RESILIENT LIVELIHOODS

Uganda as a country faces a number of socio-cultural, economic and political challenges, which perpetuate high levels of poverty and inequality. This limits participation of vulnerable groups, particularly women, youth and pastoralists in economic decisions that affect them. It limits their access to opportunities and resources, and makes them more prone to risks, shocks and other vulnerabilities.

Oxfam works to ensure that vulnerable women, youth, marginalised men and other vulnerable groups in a range of Ugandan livelihood settings are economically empowered and enjoy their rights to food as well as have increased incomes.

We empower women with information on their land & seed rights so that they can push for the formulation and implementation of gender sensitive policies that enable them access to and control over economic resources.

We campaign on issues of climate change with the aim of strengthening women food producers and achieving resilience in communities to the effects of climate change.

We address youth employment through vocational and life skills, training and mentorship while lobbying for changes in the education system.

We conduct research on issues like unpaid care work that hinders women from being economically engaged and use the evidence to push for practice changes.

Oxfam is focused on addressing the following;

Policy gaps. The Focus is on influencing the formulation and implementation of relevant policies. Interest is on the participation of women and youth as well as on attitude change of the rights holders towards economic realities in the country. Building on evidence from our programme footprints in greater north, we facilitate and engage at local, national as well as link with regional and global processes.

Markets & Value Chains. focuses on Influencing both market and non-market actors to provide an enabling environment for farmers and traders; strengthens market linkages between the different actors, promotes gender sensitive value chains, engages actors, including the private sector in promoting business models that benefit especially women and youth and builds capacity of farmers, pastoralists and agro pastoralists to produce for the market.

Gender inequalities. Strong focus is put on addressing the underlying factors of gender inequalities. Gender Action Learning System (GALS) methodology is integrated and scaled up to ensure that women's rights are at the center of all programming as well as to address the social hindrances to women’s participation in decision making over productive assets.

Campaigns to address violence against women at all levels are conducted and linked to regional and global efforts.

Natural Resource Constraints. Interventions in agriculture and livelihoods promote sustainable solutions to minimize the pressure on scarce resources such as water and land. We support advocacy for implementation of the national land policy with strong focus on women, youths and pastoralists.

Impact of Climate change. Increases resilience of the local communities, especially women, by promoting the range of livelihood options for the communities we work with. We promote Disaster Risk Reduction models that help vulnerable women, youth and men to ‘thrive’ in spite of the situation of uncertainty.

Youth Unemployment. Strives to increase productivity and opportunities for rural, urban and peri-urban youth living in the greater north through increased livelihood options by piloting innovative interventions that increase skills and facilitate access to new technologies including ICT to create employment opportunities for female and male youths. The intervention outcomes contribute to evidence for policy influencing at the national level.

Projects

Active Projects

Past Projects

Partners

  • Resource Rights Africa (RRA)
  • National Association of Women of Uganda (NAWOU),
  • CARITAS Moroto
  • The Uganda Apiculture Development Organisation (TUNADO)
  • International Land Coalition (ILC)
  • Community Integrated Development Initiatives (CIDI)
  • JERO Farm
  • Prindex
  • Landesa
  • Global Land Alliance
  • Hivos
  • The International Foundation for Recovery and Development (IFRAD)
  • Agency for Community Empowerment (AFCE) 
  • Youth Social Advocacy Team  ( Y-SAT)
  • African Youth Development Link (AYDL)
  • Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers Forum (ESAFF)
  • Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) 

Donors

  • Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD)
  • Irish Aid
  • Oxfam International
  • Oxfam US
  • Fred Foundation
  • Norwegian Embassy in Uganda
  • European Union
  • Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
  • The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Tagged with
Resilience food security incomes sustainable livelihoods

HUMANITARIAN PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE

In Uganda, the humanitarian context is characterized by conflicts (internal and external), food insecurity, natural disasters, and epidemic outbreaks. These are due to both internal and external factors.

For instance, across the whole country, climate change is increasingly making weather patterns harder to predict, drying out some regions and soaking others, leading to suffering from chronic droughts and food insecurity as well as calamities such as floods and landslides.

