From reliefweb.int

Situation

• Uganda hosts the largest population of refugees and asylum-seekers in Africa. As of November 2017 nearly 1.4 million refugees and asylum-seekers have sought shelter in Uganda, including more than 1 million South Sudanese. Furthermore, 61 percent of the refugee population in Uganda is under 18 years of age.
• According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), food availability and prices have improved as a result of the harvest in the Karamoja Region, which will continue until December. Most households face Minimal (IPC 1)* levels of food insecurity, including poor households in the southwest and northeast that were previously experiencing Stressed (IPC 2) levels earlier in 2017. Food security has also improved in Karamoja, Uganda’s poorest sub-region, and most poor households in the region are consuming more food than usual during this time of the year; food security among households previously facing Crisis (IPC 3) levels during the March-to-July lean season, particularly in Moroto, Napak and Kaabong districts, have improved to Stressed (IPC 2) levels
• The UN World Food Program (WFP) provides emergency food assistance to newly arrived refugees; however, due to funding constraints WFP has had to limit its distribution to refugees who arrived in Uganda prior to July 2015. Most South Sudanese refugees in Uganda would face Crisis (IPC 3) levels of food insecurity without food assistance, as livelihood options are limited.
• According to FEWS NET, Fall Armyworm—an invasive pest that in Uganda primarily adversely affects maize and has damaged food crops across Africa—has been reported during the fall agricultural season in many parts of the country, with the majority of reports coming from eastern and western maize growing areas. However, FEWS NET reports indicate that the impact on crop production is less significant due to increased pest management and prevention.

Response

• With USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (FFP) support, WFP has provided emergency food assistance to more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum-seekers in northern and southwestern Uganda. FFP’s contributions to WFP, which include both U.S. inkind food and locally and regionally purchased food, provide families with enough to eat and prevent and treat acute malnutrition among the refugees and asylum-seekers.
• In collaboration with Catholic Relief Services and Mercy Corps, FFP also supports food-insecure Ugandans through two development food security activities in Karamoja. In partnership with the AVSI Foundation, FFP supports a graduation activity in the southwestern district of Kamwenge targeting refugees and host community members. These activities target over 704,000 individuals and aim to increase access to food, strengthen governance and gender equity, improve the nutritional status of children and pregnant and lactating women, and reduce the incidence of conflict through a variety of activities that support self-reliance and resilience.

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By Paul Dennis for ugchristiannews.com

The number of orphans and otherwise parentless minors (aged between four and 17 years) in settlement centres including that of Palabek Ogili, Palabek Kal and Palabek Gem, all in Lamwo District, northern Uganda reached 2,000, an officer at the Association of Volunteers International Services (AVSI) told journalists recently.

Christian Communications Centre (CCC), a local non-governmental organisation has earmarked Shs350m to support children with special needs in the settlements above.

The organisation’s spokesman and project coordinator, Dr Francis Ogweng, told press a survey they did a week ago indicated that thousands of refugee children suffer without anyone to cater for their wellbeing or provide the required necessities in life.

“A shipment of eight containers is already on the way and we are just waiting for clearance from the OPM,” he explained, adding that solar lamps, beddings, cups, soap, clothing are among the items to be distributed.

According to UNICEF and UNHCR, the trauma, physical upheaval, fear and stress experienced by so many of these children account for just part of toll the crisis is exacting.

“That is why we are moving in to support them,” Dr Ogweng said.

Sources report that initially, these children were being given to foster parents to take care of them, but some parents have instead abandoned them.

“We are also in touch with some people back home in South Sudan who could be having information about these children,” Palabek Refugee Settlement commander, Mr David Wangwe said.

Elsewhere, the Palabek Ogili Sub-countychairperson, Mr Christopher Omal, told sources on Wednesday that the issue of unaccompanied children needs to be addressed immediately since they are now stealing food stuffs from the community farmlands.

UNHCR reported in May that inside South Sudan, more than 1,000 children have been killed or injured since fresh conflict erupted in 2013, while an estimated 1.14 million children have been internally displaced.

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By Stephen Otage for www.allafrica.com

The United States Embassy in Kampala wants the government of Uganda to develop programs tailored towards addressing challenges faced by adolescent girls beyond providing free sanitary pads to them.
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Mr. Mark Meassick, a director at the US Mission said Uganda needs to critically think about the plight of adolescent girls because they comprise the majority of the population; they have the highest HIV infection rates and they are the ones producing the highest number of children without any planning.
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"Provide tailored attention to their needs. Help them to overcome all these obstacles because they deserve a chance like all Ugandans. In special circumstances, we should give a special package of chances," he said while passing out formerly vulnerable girls who have been empowered to fend for themselves without waiting for handouts.

Mr. John Makoha, the AVSI country representative said they are celebrating the success of the SCORE Project which did not give out handouts to girls but empowered about 30,000 lasses to increase their social security.
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He said the beneficiaries can now start income generating projects which would enable them send their children to school and have stable families.

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By Charlie Wood for www.csmonitor.com

What would you do with a modest paycheck that showed up monthly, regardless of employment: Retire early? Change careers? Open that business you’ve always dreamed about?

This question lies at the heart of the growingly popular but contentious topic of Universal Basic Income (UBI), which proposes replacing often inefficient social welfare programs with a guaranteed paycheck for all, enough to afford at least the basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing. It's a counter-intuitive income model that challenges assumptions about effective compassion and induced laziness, but amid fears of an automated future, more economists are starting to take a hard look.

This summer, Switzerland overwhelmingly rejected a UBI referendum, with almost 80 percent voting against it. “If you pay people to do nothing, they will do nothing,” Charles Wyplosz, an economics professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told AFP.

But is that necessarily the case? Some economists say a mounting body of evidence regarding a poverty-fighting tool called “cash transfers” may suggest otherwise.

Cash transfers are just what they sound like: a gift of capital, often from an NGO to members of a population living in poverty. Narrow in scope, they generally target groups of a few hundred to a thousand individuals with sums that fall between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars. Some are one-time lump sums, and others recur monthly for a time. 

Proponents argue that cash transfers are effective for precisely the same reasons cash birthday gifts can be disappointing: they require almost no effort and often end up getting used on what the recipient needs, rather than what they desire. In these respects cash transfers resemble UBI with its flexibility and low overhead costs, although much more focused on helping people escape from poverty, rather than, say, surviving automation.
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The Association of Volunteers in International Service (AVSI) Foundation gave a one-time transfer of $150, accompanied by four days of business skills training, to 15 of the poorest women in 120 Ugandan villages. Half of the 1,800 women received the cash transfer and training a year-and-a-half after the others. Comparing the group that received the money early with the one that received it later, research and poverty organization Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) concluded that the program had a “transformative” economic effect, with monthly income almost doubling, consumption increasing by a third, and savings tripling.

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