Uganda Refugee News - January 2026

Sector specific:

EDUCATION

• Education for Refugees and Sustainable Green Urban Development - Empowerment of Refugees for Greening Societies and Economies: Approaches for Capacity Building Through Green Skills Development

• The Steve Sinnott Foundation - Teacher Learning Circles: A pathway to SDG achievement in Uganda’s refugee settlements

• UNESCO - How UNESCO Qualifications Passport holders build mutual support in Uganda and Zambia

• UN Women - Education for agency: Career training boosts women’s independence - Through UN Women and our partners, refugee women in Uganda are gaining skills, challenging stereotypes and building brighter futures – one engine at a time.

ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

• Bristol University Press - Environmental Justice, Climate Change and Food Security: Interventions with Refugee Children in Western Uganda

• FAO -

  • Assessing Knowledge of Climate Change Management Among Smallholder Crop Farmers in a Refugee Context: Lessons from Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda

  • Climate Refugees and Forced Migrations: Emerging Refugee Question in Lamwo District in Northern Uganda

• Reframe - Rwamwanja Women Rise: Turning Waste into Power, Protection, and Purpose

HEALTH

• AIDS and Behaviour - Multilevel Determinants of HIV Prevention Among Urban Refugee Youth in Uganda: Baseline Findings from the Tushirikiane-4-Uthabiti Trial

• BMJ Global Health -

  • Availability and readiness to provide postabortion care in refugee settlements in Uganda: a signal functions analysis

  • Tushirikiane-4-Uthabiti (Supporting Each Other For Resilience): study protocol of a mental health, HIV self-testing and livelihoods randomised controlled trial for advancing HIV

    prevention outcomes among urban refugee youth in Kampala, Uganda

• The Borgen Project - From Papyrus Waste to Sanitary Pads: MakaPads in Uganda

• Bristol University Press -

  • Continuity of Care for Forcibly Displaced Persons Living with Chronic Illness

    • ONE Working holistically: dimensions shaping continuity of care for forcibly displaced persons living with chronic illness

    • FOUR Working through community structures: the role of community health workers in cardio-metabolic disease care in Bidibidi, Uganda

    • FIVE Working alongside interpreters: optimising communication for continuity of care for refugees in Uganda

    • SEVEN Working with mental health: how integrating mental health and psychosocial support into refugee health services can support continuity of care for chronic conditions

    • EIGHT Working across sectors: how multi–sectoral integration improves participation in mental health and psychosocial support interventions for refugees

• Gavi - “We came here for safety”: in Uganda, refugee girls find protection from conflict and cancer - At Bidbidi Refugee Settlement, each HPV jab armours an already hard-won future.

• International Journal of Qualitative Student Health Well-being

   - Extreme weather events and refugee youths' experiences of physical health in a Ugandan humanitarian setting: qualitative insights

• IRC -  Funding cuts push Uganda’s refugee health system to the brink, impacting over one million refugees served by IRC

• Journal of Social Behaviour & Health Science -  Socioecological Stressors During COVID-19 Among Urban Refugee Youth in Kampala, Uganda: A Qualitative Descriptive Analysis

• The Lancet - A home away from home? HIV outcomes among refugees and host country nationals

• Migration and Displacement Action Plan for Sub-Saharan Africa - Economic Interaction between Refugees and Host in Uganda

• Nile Post -

  • Health Services in Adjumani at Risk as MTI Lays Off 243 Staff

  • Obongi Health Services Strained After MTI Cuts Staff From 149 to 29

• Population Council -

  • Availability of post-abortion care in refugee settlements in Uganda: Evidence Brief

  • Availability and readiness to provide postabortion care in refugee settlements in Uganda: A signal functions analysis

  • Strengthening the use of sexual and reproductive health and rights evidence in refugee and humanitarian settings

  • Attitudes and beliefs towards contraception and future intention to use a method among women in refugee settlements in Uganda

  • Screening for sexual violence against children in humanitarian settings: A feasibility study of a para-social worker-led intervention in Uganda

  • Unintended pregnancy, induced abortion, and abortion-related complications among women in humanitarian settings in Uganda: Evidence Brief

  • Expanding Access to Family Planning in Refugee Settings with Sustainable, Scalable, and Low-cost Solutions

  • Baobab Research Programme Consortium: Generating Evidence to Enhance SRHR in Refugee Settings

  • Examining factors associated with post-abortion family planning among women in refugee settings in Uganda

• Research Square - Malaria in Pregnancy: Prevalence and Associated Factors at First Antenatal Care Visit in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda

LIVELIHOODS & RESILIENCE

• Above Whispers - How Skills Training Is Empowering Refugee Women in Uganda With Independence and Opportunity

• AORW-U - (video) - Investing in Resilience—Micro Enterprise Finance for Refugee Women in Uganda

• Armed Conflicts and Forced Displacements in the Anthropocene - Improving Refugee Self-reliance Through Access to Land: Do Social Preferences Matter?

