Since the outbreak of civil war in South Sudan in 2013, Uganda has been experiencing increasing numbers of refugees in districts across West Nile, Northern Uganda. According to UNHCR, the registered number of refugees from South Sudan since 1 January 2016 has reached 522,979 (86% women and children), accounting for over half of the one million refugees Uganda is hosting. In light of the deteriorating security situation in South Sudan, further influx of refugees to Uganda is expected. Bidibidi settlement, Yumbe districts was opened in August 2016 to reduce the strain on Adjumani settlements. Bidibidi has now reached its maximum capacity, hosting more than 272,000 refugees. The Government is now settling refugees in Palorinya settlement, Moyo district, with plans to open additional settlements.   

Due to the protracted nature of the crisis in South Sudan, there is a need for a shift in the traditional ‘care and maintenance’ approach to one that enables both refugees and their host communities to build resilience and improve self-reliance. Moreover, the South Sudanese influx presents increasing social, economic and environmental pressures on host communities that, unless addressed through innovative and targeted support, could result in conflict and instability thereby undermining Uganda’s international-recognized refugee hosting model.

In response, the UNDP Emergency Response and Resilience Strategy for Refugees and Host Communities project, based on the Refugee and Host Population Empowerment (ReHoPE) framework and in line with Uganda’s second National Development Plan and related Settlement Transformation Agenda, seeks to strengthen the resilience of refugees, host community members, district local government and relevant national institutions to cope with and recover from the impact of the large influx of South Sudanese refugees. The aim is to provide emergency support, while investing in existing national and local systems to ensure they can adequately serve both host and refugee communities. Specifically, the project focuses on: emergency livelihoods and economic recovery: disaster risk and climate change sensitive jobs and livelihoods for refugees and host communities, focusing on women and youth (including cash for work, small grants, vocational and business skills training and value chain development); protection: legal aid, access to justice and psycho-social support for survivors of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV); and strengthen core government functions: strengthening of relevant national and local level government capacity to cope with and respond to influx of the refugees and to ensure a resilience based development approach is mainstream across the overall response from the start.

Component 1 of the project, ‘emergency livelihoods and economic recovery’, provides cash for work, specifically focused on women and youth, targeting 70% refugees and 30% host communities, in line the Government of Uganda’s directive ensuring that 30% of assistance services, where appropriate and feasible, benefit the host community, which in turn sustains and expands the asylum space.

In order to implement the above mentioned project intervention in Palorinya settlement, Moyo district, UNDP Uganda would like to procure a competent a Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), firms and institutions.