Private investment has brought connectivity to northwestern Uganda, as well as new opportunities for refugees and locals.
Praised for its progressive policies, Uganda allows refugees to work, start businesses and own property. However, the scale of recent arrivals has strained already overstretched regional resources. This, coupled with poor or non-existent mobile phone coverage, meant that until recently refugees were at risk of languishing in remote settlements.
In response, the UN Capital Development Fund, UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) and partners turned to the private sector for help. Together with partner NetHope, they appealed to mobile providers to extend coverage to Uganda’s new refugee settlements. Over the past year, providers Airtel, Africell and MTN have installed cell towers across the region, bringing internet access to millions for the first time.
“We put towers across northern Uganda, tailoring our network plan to suit where the refugee camps are,” says VG Somasekhar, Managing Director of Airtel in Uganda. “The towers ensure that all the population, Ugandans as well as the refugees, are now well served.”
Airtel consulted closely with government agencies and NGOs working with refugees in the region to ensure the extended network would facilitate their work. Improved connectivity helps coordinate distribution of food, medicine and housing, as well as allowing NGOs to distribute cash grants directly to refugees via mobile money transfer.
In this way, the project forms part of a wider response to refugee movements known as the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework, or CRRF, which calls for a broader range of actors to get involved in the refugee response and stronger partnerships.
Original source: UNHCR
Published on 24 September 2018
