Humanitarian presence and urban development: new opportunities and contrasts in Goma, DRC

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the presence of international humanitarian organisations on local urban transformation processes in the city of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Rather than evaluating the direct effects of humanitarian interventions and strategies, it focuses on the indirect but profound effects of the presence of this 'humanitarian sector'. It argues that the international humanitarian presence became a significant factor in the recent shaping and reshaping of the city's profile and has reinforced competition over the urban political and socioeconomic space. The paper evaluates the direct and indirect impact of the international humanitarian presence on the local urban economy and the larger political economy of war in eastern DRC. It analyses how this presence has reinforced processes of spatial reconfiguration, how it has influenced urban planning, and how it has affected dynamics of gentrification and marginalisation on the urban spatial level.

The development push of refugees: evidence from Tanzania

“…The inflow o f refugees was indeed followed by an inflow o f economic m igrants attracted b y t he o pportunities a ssociated w ith the refugee camps. This second form of migration, which follows humanitarian aid, is documented by Buscher and Vlassenroot (2009) in other contexts. Importantly, many of these economic migrants stayed after the refugees left.…”

Fistula and Other Adverse Reproductive Health Outcomes among Women Victims of Conflict‐Related Sexual Violence: A Population‐Based Cross‐Sectional Study

“…Goma is the capital of the North‐Kivu province with a population estimated at around 400,000. From a small town of marginal importance in 1996, it has turned into a regional multi‐ethnic, military, and economic center since the beginning of the armed conflict . We chose the Collectif Alpha Ujuvi , a nongovernmental organization, as collaborator.…”

Resources and Rape: Congo’s (toxic) Discursive Complex

“…As several scholars have noted, minerals did not play a major role in the initial phase of the conflict. “It was,” as Karen Büscher and Koen Vlassenroot (2010:261) attest, at the start of the second Congo War in 1998, “[that] the Congolese war acquired its image of a struggle among criminalised politico-military networks for control over DRC’s vast natural resources.” The year 2000, Goma-based Pole Institute suggests, “was the year in which coltan mining in the Kivu really took off” (Tegera, Mikolo, & Johnson 2002: no page number). It was around this time that the UN Panel of Experts in a series of reports published between 2001 and 2003 began documenting the wide involvement of companies, armed groups, and individuals in the exploitation of Congo’s natural resources.…”