Distinguishing Means and Ends: The Counterintuitive Effects of UNHCR's Community Development Approach in Nepal

Abstract

UNHCR's community development approach (CDA) consists of a disparate set of guidelines designed to strengthen the self-reliance of refugees during protracted displacement. It envisions refugees as agents of their own development, and aims to prepare them for a durable solution. But in the absence of basic standards and benchmarks, the CDA is being used—by implementing partners as well as specialized units with the agency—as an opportunity to advance rights-based development. This raises a number of concerns related to the desired aims of the CDA, the accountability of UNHCR and its implementing partners and its capacity to administer development while preserving its core mandate. This article casts a critical eye over CDA as experienced in Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. It contends that UNHCR must develop appropriate standards for CDA. At the very least, the agency must move beyond basic emergency benchmarks and toward minimum standards that strengthen self-reliance and empower refugees, but do not simultaneously undermine prospects of achieving a durable solution.