Humanitarian Support for Displaced Populations: A Comparative Study of Counties of Rubkona, South Sudan, and Turkana, Kenya

Abstract

Humanitarian support is anchored on the philosophy of saving lives and alleviating human suffering. However, targeted efforts towards sustainable livelihoods of the assisted communities remain a missed target. Priority has been on short-term relief measures focused on immediate life-saving needs, while neglecting long-term recovery, resilience-building, and livelihood sustainability. Integrating development programming anchored on annals of resilience and sustainability, therefore, remains unfulfilled.  Authors opine that such initiatives within displaced populations’ contexts need to be aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Goal 1 (end poverty in all its forms everywhere), and Goal 8 (decent work and economic growth) to underscore the integration of livelihoods support into humanitarian programmes. Humanitarian support theory, a composite framework that informs the design and delivery of humanitarian support in crisis settings, forms the conceptual underpinning. A pragmatist mixed-methods approach, known for enhancing the explanatory power of findings by triangulating quantitative and qualitative data, was employed. A sampling strategy blended out of census, random, and purposive sampling was deployed, and a sample size of 400 was picked. Generally, health services were ranked best by both study sites on account of the humanitarian support for displaced populations, averaged at 93%. Cash support and Vocational training were rated poorly, signaling inadequacy of these humanitarian supports across both counties. Ironically, these could have improved the endowment of displaced populations and the sustainability of the humanitarian support. The study recommends the programming of humanitarian support packages to address this inadequacy for the sustainability of the livelihoods of the displaced populations.