IMPROVED LIVING CONDITIONS FOR DRC REFUGEES IN THE NAKIVALE REFUGEE SETTLEMENT

Promoter: WCC - Austrian Red Cross
Land: Uganda 
Funding amount: € 500,000.00 
Start: 04/01/2023 
End: 09/30/2024

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:

Project goal

The project aims to safeguard the lives and health of refugees in Southwestern Uganda through improved living conditions for refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the Nakivale refugee settlement with respect to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), empowerment of girls and women, and livelihoods.

Expected results

1) Improved access to safe drinking water for newly resettled DRC refugees from the in the Nakivale refugee settlement through a gender-sensitive approach;

2) Improved access for newly resettled DRC refugees to sanitation facilities and information on hygiene behavior;

3) Empowerment of girls and women through improved menstrual hygiene management and sensitization on Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) and Protection, Gender & Inclusion;

4) Provision of livelihood support to newly resettled DRC refugee households in the Nakivale settlement.

Target group

The project will directly target 15,000 newly arrived refugees from DRC in Nakivale settlement, of which 51% are female and 49% are male.

Location: Uganda, Isingiro District, Nakivale Refugee Settlement

Measures

Conducting an environmental assessment, constructing a water treatment plant, providing fittings, treatment and testing of equipment to operationalise the plant; procuring and distributing latrine construction kits and hygiene & sanitation kits, printing and procuring information, education and communication materials, procuring and distributing personal protective equipment sets, training of volunteers and village health teams in hygiene & sanitation promotion, conducting water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) campaigns; conducting baseline and gender analyses as wells as market assessments on the provision of menstrual hygiene products, Inception meeting with local leaders and the refugee representatives, procuring and providing menstrual hygiene products, conducting sensitisation sessions on menstrual hygiene, safe use and disposal of sanitary towels, conducting trainings on Protection, Gender and Inclusion and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), conducting sensitisation sessions on SGBV, child protection and the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), designing SGBV, child safeguarding & PSEA signposts and installing solar lamps at water points, conducting community feedback meetings; procuring and distributing vegetable seeds, tools, poultry/rabbits and energy saving stoves, conducting sensitisation and awareness raising trainings on good farming practices and the use of energy saving stoves.

Background information

Uganda is facing the economic impacts of the Ukraine-Russia war on their national economy, including disruptions of supply chains and higher global prices of food, fuel, and fertilizer, which have resulted in high domestic inflation and tight monetary conditions. In addition, Uganda is only slowly recovering from the strict Covid 19 restrictions, which have been imposed for more than two years. Further, it is one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world, with 1,495,688 refugees according to UNHCR (status 31.12. 2022), 57% are from South Sudan and 32% from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the remaining 11% are from Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda and other countries. The vast influx of refugees is mostly due to war and violence in South Sudan and the DRC and associated economic crisis and political instability in the region. Uganda is known for its refugee protection environment, providing refugees with freedom of movement and the right to work, education, basic social services as well as allocation of plots of land for shelter and agricultural production.