unv in Uganda

The UNV Programme in Uganda started in 1983 with the first volunteers deployed under the World Food Programme (WFP) relief projects in the north-eastern part of the country. In 1986, the UNV Programme recruited its first UNV Programme Officer to better coordinate programme activities following the effort to assist the country, which just emerged from a civil war, in its reconstruction and rehabilitation.
Twenty-two years later, the UNV Programme has grown from the initial volunteer that was deployed to the current 64 UNVs. Of this number, 24 UNVs are internationals while 40 UNVs are nationals. Approximately __ percent of the UNVs is female The International UNVs in Uganda come from 16 countries.
While distribution by nationality is quite even, there are slightly more East Africans (Kenyans and Tanzanians) than other nationalities.

The UNV Programme in Uganda started in 1983 with the first volunteers deployed under the World Food Programme (WFP) relief projects in the north-eastern part of the country. In 1986, the UNV Programme recruited its first UNV Programme Officer for better coordination of programme activities following the effort to assist the country, which had just emerged from a civil war, in its reconstruction and rehabilitation.  Twenty-three years later, the UNV Programme has grown from the initial volunteer that was deployed to the current fifty-eight (58) UNV volunteers of which 26 of them are internationals while the rest are nationals.  There is an almost fifty-fifty gender balance in the entire population of UNV volunteers in the country.

UNV Programme Partnerships in Uganda

The UNV volunteers serving in Uganda are deployed with various UN Agencies supporting the course of government in various areas of practice with the overall goal of achieving peace and development agenda.

Most of the UNV volunteers are supporting UNHCR activities where they are serving in various capacities in areas of gender-mainstreaming, communication, education advisory, protection affairs, health and nutrition, HIV/AIDS sector and community services amongst others.

UNDP has a good number of UNV volunteers attached to its programme units that focus on providing the government with policy advisory services in good governance, crisis prevention and recovery, and poverty reduction and environment conservation.  Some are serving within UNDP Country Office while the larger group is deployed to various government ministries and departments that include Planning and Economic Development; Gender, Labour and Social Services; Inspector General of Government’s Office; Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), as well as; Amnesty Commission (AC).  In the year 2006, UNDP Uganda established a Service Centre and has two (02) international UNV volunteers deployed under the ARMADA Programme to support the UNDP-Government of Uganda projects’ ever increasing procurement needs.

In addition there are two more programmes that operate within UNDP that have recently embraced the services of fully-funded international UNV volunteers.  UNIFEM Country Programme has a Sexual and Gender-based Violence Specialist while UN Millennium Villages have a Participatory Trainer.

United Nations Office for High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has several national UNV Fieldworkers supporting their grassroots activities in Northern and Eastern Uganda where they are collaborating with UHRC and AC.  OHCHR has also benefited from a fully-funded UNV intern.

We have finally recruited and placed an international UNV volunteer with UNFPA who will serve as an Emergency Reproductive Health Officer providing technical support for a Humanitarian Response Unit’s project involved in prevention and post-conflict rehabilitation of demobilised personnel, civilian populations, refugees and IDPs at Gulu in northern Uganda. 

UNV Programme has also been running a pilot project under own-mobilised Special Voluntary Funds (SVF).  The project, UNV Support to Promotion of Human Rights in Uganda has made a great impact for the past four (04) years that has culminated in formation of Voluntary Action Groups (VAGs) and establishment of Human Rights Desks in some Western, Eastern and Northern Districts where it has been operating and lately the government has directed that other districts in the country follow suit.  The project has been implemented in close collaboration with UNDP and strong partnerships from the Uganda Human Rights and Amnesty Commissions and the Ministry of Local Government.  And as UNV SVF funding comes to a close by the end-of-March 2007, UNDP has already started taking up the project with interest of uploading the activities to its core business.  In that respect, the remaining three (03) UNV volunteers will be moved to UNDP’s Good Governance Unit.

UNV programme in partnership with CISCO Systems has also fielded some more UNV volunteers in support of Makerere University’s IT department to establish academies and provide technical support in expansion to Cisco Academies to other universities and institutions in the country.

