase the efficiency of water usage and
ensure that sexual exploitation is curbed.
Schedule different water distribution times
for different groups.

Water located at a distance can take too Bring water closer to where it is needed; hire
much of some refugees' time so that other some refugees to distribute it.
jobs don't get done (e.g., when the water
point is in one direction and the health clinic is
in another direction, women may not be able
to take their sick children to the clinic during
its operating hours).

The schedules of water availability and other Make sure the schedules do not conflict;
services (such as food distribution) conflict so combine activities (water and food
that people responsible for both activities distribution for example)
must choose between them.

Girls miss school because they are Arrange water availability so that it does not
responsible for collecting water. conflict with school; better yet, provide an
incentive for girls to go to school through the
location and timing of water availability.
 Problems that Arise Possible Solutions

Distance or some other factor makes water Provide guards; bring water into safe areas.
collection dangerous.

Water systems do not take account of cultural Take account of culture through research,
factors (e.g., a water engineer found that common sense and/or consultation (e.g., in
unsanitary open drainage ditches had been this situation, provide pipes into family
dug to connect the well he had built in a compounds when women are expected to
central location to people's homes in a remain secluded).
Muslim camp).

2.8 Using POP in Sanitation Programming

ð Your Goal Your goal is to provide appropriate sanitation facilities and appropriate commodities for
all refugees.

Appropriate Sanitation Facilities

What you need to 1. Refugee profile

know about this 2. Culture
particular group
of refugees

Why you need to know this

A critical issue in the arrangements for sanitary facilities is safety, particularly for women who are at risk
of sexual attack when they go alone (for reasons of privacy) to the latrine. It is important to know the
refugee profile and the cultural factors that surround defecation practices to determine how vulnerability
to attack can be prevented. Latrines built in unsuitable places or without due consideration for privacy
will not be used.

In many societies, a number of washing functions are carried out simultaneously. For example, people
draw water for use in cooking, launder their clothing and bathe themselves and their children all at the
same water points. The arrangements for the delivery of safe water to refugees for whom this is the water
use pattern should both take account of these traditional patterns and accommodate them so far as
possible and, at the same time, ensure the sanitary preservation of water purity. Again, however, if
cultural patterns are ignored, the water delivery system will often be by-passed by refugees and
problems with sanitation and health will emerge.

Appropriate Commodities

What you need to 1. Refugee profile

know about this
particular group
of refugees

Why you need to know this

Girls and women who are menstruating always need sanitary napkins or their equivalent every month.
These must be provided in sufficient quantities as a routine commodity in the goods package accorded
refugees.
2.9 Lessons Learned from UNHCR Experience in Sanitation Programming

Experience with refugees has shown a number of areas where POP issues arise in relation to sanitation.
Some of these are:

Problems that Arise Possible Solutions

Refugees would not use the latrines that had Rebuild and remember to consider culture in
been built for them because these latrines the future!
faced Mecca.
The rate of rape of women was high in and Add lighting; relocate latrines.
around the unlighted latrines at night.
Women would not use latrines at night Consult with women about how to provide
because the lights (provided for their safety) safety and privacy simultaneously.
meant that they did not have the privacy they
desired.
Shower facilities were not used because they Arrange water and sanitation facilities to
were isolated from the place at which water match traditional norms as much as possible
was collected for other uses. without compromising sanitation.
Women and girls who were menstruating Provide sanitary napkins or their equivalent
were constrained from participating in other (fabric squares for example).
camp activities because they had no
protection.
Refugees would not use latrines provided for Consult with both men and women refugees
them because those for both men and women prior to locating latrines in order to learn of
were built side-by-side and this violated such restrictions and to respect them.
privacy norms.

2.10 Using POP for Health Service Programmes

ð Your Goal Your goal is to provide appropriate health services to all refugees.
Appropriate Health Services

What you need to 1. Refugee profile

know about this 2. Culture
particular group 3. Context
of refugees

Why you need to know this

If a majority of the refugees are fighting-age men who have escaped from a war zone, the primary health
need may be treatment for injuries. If most refugees are women who are pregnant, lactating or mothers
of young children, the main need may be gynecological or obstetric care. If many are young children
suffering from malnutrition, health care must be linked to feeding programs. The composition of the
refugee group and the cause of their flight are critically important factors for planning effective health
services to any particular refugee group.

In refugee populations in which culture proscribes who can treat women and women's illnesses, health
services will not be appropriate or utilized unless these cultural factors are recognized in where and how
health services are provided and in who provides them.

If Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) are part of the refugee population, these basic skills for attending
to pregnancy should be utilized. The best provision of health services to such a group would be through
support and collaboration with or provision of equipment and additional training to these TBAs.

