Problem Targeted

Uganda is home to more than 1.5 million refugees who are settled in 14 refugee settlements across the country. One of these settlements is Nakivale, which hosts around 150,000 refugees—mostly women and children—from various countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi, and Somalia. Refugees in Nakivale rely heavily on subsistence farming for their food and livelihoods, and face various challenges that make food production difficult, such as low agricultural productivity, limited access to value chains, and the impacts of climate change such as drought. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme has reduced food rations for these refugees, and the small amount of cash they now receive for food is insufficient to meet their daily needs, leading many to skip meals or go to bed hungry. The situation is worsened by the lack of agronomic training and support for refugees. Refugees are not provided with sufficient land for cultivation, and existing plots are already depleted and require regeneration. In order to cope, some households engage in environmentally harmful activities such as deforestation, charcoal burning, and the use of chemicals in their gardens, which negatively impact both the health of vulnerable children and the overall biodiversity of the settlement.

Approach Implemented

Youth Initiative for Community Empowerment (YICE) implements a sustainable and regenerative approach—anchored on traditional and permaculture farming practices—towards improving food systems in Uganda. YICE’s model builds on the existing capacities of refugees and host communities to strengthen their climate and economic resilience, achieve food security, improve their health, and regenerate soils, by:

• Mobilizing refugees and members of host communities—especially youth and women—into small regenerative farming groups, and training them on how to setup regenerative gardens that follow permaculture design principles. Participants are introduced to topics and techniques such as building and managing soil, regenerative land clearing, organic pest and disease control, cover cropping, water harvesting, nursery management, post-harvest handling, and organic fertilizer production using locally available materials and farm residues.
• Equipping community members with links to local markets, financial services, and the tools they need to establish food gardens and rear livestock
• Raising awareness about climate change, its effects, and how to adapt to them
• Planting of fruit trees across households, which improve biodiversity, household nutrition, and income through the sale of fruits

These activities are community-led, which sustains participation and fosters cohesion between refugees and host communities. For example, YICE hires and trains local farm agents who are refugees themselves, which removes languages barriers and creates ownership over activities.