ReliefWeb

Due to ongoing conflict, poverty and food insecurity in neighbouring countries,
Uganda is expected to receive over 1 million South Sudanese, 600,000 Congolese and 40,000 Burundian refugees by 2020.

Children make up 60 per cent of refugee and host community populations, and many lack access to essential services and are facing serious protection risks.

More than half of all primary-level children and over 90 per cent of secondary-level children are out of school, and 22 per cent of children in integrated refugee settlements are enrolled in grades lower than expected for their age.

The global acute malnutrition rate is above 10 per cent and over 40 per cent of women and children are anaemic. Water deprivation affects 62 per cent of those living in host communities and 69 per cent of refugees living in Uganda for more than five years, and water resource management in refugee settlements is disconnected from humanitarian action. Nearly one third of refugee settlement households lack single family latrines. For children and women living with HIV, access to and utilization of HIV prevention, care and treatment are inadequate. The country is struggling to manage disease outbreaks, including cholera, and the risk of an Ebola outbreak remains significant.

Humanitarian strategy

UNICEF supports the implementation of durable solutions to chronic displacement in Uganda in line with the country’s Refugees and Host Population Empowerment Strategic Framework,
Settlement Transformation Agenda and Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework. UNICEF will continue to support the Government to adapt its nutrition, health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), child protection, education and social protection systems to humanitarian situations. Using a decentralized approach, UNICEF will strengthen its humanitarian response, including by localizing capacity building, monitoring and reporting and procuring essential equipment and supplies.

Community-based support will improve the delivery of targeted protection and basic services for affected children and adolescents. UNICEF will work with the Government and partners at the national and sub-national levels to strengthen multi-year planning processes to leverage domestic and international resources for at-risk communities. Government contingency planning and response efforts will be supported to mitigate the effects of disease outbreaks and natural disasters.

In high-risk communities, applying and scaling up existing civic engagement platforms, such as U-report, will promote accountability to affected populations, build linkages between communities and local governments and guide responsive district and sub-district planning and budgeting. Gender, HIV and AIDS, conflict sensitivity and communication for development programming will be mainstreamed into all interventions.

Results from 2018

As of 31 October 2018, UNICEF had US$22.5 million available against the US$66.1 million 2018 appeal (33 per cent funded). UNICEF supported integrated refugee/host community planning for education, health and nutrition and strengthened the coordination of basic service sectors in the refugee response.

Nutrition and HIV and AIDS results were higher than expected considering the limited funding available, primarily due to UNICEF’s investment of core and other resources in key services. High-risk districts successfully maintained a cure rate above 75 per cent for malnourished children, but a change in the intervention focus from district-wide to the sub-district level resulted in low coverage of vitamin A supplementation. Fourteen motorized water systems enabled access to water for 93 per cent of the target population.

UNICEF supported the Ministry of Health to strengthen its preparedness and response to the threat of Ebola from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and use communication for development interventions to contain cholera outbreaks.

The reduced number of refugees in 2018 meant that fewer unaccompanied and separated children received protection services, including alternate care and psychosocial support. The education response was 62 per cent funded, but unanticipated delays in replicating an approved multipurpose education facility limited education results.