Uganda

Supporting communities through crises

In September 2022, Uganda’s Ministry of Health declared an outbreak of the southern variant of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). With experience as a key responder to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014, GOAL quickly responded. GOAL teams in Uganda trained community health workers on infection prevention and control (IPC) as well as case identification. They also trained them to deliver Ebola prevention messaging across their communities. GOAL’s emergency preparedness programmes reached over 133,000 people in 2024. 

In total, 78 health workers in both Kampala city and neighbouring Kyegegwa District were trained to respond to EVD, helping prevent the spread of the deadly disease.

From 2020 to 2021, GOAL carried out extensive health messaging on local radio stations to raise awareness of how communities can prevent the spread of Covid-19. The Covid-19 Recovery and Resilience Program (CRRP) also supported 10,000 young people, and 2,000 youth-led small enterprises in Northern Uganda. This allowed them to adapt their livelihoods and recover from the economic shocks created by the pandemic and future shocks and crises.

From direct services to long-term systemic change

Since 2003 GOAL’s WASH portfolio has reached over 347,000 people in rural and peri-urban areas of Northern and South-Eastern Uganda. Our projects increase access to safe water through the construction of point water sources and piped schemes. Using the Demand Responsive Approach, we integrate community-led total sanitation with longer-term social behaviour change approaches, sanitation marketing and community savings to ensure a sustainable change in hygiene and sanitation practices. In 2024, our WASH programmes reached over 106,000 people across the country.

We are actively working to deliver on the proposed transition from community-based management of water resources to a public utility model, piloting pre-payment systems and structures, and partnering with local Umbrella Authorities and government to build capacity and develop business cases for rural water operations and maintenance. Under a current pilot, 95% of community respondents indicated they believe pre-payment models are in the community's interest and have improved sustained access to safe water.

In partnership with Water-Share Ireland, we are exploring a large-scale piped system to benefit two sub-counties in Namayingo District near Lake Victoria. The project is using camera survey technology to explore the potential of existing infrastructure for conversion – building the capacity of the Ministry of Water and Environment and the District technical officers to use camera surveys in infrastructure planning as well as for issue diagnostics.

Addressing food security and malnutrition

GOAL works with thousands of youth and conflict-affected farmers in Northern Uganda to build their resilience, promote food production and security, and increase their earning potential. Through teaching key skills, GOAL tackles the issues of low-production, low market income and limited market access in the agriculture sector.

Beyond this, we plan to expand the scope of our work by addressing malnutrition and food insecurity through community capacity building. Our innovative research and implementation programme will be modelled on GOAL’s Nutrition Impact & Positive Practice (NIPP) approach, which is designed to tackle malnutrition by addressing the underlying behaviour determinants. Our food and nutrition services have reached over 135,000 people in 2024 alone. 

GOAL also recently implemented the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN) project in Agago District. We work with health services and the communities they serve to promote access to maternal, new-born and child health and nutrition-related services and on-going interaction and support.

From food security to Sustainable Livelihoods

Agriculture is a key sector that can lift people out of poverty in Uganda. Facilitating smart agriculture and sustainable sources of income is also an effective way to reduce the impact of climate change and deliver sustainable development. 

GOAL Uganda’s agricultural livelihoods activities support communities in rural areas across the country to build resilience, increase income and food production and promote food and nutrition security.   

In partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, GOAL teams are implementing the Young Africa Works - Markets for Youth Programme, supporting 300,000 young rural women and men to access dignified and fulfilling work in the agri-sector.  The  five-year programme (which began in 2018) aims to reach 300,000 participants. 

The two-year Uganda Youth ENGINE project, funded by Norad, and implemented in partnership with Village Enterprise, will journey 3,500 youth in northern Uganda through a targeted set of interventions to build business acumen and confidence, strengthen financial literacy and access, promote digital platforms, and create new linkages and relationships between youth and private sector actors engaged in cassava and soya.  This value-chain approach will see the integration of market system development and the graduation approach, targeting youth at different levels of participation in agriculture.   

A pilot project in northern Uganda, funded by Irish Aid, is exploring nutrition sensitive agriculture, promoting increased production and consumption of nutrient dense and fortified foods through social behaviour change interventions and private sector partnerships.