UPM PLATFORM ON REFUGEES
“Refugees are persons who are outside their country of origin or habitual residence and unable or unwilling to return there, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.” UN 2016
The Platform on Refugees is a collaborative network, comprised of teachers, researchers and students from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Technical University of Madrid – UPM), with the aim of improving quality of life in refugee camps.
The Platform was created within the framework of the XVIII UPM Call for Proposals, which is affiliated with Alianza Shire and contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
To this end, the UPM is leading a change in scale and strategy by fostering the creation of robust platforms for applied interdisciplinary research, through which research staff can share their work as part of a group collaboration or research groups.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PLATFORM:
- Methology Development:
- Data Collection:
- Towards Improvement and Transformation:
During its first year (2018), the Platform developed a basic needs identification methodology “NAUTIA”, to be applied in refugee camps and their host communities; featuring a comprehensive technological approach, which promotes the sustainability and resilience of both types of settlements.
During the second year (2019), the Platform aimed to improve NAUTIA, applying the methodology in the Saharawi refugee camps.In this manner, the data collection in this second phase enabled the systematization of the data obtained.
Currently, the Platform seeks to transform NAUTIA into a versatile tool that is able to adapt to different contexts. In addition, it centers on the design of a new methodology to identify the needs of refugees in urban environments.
our work:
Refugee Camps in Shimelba, Etiopía
With more than 900,000 refugees by the end of 2018, Ethiopia is the second African country with the largest (and growing) number of refugees...
Saharawi Refugee Camps, Tindouf, Argelia
The Saharawi refugee camps are located in the desert area of Tindouf, Algeria. Approximately 173,000 Saharawi people live in these camps in five Wilayas (provinces)...
WHAT'S NEW
The seminar ALIANZAS PARA EL DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE EN ÁFRICA Y LATINOAMÉRICA: EXPERIENCIAS DE COOPERACIÓN TÉCNICA, is an event organized by the UPM Platforms (LAC, Africa and Refugee People Platform), which highlights the value of partnerships for sustainable development through the presentation of experiences developed by partner institutions of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) in Africa and Latin America, in which the UPM has contributed from its work as a university technical cooperation entity, contributing from knowledge, technology and innovation.
The experiences have been organized around two thematic blocks: (i) Risk Management and Territorial Planning (November 25) and (ii) Access to water, health and energy services (November 26).
The material of the seminar is available on https://moodle.upm.es/formacion/login/login.php (the access is with your mail of registration)
