Global norms and local practices - the implementation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework in Ethiopia

This project examines how global refugee governance intersects with local politics and practices through the implementation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in Ethiopia. It first situates CRRF within broader geopolitical dynamics, analysing how Ethiopia’s relations with countries of origin and strategic partners – including Germany - shape its de facto refugee and migration policies and, in turn, the lived experiences of refugees from neighbouring countries. The project then investigates structural conditions and political contestations around the inclusion and exclusion of refugees and migrants in local electoral processes, with particular attention to interactions between displaced populations and host communities. Finally, it explores refugee agency in camp and urban settings, focusing on how refugees mobilise resources, forge alliances and negotiate with state and humanitarian actors to improve their everyday lives despite highly precarious circumstances. By linking geopolitical, institutional and micro-level perspectives, the project advances an integrated understanding of protection, participation and agency under CRRF.

The project addresses several interrelated research gaps. First, there is a lack of empirical studies that examine the implementation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in Ethiopia with a specific focus on synergies and tensions between global policy frameworks and local policies and practices. Second, the interplay between Ethiopia’s geopolitical interests, its de facto refugee and migration policy, and the resulting lived experiences of refugees from neighbouring countries has rarely been analysed in an integrated way. Third, there is limited research on the structural conditions and political contestations surrounding the inclusion and exclusion of refugees and migrants in local electoral and municipal politics, particularly in relation to the interests of host communities. Fourth, there is only scarce empirical evidence on the agency of refugees in Ethiopian camps, specifically on how they actively seek to transform their living conditions despite being situated in highly precarious contexts. By combining geopolitical, institutional and agency-oriented perspectives, the project makes an innovative contribution to filling these gaps.

Generally, the project seeks to empirically examine the synergies and disconnects between international initiatives and local practices in a reception context that is of particular interest both for international refugee protection and as a “strategic partner” in Germany’s efforts in the area of international responsibility sharing. First, we explore the relationships between Ethiopia’s geopolitical interests and structural reception and living conditions of different groups of refugees and other migrants. Second, the project seeks to make visible the agency of refugees: how they organise, interact with camp governance structures, and attempt to improve their living conditions despite highly precarious contexts. Overall, the project aspires to develop a nuanced, multi-scalar analysis of protection, participation and agency under CRRF, and to generate practice-relevant insights for more context-sensitive and participatory refugee policies.

The project drew mainly on 47 semi-structured interviews (2021–2023) with camp-based experts and refugees, as well as five group discussions across five camps. NGO and UN reports, together with field notes, complemented these data. All interviews and discussions were transcribed and analysed using qualitative content analysis in MAXQDA.

• We demonstrate that the relative “geopolitical value” assigned by the Ethiopian government to different refugee groups has shifted over time, with substantial implications for their treatment. Our findings show that changing geopolitical trajectories, particularly Ethiopia’s relations with neighbouring states, that too are refugee-sending, intersect with the country’s de facto migration and refugee policies and shape the lived experiences of different refugee groups even though they are subject to similar regulations. 
• The results show that political boundaries in Ethiopia are not static but shift in response to historical narratives, periods of migration and changing institutional roles. These boundaries can be blurred, expanded or rigidified, often marginalising long-established migrant communities. The project further demonstrates that the political inclusion of refugees and internal migrants is not primarily determined by legal citizenship alone, but by shifting and contested boundaries shaped by history, migration, ethnic alliances and relations with the central government. 
• Despite a strong atmosphere of control and discipline in the camps, refugees do not simply remain passive. They organise and take action to improve their shelters and interact with formal camp structures in complex ways. At times, they resist and collectively demand better services; at other times, they comply with existing rules to avoid conflict and to preserve room for manoeuvre. For example, refugees often adhere to their allocated plots in order to obtain permission from camp authorities to dismantle and rebuild their houses. Such compliance should not be interpreted as passivity, but as a bargaining strategy through which refugees exercise agency. 

The Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), as part of the Global Compact on Refugees, was introduced by the international community to address the problem of protracted refugee situations in camp settings. It aims to create pathways for the socio-economic inclusion of refugees, who are predominantly hosted in low- and middle-income countries, while promoting more equitable responsibility-sharing between host states and other international actors.

• Hagos, Samuel (2025). Agency in action: Mobilisation efforts of South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia. Refugee Survey Quarterly. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdaf013. 
• Hagos, Samuel; Rischke, Ramona; Nolte, Kerstin (2025). Geopolitical Dynamics and Forced Migration Policies in Ethiopia. DeZIM Working Papers 7, Berlin: Deutsches Zentrum für Integrations- und Migrationsforschung (DeZIM). 
• Hagos, Samuel & Engler, Marcus (2023): Trapped in Overlapping Conflicts: Refugee Securitization and Regional Geopolitical Dynamics. Berlin: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. 
• Hagos, Samuel (2021). Refugees and local power dynamics: The case of the Gambella Region of Ethiopia'. Discussion Paper No. 25/2021. Bonn: Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (IDOS).