Uganda Refugee News - Edition 61 - January 2025

Welcome to the 61st edition of URN covering publications and news from January 2025

Thank you to those who are sharing their resources and please remember that submissions are always welcome via our email - ugandarefugeenews@gmail.com

We very much welcome all the new subscribers and hope you find the newsletter a useful resource - if you do, then please help spread the word and share this newsletter with anyone you think might be interested in its contents and they can subscribe to receive it directly below.

Last, a reminder you can find previous versions of the newsletter on the website and the same articles but by sector

Sector specific:

Education:

• CE International -  Ladder to Learning - Supporting Refugee Learners in Uganda

• FCA -

  • Careers day illuminates bright futures for refugee students

  • US foreign aid freeze puts FCA projects on hold in Uganda and Kenya

• Makerere University - Access and utilisation of primary education services among children in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement, Yumbe District of Northwestern, Uganda

• Mission Newswire - Salesians aim to help teen mothers in refugee resettlement camp

• Monitor - Yumbe’s refugee PLE star faces bleak future

• NRC - “Education saved me”: Hawa's journey of hope

• UNHCR - Regional Bureau for East and Horn of Africa, and the Great Lakes Region - Education Newsletter: July - December 2024

• University of Edinburgh - Connected learning as collaboration and psychosocial support: A critical reflection on a bridging programme for refugees in Uganda

Environment & Energy:

• CIFOR - ICRAF - State of biomass resources in refugee-hosting landscapes: the case of Rhino Camp and Imvepi Refugee Settlements in West Nile, Uganda

• Energising Development - (video) - How Solar Energy is Transforming Refugee Settlements in Uganda

• IOM - IOM’s Electronic Waste Initiative Continues to Ease Access to Repair of Solar Lanterns for Bidibidi Refugee and Host Communities

• Journal of Environmental Management - Management of environmental impacts of fossil fuel use in refugee camps through transition to renewable energy infrastructure: Case studies in Uganda and Bangladesh

• Medium - Empowering Refugees and the Vital Role of Community-Led Initiatives in Nakivale — Coalition of Action for Soil Health

• Supply Chain - How Gebrüder Weiss is Supporting Refugees in Uganda - Logistics leader Gebrüder Weiss is transporting a solar energy system to a refugee settlement in northern Uganda to sustainably power training workshops

• You Tube - This Is CDR: Nakivale - Uganda's Refugee-Led Biochar Enterprise

Health:

• Africa.com - Healing Through Hope: Grace’s Journey to Mental Health Recovery in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement

• Amref - Refugee Hosting and Its Implications for Health Financing in Uganda

• BMC -

  • Examining the integration of refugees into the national health system in Uganda: an analysis using the policy triangle framework

  • Prevalence and contributors to anaemia among children aged 6 to 59 months in Kyangwali Refugee settlement, Western Uganda: a cross-sectional study

• Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health - Findings from the Tushirikiane-4-MH (supporting each other for mental health) mobile health–supported virtual reality randomized controlled trial among urban refugee youth in Kampala, Uganda

• Conflict and Health - Integration of Refugees into National Health Systems: Enhancing Equity and Strengthening Sustainable Health Services for All

• emDOCS - ED care of refugee populations from sub-Saharan Africa

• International Journal of Mental Health Systems - Development of a non-specialist worker delivered psychological intervention to address alcohol use disorders and psychological distress among conflict-affected populations in Uganda and Ukraine

• Makerere University -

  • Utilization of sexual and reproductive health services and associated factors among urban refugee adolescent girls and young women: A case study of Jesuit Refugee Service

  • Enablers and barriers to adoption of the recommended infant feeding practices among primary caregivers with infants and young children in BidiBidi Refugee Settlement, Yumbe District

• Malaria Journal -

  • Prevalence and associated factors of malaria among the displaced population in refugee camps in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

  • Predictors of insecticide-treated nets utilization among children under five years in refugee settlements in Uganda: analysis of the 2018–2019 Uganda Malaria Indicator Survey

• PAMJ - Knowledge, attitude, and perception on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: cross-sectional study among Eritrean refugees in Kampala

• Public Health - Human rights violations are associated with forcibly displaced population’s mental health—a systematic review and meta-analysis

• UN Women - Healing Through Hope: Grace’s Journey to Mental Health Recovery in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement

  Livelihoods and Resilience

• Africa Mission - Circular Microeconomics in Agricultural, Livestock, and Pastoral Practices Among Refugees and Local Communities in Adjumani District

• AVSI -

  • AVSI and UKAid launch new partnership in support to the Uganda Refugee Response

  • Refugee communities thriving on soft skills in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement, Western Uganda

  • The life of a Congolese refugee in Uganda: Juwele Kinyuni’s story of resilience

• EIB - Never too late to learn - In Uganda financial literacy training for refugees and host communities develops the skills necessary to grow refugee businesses and transform lives

