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On August 22, 2017, senior officials from the Governments of Uganda and the United States and other Power Africa partners celebrated Power Africa Uganda Partnership Day, an event that highlighted important developments in Uganda’s electrification efforts.

Power Africa Coordinator Andrew M. Herscowitz handed over master plans to the Government of Uganda for three rural electricity service territories, which identified 140,000 potential new connections and over 100 mini-grid sites that further advance Power Africa’s goal of creating new connections through grid extensions and off-grid projects. The master plans will play a fundamental role in the achievement of the Government of Uganda’s 2013-2022 Rural Electrification Strategy and Plan.

The recently launched Energy Efficiency Roadmap for Uganda, produced under a Power Africa-United Nations collaboration, will further advance Power Africa’s goals to increase energy access and power generation in sub-Saharan Africa by providing a framework for calculating energy savings through efficiency improvements.

Launched at the same event, the Power Africa 2017 Annual Report highlighted that Power Africa has facilitated the financial close of power transactions expected to generate more than 7,200 megawatts and supported private sector companies and utilities to connect over 10 million homes and businesses.

“As we look to the future of Power Africa, Uganda is ready to tap into all of its resources, including human resources along with the water, wind, sun, gas, and steam that will power our economy,” said the Honorable Irene Muloni, Minister for Energy and Minerals in Uganda. “We appreciate the partnership of the U.S. Government, and welcome the investment from outside developers and investors.”

“The Government of Uganda is an important Power Africa Partner that is supporting a predictable investment environment that attracts private sector interest in the energy sector. We look forward to using the momentum from Uganda’s Power Africa Day to support Uganda’s electrification efforts,” stated Herscowitz.

The U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) concluded the day by signing two grants for $100,000 each under the Power Africa Women in Energy Grand Challenge to grantees Eseza Musoki of CODE-Uganda and Mariah Bawubya of Joint Energy and Environment Projects (JEEP). This is a testament of Power Africa’s efforts of recognizing and supporting Women in African Power and further increasing access in areas not served by national electricity grids.

U.S. Ambassador Deborah R. Malac, who presented the grants, said, “Female entrepreneurs have the power to bring change from the bottom up and from the top down.”

For additional information on Power Africa or its private and public sector partners, please visit the Power Africa website (www.usaid.gov/powerafrica).

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Rebecca 4 years old has just recovered from severe malaria. Her mother explains that they arrived from South Sudan one year ago. They now live in the world’s biggest refugee settlement, Bidibidi. Despite having few livelihood opportunities they are at least safe.

Last week the Embassy of Sweden went on a field visit to West Nile together with UNICEF. The purpose of the visit was to follow up UNICEF’s health activities focusing on improving maternal newborn and child health, targeting both refugees and the host community in eight districts. Sweden has supported the project since January this year. The Embassy met with several of UNICEF’s implementing partners, including districts and NGOs, and visited Regional Referral Hospitals and health facilities in refugee-receiving areas.

Sweden’s support to UNICEF aims specifically at strengthening the capacity of the district health teams to plan for, coordinate and provide services aiming at improving the health of mothers, newborn and children.

In Ocea health facility II in Rhino camp the target population has doubled in one year. Rose, the in-charge, explains: “We used to be only two nurses working here. Now there are 28 trained staff, we are conducting deliveries, providing HIV/AIDS services and receiving many in-patients”.

Still there are many challenges. Shortages of drugs, blood, and women coming too late for delivery are only some. Child marriages are common with increased teenage pregnancies as a result. The temporary health facilities set up for the refugee response are in a very bad condition and need to be replaced by permanent structures.

Despite the many challenges UNICEF is doing a great job supporting the district to provide improved health services for the growing population.

During 2016 – 2017 Sweden has provided 21.4 million USD to the refugee response in Uganda and plans to support various partners with an additional 5.7 million USD before the end of the year.

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Most of Uganda’s children are going to school hungry and 29 percent of those aged under five are stunted due to poor feeding. Nearly half of all the country’s citizens overall, meanwhile, are consume less calories than they require each day.

Uganda does not store food for use in emergencies and the land tenure system, while recently improved, is undermining the country’s agricultural potential.

These are some of the findings of a ground-breaking independent review of hunger conducted over the last 11 months in Uganda. The review was commissioned by the National Planning Authority (NPA) with support from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to assess Uganda’s readiness to end hunger – and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 of Zero Hunger by 2030.

