Joljol Yahya
Research Topic: Examining the Impact of Differentiated Assistance (DA) on Vulnerability and Coping Strategies among refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Turkana County, Kenya
Country: Sudan
Columbia Global Center: Nairobi, Kenya
Joljol Yahya holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), Manchester, New Hampshire, USA, and a Master of Arts in Development Studies from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Nairobi, Kenya.
Spanning more than a decade, Yahya has worked in Kenya's Kakuma Refugee Camp, across refugee education, research, and community development. He has worked as a senior academic advisor at Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) where he focused on providing academic support to refugee learners pursuing undergraduate degrees at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU).
Building on his commitment to refugee education and his desire to pursue an advanced degree, Yahya was awarded Odyssey Scholarship by the Institute of International Education (IIE) through which he pursued his masters degree in Development Studies at CUEA, a recognition that speaks to both his contributions he has made to his refugee community and the kind of path he has had to make out of a refugee camp to academia.
Yahya’s previous research has gained recognition in peer-reviewed journals and policy circles alike. His academic contributions include but are not limited to his latest article "Examining the Role of Accountability Mechanisms on Refugees' Access to Durable Solutions in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Turkana County, Kenya," published in the Great Lakes Social Studies Journal in January 2026. The study was anchored on mixed methods where he examined how humanitarian accountability frameworks fail to shape refugees' access to Durable Solutions. Yahya also published a widely cited policy piece, "Rethinking Refugee Differentiated Assistance Model: Refugees' Struggle for Survival," focusing on refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement. His policy article was published through the Refugee Law Initiative in October 2025, and has since been referenced in research by King's College London's XCEPT program and in broader debates on differentiated assistance and humanitarian aid cuts.
Beyond his academic and professional life, Yahya has co-founded the Community Tech Skills Empowerment Organization and the Brain Builders Initiative (BBI), both of which are refugee-led organizations based in Kakuma Refugee Camp and in Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement. At both RLOs, Yahya strives alongside his colleagues to provide refugees and host community members with access to educational opportunities, entrepreneurship training, computer literacy, learning languages, youth empowerment, and first-aid training.
Contrary to the common belief that refugees are a burden and only survive on humanitarian aid, Yahya’s development contributions towards his refugee community challenge those assumptions, reinforcing the simple truth that refugees, when empowered and given an opportunity, can be active agents in shaping the solutions that affect their lives.
As a Fellow at Columbia Global Center in Nairobi, Yahya’s anticipated research will focus on examining the impact of the Differentiated Assistance Model on refugee households in Kakuma Refugee Camp. His research seeks to understand how the differentiated assistance models introduced by UNHCR in partnership with WFP in 2025 influence refugee self-reliance and livelihoods, while also investigating the
alternative survival strategies developed by impacted refugee households as a response to the unintended consequences of these aid cut approaches which categorized refugee households based on their perceived vulnerability levels.
Drawing from the findings of his expected research, Yahya hopes to produce more practical policy recommendations that could help inform inclusive and better differentiated assistance policies that incorporate refugees' lived experiences of displacement at the center of such policy development.
Following the successful completion of his fellowship, Yahya intends to continue working at the intersection of research led by refugees, refugee advocacy, and policy. As a refugee researcher and policy advocate, his vision is to contribute to inclusive and evidence-based policy solutions that do not only empower refugees but also ensure they are in decision making rooms to cocreate and coshape policies focused on their lived experiences of forced displacement.