• CALP Network - (video) - Group Cash Transfers in Uganda: How ZOA is Putting Communities in the Driver’s Seat

• CGIAR -

  • Circular Bioeconomy Solutions in Refugee-Hosting Landscapes: Drivers, Enablers, and Lessons Learned

  • Mapping and profiling CGIAR R4D food systems work in Uganda

  • DREAMS Impact Evaluation: Uganda Endline 1 Initial Results - Pg 33

• DAI - Adapting for Impact: How Last-Mile Agribusiness Models Evolved to Serve Refugees and Host Communities in Uganda

• DeviDiscourse - Refugee Women Break Barriers Through Mechanics Training, Redefining Work and Opportunity in Uganda

• Future Business Journal - Prior business experience, entrepreneurial intentions, and intention implementation among refugees: an application of the theory of planned behavior

• GoU - CWG Harmonized Cash Approach Uganda 2024-2026

• Handbook on Business, Human Rights, and the Environment in Africa - Financial Inclusion and the Challenge of Refugee Self-Reliance in East Africa

• Monitor - Refugee women tasked on GROW funds as donor aid declines

• Nile Post - Vocational skilling transforms youth lives in refugee-hosting district

• SSRN - Climatic heterogeneity and constrained land access threaten the resilience of Uganda’s refugee agricultural self-reliance and integration model

• UNHCR - Uganda Cash Working Group 2023 MEB - Guidance Note

• UNSDG - Uganda’s Micro-Entrepreneurs Grow Their Agribusinesses

PROTECTION

• Current Opinion in Psychology - Understanding violence in refugee families: The need to consider social norms and attitudes: Social Norms and Violence in Refugee Families

• Makerere University - An investigation into the design of Children Reception Centres: a case study of the Naguru Reception Centre

• Population Council -

  • Experiences of childhood violence and violence perpetration and the association with inequitable gender norms and violence justification in humanitarian settings in Uganda

  • Screening for sexual violence against children in humanitarian settings: A feasibility study of a para-social worker-led intervention in Uganda

• Research Square - Exposure to violence in childhood is associated with risky sexual behaviors among youth: Findings from the Humanitarian Violence against Children and Youth Survey in Uganda

• WFP - (video) - WFP Uganda Social Cash Transfer for Elderly Refugees (SCTER) initiative

WASH

• Nature - Categorization of household drinking water and sanitation service levels and associated determinants in Uganda

• Water Mission - Northern Uganda: Light in Refugee Settlements 

Other:

• Armed Conflicts and Forced Displacements in the Anthropocene - Prosocial Attitudes in Forced Displacement: Evidence from Northern Uganda

• Business Cases - Beyond Borders: The Netherlands–Uganda Asylum Collaboration Strategy

• Center for Global Development - Refugees Bring Aid. Just Saying That Can Improve Social Cohesion

• East African - One million refugees at risk as Uganda emergency funds dwindle, services cut

• Flying Labs - Uganda Flying Labs Maps the Nakivale Refugee Settlement for Infrastructural Planning and Development

• Globe and Mail - Strangers in a strained land - Strife in Ugandan refugee camps, amplified by aid cuts, puts an African nation’s open-door ethos to the test

• GoU/UNHCR -

  • Overview of Refugees and Asylum-seekers (as of 31-Dec-2025)

  • Annex I - Active population by settlement 31-Dec-2025

  • Annex II - Map - Refugees and Asylum Seekers (31-Dec-2025)

  • Annex III - Settlement Profiles 31 Dec 2025

  • Annex VI - Refugee Statistics December 2025 - PSN Dashboard

  • Weekly Critical Indicator Tracking Matrix - 22 January 2025

  • Suicide Tracking Dashboard December 2025

• International Journal of Qualitative Methods - Problematizing Child-Led Participatory Research in Refugee Contexts: Reflections From a Photovoice Study in Uganda

• IoM - DTM Uganda Flow Monitoring Registry - Cross Border Movements, Report #5 (1 - 30 November 2025)

• Journal on Migration and Human Security -

  • Bridging the Implementation Gap: Refugee Governance and Institutional Coordination in Uganda’s Borderlands

  • Empowered to Stay? Ugandan Refugee Policy and Community Support in Shaping Women’s Choices

• Journal of Refugee Studies - Land for refugees: sharing and exchanging in Northern Uganda

• Monitor - Refugees hope for peaceful elections in Uganda

• The New Humanitarian - For Sudanese refugee women in Uganda, a cup of coffee and a space to speak - “I heard others telling their stories, and I felt they were similar to my own.”

• One Citizen Daily -

  • Refugees Appeal for Better Living Conditions as Uganda Marks Liberation Day

  • When Uganda is peaceful, refugees are safe- Thokbor

• The Telegraph -  ‘We couldn’t find her’: Mothers abandon their children in refugee camp

  Charities have blamed an explosion of practically orphaned children on the biggest global aid cuts in a generation

• UNHCR

  • Refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons in the IGAD region - 31 December 2025

  • Refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons in the EAC region - 31 December 2025

  • Conflict Mapping Dashboard December 2025

• Witness Radio - Evicted from their land to host Refugees: A case of Uganda’s Kyangwali refugee settlement expansion, which left host communities landless.

Events

Upcoming

• Baby Ubuntu in action: programme implementation in diverse settings - Virtual - Weds 11 Feb - 13-14:00 - This webinar will explore how three organisations are successfully implementing Baby Ubuntu. Real settings, Real Impact: - Sierra Leone: World Hope International's Enable the Children programme, Northern Uganda: Humanity & Inclusion's work in refugee and host communities, Nigeria: Early Child Development project at a major teaching hospital

Past (with recordings)

• Beam Exchange - BEAM Grab the Mic webinar - Beyond the last mile - MSD host and refugee markets in Uganda and Ethiopia