VIDEO | Sun, earth, water, people: recipe ‘Malkadida’ for the future of 360 thousand refugees and residents
In the south-east of Ethiopia, tens of thousands of refugees have been living in increasingly larger camps for twenty years because the crises continue
ROME – “In the world there are 114 million displaced or refugee people, of whom 36 million live in Africa, and increasingly in refugee camps where they live for years, because the crises not only continue, but increase It is essential to implement projects that create alternatives and send a message to the communities that host them: refugees are an integral and profitable part of society. /strong>”. This was reported to the Dire agency by Chiara Cardoletti, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) for Italy, the Holy See and San Marino.
The interview takes place on the sidelines of the panel ‘The Mattei Plan: success cases to scale and critical issues to resolve’, promoted by the Avsi Foundation on the second day of Codeway Expo 2024, an event dedicated to development cooperation underway at the Nuova Fiera From Rome. Cardoletti recalls that, in light of the existence of “increasingly long-lived and large refugee camps, in urban or remote and isolated areas, however difficult in Africa”, the work of UNHCR has also had to change. “If before we aimed at humanitarian intervention – explains the representative – now we create projects that create alternatives and opportunities“.
THE MALKADIDA PROJECT IN ETHIOPIA, WHERE SOMALI REFUGEES HAVE BEEN ARRIVING FOR 20 YEARS
Like Melkadida Refugee Compact, a four-year program (2024-2027) aimed at 360 thousand residents of refugee camps in the Somali region, in south-eastern Ethiopia. “For 20 years it has been receiving refugees from Somalia” explains Cardoletti, adding that it is an area “poor, dangerous and very affected by the effects of climate change and where local communities have welcomed up to 250 thousand refugees over the years”.
The Melkadida project, under the direction of the Ethiopian government, is implemented in collaboration with private entities and local and refugee communities. “The plan”, underlines Cardoletti, “aims to make the very few resources in the region efficient”, namely sun, water, land and people.
We start from the sun: thanks to photovoltaic systems, continues the UNHCR representative, “we are trying to electrify the area to bring energy to the people”. According to Cardoletti, “this will allow us to irrigate the fields, guarantee education for young people and cook at home without having to cut down trees for firewood”.
Then, water: “We are implementing interventions that allow us not to waste it, or allow us to stockpile and find new water.” The third resource is land. “We have already irrigated 10 thousand hectares of land to guarantee power sources” says Cardoletti. Who then mentions a fourth point, the investment in people: “Let’s give access to school, sport and health so young people will not be forced to leave the country”.
GATTI (DGCS): WITH THE MATTEI PLAN PUSHED TO DO MORE
“The Mattei Plan has given us the necessary political push to turn the page, which does not mean denying the past, but being able to move faster, because cooperation is one of the pillars of Palazzo Chigi’s project for Africa” . This was reported by Stefano Gatti, director of the General Directorate for Development Cooperation (DGCS), opening the panel ‘The Mattei Plan: success cases to be scaled up and critical issues to be resolved’.
The work to be done according to the manager “is a lot, starting from regulatory adaptation”: “it is necessary – suggests Gatti – to have agile, compatible and adequate rules and laws for the reality of the country: for example, our Procurement Code calls for competitive procedures. We need to understand if and how countries can guarantee them.”