The development strategy served the purposes of both North and South. For the North, development was a containment policy aimed at restricting the movement of people from the South. Western states had been alarmed at the prospect of substantial migration from the South and had implemented restrictive measures that affected migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Advancing development programs, therefore, helped to preserve the restrictive asylum policies in Western states. For the South, the presence of large numbers of refugees was valuable in negotiations for development assistance and aid - given that most 'Third World' refugees remained within the region of conflict. The concept of 'burden-sharing' was an attempt to address this imbalance. The argument was that the stress on the economic and social infrastructure of 'developing' host countries must be matched by the financial and technical support of 'advanced' countries. The 1979 Pan- African Conference on the Situation of Refugees in Africa pointed to the need to link refugee assistance with development projects at the regional, national and local levels.30
Admittedly, the link between refugees and development was already evident in the 1960s when the UNFICR, UNDP, and the World Bank were encouraged to collaborate on activities that linked refugee programs with development plans. When 'development' was first raised as a relevant issue for refugees,
30 For the response of UNHCR to the Conference see, UHNCR, (1979) Report on the Conference on the Situation of Refugees in Africa. REF/AR/CONF/Rpt.I.
attention was on the needs of countries of asylum. One concern was whether the presence of refugees contributed to or hindered the development of the host countries. Another concern was with the tension that could arise from providing aid to refugees when the host population was deprived of similar assistance. In other words, refugees were often seen as burdens on the host countries - regardless of their actual impact. The task for policymakers was to create an 'integrated strategy7 that would refigure the refugee as a participant in the development of the host state.
The creation of refugee resettlement schemes arose out of the twin concern to reduce the burden on host governments and to foster among refugees as high a level of self-reliance and self-sufficiency as possible - in as short a time- frame as was practicable (Rogge, 1987, p. 86). Tanzania, Botswana, and Sudan experimented with rural refugee settlement schemes in the 1960s before these spread throughout Africa.31 The UNHCR, ILO, and national governments carried out the strategy of 'zonal development7 in Burundi and Zaire in 1963 (Pitterman, 1985, p.75). The schemes expanded to other regions when the UNDP was established in 1966. The UNDP planned full-scale zonal development projects that incorporated refugee settlements. International voluntary agencies also gave their support to these schemes. The aim was to integrate rural schemes into broader national rural development strategies (Loescher, 1993, p. 82). Such schemes were also considered an effective way to integrate refugees into the country of asylum. In other words, the purpose of zonal development was to build and strengthen the economic and social
31 For assessments of the rural settlement schemes see, T. F. Betts (1984) 'Evolution and Promotion of the Integrated Rural Development Approach to Refugee Policy in Africa/ Africa Today, No. 31, pp. 7-24; R.Chambers, (1986) 'Hidden Losers? The Impact of Rural Refugees and Refugee Programs on Poorer Hosts', International Migration Review, Vol.20, No. 2, pp.245- 63; and (1979) "Rural Refugees in Africa: What the eyes do not see', Disasters, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 381-92. For a general overview of the schemes see, L. Holbom (1975) Refugees: A Problem of Our Time: The Work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1951-1972, Vol. 2, Metuchen, N.J. Scarecrow Press.
infrastructure of a region, which would lead to improvements in the local living conditions and contributing to the economic potential of the country as a whole (Holborn, 1975, p. 912). Proposals for the World Bank to fund large- scale, income-generating development projects were also among the recommendations to strengthen and stabilize the economies of host states with large refugee populations.
From the late 1970s, reflections and assessments on refugee practice arose out of concern over the 'pauperization' of host countries in Africa, the 'systems of dependence' often associated with the predominance of emergency relief in refugee assistance, and the need to invent new programs to tackle future refugee flows. The future direction of refugee policy in the 'Third World' was at stake. On the one hand, the identification of the root causes that produced refugees and the elimination of such factors were proposed as the future direction of refugee policy. On the other hand, an evaluation of methods and mechanisms used to cope with refugee situations was advocated as the starting point for reform. The power of development increased as policymakers, fieldworkers and academics began to mobilize the discourse to serve their goals.
The connection between refugee movement and development was validated authoritatively during the Pan-African Conference on the Situation of Refugees in Africa, convened in Arusha, Tanzania, in 1979.32 The concept of burden sharing was introduced to deal with capacity of host countries to deal with the mass refugee movements (Gorman, 1987, p.14). The 1981
32 The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the OAU, the UNHCR and the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation organized a Conference on the Legal, Economic and Social Aspects of African Refugee Problems in 1967. The conference introduced the possible utility of the discourse of development to the management of refugees.