Joint Multi-Sector Needs Assessment: Identifying Humanitarian Needs Among Refugee and Host Community Populations in Uganda

As a relatively stable country in a volatile region, Uganda has opened its borders to become one of the countries hosting the most refugees in the world. Civil war in neighbouring South Sudan, insecurity in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and political unrest in Burundi have contributed to the most recent waves of refugee influxes in the past few years. However, Uganda has had a history of welcoming refugees for decades. Nearly 500,000 South Sudanese refugees fled to Uganda after the outbreak of violence in Juba in July 2016, and more than 86,000 Congolese refugees have arrived in the country since fighting escalated in eastern DRC in December 2017. Following a contentious presidential election in Burundi in July 2015, around 40,000 refugees settled in Uganda. These newer refugee populations join refugee communities from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Sudan, and elsewhere already settled in the country, bringing the total number of refugees in Uganda to an estimated 1.4 million people.

In Uganda, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) requested REACH to facilitate a JMSNA, with support from the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, with the objective of establishing a comprehensive evidence-base of multi-sectoral needs among refugee and host community populations across all existing refugee settlements nationwide (30) and the districts hosting these settlements. The report also incorporates findings on needs among refugee and host community populations living in vulnerable urban neighbourhoods of Kampala.