Uganda Learning brief

Putting community groups in the lead in Palabek settlement in Uganda Learning Brief: ZOA Uganda’s Group Cash Transfer Approach

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The context Uganda is home to the most refugees in Africa. Palabek settlement in Acholi region is the newest settlement, hosting approximately 83,000 persons of concern, 86% of whom are women and children. Households receive a 30x30m plot of land to re-start their lives. Refugees and the host community depend on small-scale farming and income from casual labor for their daily needs. 98% of refugee households report not having enough food and resorting to negative coping mechanisms¹. 43% of refugee households report having a person with an impairment in their household². Local conflicts are on the rise over access to land and firewood.

The problem

Food ration prioritization is resulting in acute food insecurity as well as protection concerns. With most refugees remaining in Palabek for six years or more, the situation of protracted displacement needs a refreshed approach to the delivery of humanitarian aid. The refugee population is highly dependent on aid, and as a result are struggling to achieve self-reliance. To break through this dependency, it is essential that responders focus on a localized and refugee-led response.

The solution

ZOA and THRIVE Gulu piloted Group Cash Transfers in close coordination with local leaders and development partners. Through this approach communities are in the driving seat of their own recovery process. Besides the participatory and inclusive support to develop local plans, decision making power and resources are shifted into the hands of the groups. Local agency and ownership are essential building blocks towards achieving resilience and to break the recurrent cycle of humanitarian needs in Palabek. ZOA’s Group Cash Transfer approach makes use of small cash grants to turn the refugee response from top down to bottom up, directly empowering communities to lead.

“No project has given this kind of support, belonging to a group has raised my hope, increased my strength and treated my emotional issues” - Local Leader

The ZOA Uganda approach

The Group Cash Transfer (GCT) approach, developed by CALP Network and DCA, was contextualized to Palabek settlement. For this pilot, ZOA collaborated with a local partner, THRIVE Gulu, who led the activities. Over a period of six months, 688 households were reached through 25 pre-existing groups in Zone 7 and neighboring host communities by five local facilitators, three of whom were refugees. THRIVE Gulu and ZOA first sensitized stakeholders and the local community on the GCT approach. Community groups were invited to submit a basic group plan for funding.

The groups could select any activity with no prescribed objectives or outcomes. Strict eligibility criteria were used, including: the group should have been in existence for at least two years, group size should not be more than 30 members and have a diverse composition, the group should be registered and have a bank account. Over 90 existing groups showed interest in the opportunity within Zone 7 of the settlement alone. The best 25 plans were selected by a local committee including the local government, local technical experts and the community themselves. Given food insecurity

OA and THRIVE Gulu Rapid Needs Assessment, September Z 2023 2 Ibid.

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We are here.

planning and empowerment from participation in the joint monitoring exercises.

“We are now having easy access to loans from our group which has boosted our farming activities and small businesses. We can now buy our own food” - Refugee Group Leader

GCTs promote peaceful co-existence

is the most urgent need in the settlement, all groups selected income generating activities through engaging in small-scale businesses.

Groups were informed as to whether they were selected or rejected with explanation provided.

After verification and signature of a simple transfer agreement, all groups received one transfer of between UGX 6-7,000,000 (EUR 1,500-1,700) and implemented their plans.

Local facilitators play an important role in technical backstopping, training, monitoring of progress and linkage of different groups for learning and networking purposes. Peer monitoring, joint stakeholder monitoring and outcome harvesting were critical components of the accountability approach.

Impact Communities increased their self-reliance Group members reported increased income as a result of the funded plans arising from employment opportunities, sales, and increased saving and borrowing within their VSLA groups.

The funded plans brought goods and services (markets) closer to the community, relieving households of the burden of long travel distances and costs. For example, silver fish and grinding mill services are now available within Zone 7. The groups earned additional income from a wide variety of different businesses, from different types of farming business to the offering of public address system services.

Further, groups reported enhanced capacities in financial literacy, business skills, household

Group members report they received improved life skills whereby they can freely share and discuss pressing individual issues with each other. This results in improved social cohesion and healing from traumatic experiences arising from various stressors and cases of mental health. Continuous and collective engagement of both refugees and host community members in project activities driven by a sense of empowerment resulted in a feeling of hope, sense of belonging, strength and emotional stability. The group work also contributed to the peaceful co-existence between refugees, host, other community members where people are having more harmonious relationships than before.

Refugee and host communities jointly work together during project activities. Because of this joint group work, groups indicate that conflicts related to the collection of firewood reduced significantly.

“In the past we had issues with firewood but now, because we collaborate with the host community, we are able to safely access firewood because we work together.”

- Group member, Zone 7

Locally led is more durable

Groups indicated that they used their own or another group’s expertise, knowledge and skills to contribute towards their plan. Most groups focused on agricultural practice, which is their main area of expertise. Creative solutions were found to problems, like the marketing of the group’s services and products in schools and at waterpoints. Peer-topeer learning between different groups contributed to the sharing of knowledge and skills. One group provided the example of knowledge sharing in effective chicken rearing. Groups are actively participating, sharing and identifying suitable solutions locally without external input.

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Learnings Interest to participate in the project was overwhelming with 90 (!) applications by existing local groups in one Zone 7 alone. This resulted in the exclusion of local groups that developed suitable plans meeting the criteria. The provision of official communication through OPM by a formal exclusion letter including explanation and the use and training of communitybased facilitators was a conflict sensitive approach.

New projects should take this into account and either include more groups or limit further the target area.

• More intentional focus to include host communities

is needed to maximize outcomes. In the criteria it was not clearly mentioned how many host communities are expected to participate, resulting in initial underrepresentation of host communities in the project.

• To ensure wider community benefit, the group

plan should include a percentage of their budget to support community initiatives. This will reduce the potential for tension and extend the benefits further with future transfers.

• To allow for further learning, monitoring, and

strengthen linkages for the groups’ further development, the project should be implemented over a period of at least 12-18 months.

What next?

GCT implementation shows that by putting local groups in the driving seat and finding local solutions for local problems, more durable solutions can be developed and implemented.

Therefore, ZOA and THRIVE Gulu aim to use this experience and learning to scale the approach across Uganda’s refugee response.

Are you joining us? (as developed in ZOA’s Strategic Plan 2023 – 2026)

• Close coordination and collaboration with partners

and key stakeholders, allowed the groups to leverage on support from partners including WFP and Seed Effect to boost their plans further.

• To target the most vulnerable, more intentional steps could have been taken at the start of the project to ensure inclusion of PWDs and more diverse groups.

• Peer to peer monitoring should not only involve

visiting groups that are doing well but also visiting groups that are struggling to share learnings, feedback and motivate the groups to improve where needed.

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We are here.

Contact John Panga, Country Director, ZOA Uganda E j.panga@zoa.ngo Dora Single Alal, Director, THRIVE Gulu E adora@thrivegulu.org Photography Thrive Gulu - Jessica Blum Hielke Zantema