Externally, the instability in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and South Sudan have caused the movement of refugees into the country, putting a strain on already fragile communities and resources.

These conditions are a result of several underlying factors, notably power imbalances (Geo-political-local, national, regional and international); changes in environmental trends; corruption and poor implementation of humanitarian and resilience policies; negative social beliefs and structures; lack of proper infrastructure; limited capacities to predict, mitigate and cope with disasters; poor land governance policies; gender inequalities; and inadequate political will.

In poverty and in humanitarian situations, women are affected most yet it is women who carry the most burden of providing domestic labour and household survival.

Oxfam works to empower vulnerable women, youth and men with skills and knowledge so that they are able to mitigate and cope with shocks and enjoy their rights to a life with dignity. In cases of disaster, Oxfam works together with partners to provide life saving assistance that meets that needs of those affected. 

Oxfam also believes that besides saving lives, it is imperative to strengthen humanitarian capacity at local level. This would ensure better, quicker and cost effective preparedness and response to humanitarian situations. We have taken actions to strengthen the capacity of local humanitarian actors in all our areas of work.

Oxfam’s humanitarian work aims

  • To ensure that humanitarian disaster is timely anticipated, prevented, planned for by partners, governments and other relevant actors
  • To effectively and efficiently respond to shocks and change with active involvement of partners, Oxfam staff, affected populations (women, girls, boys as well as men) and relevant authorities/stakeholders
  • To support women to meaningfully engage in decision-making processes for humanitarian response to address women’s unique needs
  • To strengthen community capacities to cope with shocks and change through disaster risk reduction initiatives
  • To influence the resilience and humanitarian policies and practices nationally, regionally and internationally utilising Oxfam networks and resources at various levels

See more about Oxfam's South Sudanese Refugee Response

Geographical Coverage

The geographical coverage of our humanitarian work is determined by the nature and magnitude of disaster risks experienced and this is guided by the Oxfam humanitarian response policy

Projects

Active Projects

  1. Early Warning, Early Action: Strengthening multi-hazard Disaster Preparedness in Mt. Elgon sub-region. 
  2. Landslide/Mudslide/Floods Disaster Response in Bulambuli District in the Mt. Elgon Sub Region, Uganda.
  3. Conrad N. Hilton 

Past Projects

  1. Strengthening Resilience through Enhanced Local Disaster Risk Management Capacities
  2. Empowering Local and National Humanitarian Actors (ELNHA) in Uganda
  3. Saving lives now and in future
  4. DGD Project
  5. ECHO project

Partners

  1. Youth Social Advocacy Team (YSAT) 
  2. Community Empowerment for Creative Innovation (CECI) 
  3. Action for People in Need Organization (APINO) 
  4. Refugee Led Organizations and Networks. (RELON Uganda)
  5. World Voices Uganda (WVU)
  6. I Can South Sudan (ICSS)
  7. Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG)
  8. South Sudanese Refugees Association (SSURA) 
  9. Save Humanity Africa (SHA) 
  10. Youth Empowerment to Act (YETA) 
  11. Support Trust For Africa Development (STAD) 
  12. Community Empowerment for Peace and Development (CEPAD) 
  13. Lugbara Kari
  14. Uganda Christian Lawyers Fraternity (UCLF)
  15. Dynamic Action for Peace and Rehabilitation (DA4PR)
  16. Joint Efforts to Save Environment (JESE)
  17. African Women and Youth Action for Development (AWYAD)
  18. Engineers Without Borders (EWB-USA) 
  19. Community Empowerment for Rural Development (CEFORD)
  20. Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief (HIJRA)

Donors

Tagged with
humanitarian emergency

Get involved

Abdezoyo Esther demonstrates handwashing at Yelulu.jpg

Become part our global movement for change. There are many ways you can support the fight against inequality and injustice. You can support our campaigns and share our messages. Do this by visiting our Facebook, X Formerly Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube pages, like, follow and engage. Become a change-maker in your community on issues of gender-based violence.

