Despite the reduction in conflict after August 2021, many drivers of displacement in Afghanistan persist or have been exacerbated, leading to Afghans moving in search of protection or remaining in protracted displacement. At the same time, discussions led by the De facto Authorities (DfA) on durable solutions continue to centre on returns. This brief seeks to highlight prospects for local integration in Kandahar, one of the urban areas in Afghanistan that remains a hope for protection for many displaced. According to 2022 data from IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), there were close to 250,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) settled in Kandahar province, representing about 30% of the province’s population. Within this specific urban population are IDPs from Badghis, and other protracted IDP groups. This brief will focus on both groups and elaborate on why IDPs from Badghis are often in more precarious situations compared to other IDPs in Kandahar’s informal settlements.

Nearly all urban IDP settlements in Kandahar are informal settlements. Previously, there were 12 formal settlements but many closed due to the relocation or return of IDPs to their areas of origin. While certain IDPs returned following the fall of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the end of active fighting, other IDPs were pressured to return. Most remaining informal settlements are adjacent to host communities, and located in the 7^th, 8^th, 9^th and 12^th districts of Kandahar where data collection for this brief took place.

“The IDP families that we have met, the situation of their shelter, healthcare facilities and other life’s needs are not good at all. They are mostly in survival mode and don’t have much money to pay for their other expenses except for being able to barely pay for their food. Their main concern is food nowadays. In a situation like this, it is not possible to consider other things. Their main objective is getting food to eat. Most of them are living in muddy houses and in tents. Their homes are not that good at all.” – KII 1

Local integration has long been championed as one of three possible durable solutions to displacement. However, despite a concerted push for increased recognition of, and support for local integration, it is frequently overlooked by governments and policy makers, who favour return as the preferred solution. As early as twenty years ago, experts lamented the fact that local integration is too often a forgotten solution.The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Framework on Durable Solutions was published in 2010 to provide guidelines for local integration, alongside resettlement in a third location, as the primary pathways to achieving durable solutions.

It is in the context of severe challenges facing Afghanistan and its people that Samuel Hall, DRC and ADSP are delivering this brief on Local Integration in Kandahar, which puts forward data collected by DRC and its partners. It is our hope that this timely, relevant and evidence-based brief will be of use to practitioners, policy makers, and donors as there are currently, multiple conversations on durable solutions happening in Afghanistan, focusing on returns, as well as on the prospects for local integration. This brief addresses specifically the latter.

This brief will review existing evidence on key dimensions and criteria identified by the IASC and that are foundational to “solutions analyses” in other regions of the world as well, as seen through the work of the Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat (ReDSS) in the Horn of Africa. By documenting where information exists and where the gaps lay, it is the hope of this research brief to present areas for consolidated efforts and joint data collection to explore the viability of durable solutions in the Afghan context.

Please access the research brief here.