“A large majority of school children enter class on an empty stomach and only one in three children gets to eat a meal at school,” NPA Chairperson Dr. Kisamba Mugerwa said today as the findings of the review were launched in Kampala.

Dr Mugerwa said that although data shows that rates of stunting, which leads to reduced physical and mental development, had reduced from 33 percent to 29 in the last six years, Uganda is not moving fast enough to meet the Zero Hunger target by 2030. As such, he said, the futures of hundreds of thousands of children in Uganda are under threat.

Diets of Ugandans in general have improved in the last seven years. However, Ugandans consume an average of 1,860 kilocalories per person per day compared to the minimum daily requirement of 2,200 kilocalories. People heavily depend on staple carbohydrates for calories while these staples are being produced in reduced quantities.

Uganda was found to have few food reserves, most of them being grain silos owned by private entities. Unlike its neighbours Kenya and Tanzania, the review states, Uganda has limited policy options to address sudden food shortages.

Only one in five land holdings in Uganda has a formal title, with a small share of those holdings being registered in the names of women. This, the review found, is just one of many land tenure challenges that contribute to low farm yields, food shortages and high food prices.

“Only 4 percent of households in Uganda were food secure over the last six years,” said Dr. Mugerwa, attributing food shortages and poor diets also to droughts, erratic rains and other impacts of climate change, as well as rapid population growth and urbanization, inconsistent application of Ugandan policies and poor public financing.

Fixing public financing structures, establishing a comprehensive school feeding policy, and high political commitment to land reform are some of the recommendations of the review, as well as fast-tracking pending Parliamentary bills relevant to ending hunger.

Other recommendations include effective early warning systems, the establishment of food reserves, support to irrigation and water-harvesting in dry areas, mass production of staples and conservation of Uganda’s lands and plant and animal species.

The national review was conducted by Makerere University’s Economic Policy Research Centre guided by experts from NPA, seven government ministries, UN and specialist agencies, private sector, civil society organizations, Parliamentary fora and farmers’ organizations.

Titled Toward Zero Hunger: A Strategic Review of Sustainable Development Goal 2 in Uganda, the review focused on the four targets of SDG 2, which are: end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030.

For more information please contact: John Ssekamatte-Ssebuliba, NPA, tel. +256 414 250 229/312 370 730 cell: 256 700 169 256/782 584 822

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Kampala – On 21^st and 22^nd June 2017, the world gathered in Uganda to stand in solidarity with the country as it hosts over 1 million refugees. This was during the Uganda Solidarity Summit on refugees. The summit, hosted by H.E President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and the United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Antonio Guterres raised over USD350m out of the targeted USD2m.

“We the indigenous people of the Great Lakes, have been dealing with refugees for millennia.  Our concept of refugees was dynamic, not static like the concept we hear about today,” President Museveni said while opening the 2^nd day of the summit which was also the pledging day. He further said that Uganda’s Pan-Africanist ideological orientation and the history of the people made it easy to absorb or co-exist with refugees from within Africa. However, he added that the sudden large numbers present problems that include providing food and shelter, energy for cooking and light while preserving the environment, providing water, education, and addressing health needs among other needs. It was on this basis that he was calling on the international community to assist in coping with these challenges.

Agreeing with him, Mr. Guterres described the refugee influx from South Sudan as, “the biggest refugee exodus in Africa since the Rwandan genocide.” He recognised Uganda’s exemplary refugee policy and called on the international community to recognise it. “Even today faced with the largest refugee in-flow of the past year, Uganda remains a symbol of the integrity of the refugee protection regime that unfortunately is not being respected everywhere in the world,” Mr. Guterres said. He called on the international community needs to step up and give to the Ugandan people and to the refugees hosted by the Ugandan people the kind of support that is absolutely needed because the circumstances in which these sacrifices are being made are extremely challenging. “International solidarity with Uganda is not a matter of generosity, it’s a matter of justice. International solidarity is absolutely crucial at the presence,” he said.

Several countries heeded the call with Equatorial Guinea kick-starting pledging USD100, 000, it was followed by several other countries such as the United Arab Emirates which pledged USD5m, China – USD500, 000, United Kingdom – USD50m, Japan – USD10m, Gabon – USD250,000, Kenya – USD200,000, Somalia – USD100,000, Germany – USD56m, Australia – USD5m, Italy USD 5.6m, Canada – USD11.5m, Sweden USD 27.1M, Norway – USD4m, Austria  -USD2.2m, Netherlands USD6.2m, Republic of Korea – USD6.8m, Denmark – USD62m , Ireland – USD2.6m, Finland – USD2.4m.

