Summary
Fleeing the horrors of war, only to find yourself trapped in a system of inadequate services there to aid your survival as a refugee, often leaves vulnerable women and children in a paradox of despair. For South Sudanese and Congolese refugees in Uganda's West Nile Region, this is a daily reality. This talk highlights the urgent need to redesign better support services in these camps and surrounding communities, challenging us as designers to advocate, through our practice, real change in a broken development sector.
Key Insights
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The resilient hope found in refugee communities can inform and shape impactful humanitarian work.
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Redemptive design emphasizes restoring dignity through holistic approaches rather than just immediate fixes.
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Understanding the complex interplay between host and refugee communities is crucial for effective humanitarian solutions.
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Engaging with communities should start from their envisioned futures to create actionable pathways to those futures.
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Facilitating hope requires proactive methods and a balance of critical reflexivity and cultural sensitivity in research practices.
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The 70/30 rule in resource allocation in Uganda highlights challenges of chronic underfunding and potential inequities in service delivery.
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Embracing diverse ways of knowledge, including local beliefs and practices, is key to effective community engagement.
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Effective advocacy requires understanding the motivations and priorities of donors to align them with the community's needs.
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Methodologies like history mapping and futures mapping are vital in identifying strategic interventions for long-term sustainability.
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Both top-down and bottom-up approaches are essential for systemic change in humanitarian contexts.
Notable Quotes
"I hope to prove to you that this is the most rewarding creative challenge you will ever experience."
"Uganda is Africa's largest refugee host nation, with over 1.5 million refugees living in the country."
"You have to engage with every layer of the system, and your research is where you begin."
"When we spoke to the communities, they expressed a regeneration of their land and a safe place for their children to grow."
"Redemption is an economic term that means to buy back something or someone to restore it to its rightful place."
"Hope is not passive. Hope is very proactive."
"Your job is to be able to ask the right questions so that you can find the parallels between the futures."
"I designed a needs assessment to ask some questions and figure out what is the situation on the ground."
"Knowing your positionality is important in the field."
"From the future to the future, have that memorized."
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