• IDInsight - GiveDirectly Uganda Endline Report - Unconditional cash transfers in Kiryandongo refugee settlement, Uganda

• Independent - CAADP Kampala Summit to rethink hunger response, refugee feeding

• Journal of Development Economics - The short-lived effects of unconditional cash transfers to refugees

• Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy - (pay for access) - Mindfulness, refugees’ perception of the host community, social capital and entrepreneurial outcomes – a study of refugees in Uganda

• Monitor - Skilling refugees is key to promoting sustainable peace and development

• NRC - Building a business in a refugee settlement

• PML - Displaced women find economic empowerment in Kyaka II Refugee Settlement

• Soft Power - Breaking Barriers - empowering displaced women and girls in Kyaka II to thrive

• WFP - (video) - WFP Uganda Refugee Response: Self-reliance through bee keeping

Other:

• Africa Human Rights Journal - Analysing the implementation of refugee laws and policies in relation to women and girls: A case of Kampala, Uganda

• Chimp Reports -

  • USAID Freeze: Uganda Catches a Cold - With a Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 budget of $458 million, including emergency assistance, USAID Uganda is one of the largest missions within USAID’s Africa Bureau

  • UK Declares Shs 74Bn Funding towards Uganda’s Refugee Response

• Darfur Network for Human Rights - Sudanese Refugee Women Struggling for Survival in Uganda

• Defending the Early Years - Promoting Play for Refugee Children: Kyegegwa district of Uganda.

• The Gift of Chess - The Gift of Chess visits Uganda’s Nakivale Refugee Settlement

• GoU/UNHCR -

  • Uganda Refugee Response:

    • Analysis of Suicide Incidents broken down by age and sex (December 2024)

    • Critical Indicator Tracking Matrix - Nyumanzi Reception Centre

      • (as of 09 January 2025)

      • (as of 16 January 2025)

    • Sudanese Refugees and Asylum-Seekers, as of 26 January 2025

    • Sudanese Refugees and Asylum-Seekers, as of 12 January 2025

• IOM -

  • DTM Uganda Emergency Event Tracking - A Post Disaster Needs Assessment Report, November-December 2024

  • Uganda Multi-Hazard Report, September & October 2024 (Published: 18th October 2024)

• IPA - Building Social Cohesion: Stories of Hope from Refugee Integration Projects in Turkey and Uganda

• IRU - Safer refugee operations: IRU trains UNHCR on defensive driving

• NRC - Asylum seekers and refugees in Arua: legal challenges and opportunities

• NTV - (video) - Mugisha empowers refugees through dance and vocational skills

• UG Connect - (video) - SUDANESE refugee narrates their EMOTIONAL journey to Finding Peace In UGANDA

• U-Learn -

  • Does equipping humanitarian actors with applied Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) skills yield distinct outcomes? - Results from 20 organisations enrolled in U-Learn’s AAP in Action (AAPA) program in Uganda’s refugee response

  • (video) - Strengthening the Uganda Refugee Response through research, learning & accountability

• UNHCR

  • Uganda - Sudan Situation: Socioeconomic Profile, January 2025

  • Uganda: Sudanese Refugees and Asylum-Seekers, as of 26 January 2025

  • Regional Dashboard RB EHAGL:

    • Refugees, asylum seekers, returnees and IDPs (31 December 2024)

    • IGAD Region | Population of Concern to UNHCR (as of 31 December 2024)

• Watchdog News - Census Report Reveals West Nile’s Role in Depicting Uganda As an Excellent Refugee- Hosting Country

• WFP -

  • ‘We left everything behind and started running’: Voices away from home in Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia - How cash softens hardship for millions of displaced people in East Africa

  • WFP Uganda Country Brief, December 2024

• WHO - WHO Uganda Newsletter (July - December 2024)

• World Vision - How the NEXUS programming is transforming the Uganda Refugee Response

Events, funding etc: 

• 2025 University corridor for refugees to France – Deadline: February 23rd, 2025 - The UNIV’R – University for Refugees academic corridor program is calling for applications from refugees residing in a first country of asylum who wish to pursue a Master’s degree (2 years) at Sciences Po University in Paris. The program provides beneficiaries with facilitated access to the university system, administrative, social and financial support (study and living grant for the entire duration of the master’s degree).

• The Politics and Process of Refugee Leadership: A Comparative Analysis of Factors Conditioning Refugee Leadership in Global South - February 6, 9 - 10:30 AM (EST) - Join us for this free webinar to learn from the research teams on their findings of the 18-month comparative study on the politics and process of refugee leadership in the global South, with a specific focus on South America and East Africa (Kenya and Uganda).

• Call for Applications, 2026-27 – Uganda - World University Service of Canada (WUSC), in partnership with Windle International Uganda, would like to invite suitably qualified refugee youth to apply for the 2026-2027 cohort of the SRP - The online application deadline: February 10, 2025. We will accept applications until the deadline of March 7, 2025 at 5pm Kampala time.