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Press Release: Uganda Cash Consortium Receives €6 Million in Funding from European Union to Provide Cash Assistance to Refugees in Uganda

The Uganda Cash Consortium (UCC), led by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in partnership with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), has received a new grant of 6,000,000.00 EUR from the EU’s Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) to continue the provision of cash-based assistance across targeted refugee settlements in Uganda.

Through this funding, the UCC will support at least 62,000 of the most vulnerable individuals within settlements in the Southwest (Kyaka II, Kyangwali, Rwamwanja, Nakivale, Oruchinga), Mid-West (Kiryandongo), West Nile (Imvepi, Rhino Camp, Bidi Bidi, Lobule, Palorinya) and North (Adjumani, Palabek) regions of Uganda.

As part of the UCC’s intervention, more than 44,000 refugee community members will benefit from unconditional multi-purpose cash assistance designed to assist individuals and households to meet their most immediate needs.

The assistance will be provided monthly over the course of 5 months, with a potential sixth cash transfer, and through a digital mechanism (i.e. mobile money and/or bank transfers). The UCC is also scaling up the referral mechanism to better link to and assist referred beneficiaries from other agencies across the settlements.

The referral mechanism is also open to protection partners, able to identify individuals with high protection risks, and whereby the complementary cash assistance will reduce or eliminate the protection risk.

Cash will also be provided to over 18,000 children and adolescents, including approximately 1,300 Ugandan nationals, who are currently out of school or at risk of dropping out. This sectorial cash assistance will be provided termly for Term 2 and 3 in 2023, all three terms in 2024, and Term 1 in 2025.

The UCC has been providing cash assistance since March 2019, observing the positive outcomes of the support in the most vulnerable communities. The DRC is grateful to the EU for responding to the most urgent basic needs of the most socio-economically vulnerable refugees. Currently, the people of concern face challenges in Uganda as the funding is drastically decreasing. Humanitarian actors also need to do more with less. One added value of the UCC is the strong focus on cost efficiency; 75% of the entire budget goes to beneficiaries. The DRC, with the partner LWF, are committed to continuing their effort in supporting the most vulnerable in meeting their basic needs and enrolling or retaining pupils in school

Anna Maria Trzcinska, the Uganda Cash Consortium Manager