CRRF - UNHCR

In Uganda, under the generous policy of the government, refugees have access to land and livelihood activities. Refugee-hosting area in Uganda has a preferable condition for agriculture (rich
rainfall and fertile land). Refugees are under good external conditions. Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries (MAAIF), and National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO) have implemented technical cooperation projects with JICA to aim at improving farmers’ income through increasing rice production since 2011. Originally, the primary target of technical transfer is Ugandan farmers, but refugees also are included in a target in the resettlement area to achieve inclusive strategy since 2014. UNHCR and WFP also provide support for training in resettlement as well as JICA.

Training provides through cascade system thus refugees and farmers who participated ToT training are expected to share the knowledge with others in their community. After training, participants back with basic knowledge and seeds for multiplication and subsequently field expansion with other community members. Through this technical and material support, the livelihood situation of refugees and farmers in host communities has been upgraded. Successful refugees and farmers have increased their income dramatically through rice production business which attracts more refugees and farmers to engage in. By providing opportunities of rice production training to refugees and host community farmers, seamless support on livelihood is secured and resilience and self-reliance among them can be enhanced in the longer term.

This kind of intervention is scalable and replicable as long as government policy allows refugees to access the land. In this sense, the refugees can also go back with the new skills acquired on how to grow rice in their country. This can also improve economic and food security when they eventually return to their countries hence support conditions in countries of origin.

In Uganda, social services are provided through the decentralized government system. The government of Uganda adopts inclusive refugee response strategy, whereby the capacity of local government (LG) has direct impacts on refugees as well as on nationals. Project for Capacity Development of Local Government for Strengthening Community Resilience in Acholi and West Nile
Sub-Regions in the Republic of Uganda (WA-CAP) aims at strengthening the capacity of local governments in the areas of development planning and implementation of community-based
development programmes, thereby contributing to strengthening the resilience of the communities in the region.

Taking advantage of its unique positioning both in terms of its programme focus and geographical areas of activity, the Project is exploring the possibility of supporting district capacity to plan and implement integrated service delivery and development interventions in refugee-hosting districts in West-Nile. For example, simple tools to conduct planning activities were introduced to the District and Sub-Counties where they can easily identify the needs on the ground based on evidence, and prioritize them in a transparent manner so the allocated budget can be utilized in the most needed areas.

Moreover, the local governments are expected to give feedback of the results, thus enhancing the relationship and trust between the community and the local government. For the aspect of
enhancing capacity on implementation of the local government, community development projects have been implemented in refugee-hosting districts so that communities affected by refugee influx are empowered to be resilient.

The Project partners with central Ministry of Local Government, Office of the Prime Minister and the National Planning Authority, but also work directly with LGs on a day-to-day basis. The project has therefore developed a very strong interface with LG officials and has fully been informed of the challenges/opportunities faced by LGs in terms of providing integrated services and more recently of introducing integrated planning with refugee impact duly factored in. The Project has also contributed to strengthening the relationship and information sharing between the central government and LGs so that the policy at the central level is better informed of the actual situation on the ground. This experience culminated to emphasize the important the role of local government at Uganda Solidarity Summit held in June 2017.

In Uganda, refugees can receive the same social services as the nationals. And it is clearly mentioned in National Development Plan to include refugee into a government plan. However, there
are big information gaps in the planning process of government. For instance, information on water facility is scattered out among development and humanitarian actors even though local government needs to have all related information as the organization responsible. And after the large influx of South Sudanese refugees in the West-Nile sub-region, many refugees are now accessing the social infrastructures in the host communities, overstretching the existing infrastructure. Therefore a holistic assessment which covers host communities and resettlements is necessary to fill information gaps and to achieve “Integrated Planning” for both the nationals and refugees.

the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Uganda government launched an urgent survey to identify the gap between existing capacity and needs in the refugee-hosting area in 2017. This survey integrated needs, data and statistics of infrastructure for social service both in refugee settlement and outside, considering impact caused by refugee influx as well as local development. GIS integrated map to cover aforementioned contents was produced for the first time in Uganda and shared with all related stakeholders in development and humanitarians, namely ministries, local government, donors, UN organizations, and civil societies like community leaders and NGOs. The list of priority needs based on sectorial analysis can be utilized by stakeholders and donors to understand the gaps/needs and formulate new projects. Besides, the GIS map can be utilized as a platform for further communication among stakeholders.

The process of the survey itself provides opportunities to exchange opinions among government stakeholders both humanitarian and development, promotes collaboration among donor partners,
and outcome projects will contribute to easing the burden on host communities and settlements in the Refugee Hosting Area. Through utilization of the survey result, collaboration among stakeholders was prompted and once social infrastructure to be realized, both refugees and host communities will be benefitted.