Uganda

Oxfam works closely with a wide range of partners in Uganda to fight inequality. We support people in Uganda with humanitarian aid to survive immediate crises in the short term, and address the root causes of poverty and injustice over the long term.

Advocating for women’s rights

Basic rights for women and gender justice are central to reducing inequality and poverty. Oxfam and our partners are working to change the social norms that allow violence against women and girls. Together, we are supporting movements and networks seeking to bring justice to survivors, and hold government responsible for meeting its commitments to women’s rights. We work to help people understand the disproportionate burden on women to care for their families, and encourage changes in people’s attitudes and behaviors. Oxfam’s “Stand Up” project is bringing more information to people about sexual and reproductive health, and encouraging health systems to deliver comprehensive, rights-based sexual and reproductive health care.

To help more women farmers secure improved access and ownership of land, Oxfam and our partners helped 1,200 women acquire certificates of customary land ownership in 2020-2021.

Building resilient livelihoods

To support vulnerable farmers in Uganda and their efforts to grow more food, increase their income, and better cope with climate change, Oxfam and our partners are assisting women, youth, and other farmers to protect their land rights and secure seeds and other agricultural inputs. We provide training, and campaign for better policies that help agricultural communities reduce their risks to climate change. Oxfam’s Sowing Diversity = Harvesting Security program supports farmers to access affordable certified seeds so they can grow more and better food in a changing climate, and learn to grow new and different varieties of crops to improve their resilience to changing weather patterns.

Promoting better governance and accountability

Oxfam in Uganda is committed to reducing inequality. Without equality in opportunities and access to resources, any economic growth in Uganda will only be enjoyed by a few people. To reduce inequality and poverty, Oxfam and our partners support more citizens (particularly women, and others in the most impoverished areas) to participate in important decisions about policies that affect them and their communities. We facilitate platforms such as neighborhood assemblies where citizens come together to discuss issues and explore ways they can find solutions and hold their political leaders accountable. Citizens are also mobilized to participate in campaigns for fair tax policies, to ensure that their voice is heard. We work with partners to mobilize citizens to end corruption, and support public campaigns to ensure revenues derived from taxes, debt financing, foreign aid, and the extraction of natural resources such as gas and oil are used to increase investment in public services such as health, quality education, and safe water.

Supporting locally led humanitarian leadership

Local and national organizations are the first responders when crisis hits and know the local context better than large international humanitarian organizations like Oxfam -- yet they only receive a tiny fraction of international aid. As part of its work to promote the shift of power and resources to local and national humanitarian actors, Oxfam is supporting training and other measures to improve the ability of humanitarian groups in Uganda to reduce the risks of, and provide assistance during humanitarian emergencies.

Oxfam is working to change humanitarian assistance in Uganda, most recently through a five-year initiative (starting in 2016) called Empowering Local and National Humanitarian Actors (ELNHA). As part of ELNHA, Oxfam’s partners developed contingency and joint action plans. ELNHA created a humanitarian response grant fund that provides flexible funds so humanitarian groups can conduct needs assessments and carry out planning, monitoring, and evaluation work. ELNHA also promoted the formation of refugee- and women-led platforms that can support joint advocacy.

Following the outbreak of COVID-19, the ELNHA provided funds that helped ELNHA members PALM CORP, I CAN, and the Youth Social Action Team (YSAT) to address misinformation about the epidemic in refugee camps hosting more than half a million people. The Youth Social Action Team, a youth- and refugee-led organization in northern Uganda, also led dialogues to reduce conflict between ethnic groups in refugee camps. The ELNHA also promoted the use of cash as the most efficient type of humanitarian assistance, allowing humanitarian groups to design and implement cash transfer projects and then assess how the aid was used. Seventeen of the 26 humanitarian groups in the ELNHA network received funds through the humanitarian response grant system set up by ELNHA.