The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of 2.8 million US dollars from Norway to support over 32,000 refugees and members of the host community in Uganda.
The cash is expected to help provide basic food needs as they transition from humanitarian assistance to self-reliance.
Abdirahman Meygag, WFP’s country director in Uganda says severe funding shortfalls and rising costs of food and energy are forcing thousands of refugees in Uganda to survive on less than a third of the food they need.
The support is possible through WFP’s Refugee Self-Reliance Transition Model in Uganda, where moderately vulnerable refugees receive information, skills, financial training, climate-smart agricultural inputs such as early maturing and drought-tolerant seeds, and mechanization support to strengthen livelihood activities and enable self-reliance.
The Refugee Self-Reliance Transition Model will run for three years and will be implemented in Oruchinga, Nakivaale, Bidibidi, and Lobule refugee settlements in the first year.
Uganda hosts more than 1.5 million refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).