{"id":31389,"date":"2016-12-27T01:00:17","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T01:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/un-gives-sh300m-to-help-refugees-survive-in\/"},"modified":"2016-12-27T01:00:05","modified_gmt":"2016-12-27T01:00:05","slug":"un-gives-sh300m-to-help-refugees-survive-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/un-gives-sh300m-to-help-refugees-survive-in\/","title":{"rendered":"UN gives Sh300m to help refugees survive in Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The United Nations is launching a $3 million (Sh300 million) \u201cpeacebuilding\u201d initiative in Kenya and Somalia to facilitate the voluntary departure of 3,000 refugees from the Dadaab complex.}<\/p>\n

UN officials describe the 18-month-long pilot project as \u201cunique\u201d in its cross-border scope.<\/p>\n

On the Somalia side, it will be focused on the Baidoa area, which lies about 250 kilometres west of Mogadishu.<\/p>\n

Security is said to have improved in Baidoa following an Al-Shabaab attack 10 months ago that killed 30 civilians.<\/p>\n

{{KENYA’S PUSH}}<\/p>\n

The new UN project, announced on Wednesday, could be extended and expanded to assist additional numbers of Somali refugees in returning to their homeland, UN officials added.<\/p>\n

By providing skills training in Dadaab and investment in job creation in Baidoa, the effort seeks to overcome a major impediment to the mass return of refugees from Dadaab: lack of economic opportunities in Somalia.<\/p>\n

Citing security concerns, the Kenyan government has been pushing for the closure of the Dadaab camps, which held 275,529 refugees as of December 1.<\/p>\n

{{RAINY SEASON}}<\/p>\n

The UN said last week that so far this year it has assisted the return to Somalia of 32,058 Dadaab residents.<\/p>\n

The pace of voluntary departures appears to be accelerating, with 1,743 refugees flown from Kenya to Somalia during the first half of this month.<\/p>\n

Supported returns to Mogadishu, Baidoa and Kismayu are currently taking place exclusively by air, the UN refugee agency noted.<\/p>\n

Transport by road is expected to resume next month once the rainy season ends.<\/p>\n

Skills development in Dadaab through the peacebuilding pilot project \u201cwill be tailored to the beneficiaries, depending on areas of return (urban vs rural) in Baidoa,\u201d John van Rosendaal, a spokesman for the UN Peacebuilding Fund, wrote in an email message on Thursday.<\/p>\n

{{FARMING}}<\/p>\n

Business start-up grants, mentoring and enterprise training will be provided to those returning refugees who settle in the city of Baidoa, Mr van Rosendaal added.<\/p>\n

For those returning to rural areas, the UN will offer \u201cagricultural and livestock inputs\u201d to help repatriated refugees establish livelihoods involving farming and herding, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo promote peaceful coexistence with the host community, vulnerable host community members will also be assisted,\u201d Mr van Rosendaal noted.<\/p>\n

The Dadaab-Baidoa pilot project is part of a larger UN peacebuilding effort that seeks to stabilise parts of Somalia described as \u201cnewly recovered\u201d from Al-Shabaab.<\/p>\n

\"Somali<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The United Nations is launching a $3 million (Sh300 million) \u201cpeacebuilding\u201d initiative in Kenya and Somalia to facilitate the voluntary departure of 3,000 refugees from the Dadaab complex.} UN officials describe the 18-month-long pilot project as \u201cunique\u201d in its cross-border scope. On the Somalia side, it will be focused on the Baidoa area, which lies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31389"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31389"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}