ROYAL NORWEGIAN EMBASSY

RNE and the Cash-Transfer LEARN Programme in Northern Uganda

Following a negotiated peace settlement between the Government of Uganda and Lord Resistance Army (LRA), about one million people in Northern Uganda have left the camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and either returned to their homes or are living in smaller settlements close to their land. 

However, the process of re-establishing livelihoods outside the camps presents a number of hurdles for potential returnees. The returnees have little to no start up capital to resume production and livelihoods, suffer from a lack of community services, are hampered by lack of utilities and infrastructure and face restraints such as poor linkages to input and output markets. These challenges, coupled with relatively high levels of service provision by aid agencies, have understandably resulted high levels of dependency and apathy, which in turn have helped put a brake on economic growth in the area.

RNE has entered into the breach! As a long term supporter of the peace process and the effort to deliver relief to the victims of the war and in of support of the Government of Uganda’s Northern Uganda Peace Process, RNE began looking into the feasibility of using cash transfers to support returnees as far back as 2006. 
In consultation with several other Development Partners, RNE commissioned two studies investigating the feasibility of supporting the IDP return and resettlement process through the provision of cash transfers to those returning home. Following the studies, the Embassy found that conditions were more or less favourable for cash-based programming and that cash transfers could play a useful role in the recovery process. Some organisations working in Northern Uganda had already relevant experience that could be tapped on for implementation of the Norwegian funded programme. It was decided to carry out, a number of pilot cash transfer programmes, carefully monitored for lesson learning in terms of best practice and impact. 

The main objective of Norwegian development assistance to Uganda is to support Uganda’s own effort to reduce poverty, as well as contribute to the peaceful resolution of internal conflicts in the country. The Royal Norwegian Embassy has a clear focus on five priority areas: energy; environment/ natural resources (which includes focus on climate change); governance, mostly through budget support; gender and finally peace/reconciliation. The cash programme is part of this last priority area, which includes support to the final stages of the peace talks, and to the implementation of the Juba peace agreements. The Embassy realizes that in order to rebuild homes and livelihoods of returning IDPs, a shift of focus from humanitarian and relief to recovery and development operations has become inevitable and strategic at this particular point in time. Thus, while continuing its humanitarian support in the transition phase, and in case of deteriorated security situation and return to camps, the Embassy provides increased support to long term development in Northern Uganda. The Royal Norwegian Embassy has realized that in order to rebuild homes and livelihoods of returning IDPs, the organisational shift of focus from humanitarian and relief to recovery and development operations has become inevitable and strategic at this particular point in time. It is this approach, combined with experience of a cash transfer programme that assisted demobilised bed soldiers in Mozambique and experience of other cash programmes around the world , which informs the Norwegian Embassy’s cash transfer scheme to ease the return of conflict affected households in Northern Uganda to villages of origin through the provision of cash, either conditional on work or in the form of non-conditional grants..
Food for the Hungry (FH), Action Against Hunger (ACF) and Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) were chosen as the three international NGOs to implement the 12 month-long cash transfer programme. Amuru District, Oyam District, Gulu District, Lira District, Pader District and Kitgum District in Northern Uganda were chosen as the programme’s target areas. 

FH

FH (FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY)

Food for the Hungry works in more than 26 developing countries. We provide disaster and emergency relief, and implement sustainable development programs to transform communities physically and spiritually.

Food for the Hungry has been working in Uganda since 1988. One of our first initiatives was the distribution of seeds, blankets and clothing to local prisons. Since then, Food for the Hungry has expanded its work in Uganda to include many long-term projects. And God is faithful to bring growth in all areas of our work. 
Uganda has substantial natural resources, including fertile soils, regular rainfall, and sizable mineral deposits of copper and cobalt. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, employing more than 80 percent of the work force, with coffee accounting for the bulk of export revenues. Since 1986, the government (with the support of foreign countries and international agencies) has acted to rehabilitate an economy decimated during the regime of Idi Amin and subsequent civil war. 

Meeting needs in Uganda

Child Development 

Funded through child sponsorship, our Child Development program provides disadvantaged and orphaned children in Uganda access to education, health care, skills development, and special activities that help them develop in all areas – physically, mentally, socially, emotionally and spiritually – and help build confidence and develop character. In Uganda, Food for the Hungry helps improve school facilities and construct health clinics for the community. Children receive school materials and parents learn skills in parenting, health and nutrition, and income generating activities. Foundational to this program, and integrated into every activity, are the sharing of biblical principles that help children and families discover their potential as individuals made in the image of a loving God. 