Where refugees have been subject to physical violence, health services must include sufficient female
care providers and counselors to enable women who have been abused to seek and receive treatment.
Special encouragement and protection may be required to enable women to report sexual abuse when
cultural taboos (e.g., ostracism) surround the victims of such attacks.

To All Refugees

What you must know 1. Refugee profile

about this particular 2. Culture
group of refugees 3. Activities analysis

Why you need to know this

If tradition dictates that men must represent their families in the public arena (culture), but there are
many households in the refugee population who are headed by women or where women are secluded
(refugee profile/culture), special arrangements must be made to provide health services in places and
under circumstances that provide access for women without male support.

In circumstances where women have primary responsibility for providing health care to their families
(activities analysis), services must be provided at times and in locations where they can use them. If (as
noted above) the health clinics are open only at hours during which women have other critical
responsibilities (such as fetching water, queuing for food rations, etc.), the health of women and their
dependents will suffer.

Awareness of major shifts in activities and roles from pre-refugee status to becoming a refugee to
returnee status can help planners of mental health support predict areas of special need and provide
appropriate services. For example, if men have completely lost all previously held roles which afforded
prestige and meaning, they may be particularly subject to depression. This may come out in the form of
violence toward family members or others. Women may have had to take on numerous additional
responsibilities and roles for which they were ill prepared and, thus, may require extra support. Children
may have been traumatized by experiences leaving them in severe need of mental health diagnosis and
help. Knowing who has experienced which changes in their roles and knowing what - kinds of traumas
have been widespread in the stages of departure, flight or repatriation, are important factors for planning
appropriate and effective mental-health care.

2.11 Lessons Learned from UNHCR Experience in Programming in Health

Many aspects of culture and traditional activities affect the way that health services should be provided.
Some examples of these include:

Problems that Arise Possible Solutions

 Problems that Arise Possible Solutions
Data (when collected) often show that First, ensure that data are collected according
morbidity and mortality rates of girl children to gender. Then, if a problem arises, be ready
are higher than for boys. Investigation to address it with public education campaigns
showsthat this is a result of the fact that or with special provisions for health services
parents place a higher value on the health of for girls.
their sons and, thus, when it is difficult to
gain access to health care, they will
postpone taking a daughter for care (during
which time she may become quite ill) but
they will ensure that a boy gets the care he
needs before he becomes too ill to recover.
In a camp where women traditionally wore Have women as health care providers; give
veils, a campaign to ensure that refugees vitamin tablets for home consumption.
took vitamin A involved giving the tablets to
refugees and insisting that they be
swallowed immediately. After a few days,
women stopped coming for the capsules,
because they did not want to lift their veils in
public (which the staff were insisting upon so
that they could be sure the pills were being
taken).
In one Muslim camp, when it became clear Know the culture; be sure to assess real
that women were not getting needed medical health needs as well as traditional constraints
assistance because all camp doctors were faced by women.
male, a woman pediatrician was provided.
What was needed was, of course, a
gynecologist. (Children, even girls, were able
to be treated by male doctors.)
In a camp where only men and children were Hire women health care staff and ensure that
visible in public places, including at the they make home visits.
health clinic, the adverse health conditions
for women were not perceived until mortality
rates for children became alarming. It was
then learned that women, who remained
secluded at home, had arrived in the camp
pregnant and malnourished but had been
unable to receive prenatal or other health
care.

2.12 Using POP in Programming for Education and Training

ð Your Goal: Your goal is to provide appropriate education and training opportunities for children and
adults.

Appropriate Education and Training Opportunities for Children and Adults

What you need to 1. Refugee profile

know about this 2. Activities analysis
particular group 3. Culture
 of refugees 4. Resources analysis

Why you need to know this

In virtually every refugee situation, boys and men enjoy more education and training opportunities than
girls and women for a variety of reasons.

If girls and women are responsible for activities that occur daily and that take a significant amount of
time (such as collecting water and fuel, or food preparation), the timing of training and education courses
can become a barrier to their participation. To ensure female participation, the timing of courses must be
adapted to fit their schedules. N.B. The same problem can be found in the timing of opportunities for
men who must spend time in markets or in ploughing, cultivation, etc.

Because the work of young girls is often necessary for family survival (in caring for younger siblings or
performing household functions), the "cost"3(3)3 of letting girls go to school will be too high.

In many cultures, when girls enter puberty, families fear for their safety and tend to keep them close to
home. Girls are often withdrawn from school when they become young adults.

In societies where one language is spoken in the market or "outside" world while another language is
spoken in most homes, male family members who traditionally represent the household in the public
world are more apt to speak the public language than women and girls. Often, school is also taught in
this language. Thus, girls who are kept at home because they do not speak the language of instruction
also fail ever to be exposed to it and, thus, learn it. The cycle of exclusion from schooling is
self-perpetuating unless schooling is provided in the language of the household.