And on partnerships with Civil Society Organisations, UNV Programme has been implementing a ‘Youth and Community Volunteerism towards Achievement of Environmental Sustainability’ project at Entebbe District in partnership with the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC).  This initiative that has been funded through the UNV MDG Small Grants Facility feeds towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and in particular, MDG 7. Through UNV volunteers' intervention at the community level, partnerships have been built with several national NGOs and Community Based Organization, which assist in sensitizing and mobilizing communities for voluntary actions at local levels.  

On the other hand, UNV Programme in Uganda facilitates recruitment of Ugandans to serve in other countries within Africa, and to Asia, South America as well as Eastern Europe at an average of three (03) per month.

Facts and Figures

UNV Programme's areas of distinct contribution in Uganda

(a) Access to services and service delivery

In the UNDP/Government of Uganda-funded Income Generation and Sustainable Livelihoods programme, 15 UNVs provided technical expertise to 25 District Business Promotion Centres around the country to enable them deliver small business entrepreneurship training to established and new entrepreneurs. These interventions have helped many individuals and households in the communities, who are usually left out in mainstream development, to reduce their levels of poverty.

(b) Inclusion and participation

Under the aegis of the Resettlement Programme in Northern Uganda, UNV collaborates with the Amnesty Commission to receive, register, train and resettle ex-combatants (reporters). Many of the former rebels are young boys and girls who were abducted from their villages by the insurgents. To some extent these young rebels have been austrocised by the communities they came from as they also committed brutal acts. The delicate task of restoring trust between them and their communities and resettling them in those communities is one that takes a long time to achieve. Once they are settled in their societies, they are trained in various life skills of their choice to begin participating actively in societal development initiatives. Their activities are however, regularly monitored to ensure they do not return to the bush again.

Under the UNV Support to Promotion of Human Rights in Uganda project, UNV programme also targeted communities in rural areas where conflict has been going on for some time. For example, in the districts of Bundibugyo, Kasese, Soroti and Gulu, which have experienced insurgency, over twenty (20) UNV volunteers had been collaborating with the Uganda Human Rights and Amnesty Commissions to raise awareness on Human Rights issues in addition to providing training to leaders, safety and security institutions and the general population on human rights, amnesty law, the local council guide and the ideals of rights-based approach to development. These training have also been extended to schools whereby both students and teachers are sensitised. The trainings have empowered communities as evidenced by their continuous demands for basic services to be provided by the local administration and the central government. To galvanize pressure on service providers, the trained participants have organized themselves into Voluntary Action Groups (VAGs), who play the key role of being the vanguards of human rights promotion in their societies.

Volunteerism activities in Uganda

A vibrant IYV National committee was established in 2001 with the first lady being one of the patrons. Several awareness raising activities and mobilisation of the public (civil society, academia, religious community, the private sector and the public service) on the benefits volunteering bring to development were carried out. The Government has supported one UN General Assembly Resolutions on volunteerism. The International Volunteer Day (IVD) is celebrated annually with support from other Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIOs).

As the year 2006 marked five (05) years since the International Year of Volunteerism (IYV 2001), approximately thirty (30) UNV volunteers in Uganda joined hands with over a 100 other volunteers from Japanese Oversees Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV), Volunteer Services Overseas (VSO), Raleigh International and community volunteers to celebrate International Volunteer Day 2006 in a memorable fashion. The day, globally themed “IYV 5 Years On”, saw the volunteers repaint a government hospital at Entebbe Municipality and in conjunction with Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) planted trees at a local village. The success of the event was facilitated by the financial contributions from UNDP, UNHCR as well as UNV Programme.

On 05 December 2005 IVD celebrations, UNV in collaboration with GUSCO (local NGO), UNICEF, Save the Children, UNDP, Uganda Amnesty Commission and WFP organized series of peace concerts in Gulu district as a way of sensitizing the communities (which have been affected by 2 decades of conflict) to renounce violence and encourage their decedent folks to lay down arms and come to the peace table. This initiative was done in collaboration with the Local Voluntary Action Groups, which the UNV Support to the Promotion of Human Rights project has helped established in the Gulu operational area.

And during IVD 2004, UNV in collaboration with World Vision Uganda, WFP, OCHA and the Parents Teacher’s Association of Angai Primary School in Soroti District, renovated a classroom block that was burnt down by rebels who had invaded the town four months earlier. This deed was greatly appreciated as the school children have been left to take their lessons under trees.