UGANDA

Uganda has been hosting refugees in East Africa since the 1940s. The number of refugees and asylum seekers increased dramatically beginning around 2016, when hundreds of thousands of people, mostly from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, fled their countries due to political and social economic instability.

Uganda remains one of the largest refugee host countries in the world

The number of refugees has been on the rise since the autumn of 2023 and peaked at 1,791,339 million in February of 2025. Refugees make up nearly 4% of the Ugandan population.

Uganda has for many years been the primary destination of refugees fleeing conflicts and crises in Uganda’s neighbouring countries due to Uganda’s open door policy which however has been under revision since 2025 and the international funding crises. Most of the refugees have arrived from South Sudan (around 54 %), Democratic Republic of Congo (32 %) and Sudan (4 %). South Sudanese refugees live in Adjumani, Palabek, Kiryandongo, and other West Nile settlements, while Congolese refugees live in Kyangwali, Kyaka II, and Nakivale.

(Source: UNHCR)

From fragile conditions to a new environment

Women, children, and youth make up nearly 80% of the refugees who have lost their livelihoods, including education, due to the ongoing conflicts. These people rarely know English, Uganda’s official language. Refugees struggle to communicate and manage their daily lives. Without a local language and social safety nets, women and children in foreign countries are vulnerable to exploitation and often struggle to make a living due to a lack of education and a language barrier that prevents them from using their skills.

Uganda’s refugee policy was long regarded as exceptional but has in recent years seen more restrictions for example to food distributions and restricting asylum for certain nationalities. Refugees are given the same rights and universal access to basic services as Ugandans, with the exception of the right to vote. Refugees have the freedom to move and the right to live outside of designated refugee settlements, though this may entail foregoing some of the benefits that they would receive if they lived in designated refugee settlements. Refugees have easy access to education and healthcare. They are also permitted to work and establish businesses, but they are not permitted to own land. Upon arrival in the country, all refugees living in the settlements are given a small plot of land on which to build a house and grow vegetables on a small scale, such as in backyard gardens.

However, with the increasing number of refugees arriving in Uganda, plot sizes have progressively decreased, making it extremely difficult to access land to grow food. The Prime Minister’s Office, in collaboration with UNHCR, and with the support of local leaders, continues to lobby host communities to provide more land for refugees to settle and grow food. However, due to increasing pressure on the land, all refugee hosting communities have seen increased depletion of the natural environment and competition for available resources and services, resulting in deterioration of inter-group relations. FRC purposefully ensures that all its programmes offer services to both refugees and host communities for this reason, as well as many other factors aimed at maintaining good relations between refugees and host communities.

Finnish Refugee Council’s activities in Uganda

FRC has been operating in Uganda since 1997, and currently supports refugees in 6 different settlements in the country’s northern, western, and southwestern regions. The Finnish Refugee Council is the only international organisation in Uganda that offers specialised adult education programmes for refugees. One of the advantages of adult education is that when adult learners recognise the value of literacy, language, and other life skills, it is easier for them to understand the need and support the education of the rest of their family members.

FRC has a working agreement with the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), the Ugandan Government body in charge of refugee matters, and has been an operational partner to UNHCR since 1998. The FRC programme contributes to the Uganda National Action Plan for the Implementation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) and the UNHCR Uganda Protection and Durable Solutions Strategy (PDSS) by increasing the self-reliance and resilience of refugees and host communities.

FRC-supported and implemented trainings equip refugees with the tools and skills they need to manage their own lives, reclaim their personal agency, and increase their income levels. Locals are also given FRC training to foster peaceful coexistence between refugees and host communities.

In all its projects, the Finnish Refugee Council is dedicated to advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Read more about the SDG’s that guide our work and activities.

