Resilience Building of refugees and host communities

Three projects that compliment each other and support the comprehensive refugee response plan in Uganda.

Contact details

Submitted by: Minako Kakuma, Senior Advisor on Partnership, Office for Peacebuilding and Reconstruction, Infrastructure and Peacebuilding Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA) 

Website: https://www.jica.go.jp/uganda/english/office/topics/180709.html

Introduction to the project 

Location

Uganda

Duration

• The Promotion of Rice Development (PRiDE) project: 2011 (JICA and UNHCR agreed to a partnership through the PRiDE in 2014)  

• The Project for Capacity Development of Local Government for Strengthening Community Resilience in Acholi and West Nile Sub-Regions (WA-CAP): 2016 

• Survey on Social Infrastructure Needs of Refugee Hosting Communities in the West Nile Sub-Region: July 2017 

• The Promotion of Rice Development (PRiDE) project: 2019, the second phase has already started (2019-2024). 

• The Project for Capacity Development of Local Government for Strengthening Community Resilience in Acholi and West Nile Sub-Regions (WA-CAP): 2020. The next phase of the project is under consideration.  

• Survey on Social Infrastructure Needs of Refugee Hosting Communities in the West Nile Sub-Region: April 2018. The findings were presented at CRRF steering committee and widely shared among stakeholders, and captured information was effectively used for project planning of other actors. 

Description

The Promotion of Rice Development (PRiDE) project: aims at improving farmers’ income through increasing rice production and self-sufficiency. 

The Project for Capacity Development of Local Government for Strengthening Community Resilience in Acholi and West Nile Sub-Regions (WA-CAP): Strengthening capacity of local governments in the areas of development planning and implementation of community-based development programmes, thereby contributing to strengthening resilience of the communities in the region which hosts large number of refugees.  

Survey on Social Infrastructure Needs of Refugee Hosting Communities in the West Nile Sub-Region: To capture comprehensive information and data capturing both humanitarian and development needs. Such an approach bridges information and data gaps often existing.  

These three components supplement each other with an intention to maximize its impact to support the comprehensive refugee response plan in Uganda.

They intend to address: enhancement of refugee self-reliance, capacity building of host country local authorities, and promotion of integrated and evidence-based planning in refugee hosting areas, leading to the mainstreaming of refugee needs into the national planning process.

Overall, these interventions are fully in line with core principles of Global Compact on Refugees and are expected to enhance inclusion of refugees in host country communities and development plan and services.

Partners 

• The Government of Uganda
• UNHCR
• National Agricultural Research Organization
• UNOPS 

Results of the Good Practice

As the results of comprehensive development approach toward enhancing resilience building;  

WA-CAP: 

• With the improved capacity of Local Governments (LGs) and institutions, they can more effectively and efficiently support communities with better institutional and operational capacity with greater sustainability.  

• Contributed for better resource planning, prioritization and allocation by the LGs. 

• Strengthened relationship between the central and local governments so that the policy at the central level is better informed of the actual situation on the ground.  

• Refugee components were reflected into national guidelines on Local Governments Development Planning. 

• Enhanced confidence building with local and central governments contributed to advocacy efforts on refugee inclusion. 

PRiDE:  

• Self-reliance of refugee and host communities has been enhanced with nearly 1,000 refugee farmers have benefitted from the training of PRiDE(The Promotion of Rice Development).   

Survey:  

• Comprehensive data contributed better prioritization of needs, projects and intervention required for both host and refugee communities.  

• Collaboration and coordination among humanitarian and development actors under the framework of CRRF was enhanced.  

• With a combination of participatory process of WA-CAP, needs of the communities were better captured and led to concrete infrastructure support(roads, a bridge, schools etc). 

Main activities of the Good Practice 

Resources

Technical and material support, contributing to policy advocacy efforts based on confidence building with local and national authorities and introduction of effective management tools. 

Challenges

• Streamline the planning tools during local governments' planning cycle in all targeted districts. 

• Different administrative units applied for host and refugee communities. 

• Insufficiency of precise geographical information of facilities (and settlements) 

How challenges were overcome

• The Project partners with central Ministry of Local Government, Office of the Prime Minister and the National Planning Authority, but also works  directly with Local governments on a day-to-day basis. This direct interaction and face-to-face practical supports significantly contributed to overcome the challenges of adopting management tools. This participatory approach also helped to capture the constraints faced by local government officials so that the technical assistance can be better tailored to address their challenges.  

• Utilizing GIS mapping system 

• Obtain information from both humanitarian and development sources