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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Swedish government has unveiled a 60 billion Shillings humanitarian peace development project for refugees in Kyangwali settlement area and the host communities in Kikuube district.
The project dubbed “Mutual Inter-Related Resilience programme”-MIRP is a collaboration between four Organizations; Act of Sweden, the Lutheran World Federation, Norwegian Refugee Council and Action Against Hunger from the United States. the project will be implemented over the next four years.
Ola Hallgren, the head of Development Cooperation at the Embassy of Sweden says the support provided by the Swedish government and the Consortium of the implementing partners will strengthen the resilience of both the refugees and host communities adding that the current project has a deliberate and a strong focus on durable solutions and will thus complement the humanitarian support.
According to Hallgren, the Project components include improved well being of the daily lives of refugees and host communities, improved water and sanitation, gender justice and sexual reproductive health rights and improving the protection of environment both within Kyangwali refugee settlement and the surrounding area by supporting access to alternative sources of energy and increased protection of environment.
He was speaking at the project at Kikuube district headquarters, on Wednesday afternoon.
Hallgren further called for transparency and accountability among the implementing partners and Kikuube district leaders while implementing the project to ensure that the project scores the desired goal it was set to achieve.
Dr Ulrika Blom, the Country director Norwegian refugee Council commended Uganda for its open-door policy to refugees fleeing conflicts from different countries. She says the launched project will help increase capacity of both the refugees and host communities to co-exist and enhance their household incomes.
Jesse Kamstra, the Country Representative Lutheran World Federation Department for World service challenged the implementing partners to effectively deliver appropriate service to both the refugees and the host communities.
Emmanuel Mporanzi, the chairperson Kyangwali refugee settlement area says the project has come at a time when refugees are enduring a number of challenges citing overcrowding in classes, lack of enough water supply, overcrowding in the camp among others.
Moses Kaplon, the Kikuube Chief Administrative officer-CAO tasked the implementing partners to choose projects that are critical and vital to the refugees and the host communities to change their livelihood.
Francis Kazini, the LCV chairperson expressed the district’s commitment to working and supporting the implementing partners in the district.
Kyangwali refugee settlement area currently hosts 147,000 refugees mainly from the DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan.
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