23M102 Ren Xiaoxin

Linkage politics – Final Report

January 29, 2024

Study and compare the objectives, organisations, and operations of at least two
humanitarian aid organisations. Evaluate their performance.

In human history, there have been countless disasters caused by both natural
disasters and wars, the people who have been displaced due to these disasters have
always existed, usually called refugees. In 1967, the United Nations revised a protocol on
refugee status, defining refugees as individuals who, on a justifiable basis, fear
persecution and remain outside their home country due to race, religion, nationality,
membership of a specific social group, or political views, and are unable or unwilling to
be protected by that country due to such fear. These assistance issue for refugees is one
of the important issues that need to be addressed in modern society, and the United
Nations and some international organizations choose to take responsibility by providing
protection and support for refugees. Although it is true that refugees have received
assistance through these organizations, how much impact has this assistance had on
their future survival and development?
Whether refugees decide to return home or stay in the host country, they need to
overcome existing difficulties and rebuild a normal life for themselves or their families.
This requires a lot of support. What extent can aid organizations help refugees? This
article will evaluate the performance of two international refugee aid agencies: United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Adventist Development and
Relief Agency (ADRA). Which based on their characteristics and some of their work
priorities in refugee support in recent years.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

UNHCR is a refugee support organization established by the United Nations General
Assembly after World War II in 1950, with their mission written on their official website: "
Our vision is a world where every person forced to flee can build a better future." 1
Therefore, for over seventy years, UNHCR has been committed to supporting the lives
and development of refugees, ensuring their food, shelter, and rights when needed.
Moreover, UNHCR has published detailed reports about the situation of refugees and
what support their provided. According to the data they provide, approximately 108.4
million people worldwide are forced to leave their homes and become refugees seeking
asylum (UNHCR Global Trend Report, 2022, p. 2). In recent years, the number of
refugees has shown an increasing trend, and there are more and more people in need of
shelter and support from UNHCR.
On February 24, 2022, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine marked the beginning of
the Russo Ukrainian War. The number of refugees from Ukraine has increased
significantly, at the end of 2022, over 16% of the world’s refugee were Ukrainian. The
number of Ukrainian refugees increased from 27300 at the end of 2021 to 5.7 million at

1
www.unhcr.org/about-unhcr
the end of May 2023 (UNHCR Global Trend Report, 2022, p. 8). This was the fastest out
flow of refugees since the Second World War. So, I decided to start by evaluating the
performance of the assistance provided by UNHCR for the refugees in this war.

① Assistance to Ukrainian refugees in the Russo Ukrainian War

In the report provided by UNHCR (2022), they provided protection and assistance to 4.3
million Ukrainian refugees, including cash and food aid, improved shelter facilities, and
repaired local houses (p. 90). They also coordinated numerous partners from seven
countries to support the Ukrainian regional refugees, providing refugees with protection
advice and support in accessing education, health, specific needs, etc.
Undeniably, UNHCR has brought great help to refugees in Ukraine. However, according
to statistics from 2022, more than 4 million people have fled to neighboring countries in
Ukraine, and an additional 7.1 million people are displaced within Ukraine. 2 Moreover,
this refugee crisis has also raised the issue of differentiation in refugee asylum, treating
Ukrainian refugees of Middle Eastern and African descent differently. 3 Prior to this crisis,
European countries had significantly different attitudes and policies towards Syrian
refugees compared to current Ukrainian refugees. According to Wang (2023), from a
cultural perspective, believe that factors such as race and religion have led EU countries
to adopt a negative attitude towards refugees from the Middle East, and generous
towards Ukrainian white people. Even Japan, which has less cases to received refugees,
has begun to receive Ukrainian refugees, which shows that there are obvious differences
and discrimination in the treatment of refugees. However, this part of the issue is not
mentioned in the report of the UNHCR. It is still necessary to continue thinking about how
to solve this problem.

