Displacement and migration are becoming a primarily urban phenomenon in the IGAD region. These include rural-to-urban migration, cross-border labor migration, internally displaced persons, asylum seekers, and refugees who tend to move and stay in urban areas (cities and towns). The unprecedented migration and refugee situation presents unique sources of opportunities and challenges that affect urbanization.

Cities authorities are often unprepared to respond to the influx of displaced households and increased rural-to-urban migration amidst the many competing challenges and priorities they face. Many cities in the Horn of Africa are facing demographic growth and extreme inequalities. In spite of this, they have a severe shortage of financial and technical capacity to provide adequate basic socio-economic services and affordable housing to their growing citizenry. On top of this, the national government’s budget allocation does not take into consideration population figures affected by displacement and migration.

Policymakers and humanitarian and development actors’ responses to displacement and migration are largely through a rural lens. Many contexts also suffer from a lack of data to track displaced populations in urban areas and the impacts that displacement and migration have on urban systems. Migrant and displaced populations are not integrating socially and economically well. Their potential contribution is tremendous if they are well-tapped. Thus, there is a need to understand and explore cities and towns’ contexts, including the political dynamics, and roles of city actors, and identify the specific needs of cities and provide tailored solutions so that they can effectively support migrant and displaced populations and reap the potentials that migrants and refugees can present for development of cities and towns in the IGAD region.

It is against this background that IGAD is organizing the 4th scientific conference with the aim of creating a platform for academics, practitioners, and policymakers to present their scientific works. It is assumed that the studies will provide recommendations for evidence-based policy and practice to IGAD and its Member States in terms of improving the preparedness of cities in the region so as to reduce vulnerabilities and enhance opportunities for migration and forced displacement.

Sub Theme One: Drivers and Root Causes
This sub-theme includes topics that cover mobility motivation, aspirations of migrants and displaced populations that inform movement into, within and between cities and urban areas. In this sub theme papers are expected on mobility intentions, motivations, and aspirations; social cohesion between migrants/displaced populations and urban residence/host communities; development-induced displacement in the context of urban renewal and infrastructural development. Contributions here also may cater on movement trends and patterns like rural-urban migration, routes in migration in the region, and historical trends and patterns that can inform future decisions on settlement
in urban areas. In addition to the above studies on theoretical perspectives that can inform the factors behind migration; connectivity, transportation and networks as drivers of migration; climate change and conflicts including the impact of migration on the environment; migration linked with geographical and economic inequalities/migration, displacement, and inequalities in urban settings; enabling policies as a pull factor; and the influence of heterogeneous (cosmopolitan) versus homogenous population movements on sustainable integration are welcome.

Sub Theme 2: Urban Governance and Policy
This sub-theme focuses on promoting greater access to rights and meaningful participation among migrants and displaced populations in cities and urban areas (effectiveness, meaningful participation, inclusivity, accountability and coherence of policy processes and outcomes). It also includes access to human rights (work, movement, documentation etc.), protection, prevention of exploitative environment; decision-making rules and processes; accountability and transparency; inclusivity – gender, disability, age, minority groups; disaster risk reduction/Early Warning and Early Action (EWEA); planning and resource allocation decisions such as city master planning processes; alignment among
regional and national policy and legal frameworks with urban policy and legal frameworks that may include elements of regional integration; urban governance, legal frameworks on social services; integration, social networks – strategies for integrating migrants and social cohesion; peacebuilding, security and securitization; gender in migration and development; gap between discourse and practice and the coherence and incoherence of policy, legal and institutional frameworks.

Sub Theme 3: Socio-Economic Integration
This sub-theme focuses on enhancing access to resources to promote productive capacities and self-reliance of migrants and displacement-affected communities, urbanization and social cohesion. The sub theme also addresses issues around coping mechanisms and adaptations of migrants and displaced individuals and communities in urban settings; social cohesion; access to basic services and social protection; social networks; participation; housing, land, and property; livelihood opportunities including.

Sub Theme 4: Financing, Investment and Innovation

The focus of this sub-theme are expanding city resources to improve the production of socio-economic goods for city dwellers including migrants and displacement-affected communities. This sub-theme intends to further explore resourcing – national government, own source revenue, development support – to include what resources are available generally for city managers/authorities and the way they are distributed (humanitarian, development etc.) and the effect of power in resourcing decisions (tensions between center and periphery); migrants as producers of economic resources for urban sustainability; diaspora as a source of revenue (role of remittances); leveraging public-private partnerships to enhance production capacity for cities and urban areas; financial flows as drivers of migration; economic corridors and One-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs); proliferation of economic investments (mining, agriculture); ICT development and innovation versus trends and patterns of migration.

Sub Theme 5: Data

The data sub-theme explores the migration and displacement-related data necessary for urban planning. The sub theme focuses on data governance, research approaches and methodologies on urban displacement; co-designing with vulnerable populations; evidence-based policy recommendations; technological advancement and urban displacement (spatial data and visualization, use of geotagging technology, dating apps and social media),exploring unconventional data sources (e.g. social media) to capture migration and displacement patterns and integrating them into urban planning, ownership, availability and quality of data; data management, use and sharing; civil registration and vital statistics; leveraging data for decision-making and behavioral change; informed training to build capacities in local government/city official; and data landscape analysis.

Guidelines for Submission of Abstracts and Research Papers

Authors of successful abstracts will receive an email informing of their abstracts being shortlisted for submission of the research paper.

To guide authors to submit competitive papers, below are important information for submission:

i) Should be submitted in MS word document format
ii) Should be 12-point Arial
iii) Should be double-spaced
iv) Should be 1-inch margin left, right, bottom and top
v) Abstracts should have between 250 and 300 words and full papers not exceed a maximum of 6,000 words
vi) Full-length papers should have headings and sub heading in bold
vii) Full length papers should include all authors and affiliations. Internal citation should follow Author, date, (e.g. John, 2021) for non-direct quotations and (Author, Date: Page Number (e.g., Jane, 2022:24) for direct quotation.
viii) References should follow the American Psychological Association (APA) Referencing Style (7th Edition).
ix) While citing journal articles we recommend the following format: First Author, D.A. Second Author & B.S. Third Author (Year), “Manuscript Title”, Journal Name, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pp. 10–15.
x) Citing proceeding papers, we recommend the following format: First Author (Year), “Manuscript Title”, Proceedings / Conference Name, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pp. 10–15.
xi) Citing books, we recommend the following format: First Author & B.S. Second Author (Year), “Book Title”, Chapter No. (If any), Editors: First Editor Name & Second Editor Name, Publisher Name, Edition, Press, Place, Pp. 10-15.
xii) Citing internet sources, we recommend the following format: Author Name (Year), “Website/Web page/Article Title”, URL: Copy and Paste the link, and indicate the date it was accessed.
xiii) Table title should be placed above the table and figure caption should be placed below the respective figure. Figure caption and table title should be provided for each figure and table respectively
xiv) Should ensure to use consistent author and co-author information in every submission. Please check with your co-authors about how they want to be listed for official publication purposes.
xv) Should be original and has not been published elsewhere in any form
xvi) Structure of the research paper: Submission should clearly bring out each section of the paper i.e. Title, authors’ names and affiliations, abstract, brief introduction explaining the research and how it fits with the theme as well as cultivates knowledge, literature review, theory/conceptual framework, methodology, analysis and results, key findings, policy recommendations and references.
xvii) Submissions will be accepted in English or French, adhering to high standards of spelling and grammar.