In the region of West and Central Africa (WCA) covered by this evaluation, shelter and settlement interventions represented 126 million US$1 for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2020, yet these interventions are largely under-evaluated. The overall objective of this regional thematic evaluation, commissioned by UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for West and Central Africa (RBWCA), has been to assess the performance of UNHCR’s shelter and settlement interventions, including their contribution to protection outcomes and an integrated response across sectors, both internally and externally.
The evaluation focused on UNHCR’s shelter and settlement interventions implemented between 2017 and 2021 in seven focus countries within UNHCR’s West and Central region: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Mali. Interventions include those targeting refugees, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), returnees, asylum-seekers and host communities. This report focuses on findings across the region and can be read in parallel with the country reports for the Central African Republic, Nigeria and Niger respectively, and a related UNHCR feasibility review of using cash for shelter interventions in Far North Cameroon.