Middle East &North Africa — Publications

ADSP: Challenges Faced by Afghan Women and Children in Iran and Pakistan

December 2023

Samuel Hall collaborated with the Asia Displacement Solutions Platform (ADSP) to contribute to two significant research briefs addressing pressing issues Afghan communities face. The first, "Forced to Migrate: Afghan Women Waiting for Protection in Iran and Pakistan," explores the reduced protection space and obstacles confronting Afghan families in the same regions The second, "Afghan Children’s Access to Education in Iran and Pakistan," sheds light on the challenges experienced by Afghan girls in Iran and Pakistan post-2021 migration.

These research briefs are pivotal in understanding the complexities of education rights and forced migration challenges in these regions. Our studies emphasize the urgent need for international support and a rights-based response. A key recommendation emerging from our research is the call for increased global solidarity and responsibility sharing to address the rights of Afghan women, children, and families.

Read the briefing note on Forced to Migrate: Afghan Women Waiting for Protection in Iran and Pakistan, here

Read the briefing note on Afghan Children’s Access to Education in Iran and Pakistan here

Middle East &North AfricaSamuel HallJanuary 11, 2024ADSP, women's safety, children, migration, displacement, Education

IIED: Participatory Forum on Protracted Displacement in an Urban World

December 2023

Navigating the complexities of protracted displacement, our urban-focused study spans four countries: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Jordan. As part of a global consortium, Samuel Hall collaborates with academic and practice partners for in-depth research.

Our extensive engagement, including five participatory forums in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, addresses the multifaceted challenges faced by displaced populations. Through a consensus-building approach, we've crafted a city note presenting key findings and recommendations. The project delves into crucial aspects like economic well-being, access to basic services, psychosocial well-being, and perceived safety.

The insights gained contribute to policy recommendations, emphasising local integration, employment opportunities, legal documentation, and infrastructure improvements. Our commitment extends beyond data collection; we aim to sustain the participatory forums, fostering collaboration among government authorities, NGOs, and UN/INGOs for lasting impact.

Read the city note here

Find the PowerPoint for the Closing Event: Participatory Forum on Protracted Displacement in an Urban World here

Equal Partnerships: African Intermediary Cities as Actors and Partners in Urban Migration Governance. City Report: Sfax, Tunisa

November 2023

The Equal Partnerships project led by Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Centre for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg, Research on Migration, Displacement, and Integration (MFI), United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa), German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) and Samuel Hall with support from Robert Bosch Stiftung explores the opportunities and challenges of collaborative, urban migration governance in African intermediary cities.

As part of this project, Samuel Hall developed a city report exploring urban migration governance in Sfax, Tunisia.

Tunisia’s second-largest city, Sfax is an important economic centre connecting the north and south of the country. While the city experiences rural-urban, inter-regional, and international migration; the increasingly difficult socio-economic situation, financial constraints, gender dynamics, the absence of a national migration strategy as well as the politicisation of mobility issues has resulted in unique implications on migration dynamics in Sfax.

To create an overview of activities, partnerships, and cooperation gaps, the Equal Partnerships project developed participatory field research and organised a local workshop with the support of the municipality of Sfax in January and February 2023.

The case study situates Sfax in the national and regional migration context, presents the outcomes of the stakeholder mapping, identifies opportunities and challenges of cooperative action on migration and concludes with concrete policy recommendations for strengthening multi-stakeholder action on urban migration and displacement.

Read the city report here
Find other city reports, developed as part of this project here.

Read our policy paper here.

UNHCR - Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance Mid-Year Post-Distribution Monitoring Report 2021

September 2021

This report presents the results from the 2021 mid-year Post-Distribution (PDM) exercise of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) multi-purpose cash assistance programme in Jordan. Jordan hosts close to three quarters of a million refugees, most living outside of camps. In this context, cash assistance is one of the most important social protection tools in humanitarian response.

Samuel Hall was commissioned by UNHCR to assess the degree to which cash recipients rely on negative coping strategies to meet their basic needs in Jordan. With profiles of interviewed beneficiaries and their spending patterns; the report discusses the impact of the monthly basic needs cash assistance on factors such as negative coping mechanisms, food security, housing, and debt. In the final section, the report discusses the cash recipients’ perceptions of cash transfer modalities and the UNHCR complaints mechanism, followed by a presentation of key monitoring indicators.