Regional groupings such as the European Union pledged USD 96.3m while African Union pledged USD100, 000. The private sector pledges were led by MTN Group Uganda who pledged USD1m and more pledges were made in kind on the first day of the summit during the Private Sector Side event whose theme was – “Enabling the Private Sector to support Refugees and Refugee hosting communities.”

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) led side event was intended to showcase the contribution of the private sector to refugees and host communities as well as present successful business models that provide a compelling business case for investing in refugee hosting communities. UNDP together with the Japan International Development Agency (JICA) also led the side event Local Government with the theme: “Enhancing Development Approaches for Resilience and Self-Reliance of Refugees and Host Communities: Strengthening the Capacity of Local Governments in Uganda.” 12 districts in Uganda host refugees and this meeting called for partners to support these districts improve their social service delivery for both their local communities as well as their guests. “We must respond simultaneously to the needs of newly arriving refugees as well as of those in protracted refugee situations, living in local communities. And these communities, in turn, must be supported by local governments,” Mr. Hiroshi Kato, JICA Senior Vice President who attend the event noted. Ms. Almaz Gebru, the UNDP Country reiterated UNDP’s commitment to work with both the Private Sector and the Local Governments to provide both humanitarian and development solutions to the refugee hosting communities in Uganda.

Ms. Rosa Malango, the UN Resident Coordinator as well as the UNDP Resident Representative described the Summit as a milestone event that had put Uganda’s on the global map for its development oriented initiatives. She thanked all partners for their contributions and called on others to continue pledging as the pledge lines were still open.

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European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides this morning affirmed strong #EU support and commitment to Uganda to deal with the world’s fastest growing #refugee crisis.

Addressing delegates at the ongoing Solidarity Summit on Refugees in Kampala, Uganda, hosted by the Government of Uganda and the United Nations, Commissioner Stylianides said: “Today, in agreement with the European Commissioner for Development Aid Neven Mimica and on behalf of the people of Europe, I am pleased to announce that the European Union steps up its support to the refugee response in Uganda with an amount of 85 million euro. With the additional separate announcements from the European Member States who are present here today, the overall help from the people of Europe amount to almost 210million euro.”

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WASHINGTON, June 20, 2017—The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a $40 million equivalent IDA credit* to the Republic of Uganda for the Strengthening Social Risk Management and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Prevention and Response Project.

The Government of Uganda recognizes GBV as a serious problem and approved a National Policy on the Elimination of GBV in October 2016.  This project, which was approved June 20, 2017, will support the implementation of the policy and will also help strengthen systems for managing social risk in development projects.

GBV is a serious problem across many continents and countries.  Acceptance of intimate partner violence, however, is particularly high in the Africa Region – on average around 30 percent, which is more than twice the average of the rest of the developing world at 14 percent.  “Rates of GBV in Uganda are high,” said Hon. Janat Mukwaya, Minister of Gender, Labor and Social Development. “With 62 percent of women and 59 percent of men aged 15-49 in Uganda having reported experiencing physical or sexual violence at least once since the age of 15.  This project aims to help address this disturbing trend.”

The World Bank Country Manager, Christina Malmberg Calvo added that, “Uganda has a number of tried and tested interventions that have shown to be effective in reducing the incidence of GBV through intensive behavior change communication. The project builds on these experiences to take them to scale. The project will also invest in strengthening the capacity of key front-line services to address the needs of survivors of GBV with a strong focus in the health sector.”

As part of this broader agenda on the overall management of social risk, the project aims to address the underlying causes of GBV by developing and expanding prevention programs and increasing response services for survivors of GBV in targeted districts.

Specifically, the project will focus on:

• promoting behavior change and strengthening referral mechanisms, and
• strengthening the responsiveness of front-line service providers to cases of GBV, and improving their ability to provide quality care.

*The International Development Association (IDA) provides concessional resources to Uganda, and this $40 million credit has a zero percentage interest rate, with a final maturity of 38 years, including a grace period of 6 years.

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Due to the precarious situation in South Sudan, many people are seeking refuge in Uganda. Austrian Development Agency (ADA)  helps them to gain access to clean water and sanitary facilities.