Uganda – Shelter Field Assessment; DRC population movement (2018)

The URCS (with IFRC assistance) needs support to help thousands of vulnerable refugees who have fled violence in DRC and are now living in camps located South East Albert Lake. Ethnic violence’s have forced thousands of people to seek safety in neighboring Uganda since December 2017. The challenges are diverse and multi-sectorial, the URCS and IFRC must ensure that the new arrivals receive health services alongside water, sanitation, and hygiene promotion and that the most vulnerable people are provided for through gender, protection, and inclusion activities. Definitively the shelter component has to be part of this intervention providing not only protection from the elements; but also giving the sense to find back a closed and private covered space where people can feel safe again with their few belongings taken away in the hurry.

Particular attention has to be dedicated to the people with special needs (PSN) who are part of mainly recomposed families with numerous numbers and by consequence become even more vulnerable by this situation. An assessment establishing a better understanding is ongoing for the time being and the Authorities guide this evaluation. Unfortunately, it has been impossible to obtain any trends or figures neither the criteria list on which the study is based.

The situation until early March has been extremely complex with a daily entry rate of thousands of people when at the same time the reception centers and the camps were facing a cholera outbreak.

The previsions regarding the situation don’t predict stability and are even foreseeing new troubles with new arrivals which will drastically increase the needs requiring additional resources.

In parallel, shelter, in general, is becoming a fundamental issue with poor living and working conditions for first the refugees themselves and second for the Red-Cross infrastructures with its volunteers.

In parallel, the report is organized by thematic to allow an easy reading offering the possibility of picking up elements or parts to be able to develop separate activities keeping general coherence within the intervention.

Special attention has to be given to the hosting communities settled around the camps who are sharing their lands and resources when often (almost representing 70% of the population) the daily incomes are less than 1 USD to support a whole family.

The same philosophy and approach involving the local knowledge and skills must be applied with regard to the habits and uses to guarantee the full success of the intervention.

The underlying idea is to further strengthen community relations.

In February 2018, UNHCR Program Support and Management Division (Andrew Harper) reports a clear shelter need saying that the situation is quite dire with a lack of water, food, medical equipment, and shelter. UNHCR’s main objectives are to register arrivals, relocate them to areas allocated by the Ugandan government, and to build infrastructure such as shelters.

To read the full report, please consult the following document: