This archive report was first published on 10 August 2019.
Uganda is facing a significant challenge in caring for its 1.5 million refugees, with the country's resources under immense strain. The situation has been exacerbated by the failure of the international community to honour financial pledges made to Uganda during a Solidarity Summit on Refugees in June 2017.
President Yoweri Museveni and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres hosted the summit in Kampala to raise money to support the high number of refugees from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. The conference aimed to raise at least $2 billion, but only managed to secure $358 million in pledges from countries including the European Union, United Arab Emirates, Gabon, Kenya, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Netherlands, and Somalia.
However, some countries like Germany, the UK, and Japan have withheld direct funding towards Uganda's refugee programme due to the government's failure to respond to a corruption scandal in February last year, in which refugee numbers were inflated by over 300,000.
Uganda's Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, revealed that the country has only realized $540,000 of the total pledges made during the summit. The Office of the Prime Minister, which handles refugee affairs, has expressed concerns over funding gaps in health, education, water, and security in refugee settlements and host communities.
There are fears that the continued strain on the country's resources will breed conflict between host communities and the refugees. 'Settling of refugees comes at a cost to our people because there is a lot of pressure on the local population to share facilities,' Ms Kadaga said.
Uganda hosts about 1.25 million refugees and asylum seekers, the majority of whom are from South Sudan. The country has a projected budget of $1.03 billion for its refugee emergency plan for this year, but only $200 million is available.
