'Refugee Education Is Our Responsibility': How Governance Shapes the Politics of Bridging the Humanitarian—Development Divide.

This article examines how legal-bureaucratic structures and government agency interests shape reforms aimed at integrating refugees into national education systems and shifting from humanitarian to development financing, focusing on Ethiopia as a case study. It finds that Ethiopia's Agency for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA), operating as a semi-autonomous horizontal bureaucracy within a parallel refugee management system, has resisted reforms that threaten its financial autonomy and mandate, thereby narrowing the scope and slowing progress toward refugee inclusion. The study highlights that bureaucratic resistance is more likely when reforms challenge established resource control and jurisdiction, especially in horizontal governance systems lacking strong vertical oversight. The authors argue that understanding these bureaucratic dynamics is crucial for international donors and policymakers seeking sustainable refugee integration and bridging the humanitarian–development divide.