② Education support for refugees and refugee children

According to the data from the UNHCR report, a total of 9049 refugees and returnees
worldwide enrolled in school in 2022 (UNHCR Global Report, 2022, p. 164). Through
collaborative education projects with multiple foundations, UNHCR has benefited tens of
thousands of children and teachers. In December 2019, the Global Refugee Forum
Education Co Sponsorship Alliance developed the Global Framework for Refugee
Education for the first Global Refugee Forum (GRF) held in Geneva. The framework aims
to create the global educational support system for refugees and host communities, in
order to fulfill the commitments of the Global Compact on Refugees and Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Sustainable Development Goal 4 (UNHCR
Global Framework for Refugee Education, 2019, p. 4). This goal is to ensure inclusive
and equitable quality education and provide lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.
In this framework, UNHCR is mainly divided into three parts for analysis: Inclusion in
national education systems, qualifications and skills for work, emergency response. The
inclusion in national education systems includes support programs and appeals for early
childhood education, primary education, and secondary education for refugee children,
and even intervention measures for the psychological health of children and their parents

2
https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-redoubles-its-aid-inside-ukraine-and-region
3
https://news.un.org/zh/story/2022/03/1100062
to rebuild the ability of caregivers to raise and care for children and rebuild family life. The
qualifications and skills for work is mainly calls for increasing demand oriented vocational
and technical training opportunities and strengthening the vocational and technical
training. And the emergency response is the timely response of UNHCR to the education
of refugee children, their time out of school has been reduced to a maximum of three
months.
In summary, UNHCR has implemented many effective programs and appeals for
educational support for refugees. Since 2019, the publication of the Global Framework
for Refugee Education annually shows the importance that UNHCR attaches to
education, and it has close connections and cooperation with local government
departments and non-governmental organizations. Not only does it provide educational
support for refugee children, but it also assists in the family education of their parents.
However, education support for refugees is not perfect either, as in densely populated
areas, there is often a shortage of resources and funding, qualified teachers, textbooks,
and teaching facilities, which are difficult to prepare adequately. Especially the lack of
venues for scientific experiments, information technology teaching, and reading books,
making it difficult for students to further study important subjects such as mathematics,
science and technology. In addition to the issues mentioned in the UNHRC report, there
are also transnational language and cultural issues, as Canada and the United States in
North America receive a large number of refugees. Language and culture becomes an
insurmountable problem for refugee children, which requires cooperation between
UNHCR and local government departments to implement further follow-up and support.

Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)

Unlike the United Nations affiliated humanitarian agency UNHCR, ADRA is operated by
religious groups. The organization's mission statement is: "ADRA works with people in
poverty and distress to create just and positive change through empowering partnerships
and responsible actions", and its stated reason for existence is "to follow Christ's
example by being a voice for, serving, and partnering with those in need". 4 It can be
understood that ADRA is not a single institution that supports refugees in war and natural
disasters. They have access to education, food, public welfare undertakings, health
support, human development, and sanitation facilities construction, etc., helping refugees
and internally displaced persons is just one of their undertakings. Moreover, there is a
collaborative relationship between ADRA and UNHRC, which can be understood in the
GRF report by UNHCR.

① Education support for refugees and refugee children

At the "Transition Education Summit" held during the 77th United Nations General
Assembly in September 2022, the issue of refugees received much attention and
education for refugees was widely discussed. ADRA, in collaboration with UNHCR,
addresses the systems and barriers that hinder children's access to education. They
collected over 1.3 million signatures from educators and decision-makers around the
world, and invested over 1 million US dollars in providing assistance and interventions to

4
https://adra.org/about-adra
vulnerable groups in several South American countries, particularly mobile and displaced
children, providing education, safety, and psychological support regardless of race, age,
and nationality, This measure also plays a promoting role in increasing local government
education funding, improving policies, and finding transformative solutions for refugees
and host communities.5

