Uganda

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 construction of point water sources and piped schemes. Using the Demand Responsive Approach, we integrate community-led total sanitation with longer term social behavior change approaches, sanitation marketing and community savings to ensure a sustainable change in hygiene and sanitation practices.

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 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 to 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. 

During 2021, we implemented the Maternal, New-born 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.  

Supporting communities through the pandemic

The COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Program (CRRP) was designed to support 10,000 rural young women and men, and 2,000 youth led micro and small enterprises in Northern Uganda to adapt their on-and -off farm livelihoods and recover from the economic shocks created by the pandemic. This addressed the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and livelihood systems, supply chain disruptions and providing awareness on COVID-19 preventions among youth between the age 16-35 years with the agriculture sector.

The program initial implementation started in five districts (Lira Agago, Abim, Kaabong and Karenga) and the program was set to end after one year in May 2021.  However, it was extended to 31st December 2021 and implementation districts expanded to 10 districts in Northern Uganda.