UNHCR encountered some considerable constraints in 2020. Apart from a lack of funding, its activities were restricted in the run up to the General Election in May 2020. Of longer lasting impact were the restrictions made necessary to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many staff had to telework from home, or from outside Burundi when international flights were suspended for about four months. Coordination work is challenged when staff cannot meet their counterparts and affected persons and their community leaders face to face.
To address the funding gaps, tackle the need for long term aid and investment to solve some of the structural problems as well as find durable solutions to displacement within the humanitarian development nexus, UNHCR in partnership with UNDP in late 2019 launched the Joint Refugee Returnee Response Plan (JRRRP). However, in 2020 very few financial commitments materialized especially on the development side. This resulted in UNHCR not securing the funding it required to extend activities for reintegration in 2021.
Due to lack of staffing and constraints due to COVID-19, UNHCR failed to advance on its objective of advocating for Government to ratify the 2009 African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of IDPs (Kampala Convention). This is despite Burundi signing the convention on 23 October 2009. Burundi also signed the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Protocol of 30 November 2006 on the Property Rights of Returnees (also including IDPs) as well as the ICGLR Nairobi Declaration on the effective implementation and operationalization of the Protocol. However, no concrete follow-up actions have been undertaken regarding IDPs.