Recruit Residents, Onek tells UN Agencies and Partners

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | It makes no sense for the United Nations and its humanitarian partners not to recruit locals in refugee hosting districts, especially for jobs which do not require higher skills.

This is the position of Hillary Onek, the Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, on the persistent complaints by refugee hosting communities that they are being discriminated against when it comes to employment.

The UN System, in its humanitarian response, works with over 50 partners, but sadly most of them bring workers from other parts of the country and from abroad, even for jobs where locals have skills and knowledge.

Some of the complaints are that ordinary jobs like cooking, cleaning, washing, guarding, driving, teaching and nursing go to outsiders.

Another accusation is that the recruitment process is froth with nepotism, tribalism and regionalism, at the expense of the host communities who are sacrificing a lot for the humanitarian cause.

As a consequence, there have been threats and violent attacks on a number of humanitarian agencies and their staff by locals, especially in West Nile refugee hosting communities.

According to Onek, one of the benefits for the local people is getting jobs especially for work that does not require specialized skills which may not be readily available.

Onek says it makes no sense to ferry workers from far afield for jobs with abundant local labourforce, noting that that explains why there is animosity and violence.

The minister challenged the UN Resident Coordinator, Rosa Malango, to put her foot down and compel the UN agencies and partner organisations to ring-fence some jobs for the host communities.

Onek also urged the host communities not to think that they are entitled to all jobs, adding that there are some skills sets that are not on the ground and have to be sourced from elsewhere.

In her response, Malango said the UN uses a competency-based assessment to recruit staff. Malango said of the 2,000 in the UN System in Uganda, 60 percent are Ugandans, and that all heads of sub-offices are also Ugandan.

She said they will continue to work with and create opportunities for the host communities.

The new Representative of UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Joel Boutroue, said in some cases the jobs needs internationals for what he termed as “firewalling”.

Boutroue added that as they undertake the humanitarian activities, they need as much as possible to also, as he put it, “take workers from the ground”.