FRC’s operations in Uganda can be divided into three categories:

1. Informal and Adult Education (literacy, language, financial literacy, VSLA, digital literacy, life skills)

FRC aims to help refugees and host communities in Uganda live with dignity and peace. Many people are forced to leave their homes due to conflict, violence, discrimination, poverty, and climate change. The goal is to support them in building a secure future where they can contribute to their new communities. Through adult education, FRC helps refugees and host community members, including people with disabilities, become more self-reliant. It offers two learning programs: functional adult literacy, language courses, and financial literacy skills training. The literacy program teaches numeracy, financial, and digital skills. Language courses help refugees and locals communicate better, mainly focusing on English.

2. Livelihood and income generation through business skills training and climate and environmental actions

FRC aims to improve the capacity and knowledge of refugees and host communities to improve their economic opportunities while combating climate change; community members are organized into groups based on common interests and given various skills ranging from modern farming agricultural skills to environmental conversation and income generation for both on and off farm enterprises. The trainings emphasise the use of improved and easily replicable technologies to grow sufficient food in changing climate conditions for household consumption as well as for sale to supplement other household needs. Business training gives refugees basic economic skills for enhanced income situation.

3. Protection and social cohesion

FRC helps targeted refugee and host communities by strengthening access to justice, mental health and psychosocial support, and gender-based violence prevention to foster safe and cohesive communities. FRC provides capacity building trainings to community leaders on a variety of topics addressing civic empowerment, after which they assist community structures in delivering peace building, peaceful coexistence, and social cohesion interventions. Capacity training will also be provided to local civil society and community-based organizations to support their operations in the target communities.

Project summaries

Inclusion, Capacities and Resilience Enhanced for the Forcibly displaced People in refugee settlements in Uganda

The project goal is to ensure that young people and adults—including persons with disabilities—who are members of refugee or host communities are able to improve their self-sufficiency, food security, and resilience through adult literacy, business training, climate smart agriculture, and saving and loans groups. In addition, the project promotes peaceful coexistence between different groups in refugee hosting areas and supports the functioning of the local civil society.

The project provides functional adult literacy education in various local languages as well as in English. The functional adult literacy courses are delivered by volunteer refugees and Ugandans trained by the Finnish Refugee Council. The project also supports micro entrepreneurs in business development, as well as common interest or livelihood groups in climatesmart agriculture, financial management, and business financing—for example through savings and loan groups.

The project improves the knowledge of refugees and host communities about their rights and responsibilities. It engages local community leaders at the grassroots level by strengthening their capacities and knowledge of leadership and societal issues such as human rights, democracy, law and administration, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution. Community leaders are also trained to provide information on gender-based violence, its prevention, and available psychosocial support services. In addition, community-based groups are supported through various project management related trainings.

The project is implemented in the areas of Kyaka, Nakivale, Oruchinga, Kyangwali, Palabek, and Adjumani.

Duration: 4 years
Start date: January 2026
Budget: 3 178 000 €
Type/sector: Basic life skills for youth and adults, democratic participation and civil society, human rights, ending violence against women and girls, conflict prevention and resolution, peace and security, environmental education/training, small and medium-sized enterprises development
Donor: Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Self-reliance project

The project’s objectives are to enhance access to sae, adequate and nutritious food and improve the nutrition an health of vulnerable and crises affected people as well to enhance self-reliance through digital literacy training, social empowerment and climate smart agricultural training in Kyangwali and Nakivale area. Under the project FRC provides digital financial inclusion training and supports linkages of target community members to financial service providers, supports the digitalization of Village Saving and Loan Associations and promotes off-farm climate smart agricultural enterprises and practices. The project is managed by Hunger Fighters Uganda and implemented jointly with Medical Teams International.

Duration: 3 years
Start date: January 2026
Budget: 427 780 €
Type/sector: Small and medium-sized enterprises development
Donor: World Food Programme

Contact:

frcugandaadmin@refugeecouncil.fi

+256 0393 266 642

Plot 8284 Tomusange Close, Muyenga

P. O. Box 24526 Kampala

Country Director Tarja Saarela-Kaonga

tarja.saarela-kaonga (at) refugeecouncil.fi