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ILO/IOM - We are in this together: Labour Migration Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in Europe and North Africa

July 2021

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has shaken up existing labour migration trends. This is particularly true on both sides of the Mediterranean, where the presence of the virus has profoundly slowed, if not halted, human mobility, and where it is increasingly likely that population movements will be restricted in the coming months and years.

In light of this, and in preparation for the first THAMM (Towards a Holistic Approach to Labour Migration Governance and Labour Mobility in North Africa) Regional Conference, this discussion paper on labour migration responses to the COVID-19 crisis in Europe and North Africa is aimed at gaining a better understanding of the key trends that are currently shaping labour migration governance in a time of crisis. The paper is authored by Samuel Hall co-founder Hervé Nicolle.

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Watch Regional Conference (French)

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Europe, Middle East &North AfricaSamuel HallSeptember 22, 2021labour, labour migration, migration, Europe, north africa, africa, report, case study

IOM - Development of a Monitoring Toolkit and Review of Good Practices for the Sustainable Reintegration of Child Returnees

August 2021

This study was commissioned in the framework of the EU–IOM Knowledge Management Hub under the “Pilot Action on Voluntary Return and Sustainable, Community-Based Reintegration” project, funded by the European Union and implemented by IOM. The two recognized that while understanding of and evidence around the sustainable reintegration of adults has been growing, the same is not true for children – despite the fact that children are returning, alone or with families, to the very same reintegration contexts. Building on a monitoring approach for adult returnees developed in a 2017 Samuel Hall – IOM research project, this study addresses the information gap around children’s reintegration experiences.

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ILO – Towards decent work for young refugees and host communities in the digital platform economy in Africa

August 2021

Samuel Hall worked with the University of Edinburgh, commissioned by the ILO's Youth Employment Sector and the PROSPECTS partnership, to conduct a study to characterise the nature of platform-related opportunities in Africa. The report focuses on digital labour platforms (gig work) and e-commerce, developing an overview of the level of access, and identifying initiatives that these opportunities. Samuel Hall conducted 36 Interviews in Uganda, Kenya and Egypt to identify the key drivers, levers and constraints that catalyse and/or hold back the growth of the platform economy in Africa in the future. It accounts for COVID-19 implications, with a focus on labour market implications.

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AMIF – Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning of Actions financed by the Asylum Migration Integration Fund (AMIF)

March 2021

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, on behalf of the donors funding RDPP, commissioned Samuel Hall to conduct an evaluation to assess the results and impact of the AMIF-funded activities in Ethiopia and Sudan. AMIF actions aimed at enabling the provision of better protection, assistance and durable solutions for refugees and asylum seekers through improved documentation and robust data storage systems. This involved building a refugee registration system with biometric identification management, real-time data verification capacity and simultaneous identification of protection needs of persons of concern. Not only benefiting refugees, the actions also aimed to improve civil registration more broadly, in particular birth registration, be it among the refugee or host community.

Download Ethiopia Report

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ICMPD – Study on Return, Readmission and Reintegration Programmes in Africa

April 2021

ICMPD commissioned Samuel Hall to examine existing return, re-admission, and reintegration (RRR) programming in Africa. This study involved 1. Overview analysis of legal frameworks at regional, continental, and international levels. 2. An in-depth review of RRR initiatives and programming in 10 African Union (AU) member states. 3. Identification of lessons learned from countries of return, including RRR best practices, standards and procedures. It presents recommendations for sustainable RRR programming to the African Union Commission (AUC), Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and individual AU member states, and will directly inform the development of a continental policy on RRR.

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DELMI – Those who were sent back: Return and reintegration of rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan and Iraq

October 2021

This 2019/2020 study was commissioned by the Swedish Migration Studies Delegation (DELMI), with fieldwork by Samuel Hall. Results are based on 100 interviews with migrants who have returned voluntarily and involuntarily to Afghanistan and Iraq. Respondents answered questions about their lives before arrival to Sweden, the asylum and return process. The study sought to actively embed local researchers and civil society organisations in the research design, to create a deeper evidence-base for advocacy and aid nuanced understanding of the challenges of return decision-making, reintegration and post-return monitoring.

