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Geo-Refugee: A Refugee Location Dataset

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Geo-Refugee: A Refugee Location Dataset
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/25952
 
Creator Fisk, Kerstin C.
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description The refugee location data (Geo-Refugee) provides information on the geographical locations, population sizes and accommodation types of refugees and people in refugee-like situations throughout Africa. Based on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' Location and Demographic Composition data as well as information contained in supplemental UNHCR resources, Geo-Refugee assigns administrative unit names and geographic coordinates to refugee camps/ centers, and locations hosting dispersed (self-settled) refugees. Geo-Refugee was collected for the purpose of investigating the relationship between refugees and armed conflict, but can be used for a number of refugee-related studies. The original data for the category refugees and people in a refugee-like situation by accommodation type and location name comes directly from the UNHCR. The category refugees includes: "individuals recognized under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol; the 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa; those recognized in accordance with the UNHCR statute; individuals granted complementary forms of protection and those enjoying temporary protection.The category people in a refugee-like situation "is descriptive in nature and includes groups of people who are outside their country of origin and who face protection risks similar to those of refugees, but for whom refugee status has, for practical or other reasons, not been ascertained" (UNHCR http://www.unhcr.org/45c06c662.html). The unit of the data is the first-level administrative unit (province, region or state). A refugee location is defined as a unit with a known refugee population, as established by UNHCR country offices. The locations data was compiled using statistics provided by the UNHCR Division of Programme Support and Management. Several of the refugee sites in the original UNHCR data are camp names or other lo
cations which are not immediately traceable to a particular location using even the most established geographical databases like that of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). Thus, unit-level location of refugees was established and confirmed using supplementary resources including reports, maps, and policy documents compiled by the UNHCR and contained in the Refworld database (see http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain). Refworld was the primary database used for this project. Geographic coordinates were assigned using the database of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. See https://www1.nga.mil/Pages/default.aspx for more information. All attempts were made to find precise coordinates, including cross-referencing with Google Maps. The current version of the data covers 43 African countries and encompasses the period 2000 to 2010. The UNHCR began systematically collecting information on the locations and demographic compositions of refugee populations in 2000.
 
Subject refugee
 
Date 2014