Bujumbura – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in partnership with the Government of Burundi’s Directorate General of Repatriation, Resettlement and Reintegration of Returnees and partners have finalized the first ever ‘Stability Index’ (SI) study to assess the perception of stability in areas hosting displaced and returnee populations as part of efforts to provide durable solutions in areas of return and displacement.   

Tailored to the Burundian context, the SI seeks to understand which factors influence a location's stability, to identify areas of priority intervention and inform priority programmatic interventions along the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus.

The first report of the SI shows that in locations with very low stability scores, programming should focus on interventions such as addressing deteriorating access to natural resources, accessibility of health services and disaster risk reduction. In contrast, the findings suggest that in areas with high stability scores, programming should focus on development and durable solutions for returnees, IDPs or communities hosting displaced people, such as livelihoods promotion and access to basic services. 

“This crucial tool will help strengthen stability and resilience and lay the foundations for the sustainable return of Burundians. I encourage all counterparts in Burundi to build on the SI findings and to exploit the research for conjoint durable solutions programming,” said Vijaya Souri, IOM’s Chief of Mission in Burundi.

The SI includes data collected through interviews conducted by enumerators in December 2022, with 1,815 key informants at the local level including IDP and returnee leaders and Red Cross volunteers, in 363 areas of return across the eight targeted border provinces. IOM has worked closely with key partners in the humanitarian, development, and socio-economic integration fields to identify potential indicators that could explain the stability factors of return and internal displacement areas. 

In recent years, Burundi has seen significant improvements in security, political and socio-economic conditions, encouraging a considerable number of Burundian refugees – no less than 204,301 from 2017 to September 2022 (UNHCR November 2022) – to return voluntarily to their communities of origin.  

However, these areas of return are often already resource-scarce, and without additional support, challenges in meeting access to basic needs such as land, livelihoods and basic services are likely to increase tensions between returnee and host communities. 

Burundi also counted over 75,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in October 2022, of whom 95% were staying with their host communities, increasing pressure already exacerbated by recurrent damage from climate induced disasters. This adds further complexity to the dynamics of return to the country.

The implementation of the SI in Burundi has been made possible with the financial support of the United States' Bureau of Populations, Migrants and Refugees (PRM).
 
For more information, please contact: Djiguiba Camara on dcamara@iom.int