② Support for refugees in southern Lebanon during the Israeli Palestinian conflict
In the recent Israeli Palestinian conflict, Lebanon was also attacked by Israel and
escalated into a military conflict. ADRA's assistance has focused on the southern region
of Lebanon, which has been attacked by Israel. The rescue personnel of ADRA's office in
Lebanon coordinated and distributed supplies at the disaster site. They are concerned
that thousands of children in the local area have been affected by the attack, leaving
them out of school and homeless. Due to the winter season, the lack of shelters may lead
to refugees dying from the cold. Therefore, ADRA was focus on establishing shelters and
providing food aid in this rescue effort, as well as providing educational programs for the
children whose schools are closed and displaced.6

ADRA is a humanitarian organization based on a religious nature, which may not have
much recognition and influence compared to the UNHCR. However, they still have
established bases around the world and carry out various aid projects. In their assistance
to refugees, ADRA pays special attention to the assistance of refugee children, whether it
is for their protection or education support, and has taken considerable practical actions.
They tend to collaborate with large and influential multinational organizations like UNHCR
to obtain more information and resources to better carry out aid actions. UNHCR is a big
organization which can carry out aid projects globally, ensuring the development and
rights of refugees and displaced persons in various fields through cooperation with
government departments, non-governmental organizations, and multinational
enterprises, ADRA is not have such influences, but they focuses their work on assisting
local communities, paying more attention to the lives and education of vulnerable groups,
especially refugee children and adolescents, in addition to general assistance to
refugees. However, sometimes due to security issues, travel restrictions, and shortages
of electricity and water, humanitarian access to certain areas is restricted, which make
ADRA may not be able to smoothly implement aid plans.

Conclusion
It can be affirmed that both UNHCR and ADRA have provided great assistance in
helping refugees worldwide escape their plight. As the world's largest refugee aid agency,
UNHCR provides detailed and authoritative data on refugee support policies and
academic research, with almost all refugees and displaced persons around the world
receiving certain attention and assistance, providing various forms of assistance to
refugees who have left their homes. As a partner of UNHCR, ADRA has established
bases around the world, paying more attention to the lives of refugees located there,

5
https://adra.org/2023-global-refugee-forum-adra-aims-for-solutions-that-improve-the-plight-of-refugees
6
https://adra.org/adras-lebanon-response-a-beacon-of-hope-amid-crisis
especially the education and development of children. However, the assistance to
refugees is still far from sufficient now, because whether it is natural disasters or wars,
there are many things that have been destroyed. Some countries and regions are not
places with abundant resources and funds, and it takes more effort to assist refugees in
these areas, not only in terms of materials and shelters, but also in terms of
psychological, educational, and rights protection support for refugees. Overall, the
performance of UNHCR and ADRA is not bad, but they are far from reaching their best.
In the international system dominated by countries, cross-border aid and development by
international organizations still face obstacles such as policy restrictions from countries or
regions, lack of resources in underdeveloped areas, and differences in language and
culture between regions. Not all difficulties encountered in providing assistance to
refugees can be easily solved, The above-mentioned issues of regional discrimination
against refugees in refugee receiving countries, lack of resources and funding for youth
education support, and the susceptibility of aid programs to obstacles due to various
factors are all issues that refugee support organizations such as UNHRC and ADRA
need to address in the future.

Reference
https://adra.org/about-adra

https://adra.org/adras-lebanon-response-a-beacon-of-hope-amid-crisis

https://adra.org/2023-global-refugee-forum-adra-aims-for-solutions-that-improve-the-
plight-of-refugees

https://news.un.org/zh/story/2022/03/1100062

https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-redoubles-its-aid-inside-ukraine-and-
region

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Global Framework for
Refugee Education, 2019, p. 4.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Global Report, 2022, p. 90,
p. 164.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Global Trends Report-
Forced Displacement, 2022, p. 2, p. 8.

www.unhcr.org/about-unhcr

Yuezan Wang, Differentiated Response of EU Asylum Policy to Refugee Crisis and Its
Reasons, Research on Strategic Decision Making, No.4, 2023.