CERF allocates $ 5.3 million to provide emergency support to the population in Karamoja
![A malnourished boy in Karamoja [Photo: IRIN]](/Portals/11/Images_country/UGA-IRIN_boyinKaramoja_cropl.jpg) |
A malnourished boy in Karamoja
[Photo: IRIN] |
14 August 2008: Disease and malnutrition are threatening the health of Ugandans in the Karamoja sub-region. Drought due to late rains have delayed the harvest until November and resulted in poor crops while drought-related disease epidemics endanger people living in affected areas. Furthermore, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that five to ten percent goats, sheep and cattle have died of disease in the last three years, further endangering the food security of Ugandans.
To address the increased food insecurity, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are employing CERF grants. WFP is supplying 700,000 people in Karamoja with food rations which include maize meal, pulses, and vegetable oil. It is also supporting a supplementary feeding programme which is providing micronutrient-rich foods to assist 35,000 people who are moderately malnourished.
UNICEF is responding to the nutritional needs of children under five by improving the identification, referral and treatment for cases of severe acute malnutrition. It is also augmenting feeding programmes with ready-to-use foods. The increased access to quality treatment is expected to benefit 42,500 children in the Karamoja region.
To ensure detection of drought-related disease outbreaks, the World Health Organization (WHO) is establishing a disease surveillance system while incorporating a nutrition surveillance system to detect malnutrition trends. One-thousand Village Health Teams (VHTs) are being strengthened to better monitor malnutrition cases and health facilities are being improved to support VHTs and provide community outreach to IDP return and resettlement sites.
In the Karamoja sub-region of north eastern Uganda, pastoralists rely on their herds for their livelihoods. Goats, sheep and cattle are being affected by goat plague (peste de petits ruminants) and Contagious Bovine Pleuro Pneumonia (CBPP) in this drought-stricken area. FAO is using a CERF rapid response grant to protect livestock from the two diseases. It is vaccinating 700,000 goats and sheep against goat plague and 500,000 cattle against CBPP. The project will vaccinate nearly 30 percent of all goats and sheep and nearly half of all cattle in Karamoja.
[Last Update: 27 August 2008]
CERF allocates US$ 700,000 for the protection of IDPs
![A child carrying a tin of cooking oil in an IDP camp [Photo: IRIN]](/Portals/11/Images_country/UGA_IRIN_chid_carrying_a_can_cropped.jpg) |
A child carrying a tin of cooking oil in an IDP camp
[Photo: IRIN] |
29 July 2008: In Uganda, despite the lack of a conclusion to the Juba process, improved security across the northern Uganda region has prompted steady population movements out of IDP camps into either ancestral homes or transit sites. Latest planning estimates at the beginning of May 2008 approximate the total number of IDPs in Uganda (Acholi, Teso and Lango regions) at 1.7 million which includes nearly 6,000 IDPs in camps, nearly 400,000 in transit sites and 760,000 residing in their villages of origin. As a result, the overall IDP population in Uganda has reduced by nearly 120,000. An estimated 300,000 people have moved out of the IDP camps into either transit sites or villages of origin.
In order to provide assistance for the relocation and return of IDPs and the creation of minimum conditions for return, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is providing humanitarian assistance through a CERF-funded project. The project is supporting extremely vulnerable individuals by supplying huts for shelter. Furthermore, UNHCR is expanding information, counseling, and legal assistance centers and clinics. A protection monitoring campaign is ensuring that no coercion is being used to induce return and that cases of forced return are followed up. The project is reaching an estimated 1.2 million IDPs in Uganda.
[Last Update: 7 August 2008]
«CERF Around the World