ReliefWeb

OVERVIEW

According to the 2020 Humanitarian Needs Overview, over 60% of Northeast Nigeria’s estimated 1.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) reside out of camp, in host communities. Due in part to their dispersion over large geographic areas, displaced populations residing in host communities can be more difficult to identify, access, and target than those in camps. As a subset of host communities, informal sites and settlements (ISETs) are particularly vulnerable. Residents of ISETs live in hyper-dense areas characterized by extreme poverty and marginalization, with limited access to basic services, and are often not receiving humanitarian assistance.1 In order to design and implement effective assistance to support vulnerable populations residing in out-of-camp settings, humanitarian and government actors rely on detailed and up to date information on host communities and ISETs, including their whereabouts, demographics, priority needs, and assistance preferences.

To help inform this response, REACH conduded a multi-sectoral needs assessment to provide evidence-based information on the needs of displaced and non-displaced households residing in host communities. Findings presented here are based on 1,109 household surveys with 558 displaced and 551 non-displaced households in 49 host community settlements across 6 local government areas (LGAs) in Borno State, and 147 key informant interviews with community representatives of various population groups who reported at the community-level.2 In Ngala LGA, REACH interviewed 161 households (82 displaced, and 79 non-displaced), as well as 27 key informants across 9 host community settlements. Household-level findings are representative at the LGA-level for displaced and non-displaced households residing in identified host community settlements with 90% confidence and a +/- 10% margin of error; findings related to a subset have a lower level of confidence and a wider margin of error and should be considered indicative only. All interviews were conducted face-to-face between November 8 and November 20, 2020.3 For more information on the methodology and limitations see page 7.

KEY FINDINGS

• While 97% of displaced households reported living in either a masonry structure (92%) or a traditional mudbrick structure (5%), 38% of displaced households reported that they were squatting in their current accommodation, 24% with permission from the landowner, and 14% without permission.

• Nearly 1 in 10 (8%) displaced households reported that their shelter was so badly damaged that it was unsafe to live in.

• The majority of displaced and non-displaced households reportedly owning or renting their accommodation reported having no form of documentation to demonstrate housing tenure.

• Food assistance was the most commonly reported primary means of obtaining food for both population groups (38% of displaced households and 42% of nondisplaced households), and 40% of both displaced and non-displaced households reported that food assistance or sale of assistance was their primary means of income.

• Both displaced and non-displaced households reported that language barriers were a barrier to receiving healthcare.

• No settlements were found to have a functioning isolation facilitiy at the time of data collection, as reported by key informants.