In households that are headed by single women, all of the above conflicts with education, especially
those having to do with time, are particularly important.

2.13 Lessons Learned from UNHCR Experience in Education and Training Programmes

POP factors affect the access of males and females to education and training opportunities differently.
Examples include:

Problems that Arise Possible Solutions

Girls do not go to school because of other Change the timing of classes; hold them for
jobs they have to do. girls in the late afternoons or evenings;
provide day-care for younger siblings at the
school location so that older girls can attend
(they can take turns looking after the younger
ones); provide other supports to ensure that
girls' jobs get done (e.g., bring water points
closer to home so water collection does not
interfere with school).

Girls do not go to school because their Hire female teachers; locate schools in safe
parents do not consider it safe. places; have elder women involved in helping
at schools (providing chaperonage for at-risk
girls).
 Problems that Arise Possible Solutions

Girls begin school but stop after a few Observe teacher/student interactions to see if
months. male (or female) teachers are inadvertently
discouraging girls' involvement; hold
in-service training for teachers; add "rewards"
for girls' continued involvement in school
(uniforms, scholarships, prizes

More men than women receive training in Form women's learning groups that provide
basic literacy. mutual support; arrange timing to fit women's
schedules; provide child-care at the training
site; reinforce what has been learned by
using training materials that relate to women's
activities and lives; provide cooked food
rations for women and their families at the
training site.

More men than women are involved in Ensure that training is in employment fields
employment training programs. that are appropriate for women; change the
timing of classes to fit women's schedules;
hold separate classes for men and women;
link future employment opportunities to
successful completion of courses; provide
child-care at training site; provide cooked
food rations for women and their families at
training site; provide sanitary napkins to
girls/women who miss school or training each
month during their menstrual cycles. When
new, previously unknown skills are
introduced, include women in training.
Double-check your assumptions about which
training fields are acceptable for women; you
may be more exclusive than the refugees.

Which of these possible solutions will work depends on your diagnosis of why women are not
involved in training. If planners (often male) did not consider that women should be involved,
this should be addressed first.

In repatriation situations, women Target training in income-earning skills to

heads-of-household are most vulnerable single female household heads to prepare
because they have limited income-generating them for repatriation.
skills.

2.14 Using POP for Providing Counseling to Refugees

ð Your Goal: Your goal is to ensure that appropriate counseling is available to all refugees who need
it.

Appropriate Counseling

What you need to 1. Refugee profile

know about this 2. Context (cause of flight)
particular group
 of refugees

Why you need to know this

If war or internal conflict was the cause of flight and the numbers of women are high in the refugee
population, rape may be a significant problem. Rape is one of the most devastating experiences that
many refugee women have experienced. When this has been coupled with the loss of husbands and
other family members, it is even more traumatic. However, because of cultural taboos and shame, many
women do not acknowledge or feel able to talk about having been raped. Appropriate counseling services
must be available in places and under circumstances where women can use them. Often, this requires
the presence of female counselors and situations of privacy.

To All Refugees Who Need It

What you need to 1. Refugee profile

know about this 2. Context (cause of flight)
particular group
of refugees

Why you need to know this

Which family members are refugees and which have been lost or left behind can determine who needs
counseling and what type of counseling they need. Women and "vulnerables" are not the only people
who may need counseling. Men, women and children who have experienced trauma need help. Young
men who leave families to escape conscription may be alone and stressed without any sense of a
future. Men whose daily routine of work is lost in a camp setting may become depressed and,
sometimes, violent. Children who have watched while parents were killed can suffer extreme withdrawal
and breakdown.

2.15 Lessons Learned from UNHCR Experience in Counseling Programmes

Problems that Arise Possible Solutions

Women will not acknowledge the fact that Ensure that female counselors are available;
they have been raped or otherwise abused hold interviews in privacy; identify and rely on
to male camp personnel or in front of their existing refugee women's networks to provide
husbands or children help to traumatized women.
Intra-family violence remains hidden and not Identify pressures and stresses on men (and
dealt with. women) that might result in violence; identify
and rely on refugee networks to identify
problems and to enforce prevention.
When refugees are absorbed into families Arrange random home visits; set up refugee
inthe asylum country, women may be committees to monitor abuse and refer
subjected to abuse and/or children may be individuals for counseling.
used as servants.
Women who remain secluded or cannot Do home visits; identify the members of the
interact easily with strangers (i.e. camp staff) population who are not using services and
fail to get needed help. seek them out to see if they need help.

