Kenya used a high-level United Nations forum this week to showcase its plan to transform refugee camps into integrated municipalities, calling on the international community to shift from aid to financing resilience.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the 2026 Humanitarian Affairs Segment (HAS) at the UN headquarters in New York, Kenya\u2019s delegation head, Moses Lilan, implored the world community to rethink how it responds to humanitarian crises.<\/p>\n
The meeting was held under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), of which Kenya is a member.<\/p>\n
One of the six principal organs of the UN, ECOSOC is the main hub for sparking new ideas, building shared agreements, and aligning worldwide efforts to reach global development targets.<\/p>\n
Mr Lilan, the Secretary for National Administration in the Ministry of Interior, pushed for strategies that build self-reliance rather than dependence.<\/p>\n
\u201cKenya calls for prioritisation of locally led responses that build resilience by scaling up anticipatory action, climate adaptation, and livelihood programmes to address root causes,\u201d Mr Lilan told the three-day meeting, which brought together member states, UN agencies, and humanitarian partners.<\/p>\n
At the centre of Kenya\u2019s pitch is the Shirika Plan, which aims to benefit refugees and host communities by converting settlements into functioning urban centres where residents can work, own property, and access services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese initiatives aim to transform refugee camps into integrated municipalities and promote self-reliance and economic inclusion, a move which will also be of great benefit to the local communities,\u201d said Mr Lilan.<\/p>\n
Kenya currently hosts more than 800,000 refugees, one of the largest refugee populations in Africa, placing considerable pressure on host communities, particularly in arid regions.<\/p>\n
Mr Lilan pointed to the Shirika Plan alongside the country\u2019s 15 Billion Trees Initiative and the Ending Drought Emergencies framework as models of what he called \u201cintegrated, area-based programming\u201d capable of reducing future humanitarian need rather than simply responding to it.<\/p>\n
He added that Kenya\u2019s approach to the refugee crisis aligns with its Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) policy, a whole-of-government and whole-of-society model of development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Prevention, Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons and Affected Communities Act (2012) is complemented by the 2021 Refugees Act and the Shirika Plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kenya also announced that the 2026 Disaster Risk Management Act will soon come into force, describing it as landmark legislation strengthening the country\u2019s capacity to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.<\/p>\n
The delegation acknowledged persistent funding shortfalls as a major obstacle, calling on international partners to complement national efforts with predictable, long-term financing.<\/p>\n
\u201cInternational cooperation [must] complement national efforts in financing resilience, not disasters,\u201d Mr Lilan said.<\/p>\n
The 2026 HAS, chaired by Spain\u2019s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador H\u00e9ctor G\u00f3mez, focused on strengthening humanitarian assistance amid what organisers called \u201cunprecedented humanitarian challenges\u201d, including climate change, conflict, and rising displacement.<\/p>\n
The post Kenya pushes resilience-first humanitarian model at UN meeting<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kenya used a high-level United Nations forum this week to showcase its plan to transform refugee camps into integrated municipalities, calling on the international community to shift from aid to financing resilience. Speaking at the 2026 Humanitarian Affairs Segment (HAS) at the UN headquarters in New York, Kenya\u2019s delegation head, Moses Lilan, implored the world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}