Close to Shillings 80 million is lying idle on the accounts of two Emyoga SACCOs in Karamoja, without any clear information on who formed and registered the saccos. The groups in Amudat District are registered as fisheries and journalists Saccos and were allocated the funds from the Emyooga fund.
Ironically, there are no fish projects in the semi-arid Karamoja region for one to think of a fisheries project, and the LC V Chairperson, Joseph Nangole Labot, says that he has never known of any journalist in his area.
This is one of the incidents cited by the local leaders and charity organizations on the mismatch between the relief and developmental needs and the programs, policies, and their implementation in the Karamoja sub-region. These concerns were raised at the evaluation meeting of the decade-long intervention to improve the food security situation and the general livelihoods of Karamoja, courtesy of the American aid agency, USAID.
Labot says the issue of deciding for the community instead of involving them to give their own views on the policies and programs is not helping the transformation of the people of Karamoja. This, he says, will also ensure sustainability because it would create a sense of ownership amongst the communities.
The four-day event is organized under the theme Sustainable Pathways to Food Security and Economic Growth in Karamoja: Reflecting on a Decade of Investments. USAID has been operating in the Karamoja region for 11 years focusing on a wide range of critical areas.
Richard Nelson, the Mission Director and USAID in Uganda, says they have seen a lot of positive changes including in peace, and livelihood development. According to him, they have been dealing with the local communities to help in designing and implementing some of their programs, like integrating women in the peace initiatives, as well as livestock management and marketing.
Nelson agreed with Labot, saying that there is a need for the different players in the region, including the government to collaborate when planning and implementing decisions to have more sustainable outcomes of the interventions. He also stressed the need for different organizations to give freedom to the targeted communities to make decisions on how the resources can be utilized.
Labot noted that this also affected the impact of the distribution of relief aid where the donating agencies, including the government, decide on how to distribute the relief to the people without giving the communities the chance to make choices.
He welcomed the system of the American Mercy Corps which gives households coupons which they then use to get the relief item of their choice, adding that this also benefits local businesspeople in terms of business opportunities.
Dr Raphael Lotira Arasio, Senior Resilience Advisor at the Karamoja Resilience Support Unit, said the rapid development indicators for Karamoja happened between 2011 and 2019, the time not only when the USAID interventions were being implemented.
But also when there was sustained relative peace. Since 2019, however, there has been a return to insecurity with the repeated rustling of livestock and the ensuing forceful disarmament programs by the national armed forces.
While saying he does not support armed protection of wealth assets, he agrees that the communities enjoyed sustained progress at the time because they could protect what they had gained. The same, he says, should apply to the gains made by the intervention of the different agencies so that progress is sustained.
Nelson admitted that despite the progress made over the decade, a lot of challenges remain, suggesting continued collective multi-year, long-term solutions. “This includes programs that support diverse, climate-smart livelihood opportunities, access to markets and services, improved natural resources management, water security, and good governance, coupled with early-warning and shock response mechanisms that reinforce long-term activities,” he said.
He also proposed support for high-value agriculture, featuring improved seeds and tools through the private sector to promote livelihoods and nutrition.
URN.