Inter-Agency Livelihood Assessment Targeting Refugees and Host Communities in Imvepi and Rhino Camp Settlements

Uganda, and in particular the West Nile region, has a long history of hosting refugees from the neighbouring countries of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan and the present-day South Sudan. Since 2014, Uganda has seen a continuous influx of South Sudanese refugees fleeing from violence and destruction. As of June 2017, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had registered more than 950,000 South Sudanese refugees (mainly women and children) in Uganda who are resettled into the various settlements in the countryside of Uganda.

This interagency needs assessment by World Vision Uganda (WVU), UNHCR and Caritas was conducted in two settlement areas of Rhino and Imvepi located in the West Nile Region of Uganda. The Imvepi settlement is the most recently opened area (February 2017) for resettlement and located about 72km east of the district town of Arua. This settlement is expected to resettle about 100,000 South Sudanese refugees, the majority of them are remote peasant farmers fleeing from the conflict in the productive Equatorial region of South Sudan. This assessment will therefore propose immediate, medium and long-term strategies to address the livelihood needs of the refugee and host communities created by the changes in the environment and the pressure on the available resources to ensure smooth coexistence and sustainable utilization of resources