The influx of refugees from conflicts in South Sudan into the West Nile region of Uganda since early 2016 has been unprecedented. This has rendered the previous methods of refugee support such as hand-outs of households’ immediate needs unsustainable. Cognizant of this, the Government of Uganda and the donor community have decided to change the approach by supporting livelihood enhancing and self-reliance interventions in order for refugees to improve their food and income security. This has been precipitated by the realisation that the refugee situation is unlikely to be resolved soon and that the land and life assets granted to refugees under the current policy are not sustainably achieving their intended objective of economic independence and self-reliance.  The Ugandan model for hosting and supporting refugees seems to offer economic and environmental sustainability in the medium to long term. Livelihood and agriculture support interventions for refugees exist, but they are often limited in nature and inadequate in terms of quality and volume of inputs, and untimely to release the required productivity to attain self-reliance.  Some of the interventions lack technical expertise to support customized livelihoods and agricultural programmes.  There is some evidence of success stories and good practice within the refugee settlements, but overall the impact remains limited. At the same time, the host communities’ food security and resilience is crippled by effects of unplanned integration of refugees in their livelihood bases, and shared natural resources and physical infrastructure.

Please click here for a full story