3 Using POP: Refugee Protection

3.1 Using POP to Design and Implement Programmes of Refugee Protection
Refugee protection is a primary obligation of UNHCR and its implementing partners. Protection involves
both legal and maintenance activities. That is, refugees deserve protection afforded by binding
international agreements and negotiated political arrangements, and they deserve sufficient food, shelter,
health services, etc. to maintain both physical and mental health. 1(4)4

POP can help protection officers and staff people who are responsible for assistance programmes as
they ensure individual and group safety for refugees and returnees. It can help answer important
questions such as:

1. Who is at risk of protection violations? Information about the refugee profile, context and
activities analysis can help UNHCR and its partners identify whether protection is a critical issue in any
refugee population and who, in particular, is at risk. For example, if the cause of flight is war or civil
conflict, people from certain ethnic, political, language or religious groups may be vulnerable to reprisals
within the camp setting, or males of conscription age may need special protection arrangements.

Women may have been subject to rape - either as individual objects of anger or as a widespread,
systematic act of war - and, thus, need special medical and psychological assistance. In addition,
because in some societies women who have been raped are ostracized or seen as "unclean," they may
need special physical and legal protection as well.

2. How can the refugees/returnees participate in protection? Following the principle emphasized
elsewhere in this booklet that it is always more effective and efficient to rely on refugee capacities to
achieve desired programme outcomes, activities analysis and resources analysis can help
protection/assistance staff identify areas where refugees can create and maintain aspects of their own
protection systems. For example, in some cultures, elderly women can be effective in protecting
younger women or groups of single women heads-of-households may develop group approaches for
protecting themselves and their children. If these possibilities exist, they may be strengthened through
arrangements for shelter, water and food distribution, or they may be undermined when these
arrangements are inappropriate.

3. What is the range of protection activities available? Protection involves the entire range of
programmatic activities offered by UNHCR and its partners. Registration must be designed to capture
the relevant information about the refugee profile if planners are to be able to foresee critical protection
problem areas. Registration of all family members should be done in a way that ensures equal access to
resettlement for women, men and the elderly.

Systems for the distribution of food, shelter, water, health services, counseling, etc. can either put some
groups at risk or protect those who most need it. For example, when food distribution is controlled
entirely by men, experience shows that very often they use this position of power to force sexual favors
from young women who are sent to collect their families' food rations. Similarly, refugees or returnees
who do not have access to sufficient maintenance support and who have no other options for earning
their livelihoods may be forced into illegal commerce, coerced prostitution or other exploitative activities.

4 Using POP: Refugee Participation

4.1 POP and Refugee Participation

It is widely recognized that getting refugees to participate in the design and implementation of the
programmes that serve them can increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of those programmes.
However, it is often extremely difficult to find ways to involve refugees and to elicit and manage
appropriate refugee participation.

POP offers suggestions and guidelines about things to do - and things not to do - to gain refugee
participation. It helps answer the question: Which refugees should participate in what?

1. Activities analysis helps you identify who was involved in the types of activities addressed by a
given programme before they became refugees or in preparation for repatriation.

Under most circumstances, it is more efficient and effective to rely on the refugee group who traditionally
was involved in a given activity (though this may run counter to usual procedures in refugee situations).

For example, using activities analysis, one would engage women in planning and managing food
programmes, water programmes and, often, health programmes. One would honour the traditional roles
of men which, in many cases, involve protection and governance.

This does not mean that women should have no role in decision-making. Please read
on . . .

2. Knowledge about the culture and traditions of refugee groups helps you avoid false starts and
wasted time in arranging for refugee participation.

In some situations, because of the disruption of ordinary patterns experienced by refugees in flight, the
individuals or household members who traditionally performed certain functions are not present in the
refugee or returnee situation. In these cases, others will have to be involved - against refugee cultural
norms. If these norms strongly proscribe the roles and activities for men and/or women, it is important to
be aware of this before trying to make changes. If you need to find a way to involve men in traditional
women's work (or vice versa), knowledge of the cultural constraints will help you: a) respect the difficulty
of the shift; b) move with caution in setting up your programme; and c) find a culturally appropriate way
to make adjustments without violating deeply held convictions.

In one refugee setting in Africa, refugee programmers decided to include women in the major
refugee leadership councils. This attempt was met with complete resistance on the part of
both men and women refugees who said that, in their tradition, "Kings are born; not made."
Nonetheless, through further consultation and listening, UNHCR staff were able to identify a
range of traditional women's leadership roles and mechanisms which served to facilitate their
participation in a politically meaningful and culturally appropriate way.

In a refugee setting in a traditional Asian society, the UNHCR director was uncomfortable
trying to make contact with women and he was unable to do so in any case. He established a
refugee "women's committee" to hear the concerns of women and he established an
implementing partners' "committee for refugee women" (with several women members) to
provide the liaison with the refugee women's committee. Through this several tier mechanism,
he was able to learn of the needs of refugee women which they could never have
communicated to him directly.

