According to the DRC Humanitarian Response Plan of 2016, there are 1.7 million new and protracted IDPs in need of shelter and NFI assistance across the country, with the highest concentration found in North Kivu Province. Regardless of Province, the clear majority of IDPs continue to shelter with host families (over 70 per cent) while approximately 220,000 are sheltered in Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster-coordinated displacement sites in North Kivu. As Co-Lead Agency for the CCCM Strategic Advisory Group, UNHCR is responsible for coordinating the adequate protection of approximately 145,000 IDPs sheltered within 30 different sites spread across the province.
The continued unpredictable movements of populations following outbreaks of armed conflict, disputes over mineral resources or aggressive land evictions often leave Congolese families without any means to shelter themselves, let alone return to their place of origin and rebuild. The HRP 2016 states that there were new displacements waves with an average of 3,000 people on the move every day in 2015. Certain zones, where shelter needs have been extremely high, were inaccessible either due security restrictions or difficult terrain conditions. Furthermore, in cases where abundant natural resources exist for potential shelter construction, land ownership and related conflicts, coupled with a lack of clear environmental resource management procedures has impeded such exploitation.
The living conditions of the IDPs in the displacement sites remain extremely precarious with the continuous deterioration of household emergency shelters and the absence of shelter materials or plots for returning IDPs. Where the shelter typology consists predominantly of plastic sheeting, the sporadic and sparse renewal of this material means that thousands of households reside under rotten, torn and leaking cover. Even IDP shelters self-built with natural materials need regular maintenance and reinforcement if inhabited for over six months.
To combat this threat to the health and physical security of IDPs to the extent possible, UNHCR has endeavoured and will continue to provide household emergency or transitional shelter kits and communal tool kits to all of the most extreme cases of vulnerable IDPs in Eastern DRC. The composition of these kits must be a result of contextual analysis covering local climate, topology, markets, existing capacities and coping mechanisms among the affected populations (including host families themselves), as well as an evaluation of the security and access situation. Only if no other material is viable or available, will single plastic sheeting distributions be executed by UNHCR as a last resort. Flexible transitional shelter packages should target returning IDPs as a means to support their reintegration or reinstallation into existing communities. The overall shelter strategy for IDPs should reinforce UNHCR’s approach of durable solutions, moving away from cyclic humanitarian aid dependence and towards an autonomous, permanent self-coverage of needs.
2017