You can also keep an eye on our campaign page for updates on what we are doing which you can share across your networks. Our International Campaign page will also keep you updated on our global campaigns.

Look out for opportunities to volunteer, work or intern with us. Together we can make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable people living in poverty around the world. If you have further questions or want to get involved please get in touch.

What We Do

 In Uganda, our Vision is to see Uganda free of inequality and Injustice: A society where people, particularly women and young people, claim and exercise their rights and responsibilities and influence decisions that affect their lives. We believe that everyone has a right to safety, security, a livelihood, and a say in decisions that affect them

Our work is guided by the Country Strategic Framework (CSF) (2021-2030), organized around four themes: Governance and Accountability, Resilient Livelihoods, Humanitarian preparedness and response and Gender Justice and Women's Rights. 

All the themes work towards influencing policy and practice, youth and women empowerment, inclusive participation in decision-making at various levels, and capacity strengthening of national and local actors.

Who we are

Oxfam is an International confederation of 22 affiliates working together with partners and local communities in 76 countries around the globe. We work to find practical, innovative ways for people to lift themselves out of poverty and thrive. We save lives and help rebuild livelihoods when crisis strikes and we campaign so that the voices of the poor influence the local and global decisions that affect them.

We understand that many causes of poverty are linked, and we use many tactics to fight poverty and inequality. From local communities to the global stage, we call for fairness and justice.

We have six goals that support our shared vision of a just world without poverty:

  1. The right to be heard
  2. Advancing gender justice
  3. Saving lives—now and in the future
  4. Sustainable food
  5. Fair sharing of natural resources
  6. Financing for development and universal essential services

Oxfam in Uganda

Oxfam in Uganda started work in the 1960s delivering development and humanitarian support as part of the Oxfam confederation, a global movement of people fighting to end inequality and injustice. We tackle the inequalities that make and keep people poor. We save and protect people’s lives in times of crisis. We work with people to build their resilience and rebuild their livelihoods. We enable vulnerable people’s voices to be heard and campaign for genuine, durable change.

Our Strategic Priorities

Oxfam’s global strategic goals include contributing to achieving more profound and lasting change in the lives of people living with poverty and injustice. We’re creating a worldwide influencing network in order to unite the power of local organizations, who share a common vision for change. Adequately resourced, local organizations are best-positioned to influence and actively participate in the fight against the injustice of poverty.

In line with this, Oxfam in Uganda is bringing together the joint skillsets of its staff and partners (humanitarian, long-term development, and advocacy) in order to achieve change at the national level. We do this by building networks, platforms and coalitions with like-minded civil society actors who campaign with us and lobby duty-bearers to bring about change. Oxfam in Uganda also supports and engages in Oxfam’s global campaigns, guaranteeing that Uganda is present on the world’s most pressing issues. We are committed to supporting thought leadership through. 

In Uganda, Oxfam:

  • Builds active citizenship around tax and budget allocations, extractive industries and women’s leadership.
  • Addresses land and seed rights for women and pastoralists. We work with the private sector on issues like climate change, youth employment, and unpaid care work for women.
  • Strengthens local humanitarian capacity as well as responds directly to humanitarian crises.
  • All our work has a deliberate focus on the protection and promotion of women's rights, and we campaign to end all violence against women and girls.

Privacy

Privacy Notice

Oxfam respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This Notice explains when and how we collect your personal data when you use our website, and the rights you have over your own information.

This Notice applies to the website of Oxfam in Uganda however, when you use this site you may be directed to the website of other members of the Oxfam confederation or links to third party websites or applications. These websites will have their own Privacy Notices, which you should also look at.

If you have any questions in relation to this Notice or would like to exercise your rights under it, please contact:

FAO Data Protection Officer for Oxfam International

Oxfam Ireland, 2nd Floor, Portview House, Thorncastle Street, Ringsend, Dublin 4.

