This article details the introduction of a livelihood project for unaccompanied children in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, which aimed at strengthening the household economy of foster families and improving the care of fostered children. The Dadaab refugee camp was established in 1991 to host 90,000 refugees who fled from the civil war in Somalia. The camp population rose over the next twenty years as a result of chronic fighting, drought, floods, famine, and the Ethiopian invasion in 2007. Extreme famine and conflict in Somalia in 2011 caused Dadaab's refugee population to rise dramatically to half a million in mid-2011, and it remains the most populated refugee camp complex in the world.
In this article, the authors reflect on the program's work in recognising and building on existing traditional clan-based family tracing and care mechanisms for unaccompanied and separated children, as well as on the importance of understanding the particular needs of specific groups of children. They discuss issues of insecurity and lack of funding that affect program quality and monitoring, and explain the challenges faced during the project. The findings reveal that greater efforts should be focused on traditional child protection mechanisms, with attention on unaccompanied children in particular. In addition, improved monitoring and sustained funding are essential.