5 Using POP: Refugee Employment and Income Generation Activities

5.1 POP and Refugee Employment and Income Generation Programmes

Often in refugee situations, UNHCR and its implementing partners employ refugees in various jobs that
are necessary for the running of the refugee programme. For example, teams of refugees may be hired
to lay out a camp infrastructure by building roads, digging wells, constructing schools, etc. Or individual
refugees may be hired as translators, food distributors or in other managerial jobs. Experience shows
that male, rather than female, refugees are hired for the majority of these construction and managerial
jobs.

Also in refugee situations, UNHCR implementing partners very often start up small scale
income-generation projects for refugees. Again, a gender pattern is quite frequently found in these
efforts, with those that require up-front capital and interaction with customers (e.g., blacksmithing,
tailoring, brick-making) being more often directed toward men while those that involve modest inputs and
are carried out informally (e.g., handicrafts) are directed toward women.

Activities analysis of traditional roles often (but not always) supports this kind of division of employment
between men and women.

However, POP raises several other issues for consideration:

1. Who needs income and why? Information gained about the refugee profile and resources
analysis can point up the need for expanding employment and income opportunities beyond the
traditional roles. For example, while it is often appropriate to hire men from two-parent families in order to
ensure that these families have needed cash income, it may be even more important for the future of the
refugees and durable solutions to ensure that single male-headed and female-headed households have
opportunities to earn real cash income.

In one African situation where repatriation was becoming possible, families adopted a return
strategy in which one family member (the husband) would go back to the country of origin a
few months before the rest of the family. This represented a simultaneous income-saving and
future investment strategy in which the family members who stayed behind could continue to
receive food rations and other supports (thus, not costing them anything) while the one who
returned could begin the process of building a capital base (clearing land, planting a crop) for
the future. From UNHCR's point of view, it was cheaper to support this split strategy than to
provide costly repatriation packages to every refugee family. However, for single-parent
families, who were mostly female-headed households, this strategy was not possible.
Employment and income-earning opportunities targeted toward these women would have
allowed them to pay for some of the forward-looking investments in their home country and
ease their return as well. Without such support, these female-headed families were destined to
become the last to repatriate and to require the most costly direct repatriation supports.

2. What kind of employment? Where? When? Activities analysis helps planners of employment
programs plan them so that they can benefit the people for whom they are intended. Specifically, if
single women heads-of-households are to be employed, they will probably need to have a different
schedule of work than men would have. They will need to work shorter hours per day (in order to be able
to carry out the other in-camp household activities that must be done such as queuing for food,
collecting fuel and water, food preparation, child-care, etc.). In addition, they might be assigned to work
locations on forestry or in road building that either require less travel time (again, to save time for other
jobs) or that are located in proximity to the water point, the food distribution site, etc. In some cases,
they might need special uniforms or other clothing to engage in the work offered. For example, in one
situation, women needed to be provided with overalls before they could undertake carpentry jobs
because, in their skirts without underclothing, they were inhibited from climbing as was necessary for
this work.

3. Who really does this work traditionally? Activities analysis might surprise the planner of refugee
employment programmes. For example, experience shows that when women are employed in
reforestation programmes, the result is that more trees are planted, more of the trees that are planted
survive and grow, and that future use of forests for firewood reflects a deeper concern with conservation
than when men are employed to plant trees. This is the case in societies where women are traditionally
in charge of fuel collection. Yet, most refugee programmes that involve reforestation hire men rather than
women.

It is always worth considering the possibility of hiring women as well as men to do manual labour.

6 Using POP: Refugee Self-Reliance

6.1 Using POP to Programme for Refugee Self-Reliance

In some places, UNHCR and its implementing partners plan to discontinue the supply of food or other
care and maintenance after refugees or returnees have been helped to become self-reliant. The goal is to
provide well-designed and sufficient support in a limited time period so that refugees or returnees can
produce what they need or earn sufficient income without ongoing outside support.

Programmes aimed at self-reliance provide production inputs, such as tools, seeds, technical
assistance and training along with a package of basics, such as food, that are necessary to sustain life
until the refugees or returnees can produce on their own. POP information is critical to achieving
self-reliance. If all refugees/returnees are thought to be the same, attempts to promote self-reliance may
work for some groups while others, who are left out of the support systems, will still depend on UNHCR
or implementing partners' support. Plans for terminating all external support will have to revised as these
groups continue to need help simply to survive.