Email address for queries: info@oxfam.org

Information about who we are

Stichting Oxfam International is a Dutch Foundation (registration no. 41159611) with a registered Office at PO Box 30919, 2500 GX The Hague, The Netherlands. Further information, and details of our registration with data protection supervisory authorities are detailed below.

How our website works

We use cookies on our website to collect standard internet log-on information and details of visitor behavior patterns (e.g. to find out the number of visitors to different parts of the site). This enables us to analyse and improve the content of our site and the navigation experience of users. We do not use this information to attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. For full details of the cookies used on our website, see our Cookies Notice. You can disable or delete some or all cookies in your browser setting, although this may affect some parts of the site’s functionality.

The data we collect about you

There are a number of areas on our website where you may provide personal data to Oxfam in Uganda including when you:

  • Register for Oxfam email updates
  • Register to be involved in our campaigns
  • Submit an email enquiry
  • Apply for an open vacancy

The information we collect will depend on the nature of your action but may include name, email address, telephone number and country.

Links to other Oxfam websites

For some actions that you may like to take when visiting our website, you will be redirected to another Oxfam website, including coalition ones. In these cases, that entity will collect your data rather than Oxfam in Uganda and you should look at their Privacy Notice to understand how they will use your data, and your rights. This includes where:

  • You make a donation;
  • Register to participate in an event;
  • Sign up a petition;
  • Apply for employment or to be a volunteer; or
  • Register to participate in a local campaign.

Who might we share your information with

We may share your information with other members of the Oxfam confederation. We may also share your information with third parties who process data on our behalf, but only where we place obligations on them in relation to the security of the data and require them to use the data only as we instruct.

International transfers of data

In some cases, we may transfer your personal data to members of the Oxfam confederation and third-party service providers who are located outside your jurisdiction.

If you are in the European Union, and your personal data is transferred to an Oxfam Affiliate or third-party service provider outside the European Economic Area (EEA), this will occur under a safeguard mechanism recognized by the European Commission as providing adequate protection for your personal data. Transfers to Oxfam Affiliates will occur under the EC’s model data protection clauses. You may ask to see a copy of these clauses. Transfers of your data to other third parties outside the EEA, or to third parties outside any other jurisdiction in which you are located, will occur in accordance with local data protection laws.

Your data and social media

This section refers to the ability for you to like, re-tweet, share, etc. Oxfam International content on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Additionally, when using our website, you can link through to such social media sites. When you do this, depending on your privacy settings, these networks will adjust their marketing to show you more Oxfam and/or Oxfam-type content. To change your settings on these services, please refer to their privacy notices, which will tell you how to do this.

Oxfam and social media

Many social media sites provide, or permit, tools that aggregate and highlight content that appears on their site. Oxfam uses such tools to analyse and assess the success of Oxfam campaigns and communications, the level of interest in issues Oxfam cares about, and the level of social media activity resulting from media stories about Oxfam or Oxfam/NGO activities. We use the native reporting tools of the social media networks, but may also use third-party tools. Oxfam uses such tools to respond directly to other users’ queries and comments related to Oxfam.

Children’s data

Our website is not intended for use by children and we do not knowingly collect data on children.

How do we protect your data

We ensure that there are appropriate technical controls in place to protect your personal details. For example, our online forms are always encrypted and our network is protected and routinely monitored.

How long do we keep your data

We will only retain the data you provide to us through our website for as long as required by applicable laws or as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and in accordance with any consents provided. We will delete personal data at the end of this period unless we wish to use it for statistical purposes, in which case we will anonymise it, such that you could never be re-identified with it.

Your rights

You have the right to request details of the information we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please make a request to our Data Protection officer at the details provided below. We will provide this information to you without charge, unless requests are manifestly unfounded, repetitive or excessive, in which case we are entitled to charge an administration fee.

You also have a right to have inaccurate information we hold about you rectified or removed and a right, in some circumstances, to restrict or object to us processing your information, or to seek erasure of your data. If you believe we are not respecting your rights, you are entitled to make a complaint to a relevant supervisory authority.

