The United States has awarded $800,000 (approximately three billion shillings) in grants to private companies and community-based organizations working in refugee settlements and host communities in Isingiro and Lamwo districts.
The grants will be implemented by the United States Agency for International Development’s Uthabiti Activity to improve refugee and host communities’ livelihoods, create job opportunities, improve access to financial services and provide tools to foster refugee self-reliance.
In a competitive grant process, 11 private sector partners and 47 community-based organizations with the greatest potential to stimulate ongoing business expansion and job creation through small-scale and medium enterprises in the two refugee settlements were identified. Grants to the 11 selected private sector actors will increase access to finance, irrigation, transport, seed production, horticulture production, honey production, and grain produce aggregation in Nakivale and Palabek refugee settlements.
The 47 selected community-based groups will receive equipment and machinery and target refugee-led businesses, Village Savings and Loan Associations groups, local artisans, farmer cooperatives, and enterprises. The equipment and machinery will expand food catering, honey processing, clothes tailoring, grain milling, oil pressing, horticulture production, and other enterprises that create jobs and generate household incomes.
This public-private cooperation will reduce the financial risks of business expansion, support the growth of local businesses, and accelerate private sector engagement of refugees and host communities as entrepreneurs, customers, clients, and employees.
Since 2022, the USAID Uthabiti activity has impacted over 26,000 people and supported over 3,500 people, including 2,190 refugees, in starting new livelihood activities, and helped over 1,000 micro and small enterprises to enhance their businesses.
U.S. Ambassador William W. Popp said, “These grants help refugees in Uganda to fully participate in the formal economy by accessing life-changing business and job creation opportunities. This supports their path to self-reliance, with the goal of ending dependence on aid.”
He added, “The United States’ humanitarian funding is designed to benefit both refugees and the Ugandan communities hosting them. All of our programs include support for the surrounding Ugandan communities, ensuring local input and generating economic opportunity for both refugees and Ugandans.”
The funding comes in addition to the tens of millions of dollars the United States has already provided to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Program (WFP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and other NGOs each year. The United States provides approximately half of all humanitarian funding in Uganda and is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance in Uganda.
