Summary of WFP assistance: Although food availability is not a major problem in Uganda, access and utilisation are inadequate in some parts. Stunting is high at 33 percent while underweight (14 percent) and wasting (5 percent) remain a concern. The Karamoja region is known for its chronic food insecurity, poor access to basic social services such as education and health, environmental degradation and recurrent droughts. A combination of these factors has undermined the capacity of households to meet their basic nutritional needs. The rate of wasting among children below 5 years in Karamoja is 7 percent and stunting at 45 percent. As on 25 May 2015, Uganda hosted approximately 466,400 refugees, the majority of whom arrived in the last two years.
The overall goal of the relief operation is to support the government in addressing protracted and acute food and nutrition insecurity among refugees and extremely vulnerable households in Karamoja. WFP's key activities under this programme include general food distribution, targeted supplementary feeding for moderately malnourished children below 5 years, pregnant and nursing women and blanket supplementary feeding for children aged 6-23 months. The operation directly contributes to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 1 and 4 and is in line with WFP's Strategic Objective 1, save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies. Support to refugees is in line with Uganda's refugee policy (2012) and the activities undertaken by the Government and UNHCR to promote self-reliance. Assistance to extremely vulnerable households in Karamoja is in line with the goals of the Karamoja Integrated Development Programme (KIDP) strategic framework. The KIDP calls for targeted transfers to protect the most vulnerable households in ways that facilitate their shift from relief to livelihood development. The Government has requested the humanitarian community's assistance in implementing programmes under the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda, which includes the KIDP.
The Country Programme (CP) targets two categories of people. The first consists of communities that have emerged from crises but are struggling to meet their food and nutrition needs and remain vulnerable to shocks. WFP’s key activities for them includes resilience-building, disaster risk reduction and mitigation, and initiatives aimed at addressing chronic hunger, including school meals and mother-and-child health and nutrition. The second category consists of individuals who can meet their basic food and nutrition needs but require increased incomes to become fully food secure. This targeted group consists of surplus producing smallholder farmer groups, mainly in eastern, northern, western parts of the country as these have limited access to markets. Activities under this component include construction and rehabilitation of market infrastructure, support to the warehouse receipts system, training in post-harvest management and the purchase of smallholder farmers' produce. The Programme is aligned to the Government’s Second Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF 2), the Nutrition Action Plan and the National Agriculture Policy. It directly contributes to MDGs 2 and 7 and addresses WFP’s Strategic Objectives 2, 3 and 4.