The legal basis on which we hold and use your data will vary depending on the activity involved. In some cases, we might hold the data because it is needed to fulfil a contract or meet our legal obligations (i.e. a donation), in others because it is in Oxfam’s legitimate interest to do so, and in others, because you have consented to this use. We note that the legal basis on which we process your data will influence your specific rights.

Changes to this notice

We may make changes to this notice from time to time. We will always detail, at the end of this notice, the date it was last updated and you should check back from time to time.

Data Controller postal address and data privacy registration details:

Oxfam International Secretariat

Oxfam House

John Smith Drive

Oxford OX4 2JY

United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0) 1865 339 100

Fax: +44 (0) 1865 330 101

Email: info@oxfaminternational.org

ICO Registration Number (UK): Z8133290

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 11th June 2019.

Our campaigns

This is the 'Our Campaigns' Landing Page

Follow the instrcutions on this page to build the equivalent page on your own Click&Go site:

1. Not here! But on you Click&Go site click to 'edit' this page.

2. Add the title 'Our Campaigns' on your correspondent language.

3. Please upload a good quality main image following the size indications.

4. Use this page to describe how you campaign in [COUNTRY] and briefly outline your specific campaigns e.g Inequality or Food and Climate Justice.  Click here to access text editor guidelines in Sumus.

Please use  the article content type to create dedicated pages for each campaign if you need to. To add each individual campaign page to menu under this 'Our Campaigns' page use the menu option in the article content type. Click here to access 'Article' guidelines in Sumus.

5. Add summary image and text (no more than 20 words, a short and catchy sentence with no text in bold). This will be used as a teaser text whenever this page is promoted as a related item.

6. You can use the 'Related items' functionality on this page to feature your campaigns with a thumbnail and short summary intro. Just enter the title of each campaign in each related item field.

7. Add a meta vocabulary to this page to help with search. Click on 'Meta tags' and add between 3 and 5 keywords.

8. Click to 'Save'

See example of this page on the Cambodia site https://cambodia.oxfam.org/get-involved/together-we-can-make-it-happen

Share Our Message

One of the Oxfam-SINFA internet Now centres for youth employment in Gulu. Photo credit: Oxfam

Everyone is key in the fight against poverty. You can be part of our work and one of the easiest ways besides working with Oxfam is to help us raise awareness on several issues by sharing our message through stories, images, videos and publications.

You can access information and start the conversation here: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Flickr, and LinkedIn, as well as from the ‘latest’ page on our website.

We are also interested in hearing your stories that speak to the work we do so send us an email, leave us a message on Facebook and share with us links to your blogs and other story sources. You don't need a social media account to spread the word, you can also make a call or send a text to share a memorable story or to ask someone to do something on behalf of Oxfam.

Join the movement for change by supporting the different campaigns on issues around violence against women/girls, tax justice, climate change, women's land rights and many other inequality issues affecting our country. You can join the campaign by finding and attending our events, signing petitions, joining our online and offline discussions and those of our partners as well as mobilising your networks to take action on different campaign issues. We are happy to be part of the global movement for change and hope you are!

Tagged with
movement social media

Vision, Mission, Goal, Values and Commitments

Teddy Aciro,her daughter and her mother were all trained by Oxfam in using the GALS methodology for gender justice- three empowered generations. photo credit: Oxfam

Vision

A Uganda free of inequality and injustice: a society where people, particularly women and young people, claim and exercise their rights and responsibilities, and influence the decisions that affect their lives.

Mission

To tackle the inequalities that make and keep people poor.

Goal

A peaceful and resilient society in which people’s rights are upheld, state and non-state actors are accountable, and inequality is reduced.

Values

Equality: We believe everyone has the right to be treated fairly, and to have the same rights and opportunities.
Empowerment: We acknowledge and seek to expand people’s agency over their lives and the decisions that impact them.
Solidarity: We support people and collaborate across boundaries in working towards a just and sustainable world.
Inclusiveness: We embrace diversity and difference, and value the perspectives and contributions of all people and communities in their fight against poverty and injustice.
Accountability: We take responsibility for our action and inaction and hold ourselves accountable to the people we work with and for.
Courage: We speak truth to power and act with conviction on the justice of our causes.

