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Press Release Incorporating a monitoring and evaluation culture into refugee resettlement programmes can improve their sustainability and result in stronger integration outcomes BRUSSELS — As displacement has risen to new highs in recent years, there has been a flurry of activity around refugee resettlement, with a number of countries around the world launching resettlement programmes for the first time or scaling up existing efforts. Within the European Union, resettlement has become a bigger priority and could take on even greater importance with a New Pact on Migration and Asylum on the horizon later this year. But to ensure the sustainability of long-running and new resettlement programmes alike, it is essential for policymakers and resettlement programme designers to take stock of lessons learnt and be able to demonstrate the value of these activities. A new Migration Policy Institute Europe report, Using Evidence to Improve Refugee Resettlement: A monitoring and evaluation road map, describes monitoring and evaluation (M&E) as the missing link. While many resettlement systems lack a strong M&E culture, the report’s authors note that development of M&E practices can help in the assessment of a resettlement programme’s potential to fulfil its strategic and operational objectives. M&E can also improve understanding of obstacles—both to define them and how to overcome them—and lead to better outcomes for refugees and communities in countries of resettlement and first asylum. ‘In recent years, as resettlement authorities in many countries have raced to set up or expand programmes, there has been limited bandwidth for M&E activities’, write MPI Europe researchers Aliyyah Ahad, Camille Le Coz and Hanne Beirens. ‘The current slowdown in international protection operations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has created a window for policymakers, programme designers and evaluation teams to elevate M&E from an afterthought to centre stage’. The report makes the case that M&E can help improve resettlement systems in three key ways:
The report offers a road map for creating or strengthening M&E frameworks, including first identifying M&E champions, mapping out what information is needed, taking stock of existing data collection tools to think creatively about how they could be redeployed, and determining which research methods can collect the desired information. ‘With many different approaches to resettlement having sprung up across the globe, more in-depth research is needed to answer questions about whether any of the myriad models are more effective than others—and what works when, where and why’, the report concludes. ‘This knowledge will help countries optimise their programmes and adapt more quickly to new challenges and opportunities’. The report, commissioned as part of the European Union Action on Facilitating Resettlement and Refugee Admission through New Knowledge (EU-FRANK) project, can be read here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/refugee-resettlement-monitoring-evaluation-road-map. The EU-FRANK project is financed by the European Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and led by the Swedish Migration Agency. Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland are partner countries. For more on the project, click here. *** MPI Europe provides authoritative research and practical policy design to governmental and non-governmental stakeholders who seek more effective management of immigration, immigrant integration and asylum systems, as well as better outcomes for newcomers, families of immigrant background and receiving communities throughout Europe. MPI Europe also provides a forum for the exchange of information on migration and immigrant integration practices within the European Union and Europe more generally. For more, visit www.mpieurope.org.
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