UNHCR’s 2008-2009 programme in Cote d’Ivoire aims to promote the voluntary repatriation of Ivorian refugees and protect and assist urban refugees in Abidjan. UNHCR will help to locally integrate some 19,000 Liberian refugees through self help projects and provide community-based assistance in health, education, sanitation and water supply.

As part of its regional strategy to finding solutions to refugee problems in West Africa, UNHCR will channel local integration assistance through the community and ensure refugees have access to local services which in administrative terms, will include issuance of refugee identity cards, the granting of residence permits in the ECOWAS treaty and naturalisation.

In addition to rehabilitating former refugee sites in Tabou and Nicla in Guiglo with the help of the government, UNHCR plans to transfer more responsibility in managing urban refugees to the government and promoting respect for the fundamental human rights of asylum-seekers and refugees while helping them attain self-relaince and find durable solutions.

The implementation of the Ouagadougou Agreement will allow UNHCR to monitor the return of Ivorian refugees expected to return home in 2008.