Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

The overall project goal is improved food security, livelihood opportunities and resilience of 15,000 vulnerable agro-pastoralists and their families in locust-affected areas of Karamoja.

The specific objectives are:

1. Improved food and nutrition security for a minimum of 10,500 vulnerable agro-pastoralists and their families by March 2022 (at least 60% of these will be women).

2. Increased access to emergency livelihood and economic opportunities for a minimum of 10,000 agro-pastoralists and their families by March 2022 (out of these 70% will be women and 30% men).

3. Strengthened institutional and technical capacities of both government and community-based disaster management structures in the 4 districts in Karamoja for the benefit of at least 15,000 agro-pastoralists and their families by March 2022.

Expected results

1.1. Out of the project’s total target group, 6,000 vulnerable agro-pastoralists (1,500 per district) have been strengthened in groups to become more resilient in terms of household food security (at least 60% of these will be women)

1.2. 10,500 vulnerable agro-pastoralists (6,000 above plus an additional 4,500 who are already organized into groups) and their families have increased production and access to nutrient-dense foods (at least 60% of these will be women).

1.3. 6,000 vulnerable agro-pastoralists and their families have adopted appropriate nutrition practices and beliefs. (At least 60% will be women).

1.4. 1000 extremely vulnerable agro-pastoralists targeted under this result are supported with emergency cash assistance for consumption (consumption support). (At least 60% of these will be women).

2.1. 10,000 vulnerable agro-pastoralists and their families have increased access to savings and inclusive microfinance services and products. (Out of these 70% will be women and 30% men).

2.2 Livelihood opportunities created to support recovery and self-reliance for 1,000 vulnerable females selected from this group. (Out of these 70% will be women and 30% men).

3.1. 12 disaster management structures (district and sub county) have increased capacity to plan, mitigate and respond to locust infestation and other disasters.

3.2 15,000 agro-pastoralists and their families have increased access to and adopt early warning early action information. (At least 60% will be women).

Target group / Beneficiaries

The implementing partner will be World Vision Uganda. 15,000 individuals will directly benefit from the proposed action. Additional 103,500 individuals being the family members of the direct beneficiary members will also benefit indirectly (the average household size in Karamoja is 7.9), bringing the number of direct plus indirect beneficiaries to 118,500 individuals. The activities will be implemented in Amudat, Moroto, Kotido and Abim districts in Karamoja sub Region.

Activities

• Conduct community mobilization and awareness and mapping.

• Build the capacity of groups (PWDs, women and men) on governance, group dynamics, savings (savings for transformation), production of biofortified and nutrient-dense food

• Procure and distribute early maturing crop planting materials (mainly orange-flesh sweet potato (OFSP) vines & cassava cuttings)

• Provide multipurpose unconditional and conditional cash assistance to the affected communities.

• Conduct community mapping and establishment of gender inclusive nutrition groups to support peer to peer learning and sharing on nutrition practices

• Conduct screening for malnutrition through growth monitoring and promotion

• Conducting food demonstration in the groups

• Engage communities to identify and prioritize community assets of broader relevance like valley dams, improving grazing land through cash for assets (CfA) interventions

• Facilitate life skills training for vulnerable households to support uptake of livelihood opportunities

• Train affected communities on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and support review as well as development of their community disaster preparedness plans.

• Support the District Disaster Management Committees (DDMC)/ Subcounty Disaster Management Committees (SDMCs) to conduct vulnerability assessment and mapping to support the development of Community Disaster Preparedness Plans (CDPPs).

• Train sub-county extension officers as ToTs (composed of people with disabilities, men, women) on disaster management standards & climate change adaptation strategies.

• Support disaster management committees in conducting locusts surveillance reporting at community and sub-county levels.

• Conduct training and dissemination of early warning and early action materials and methodologies which are gender sensitive and inclusive.

• Conduct community awareness and sensitization on locusts infestation and management

Context

Karamoja sub-region, in north-eastern Uganda, is the poorest, most marginalised and has the worst performance against humanitarian and development indicators of any region of the country. Communities in Karamoja currently face an adverse challenge of Locust infestation. Desert locust swarms entered Uganda mainly through Amudat District in early February 2020 and various swarms of locusts continue to move from Kenya into Uganda to date with the latest swarm sighted on 14th of August 2020 in Karamoja. According to FAO, 8,000 households (72,000 individuals) in Karamoja are already in need of livelihood and food security assistance because of the locust infestation. An increase in food-insecurity in the area is expected as Uganda continues to be at risk as long as there is significant locust activity in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. In complementarity to the response by the Government and the FAO, this project will provide a multi-faceted support to affected communities in 4 districts in Karamoja sub-region with special attention to vulnerable groups such as pregnant and lactating mothers, female-headed households and malnourished children, addressing both short and long term needs of the agro-pastoralists.