A looming hunger crisis is taking hold among refugee populations in Uganda for the second time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, a confluence of two concurrent events – drastic reduction in food relief and a rapid surge in inflation – have brought South Sudanese, Congolese and other refugees living in Imvepi Refugee Settlement and other camps close to the brink of starvation.
Uganda Food Inflation
Inflation of food prices has been especially drastic. Citing data from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Trading Economics states: “Cost of food in Uganda increased 14.90 percent in July of 2022 over the same month in the previous year.”1 (See bar graph below.)
Source: Trading Economics | Uganda Bureau of Statistics
For families living on the margins, an increase of such magnitude can be an insurmountable barrier, forcing them to choose between food and other basic necessities. (See sidebar.)
At the same time, World Food Programme’s further reductions in food relief—which had already been reduced to 60 percent in February 20212—have gone into effect, leaving many of our beneficiaries and their families with little more than a week’s worth of food to last an entire month. (See sidebar.) World Food Programme states that “Settlements facing medium vulnerability had their rations maintained at 60 percent while the relatively less vulnerable settlements saw their rations reduced to 40 percent.”3
FROM THE FIELD: CAROLINE
Caroline feeding her children a simple meal
For many adolescent refugee girls in ChildVoice’s Imvepi programs, World Food Programme’s food relief has offered a vital lifeline to keep themselves and their children fed as they work to learn the skills they need to gain independence and support their families. But just when relief cutbacks were starting to make daily nutrition an increasingly difficult challenge, inflation has pushed the cost of food and basic supplies beyond the reach of those living on the margins – in Caroline’s case, forcing her to sell some of her relief rations in order to purchase such basics as cooking oil and soap.
“Nowadays, we only have one meal a day,” Caroline, a child mother from South Sudan, said. “The food we receive only lasts us for 10 days. You cannot believe how [the children] improved health-wise before the relief reduction. But now they are back to their old state.”
Suicide: A Collateral Crisis
Hunger is not the only issue stemming from food insecurity. The rates of suicide ideation and deaths among refugee populations in Uganda have been climbing. While comprehensive research on suicide among displaced populations is lacking4, according to UNCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, “The number of suicides and suicide attempts among South Sudanese refugees living in settlements in Uganda more than doubled in 2019 compared to the previous year.”5
Richard Kyitarinyeba, ChildVoice’s Uganda Country Director, confirms this is an ongoing issue that has only gotten worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is now exacerbated yet again by food relief cuts and ballooning inflation. “Refugees are not even getting enough for one week [out of the month] for a small family,” he recently told the ChildVoice Board of Directors in July. “Heads of families are committing suicide because they have nothing to eat.”
ChildVoice’s Proposed Action
While providing emergency food supplies will bring some immediate relief to those families in Imvepi who have been worst hit, of even greater importance is getting our students trained in agricultural best practices and providing them with the tools and supplies they need to start up and sustain their own farm operations. And with the planting season in northern Uganda fast approaching, it is absolutely critical that we start this process now, while students still have time to plant crops at the start of the September growing season.
Train in sustainable agriculture practices. ChildVoice will shift the immediate emphasis of our skill training at the Girl Empowerment Centers to agriculture during the next two months to ensure that our beneficiaries are trained in sustainable best practices, such as crop selection, soil preparation, planting and cultivation techniques, small scale irrigation, postharvest protocols, and marketing strategies to take advantage of the current growing season to mitigate against long term food insecurity.
Establish demonstration plots. While the best practices and skills will be taught at the centers, demonstration plots in the immediate vicinity of the centers will become the laboratory to practice those skills under the tutelage of our staff. The produce from these plots will be used for emergency relief and any remaining profits will be shared by the students.
Provide startup farming kits. Students who are heads of families will be provided with startup farming kits that will include seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides. A supply of tools will be maintained at each center to be loaned out to the students for use in their garden plots.
Supply emergency relief to the most vulnerable. Until the harvest of these crops, the staff will continue to monitor our beneficiary’s food security and health status and will have emergency food available for distribution when needed.
Click here to help young South Sudanese mothers and other displaced young people we serve in Ugnada and Nigeria get the food relief and training they need.
Sources
1. Uganda inflation rate july 2022 data - 1998-2021 historical - August forecast. Uganda Inflation Rate - July 2022 Data - 1998-2021 Historical - August Forecast. (n.d.). Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://tradingeconomics.com/uganda/inflation-cpi#:~:text=Inflation%20Rate%20in%20Uganda%20is,according%20to%20our%20econometric%20models.
2. WFP cuts refugees' food rations in Uganda as funding declines: World Food Programme. UN World Food Programme. (n.d.). Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-cuts-refugees-food-rations-uganda-funding-declines
3. European Union provides additional support for refugees in Uganda: World Food Programme. UN World Food Programme. (n.d.). Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://www.wfp.org/news/european-union-provides-additional-support-refugees-uganda
4. Cogo, E., Murray, M., Villanueva, G., Hamel, C., Garner, P., Senior, S. L., & Henschke, N. (n.d.). Suicide rates and suicidal behaviour in displaced people: A systematic review. PLOS ONE. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0263797
5. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (n.d.). Suicides on the rise among South Sudanese refugees in Uganda. UNHCR. Retrieved August 9, 2022, from https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/stories/2020/1/5e2afb5b4/suicides-rise-among-south-sudanese-refugees-uganda.html