OUR REPORTER
KAMPALA – This year, the most vulnerable refugees and new arrivals will receive the highest recommended food rations, while the least vulnerable and self-reliant households will be weaned off the monthly General Food Assistance, the office of the Prime Minister, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and UNHCR said in a statement recently.
According to the statement, WFP will implement a progressive shift to needs-based targeting of general food assistance for refugees in Uganda in 2023. This comes on the coattails of an endorsement of the approach at the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) Steering Group meeting held on December 13, 2022.
This approach marks Phase III of the prioritization exercise, which started in 2021 in response to funding shortfalls for General Food Assistance.
“The basic tenet of this phase is to ensure that the most vulnerable refugees and new arrivals receive the highest recommended rations, while weaning the least vulnerable and self-reliant households off the monthly General Food Assistance,” the statement said.
At the heart of this shift is the need for refocusing on resilience and livelihood-strengthening activities that support a broader transition to self-reliance in refugee settlements, WFP said. Refugees are important actors in Uganda’s socioeconomic development and, when supported to become self-reliant, they can meaningfully participate in and contribute to the country’s economic growth, WFP said.
The new needs-based approach to food assistance is the result of extensive consultations between WFP, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).
It will draw extensively from and be informed by the data from UNHCR’s 2022 Individual Profiling Exercise in defining refugee vulnerability. Prioritization is not the same as rationing. Prioritization, in fact, is a method of mitigating the impact of limited funding on the most vulnerable by identifying them and ringfencing or protecting them from ration cuts, according to the statement.
Giving rations according to levels of need ensures that blanket ration cuts do not disproportionately affect the most vulnerable refugees while supporting the less vulnerable refugees to stand on their own. WFP will continue to engage all key stakeholders, including refugees and nongovernmental organizations working in refugee settlements, with a view to ensuring a smooth, phased implementation of this approach, which is slated to commence during the first quarter of 2023, WFP said.
The first step will entail the identification of the least vulnerable households that have attained self-reliance and supporting their initiatives while shifting them off general food assistance.
“This approach allows us to optimize the available scarce resources in the most efficient and effective manner, and to bring even greater quality to our programmes in support of refugee self-reliance. While the most vulnerable households will receive the highest ration feasible, WFP will continue to assist moderately vulnerable families while working in close collaboration with cooperating partners to link refugees to livelihood activities with a view to enhancing their self-reliance.”
At all stages, WFP, UNHCR, and OPM have taken a risk-informed approach to elaborate the principles underpinning Phase III, which will be further informed by continued discussions with partners. WFP currently provides monthly assistance in the form of food and/or cash to an estimated 1.4 million refugees in 13 settlements across Uganda.
“The basic tenet of this phase is to ensure that the most vulnerable refugees and new arrivals receive the highest recommended rations, while weaning the least vulnerable and self-reliant households off the monthly General Food Assistance,” WFP said.