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European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides this morning affirmed strong #EU support and commitment to Uganda to deal with the world’s fastest growing #refugee crisis.

Addressing delegates at the ongoing Solidarity Summit on Refugees in Kampala, Uganda, hosted by the Government of Uganda and the United Nations, Commissioner Stylianides said: “Today, in agreement with the European Commissioner for Development Aid Neven Mimica and on behalf of the people of Europe, I am pleased to announce that the European Union steps up its support to the refugee response in Uganda with an amount of 85 million euro. With the additional separate announcements from the European Member States who are present here today, the overall help from the people of Europe amount to almost 210million euro.”

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WASHINGTON, June 20, 2017—The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a $40 million equivalent IDA credit* to the Republic of Uganda for the Strengthening Social Risk Management and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Prevention and Response Project.

The Government of Uganda recognizes GBV as a serious problem and approved a National Policy on the Elimination of GBV in October 2016.  This project, which was approved June 20, 2017, will support the implementation of the policy and will also help strengthen systems for managing social risk in development projects.

GBV is a serious problem across many continents and countries.  Acceptance of intimate partner violence, however, is particularly high in the Africa Region – on average around 30 percent, which is more than twice the average of the rest of the developing world at 14 percent.  “Rates of GBV in Uganda are high,” said Hon. Janat Mukwaya, Minister of Gender, Labor and Social Development. “With 62 percent of women and 59 percent of men aged 15-49 in Uganda having reported experiencing physical or sexual violence at least once since the age of 15.  This project aims to help address this disturbing trend.”

The World Bank Country Manager, Christina Malmberg Calvo added that, “Uganda has a number of tried and tested interventions that have shown to be effective in reducing the incidence of GBV through intensive behavior change communication. The project builds on these experiences to take them to scale. The project will also invest in strengthening the capacity of key front-line services to address the needs of survivors of GBV with a strong focus in the health sector.”

As part of this broader agenda on the overall management of social risk, the project aims to address the underlying causes of GBV by developing and expanding prevention programs and increasing response services for survivors of GBV in targeted districts.

Specifically, the project will focus on:

• promoting behavior change and strengthening referral mechanisms, and
• strengthening the responsiveness of front-line service providers to cases of GBV, and improving their ability to provide quality care.

*The International Development Association (IDA) provides concessional resources to Uganda, and this $40 million credit has a zero percentage interest rate, with a final maturity of 38 years, including a grace period of 6 years.

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Due to the precarious situation in South Sudan, many people are seeking refuge in Uganda. Austrian Development Agency (ADA)  helps them to gain access to clean water and sanitary facilities.

The governments of the Republic of Uganda and the Federal Republic of Germany signed one agreement on Technical and two agreements on Financial Cooperation with total project value of 114.6 m Euros on Tuesday 30th May 2017.

The governments were represented by the Minister of Finance, Hon. Matia Kasaija, and Ms. Petra Kochendörfer, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the Embassy of Germany.
Following the government negotiations end of 2016 these agreements re-confirm commitments for new programs in the focus areas Energy, Water and Rural Development. These sectors were identified as priorities for the Uganda-German Cooperation. Further initiatives to strengthen Governance and Civil Society were included. All bilateral programs are implemented by GIZ and KfW –the German Development Bank. All initiatives aim to support Uganda to achieve its national targets within the Agenda 2030.

The new cooperation programs in the area of rural development emphasize on realizing the potential of Uganda’s agricultural sector. The agricultural sector provides huge potential for promotion of employment and income generation as well as to increase food security in Uganda. The initiatives in the water sector will be refocused on activities on water resources management and water for production, which should on one hand address the growing pressure on the water resources through increased use of water for production and on the other hand effects of climate change.

In addition to the Technical and Financial Cooperation Agreements both governments have signed an agreement on a low-interest loan of up to 40 m Euros to the Republic of Uganda for the financing of the Gulu – Agago transmission line. The transmission line will help to improve electricity supply in northern Uganda considerably. The transmission line will evacuate power from three hydro power plants with a total capacity of 106 MW and will serve the growing demand in Northern Uganda.