Commitments 

Women’s leadership: We facilitate an enabling environment for women leaders. When needed, we support women with the right information (and skills) to empower and encourage them to meaningfully participate in decision making processes and take up leadership roles at different levels from community to national and even global spaces.
Participatory methodologies: We scale up participatory and inclusive methodologies  to give power to people to take charge of their lives.
Citizens platforms: We strengthen spaces for citizen engagement to provide a platform for communities to engage with their leaders and demand accountability.
ICT based Innovations: We work with ICT-based innovation, especially for youth, to promote entrepreneurship, market access, strengthened value chains, and improved access to knowledge and information.
Alliance building. We build and strengthen alliances and networks that can work together towards change.
Advocacy and Campaigns: We commit to a role as convener by working on influencing authorities and the powerful, and less on delivering services for which duty-bearers should be held responsible. Where we deliver services, it is to demonstrate models that work and to empower communities to demand services and accountability from duty bearers.
Research and influencing: We carry out strategic research in thematic areas, and we publish and widely share the reports with the public. We take advantage of Oxfam’s partner alliances as well as Oxfam’s regional and global structures and networks to influence policies.Capacity Strengthening: We empower partners, staff and target groups so that they own and lead processes of change. We believe transformative change requires not only knowledge and organisation, but the creation of opportunities for such change.
Building on regional/International links: We are part of a global movement for change. Our program links to the region and beyond to maximise opportunities for multi-country knowledge sharing.

Knowledge, Learning and Accountability: We support evidence-based learning and use of mechanisms and processes for accountability in our program and projects.
Accountability.: We strengthen downward and upward accountability through engaging communities in implementation, monitoring and sharing results, establishing robust community complaint and feedback mechanisms, and generating and sharing annual and evaluation reports with other stakeholders.
Learning: We measure the impact of our work by employing both quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods.

Tagged with
vision purpose injustice rights and responsibilities Influencing

Accountability and Safeguarding

Joseph and Victoria Wadribo show their family vision. Photo credit: Oxfam

We are committed to being open about our work and to being accountable to the communities we work with, as well as to our partners, staff, donors and supporters. We believe our legitimacy to ask for and expect accountability from others comes from being accountable and transparent ourselves.

We have feedback mechanisms by which we receive and give feedback to the communities we work with, our partners, and the public in general. Our annual reports (2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2019-2020) 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023, and 2023-24 ) are one of the key accountability mechanisms by which we report progress of our programme, including financials which are available in public domain

All of our work is regularly audited, internally and externally by experienced agencies/firms, including the work we do together with partners.

Budget

Oxfam in Uganda’s average annual budget for the year (2023-24) was approximately €10.7 million. 

Funders

Some of the key current and past donors to Oxfam in Uganda are:

Current Donors:

Oxfam in Uganda accountability commitments

• We are transparent to ensure that the people affected by our programmes have access to all the relevant information to hold us to account.

• We provide opportunities for communities and other stakeholders to give us feedback in appropriate and accessible channels. We enable people to participate in decision-making processes and in the implementation of all aspects of our work.

• We ensure that our programmes are monitored and evaluated by the people directly affected by them, to facilitate learning on what is—and is not—working.

Oxfam in Uganda is registered under the Non-Governmental Organisations Registration Act, under the legal name Oxfam Novib. Our operations conform to the conditions and directions stipulated in our registration permit.

Safeguarding policies and procedures at Oxfam

At Oxfam, we are committed to zero tolerance of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse in our organization. This means that we will do everything in our power to prevent these from happening, and rigorously address it each time it happens.

On 16 February 2018, Oxfam agreed on a 10-Point Action Plan to strengthen Oxfam’s safeguarding policies and practices and to transform organizational culture. Learn more about it.

To access our  Code of Conduct, safeguarding policies and procedures, and confidential whistleblowing lines visit Oxfam's International website.

Tagged with
transparency Accountability
Subscribe to