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IOM – Mentoring Returnees: Study on Reintegration Outcomes Through a Comparative Lens

November 2020

IOM commissioned Samuel Hall to conduct the comparative study on reintegration outcomes under the umbrella of the project to Operationalise an Integrated Approach to Reintegration (ORION). Conducted across Senegal, Morocco, and Guinea, the project analyses reintegration outcomes over time and how programming type affects these. The study examines in particular the impact of a pilot mentoring approach, which provides closely targeted psychosocial support on a personalised level to returnees. The outcomes of the study overall seek to contribute to the following three outcomes: 1) Develop tools to promote sustainable reintegration, 2) reinforce evidence based programming, 3) strengthen capacities of local stakeholders in countries of origin to support reintegration.

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UNHCR - Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance Mid-Year Post Distribution Monitoring Report 2020

September 2020

Jordan hosts close to three quarters of a million refugees, most living outside of camps. The majority are vulnerable, unable to independently maintain a dignified life. In this context, UNHCR Jordan’s unconditional monthly basic needs cash assistance programme is a lifeline for many. During the first half of-2020, around 33,000 vulnerable refugee families living in urban areas and mostly but not exclusively from Syria, benefited from monthly assistance in the form of a social cash transfer (unrelated to Covid-19 emergency cash transfers also distributed by UNHCR in the late spring of 2020 and discussed in an annex to this document). Based on a survey administered via telephone to 590 cash transfer recipients, this report presents the results of the mid-year post-distribution monitoring exercise. It contributes to strengthening the evidence-base for policies that address best practices in cash-based transfers and their impact on vulnerability of refugee populations.

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UNHCR - Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance: 2019 Post Distribution Monitoring Report

January 2020

This report presents the results of the 2019 annual Post-Distribution Monitoring (PDM) exercise of UNHCR’s cash assistance programme in Jordan. Through an ATM banking network equipped with iris scan technology, the agency disburses over 5.5 million USD per month to close to 32,500 vulnerable refugee families living across the country. The majority of the beneficiary population is Syrian. Assistance is designed to allow beneficiaries to meet their basic needs and reduce their susceptibility to exploitation and other protection risks. The results of this monitoring exercise suggest that, as intended, almost all respondents use the cash to meet their running essential household needs. These mostly revolve around rent, food, utilities and health – categories which appear unchanged over time.

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DRC/NRC/IRC - Unprepared for (re)integration: Lessons Learned from Afghanistan, Somalia, and Syria on Refugee Returns to Urban Areas

January 2020

This research was designed to support the thinking and planning around (re-)integration by identifying obstacles to preparedness of stakeholders for return and (re-)integration in refugee return settings. The study generates operational learning to enable NGOs, UN agencies, donors, government actors, and displacement-affected communities (DACs) to strengthen (re-) integration programming. It does so by reviewing achievements, challenges, opportunities, and critical success factors required for enhancing preparedness in return settings.

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Penser Le Genre Dans Les Réponses À L'Extrémisme Violent En Tunisie

Novembre 2018

Samuel Hall a mené une recherche, qui se propose de répondre à plusieurs questionnements autour du phénomène de l’extrémisme violent en Tunisie, notamment la place et le rôle des femmes dans ce phénomène.

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Save the Children - Durable Solutions For Returnee Children: What Do We Know?

September 2018

This report addresses a gap in knowledge about the often-difficult conditions of children’s return to the areas of (their parents’) origin. It gives an overview of what is known (and what is not) about the return of displaced children to Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Syria, four of the most important contexts of return today.

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IOM - Migrant Smuggling to Canada

May 2018

This study focuses on assessing migrant vulnerabilities, protection needs and exposure to exploitation
before migration, during their transit and upon arrival through a qualitative research based on migrants’
experiences of irregular migration to Canada, with a focus on Afghan and Syrian migrants.

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DEMAC - Creating Opportunities to Work With Diasporas in Humanitarian Settings

May 2018

This report sets out to understand how Diaspora organisations (DOs) contribute to strengthening humanitarian response in crisis settings. We explore opportunities to work with DOs in humanitarian action through six case studies of DOs operating in Somalia and Syria.

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Syria's Spontaneous Returns

July 2018

This study seeks to provide an analysis of the current returns to Syria. The ongoing armed conflict in Syria has displaced millions of people inside and outside the country sparking an international humanitarian crisis. There is no clear picture of the number or conditions in places of return. This research contributes to filling this gap.

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ISAO - Yemen Evaluation of the INGO Safety Advisory Office

November 2013

Our evaluation of Yemen’s INGO Safety Advisory Office (ISAO) intervenes at a time of increasing political and security uncertainty in Yemen, and a redefinition of INGO roles in conflict and post-conflict settings. How can ISAO contribute to improved security management for INGOs in Yemen?

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