Executive Summary
With over 1.5 million refugees, Uganda is the third-largest refugee-hosting country in the world and the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa. Its progressive refugee policy enables refugees to enjoy access to asylum, freedom of movement, the right to work and own a business, and access services such as healthcare and education. However, despite Uganda’s welcoming policy, refugee women, men, girls, and boys of diverse backgrounds face numerous challenges to access protection, economic opportunities, and services such as health care, education, and food assistance.
The 2021 annual age, diversity and gender participatory assessment was organized by UNHCR in collaboration with REACH Initiative and partners working in the refugee operation. The assessment was conducted between October and November 2021 in all 12 refugee-hosting districts in Uganda and in the city of Kampala. The mixed-methods approach that was used combined a phone survey conducted with refugee men and women of diverse age groups across the different settlements and Kampala, complemented with qualitative data collection consisting of key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus groups discussions (FGDs). The KIIs included members of the host community, community leaders and officials, partner staff, and representatives of groups at risk in the refugee community. The aim of the assessment is to ensure the meaningful participation of different groups of refugees and host community members by engaging in a dialogue about their challenges, capacities and proposed solutions.
The findings of the 2021 participatory assessment show that refugee women, men, girls, and boys face a multitude of issues, often aggravated due to age, gender, and other considerations. The assessment also shows that persons of concerns (PoCs)4 do not always feel that services are being provided as they should be. The identified priority areas vary slightly depending on location, age and gender, although some priorities are common across population groups and locations. However, the overall priority areas for the refugee community were identified to be access to or quality of food assistance, health care, education and shelter.
The main barriers that were reported in accessing services such as food assistance and healthcare were the long distances to reach these services, the lack or limited access to information, language barriers and lack of translators and discrimination. However, the results of the participatory assessment show that certain groups or minorities face these challenges more frequently or at a higher degree. Indeed, ethnic or religious minorities, older persons, children and persons with disabilities, have reported feeling discriminated against by both service providers and other majority groups. Those groups have reported sometimes missing out on services because they are unable to access them due to a lack of transportation or very long distances. Ethnic minorities miss out on services due to language barriers hampering their ability to understand the information provided or communicate with the staff working with service delivery.
Children reported insecurity being a factor limiting their access to services, such as insufficient lighting in the streets at night. Boys tended to report child abuse and exploitation, explaining that members of the host community had taken advantage of their labour by not paying them. Girls also reported feeling insecure when accessing certain services outside their community or fetching resources, reporting gender-based violence (GBV) as their main concern when doing so.
Women, especially girls, in all locations, experience gender discrimination and additional strains on their daily life due to GBV. These insecurities contribute to limiting their access to certain services, and ultimately prevent them from fully enjoying their rights. Girls during the focus group discussions (FGDs) reported alarming levels of child marriage and teen pregnancies, which affected girls development and prevented them from attending school.
Both refugees and host communities have reported a delicate coexistence where tension often resurfaces due to competition over resources. The assessment also found that certain challenges between different sectors are related, for example one of the challenges reported by the host community to access traditional energy sources was the increasing refugee population. When asked about peaceful coexistence and the relationship between the refugee and host communities, many KIIs mentioned tensions relating to lack of firewood and limited resources.
Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees