Resilience analysis in Karamoja, Uganda

Karamoja region in northeast Uganda was historically a pastoral area. Cultivation of crops, which is less reliable than pastoralism, recently emerged as an additional source of household food and income in some areas. Few households are self-sufficient in terms of food; most rely on bartering for much of their staple food. The region suffers from environmental degradation, poor infrastructure, limited social services and marketing opportunities, and a long-standing dependency on external aid. In recent years, the region has experienced recurrent droughts and sporadic floods, which may erode local people’s resilience and coping capacities. Therefore, a better understanding was needed about livelihood strategies and building resilience in Karamoja.

In 2015, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) jointly developed a resilience strategy for Karamoja as a focus for their collaboration to improve the food security and nutrition status in the region. The report Resilience analysis in Karamoja (2018, 56pp) is a first step by the three UN organisations toward measuring resilience at household level systematically. The analysis was conducted by the Resilience Measurement Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda with technical support from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development’s Resilience Analysis Unit (IGAD/RAU).

Key findings from the study can be found in the 2-page policy brief “Building resilience of livelihoods in Karamoja, Uganda” (2018).

Posted on 1 August 2018 in Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition