Abstract
Kenya has been accepting refugees for many years due to its location neighbouring South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. This paper examined the usage of participatory spatial planning in refugee assistance by looking at the case of the Kakuma and Kalobeyei regions in Kenya by clarifying the following four points. Firstly, the paper clarified how there had been an unresolved issue in engaging development assistance in humanitarian lead refugee assistance even though the importance of engaging development partners in humanitarian aid has been recognized for a long time. Secondly, as the targeted region has been facing substantial development challenges due to its geographical and environmental disadvantage, the economic effect of humanitarian assistance to refugees has been taking a large portion of the revitalization of the regional economy. Thus, the paper clarified how there is a gap in benefits between refugees and host communities from humanitarian assistance and how humanitarian aid has been unable to contribute to regional development. Thirdly, the paper clarifies that compared to refugee assistance in Kakuma region, refugee assistance in the Kalobeiyei region has more potential to overcome geographical and environmental disadvantages as Kalobeyei was able to strengthen the relationship between humanitarian assistance plan and regional development plan. The paper further clarifies how having local government-led participatory spatial planning could ease the gap between humanitarian and development assistance. Finally, local government-led participatory spatial planning allows stakeholders to share their ideas, raising issues that stakeholders have at the planning stage. It has been revealed that it will be easier to harmonize with various aid agencies, increase the possibility of easing geographical and environmental disadvantages, and achieve a sustainable economy in the region．
