Policy Report on UNHCR’s Community Technology Access Program: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Jessica Anderson

doi:10.25071/1920-7336.37503

Policy Report on UNHCR’s Community Technology Access Program: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Authors

Jessica Anderson Christie Refugee Welcome Center

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.37503

Keywords:

UNHCR, Community Technology Access program, CTA program, technology, evaluation, education, livelihoods, self-reliance, displaced populations, refugees

Abstract

This report gives an overview of UNHCR’s Community Technology Access (CTA) program, which aims to improve education and livelihood opportunities for displaced populations via technology. The paper analyzes the key findings of a comprehensive external evaluation of the program conducted in 2012. According to the evaluation, the areas of greatest positive impact for people of concern were in the enjoyment of basic rights to freedom of expression and information, in building relationships with the host community, and social networking. However, access to technology alone is not sufficient to achieve the goals of quality education and self-reliance. Therefore, the evaluation recommends developing strategic, contextualized education and livelihood content and tools in order to achieve the desired goals of learning, skills, and access to employment, as well as a reassessment of CTAs’ potential for operational and fiscal autonomy in different countries.

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Author Biography

Jessica Anderson, Christie Refugee Welcome Center

Jessica Anderson has a master’s degree from the Glendon School of Public and International Aff airs, York University, Toronto. She completed an internship in the Division of International Protection, UNHCR HQ, Geneva, in the summer of 2012. This report summarizes the 2012 CTA evaluation report (currently unpublished) and was written in collaboration with Terra MacKinnon, Audrey Nirrengarten, and Jacqueline Strecker (Education Unit), Daniela Ionita, Troy Etulain, and Line Pedersen (Livelihoods Unit), and Jeff Crisp (Policy Development and Evaluation Service).

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Published

2013-10-18

How to Cite

Anderson, J. (2013). Policy Report on UNHCR’s Community Technology Access Program: Best Practices and Lessons Learned. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 29(1), 21–30. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.37503

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Issue

Vol. 29 No. 1 (2013): General Issue, with Special Focus on Technology

Section

Articles

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Refuge authors retain the copyright over their work, and license it to the general public under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows for non-commercial use, reproduction and adaption of the material in any medium or format, with proper attribution. For general information on Creative Commons licences, visit the Creative Commons site. For the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, review the human readable summary.