Refugee Return and Reintegration

• Enhancing sustainable local NGO services and support for return. ADF worked with local NGOs to increase their capacity to provide services and support to refugees for return to their homes of origin. The program, thus, develops resources and support for returning populations that will be present over the long-term. 

• Cross-border collaboration and support. The regional network approach used by ADF drew upon ADF’s solid contacts and relationships with local NGOs in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia to facilitate the flow of information and legal services across borders. The cross-border collaboration enabled an NGO in Serbia, for example, to get current information from an NGO in Croatia on the status of an individual refugee’s home and property as well as other local conditions that affected reintegration, and to provide this information to the refugee. The cross-border collaboration contributed to greater ease in resolving issues of citizenship and property and benefits (such as pension and health insurance) claims. Refugees received legal assistance for resolving issues even before they returned and had access to legal assistance and support services following their return. 

• Grass-roots information dissemination and legal assistance. ADF’s NGO partners in Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia disseminated relevant information and provide legal assistance for return on a decentralized, grassroots basis. Services were accessible and provided through 40 local NGO offices and mobile teams of lawyers in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia. Also, ADF’s Center for Information on Refugee Return, based in Croatia, ensured a regional approach to information exchange and dissemination among ADF’s NGO partners. 

• Focus on sustainability of return. In addition to facilitating return, ADF and its partner NGOs implemented programs focused on developing the social reintegration and economic prospects that ensured the sustainability of refugee return. Legal assistance for the registration businesses, sole proprietorships, and formation of cooperatives was provided. NGO programs for employment counseling and services were supported; community resources with the knowledge and contacts to help returnees access government and donor projects and services (such as those for housing reconstruction) were made available. Where personal security was still an issue, programs to promote reconciliation and social reintegration, as well as ongoing monitoring and promotion of human rights, were implemented. 

• Special outreach to vulnerable populations. The NGOs with which ADF works provide special outreach to elderly populations, as well as to the needs of women and their children returnees. These groups have special needs – especially relating to economic stability and security, which ADF’s NGO partners helped address.

• Programs
  • Advocacy
  • Civic Education
  • Civil Society Building and Institutional Development
  • Community Mobilization and Development
  • Electoral Processes
  • Human Rights
  • Rule of Law
  • Local Governance
  • Refugee Return and Reintegration
  • Independent Media
  • Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Development
  • Local Economic Development
  • Agriculture Development