Title: The policy-operations interface of the refugee service supply chain

Presenters: Nonhlanhla Dube, Aline Seepma, Isabell Storsjö

Abstract:

Conflicts have driven millions of people into displacement, and due to fear of persecution, individuals seek refuge in other countries. International law mandates rights for refugees, including access to education, healthcare, housing, and employment, and, in practice, this support involves collaboration across public, civil, humanitarian, and commercial sectors. In such refugee service supply chains, i.e. the system of service processes involved in providing for the well-being of people who have arrived in a country to seek refuge, tensions arise between stakeholders’ interests, that can worsen challenges of conflicting objectives (e.g., costs versus equity and equality) and drive down efficiency.

The design of refugee service supply chains requires not only an evaluation of the overall flows and subordinate processes, but also the consideration of jurisdiction, regulatory context and public interest in individual states, and scrutiny of operational assumptions about refugee flows. Aspects such as legal status (encompassing categories such as asylum seeker, refugee, residence permit holder) shape the processes of support delivery. In this presentation, we discuss the policy-operations interface of the refugee service supply chain and present aspects in this setting relating to the input in the process and the desired outcomes.