Uganda Appeal
Humanitarian Action for Children
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal helps support the agency’s work as it provides conflict- and disaster-affected children with access to water, sanitation, nutrition, education, health and protection services. Return to main appeal page.
Uganda snapshot
Appeal highlights
- Uganda faces multiple humanitarian crises every year, including refugee influxes, disease outbreaks and climate-related disasters. In 2022, due to drought, more than 500,000 people in the Karamoja subregion were food-insecure, and nearly 92,000 malnourished children required treatment. These emergencies have been compounded by an Ebola outbreak declared in September 2022. Altogether, an estimated 13.8 million children, women and vulnerable people will require humanitarian assistance in 2023.
- In response to humanitarian needs, UNICEF will support government authorities at all levels and work in partnership with non-governmental organizations to provide integrated and multisectoral life-saving assistance. UNICEF will employ a combined approach to its interventions, focusing on systems strengthening, service delivery, provision of critical supplies and durable solutions, contributing to building the resilience of vulnerable communities. The UNICEF response is informed by gender analysis and accounts for the differentiated risks, needs and capacities of women, girls, men and boys.
- In 2023 UNICEF requires US$43.2 million to uphold the rights of children, adolescents and women affected by these crises, and to help to save their lives. The increased budget is related to the Ebola outbreak and climate hazards.
Key planned results for 2023
2 million children and women accessing primary health care
1.1 million primary caregivers receiving infant and young child feeding counselling
1.5 million people reached with critical WASH supplies
9.7 million people reached through messaging on prevention and access to services
Funding requirements for 2023
Country needs and strategy
Humanitarian needs
In 2022, the combined effects of multiple hazards led to the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Uganda. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) exercise officially released by the Government and partners in June 2022 indicates a deterioration in the food security situation in the Karamoja subregion, with approximately 520,000 people classified in IPC Phase 3 or above, with 91,600 children under 5 years of age suffering from wasting and in need of treatment. The Uganda Ministry of Health declared an outbreak of Ebola disease caused by Sudan virus on 20 September 2022, following a positive test result for one adult male in Mubende district. While it is still unclear how the outbreak will evolve, UNICEF is considering the scenario that delay in detection of cases will cause the spread of the outbreak (beyond the nine districts reporting cases) to high-risk districts, but containment within these 21 districts, and a response enduring 6-8 months. The Ebola outbreak will likely limit the provision of basic health services due to overstretching and infection of health workers and fear of communities getting infected; result in the utilization of existing spaces in health facilities to establish isolation areas; disrupt immunization campaigns such as the one for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); and require an upgrade to existing health facilities to comply with Ebola prevention and mitigation measures. Women and girls carry primary responsibility for the sick, and any stigma attached to this might constrain their livelihoods, increasing the risks of gender-based violence and survival sex.
Uganda hosts 1.5 million refugees, including more than 898,000 children from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. An additional influx of refugees is expected to arrive in Uganda in 2023, including unaccompanied children and people with disabilities. Due to overcrowding in urban settlements, poor access to clean water and sanitation, high prevalence of undernutrition and multiple protection risks, an estimated 7.4 million refugees and host community members will need humanitarian assistance by the end of 2023. In refugee-hosting communities, access to education remains low, with the gross enrolment ratio for early childhood development (preschool) at only 48 per cent, and for primary and secondary education it is 88.5 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. Up to 41 per cent of primary- and secondary-school-age children are out of school and only 2 per cent of learners with a disability are enrolled in schools. Child protection needs assessments show that refugee and host community children continue to experience a range of protection risks, including child labour, child marriage, sexual and physical violence and neglect.
More than 87,000 people were affected by floods in 2022, which brought about displacement, destruction of infrastructure and risks of waterborne diseases. In the Mount Elgon region, 35 schools and more than 7,000 children were affected by floods. Climate hazards amplify protection risks for children by increasing separation, psychosocial distress and neglect and by exacerbating pre-existing levels of violence.
UNICEF’s strategy
UNICEF's humanitarian response in Uganda will be carried out with partners in line with the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework, Grand Bargain commitments and the Country Programme Document 2021-2025, emphasizing district-level systems strengthening. District actors will be supported to incorporate humanitarian preparedness and response into their annual and midterm district plans.
The Government's Ebola National Response Plan builds on significant investments made by UNICEF and partners in recent years to support national health systems and incorporate learning from previous health emergencies. UNICEF, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other partners, will focus on public awareness of Ebola through risk communication and community engagement, coordination and leadership and information and communication technology. The aim is to reduce the risks of transmission. UNICEF will also support health worker training, provide critical supplies, improve WASH infrastructure in health facilities, maintain positive feeding practices for infants and young children who are affected by the Ebola outbreak and support the continuity of primary health care services.
UNICEF will support maternal and child health services, with a focus on newborns, adolescents and young mothers. This will include support for immunization and HIV services and strengthening the health system at the national and district levels. Furthermore, UNICEF will enhance preparedness for any additional influx of refugees in host communities and in those areas affected by other hazards. UNICEF will deliver multipurpose, unconditional humanitarian cash transfers to support the recovery of livelihoods for vulnerable households impacted by drought, and in Ebola-affected districts.
The nutrition programme will strengthen coordination, information and financing systems to aid scale-up of interventions for prevention and timely treatment of child wasting at the national, district and community levels, including in emergency situations (e.g., drought, in refugee settings and for those affected by the Ebola outbreak). UNICEF will ensure that affected groups and institutions have access to safe water, hygiene products and emergency sanitation by rehabilitating water and sanitation services, supporting a shift to solar-powered WASH systems and distributing hygiene items - and by strengthening WASH management committees, local authorities and the private sector.
UNICEF will continue providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Education and Sports and to district education offices on quality education interventions. These encompass learning recovery, adolescents, life skills development programmes and integrated early childhood development in refugee-hosting communities. Support will also go to schools affected by Ebola, flood and drought to ensure continuity of learning activities. Social and behavioural change will be integrated across programmes.
UNICEF will provide case management and community-based psychosocial support, including referrals to specialized mental health and education services. Assistance to survivors of gender-based violence, along with prevention interventions, will be integrated into the child protection programme and mainstreamed across all other sectors. In all interventions, UNICEF will implement measures to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse and use the lens of accountability to affected populations and conflict sensitivity. Within the Ebola coordination framework, UNICEF co-leads the risk communication community engagement and continuity of essential services pillars and actively contributes to other response pillars. 25 UNICEF will further support sector coordination for WASH, education, nutrition and child protection at national and subnational levels in response to other hazards.
Programme targets
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Highlights
Humanitarian Action is at the core of UNICEF’s mandate to realize the rights of every child. This edition of Humanitarian Action for Children – UNICEF’s annual humanitarian fundraising appeal – describes the ongoing crises affecting children in Uganda; the strategies that we are using to respond to these situations; and the donor support that is essential in this response.