POP helps you identify what you need to know to support refugee or returnee self-reliance. To illustrate
this, we use an example below that focuses on self-reliance in food production. You will see how this
applies in other areas of production as well. POP can help you answer:

1. How much support do the refugees or returnees need in order to become self-sufficient?
Because of the importance of change, you need to know how the land quality, rain and water supply,
crop conditions, and market conditions for purchase of seeds and fertilizers are similar to, or differ from,
those of the previous situation. That is, as people move from their pre-refugee to the refugee situation or
from being refugees to returning home, their familiarity with the conditions in which they will be working
makes a great deal of difference in their ability to achieve self-reliance. If the circumstances are very
different, UNHCR and its implementing partners will need to supply much more technical assistance and
training; if they are similar, very little will need to be provided.

2. Who should get help for self-reliance? Activities analysis and resources analysis are important
for identifying who should receive technical assistance and training, or seeds and fertilizers, because
these things should be provided to the people who are actually involved in the work and who, therefore,
need to have access to these resources.

On the other hand, if the people who normally did agricultural work are not in the refugee or returnee
population (refugee profile), the amount of training and support must be higher than it would have been if
one could rely on existing refugee (or returnee) skills and knowledge.

For example, in a situation where it has been the traditional job of men to plough land while women were
responsible for cultivation, just providing land to female-headed households may not be sufficient to
promote their self-reliance. They may be unable to get their land cleared and ploughed in order to begin
cultivation so that some kind of special assistance with these tasks will be necessary to get them
started.

7 Using POP: Short-Term Assistance and Long-Term Durable Solutions

7.1 POP and the Relationship Between Emergency Refugee Assistance and Long-Term
Outcomes/Durable Solutions
The UNHCR response in every refugee situation should be directed toward the achievement of a humane
durable solution. Decisions made at the beginning of a refugee emergency either lead to and support - or
undermine and make more difficult - the achievement of a developmentally sound durable solution.

POP helps you pinpoint the facts that will enable you to tailor the immediate short-term, emergency
package to a particular group of refugees in a way that, at the same time, promotes less future
dependency on outside aid - hence, a more sustainable durable solution.

Specifically, experience shows that:

• If you ignore refugee resources, you undermine the ability of refugee men and women to do
things for themselves and thus increase their dependency - over the long term - on outside
assistance.

• The non-material resources of refugees - community organization, skills, traditions,

attitudes and will - are just as important as the material or physical things they have in
terms of achieving appropriate durable solutions. These non-material resources differ for
men, women, children and elderly people.

• It is usually more efficient in the short run, and always better for refugee capacities in the
long run, to rely on the patterns of work and distribution of resources that prevail in the
refugee population to provide food, shelter, household goods and other emergency needs.

• Failure to acknowledge existing gender and age patterns of work and resource distribution
in the first days of an emergency can create biases in programming that are exceedingly
difficult to overcome later. Often these biases directly impede the effective achievement of
an appropriate durable solution. If all emergency-phase staff are male, this may make it
impossible for planners to get the information they need for good decision-making. Thus,
where women in the refugee population are restricted in their interactions with male
strangers, it, is essential to ensure that some emergency-phase staff are women.

Appendix A: How To Do Activities Analysis

When you are in the field, you have two "tools" for gathering information for activities analysis:

• asking questions and listening to responses

• observing

You must always use both, because people often answer questions in ways they think the questioner
wants to hear rather than providing a full and accurate picture. When you watch and look as well as
listen, you are able to note when things are happening differently from the ways that people are telling
you they occur. This provides the basis for you to ask other, better-informed, questions. Observation
alone is not adequate because: a) you cannot see everything and b) different jobs are done in different
seasons and you cannot observe during all seasons before starting to do your work!

Asking Questions and Listening to Responses

There is no fixed questionnaire for interviewing people about their activities. Remember: what you
want to find out are the patterns of activities that are directly related to the programmes you are
providing. For example, if you are providing food, you want to know about the usual patterns through
which people grow or acquire and distribute food. If you are offering health care, you want to know about
the patterns of health care-who seeks it and how different individuals and family members do so.The
tone you use to ask questions will greatly affect the kind of information you get. Following are pointers
about what has been found to help:

• Ask fact questions more than opinion questions. You are not offering people a chance to
 complain or even to request help. Rather, you are trying to find out the real situation they
face in order (later) to work out the best programmatic solutions.

• This is not the time for getting community people involved in designing their own solutions
per se. However, in many situations we have found that if you ask people about their lives
so that they feel as if they are really listened to, their involvement and participation in
solutions increases. Furthermore, as people answer your questions for activities analysis,
they will be diagnosing their own circumstances better as well (based on facts rather than
feelings), and this can help them come up with good suggestions later which are based on
their own diagnosis.

• Sound interested but not nosey. You are asking these questions as a part of the
programme design process.

• Sit down and really talk to people. Don't stand up and look down at them.

• Do not take a lot of notes. When you are alone later you may write down what you have
found out. This means you have to listen and remember what you have heard!