 New Life Center 
The most deplorable aspect of the 20-year conflict between the LRA and the Ugandan government is the abduction of children for use as child soldiers and sex slaves. Children have been abducted and forced to commit atrocities against their own families and communities and serve as soldiers. Young girls are given as “wives” to the rebel commanders. Girls who escape captivity return to their communities as child mothers with children conceived as wives of the LRA rebels. They are often stigmatized and marginalized by the communities when they return. In response, New Life Center (located in Kitgum northern Uganda) provides the following services for child mothers: (a) a safe environment for holistic rehabilitation, (b) biblical and professional counseling for severe depression, (c) literacy classes, (d) vocational training and skills development, and (e) skills acquisition in marketing and income-generating activities.
 
Food Security 
Food for the Hungry works with the Ugandan government and the international community to provide greater access to food in war-torn northern Uganda. To help families increase their income, Food for the Hungry provides agricultural training. One example is vegetable gardening using poly bags to grow vegetables in crowded refugee camps. The crops grown are sold to generate income for the family. Another way Food for the Hungry provides income to households is by employing people to construct latrines. This project helps address sanitation problems and at the same time helps people learn a new skill. 

Water and Sanitation 
As a result of the ongoing conflict between the Ugandan government and the LRA, access to potable water and sanitation facilities is very poor in northern Uganda. Food for the Hungry helps people in refugee camps have access to clean water sources and sanitation facilities. They also learn environmental and personal hygiene practices. 

 HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care 
Food for the Hungry implements a multi-faceted compassionate Christian response to HIV/AIDS through the “Bringing Hope” project that operates in five African nations: Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Mozambique. Bringing Hope is giving hope to people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in the districts of Kumi and Kitgum. Most people in Kitgum were displaced by the war and live in refugee camps where the rate of HIV is high. This program provides (a) home-based care to people living with HIV/AIDS and to orphans and vulnerable children, (b) training in abstinence and faithfulness in marriage to reduce transmission of the virus, (c) mobilization of communities and churches to provide physical and emotional help to those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and to erase the stigma associated with the disease, (d) training youth peer educators in churches, and primary and secondary schools to create awareness of how to avoid HIV/AIDS, and (e) medical support, food, clothes, and scholastic materials to orphans and other vulnerable children.

 Go ED. Program 
The Go ED program is a way to engage the young generation and develop them to become able responders to God’s call to end physical and spiritual poverty worldwide. Through Go ED, college students in America can study for one semester in an impoverished country such as Uganda and engage in a new culture while earning college credits. Students receive valuable field experience that is life-changing and provides them a bigger perspective on the global issues of poverty, hunger and disease.

ACTED (AGENCY FOR TECHNICAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT)

ACTED (AGENCY FOR TECHNICAL COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT)

It is a non-governmental organization founded in 1993. Independent, private and not-for-profit, ACTED respects a strict political and religious impartiality and operates according to principles of non-discrimination and transparency.

Our Mission: Providing Adapted Responses

ACTED’s vocation is to support vulnerable populations worldwide and to accompany them in building a better future.

Our Vision: Guaranteeing the Link between Emergency, Rehabilitation and Development
Once basic needs have been covered, the population’s living conditions remain critical as our areas of intervention are among the poorest in the world.
For this reason, ACTED’s axis of intervention lies in the link between Emergency, Rehabilitation and Development. In other words, in order to guarantee the sustainability of interventions carried out during crises, only long-term support, through a continued presence in the field after the emergency as well as the involvement of communities, enables us to break the poverty cycle and accompany populations on their way to development.
Sectors of intervention include emergency relief, food security, health promotion, education and training, economic development, microfinance, advocacy, institutional support and regional dialogue and cultural promotion

WORK IN UGANDA
ACTED has been present in Uganda since 2007, and currently operates in the northern and eastern region of the country. More specifically, ACTED implements its interventions in Gulu, Amuru and Oyam (Acholi and Lango regions) as well as in Nakapiripirit (Karamoja region) where the organization works on a cross-border basis with North Pokot District of Kenya.

In 2009, ACTED will contribute to the Economic Development of vulnerable populations in Uganda, including through Food Security, Infrastructure Enhancement and Disaster Risk Reduction interventions, while strengthening local governance and fostering peace and reconciliation.

ACTED implements a range of food security interventions in both of its regions of operation. These include seed and livestock fairs (linked to Voucher-for-Work projects), crop multiplication activities, and the establishment of Farmer Field Schools (FFS)/Pastoralist Field Schools (PFS), an innovative form of adult education tailored to communities’ agricultural and/or pastoralist livelihoods. These projects are a promising way to kick-start the agricultural potential of both Northern Uganda and Karamoja, thereby addressing long-term roots of food insecurity.

ACTED’s programmatic focus in Northern Uganda has been to support the return process of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) through projects linking infrastructure construction/rehabilitation and livelihood interventions. Some of these projects have been implemented as Voucher-for-Work (VFW) schemes, an approach which ACTED has pioneered in the region. In 2009, ACTED will branch out to new sectors of activity to accompany the area’s move towards stable recovery.
In particular, ACTED will implement Cash Grants project to kick-start Income Generating Activities (IGA), and plans to support the region’s promising agro-processing industry on the basis of our experience with food security activities