• Really listen to people. Respond to them so they know you are listening. Some examples:
"Oh, that sounds difficult How will you manage it?" or "You are fortunate to have such a
large family . . ." etc.

• When people's information contradicts something you have heard or observed elsewhere,
follow up and find out why. But, do not sound as if you are "catching" them telling a lie or
exposing their wrong answer. Some examples: "What you say is really interesting to me
because another woman told me yesterday that, in her family, . . . (the different
information). What makes the difference in your situations?" or "When I was walking around
earlier this morning, I observed that men were . . . (different information from what was just
told). Why was that happening when you tell me . . . ?"

These questions are the backbone of your inquiry:

• What are your main responsibilities now that you are a refugee? What does your husband
(or wife, if you are interviewing the husband) do? How do you split your work? Do your
children also have responsibilities or chores too? What about other family members?

• How does this differ from your life before you became refugees? For you? Your
husband/wife? Children? Others?

Other questions might include:

• How long does that take you?

• When do you find time to do that?

• How many times a year is that done? When?

• Where do you (does he/she) have to go to do that?

• How far away is that?

• Do you do that right here at home?

 • Before you became a refugee, where were you able to do that?

Finally, to probe the division of labor and how strongly it is held to, you might ask these kinds of
question:

• I have noticed that it is usually men whom I see building the houses, but you have had to
flee without your husband. Will you build your own house? or How will you get your house
built?

• I see that your boys are not here. Where are they? (in school, at the market, don't know,
etc.) Why do you keep your girls at home? (need their help with household work, can't
afford school books for all children, etc.)

Observing

Remember, you are looking for patterns of activities by age or gender. You also want to know how
strictly these are adhered to (how strong the cultural basis is for these patterns). Also, remember that
since you are only looking at one season of the year, you will not see all activities. This is especially
critical in rural agricultural societies where activities change with the crop cycle (including activities such
as house-building or production of certain goods). Over the twenty-four hours of a day, activities also
change. Keep observing all activities during the entire time of your survey to see how these occur. For
each of the following activities, observe who does them, their gender and age, when and for how long,
and where.

Watch what Gender Age When/How Long Where

people do

Water, fuel,
food collection

Cooking

Milling

Cleaning

Child-care

House
construction
(who does
what: collection
of materials;
actual
building...)

Land clearing,
ploughing

Planting
 Watch what Gender Age When/How Long Where
people do

Weeding,
cultivation

Harvesting

Storing

Drying

Transporting

Selling

Paid labor
(what kind?
who does which
kinds?)

Storekeeping

Food shop
(who cooks?
who sells? who
serves?)

Meetings/sitting
with friends (tea
house,
community
meetings, water
well, market?)

Standing in line
(which lines,
which people?)

Animal care

Making things
(furniture, pots,
baskets,
clothing, for use
or for sale?)

Making things
(furniture, pots,
baskets,
clothing, for use
or for sale?)
 Watch what Gender Age When/How Long Where
people do

Teaching

Managing

Any other
activities? Note
anything you
observe as
important in this
group of
refugees.

Appendix B: How To Do Resources Analysis

Start by reviewing Appendix A, "How To Do Activities Analysis". You need to know the activities people
are engaged in in order to identify the resources they use and gain through these activities. The tone and
types of questions you use will also be similar to those used for activities analysis.

Again, you have both questions and listening and observation as your basic tools and you need to use
them all.

Remember: You are looking for patterns of resource use and distribution that are relevant to the
programmes you are offering.

Remember: Refugees even very poor ones have a number of material and nonmaterial resources that
they bring with them. You must identify these in order not to provide things that they do not need
(thereby increasing their future dependency on UNHCR programmes).

Asking Questions and Listening to Responses

Tone: See Appendix A for the tone and types of approaches you will want to use.

Questions: Some of the questions you might ask are:

• What were you able to save when you had to flee? Do you still have this with you?

• What was the worst thing to lose? Why? (This helps you find out whether there is some
basic resource needed for income generation that can be supplied in the refugee setting or
whether the most basic losses were non-material, such as "home" (rather than house),
community, family, etc.) Gender issues may show up here in that men's and women's
answers may differ.

• Given that you used to earn your livelihood doing . . ., you must have important skills you
still can use such as . . . (This is a way of identifying non-material resources that people
have brought.)
Observation

When people have described to you what they brought and what they lost, you will still want to observe
what they have as well as how they talk about their losses and continuing resources. The latter will help
you identify non-material resources that are important for refugee programming. (e.g., Who are
teachers? Who can plan camp layout? Who knows about sanitation? Who is already organized into
work/community groups? What types of people (male and female) have prestige and command respect
to help in organizing activities?)

For each of the following resources, observe who has them, who needs them and who uses them.

Resource Who Has? Who Needs? Who Uses?

Material:
food, animals, tools,
money, clothing, etc.

Social/organizational:

skills, leadership,
community groups,
etc.

Attitudinal/
motivational:
ideas, prestige,
respect, efficacy,
traditional power, etc.

Appendix C: A POP Protection Framework

Protection staff took the POP framework and adapted it so that it raises the specific issues that affect
people's needs for protection. As you see, the protection framework follows the outline of the general
POP framework, but the sub-texts give ideas of these specific issues.

Refugee Profile

As always, you need to know the refugee profile both before flight and in the country of asylum. But a
protection officer needs to know more. For example:

• Place of Origin: From a conflictive zone? Was there death squad activity?

• Personal Documentation: Sufficient for personal security? For access to assistance?

• Political Affiliation: Party to a conflict? Real or attributed? For self or family members?

• Ethnic, Tribal, Clan or Caste Affiliation: Discrimination? Party to a conflict?

Persecution?

• Religion: Opposing State religion? Discrimination or persecution?

 • Social Group: Student? Disabled? Homosexual?

• Age: Conscription age?

• Gender: Coerced prostitution/sexual exploitation?

• Occupation: Ex-government official? Rebel activist?

• Health: Physical/mental?

• Language: Able to communicate with refugee workers? Isolated?

• Vulnerable Groups: Unaccompanied minors? Disabled? Elderly? Lone female heads of

households? Unaccompanied women?

• Civil Status: Right to family reunification? Resettlement? Repatriation?

Refugee Context

As always, protection officers also need to know about the refugee context. For example:

• Event Triggering Flight: Danger? Abuse? Trauma?

• Means and Conditions of Flight: Special hardships? Physical abuse? Elderly,

children, pregnant or lactating women?

• Traditions: Female genital mutilation?

• Political Situation: Upheaval? Persecution?

• Human Rights Situation: Group identity protected? Persecution?

• Economic Situation: Destitute? Asylum country population resent influx of refugees?

Hostility?

• Military or Security Situation: Location? Threat from troop incursions?

• Ethnic/Inter-group Relations: Between refugee groups? Between refugees and host

country people? Across border?

• Cultural Attitudes toward Gender: Patriarchal society? Attitudes toward rape victims?

• Levels of Trust: Between refugees and refugee workers? Between refugees and country
of origin and/or country of asylum government or security forces? Between refugee workers
and government/security forces?

• Physical Conditions of Residence: Access to protection staff or security forces?

Protected location? Safety for women? Children? Access to assistance?

• Legal Situation: Discriminatory laws? Illegal entry? Penalties? Detention? Registration of

refugee births? Statelessness?

• Political Situation: Between country of origin and country of asylum? Between

 refugees/returnees and local populations?

Activities Analysis

Gender and age-related activities are also important for protection officers. For example:

• Political Activities: Active participation in outlawed or opposition parties/insurgencies?

Dissident activities?

• Religious Activities: Outlawed religion? Overt refusal to abide by religious mores?

[Imputed] links between religion and political activities?

• Protection Activities: Male protectors absent? Parental protectors absent? Customary

role of justice system?

• Self-Defense Patrols: Against criminal activity? Against military activity? "Informal"

justice?

• Wage-Earning Activities: Capacity to avoid illicit commerce? Access to legal jobs or

markets?

Resources Analysis

Refugee access to resources affects their security. Protection officers need to be aware of this. For
example:

• Education: Exclusion from education leads to illicit or illegal activities?

• Political Voice: Exclusion from political participation undermines other access for
safety/assistance?

• Capital and Property: Distorted life "options"? Forced repatriation? Bribery an issue?
Forced dependency?

• Legal Representation and Status: Fair access to birth registration? To personal

documentation? Linkage to opportunities for resettlement? Dependence of women on
husbands' status?

• Assistance: Access to package of assistance without undue dependency on others?

Coerced sexual "favors"?

• Health: Access fair? Sufficient female doctors? Facilities for treatment of mental health
problems? Privacy and confidentiality for counseling services?

• Protection: Adequacy of staff? Twenty-four hours a day? Available in camps? Sufficient

female staff?
 Endnotes

1 These observers can also begin doing Activities and Resources Analysis by observation and a few
questions. See Appendix A and Appendix B for approaches to on-the-ground Activities and Resources
Analysis.

2 MHH = Male Headed Household;

FHH = Female Headed Household;

UNAM = Unaccompanied Minor;

UNEL = Unaccompanied Elderly

3 The correct term for this cost is 1998opportunity cost.1998 This is the loss of things not done water
and fuel collection, for example when something else is done attendance at school.

4 See Appendix C for a detailed outline of a POP Protection Framework.