Katalyeba, Uganda — That is about an ethos that any humanitarian company can undertake: construct relationships first, and let these relationships information what you do.
The air was gentle with the scent of eucalyptus as nightfall settled over the Lexus bar compound in Katalyeba, a distant city on the sting of the expansive Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement in southwestern Uganda – residence to over 90,000 refugees.
I used to be assembly with a bunch of refugee leaders for what now we have normalised as a night wind-down: a catch-up, no identify tags, no flip charts, no hidden agenda, the informality being the purpose.
Over bottled sodas, the occasional beer, or a splash of Uganda Waragi – the much-loved native gin – we carve out area from the performative rituals that always plague humanitarian interactions.
Seated round a small desk below an enormous mango tree was gathered a mixture of voices: myself from Cohere, alongside refugee leaders heading neighborhood organisations from throughout the Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement.
We started by discussing ongoing initiatives these leaders had been working, and the dialog quickly spiralled into one thing deeper: a reckoning with the worldwide support system’s fixation on managing displacement as a substitute of ending the exclusion that sustains it.
One chief leaned throughout the small sq. desk: “We have been right here 30 years, however we nonetheless want a written move to go away the settlement.”
One other added, voice regular however weary: “My daughter was born right here. She speaks solely Runyankore (spoken in southwestern Uganda) and English, however Uganda nonetheless insists she is ‘from Congo’. A customer who can by no means keep.”
There was no recorder on the desk, no workshop rapporteur within the nook. But in that unguarded area, essentially the most piercing critique of Uganda’s lauded refugee coverage – and of the broader humanitarian system – took form.
Why “progressive” Uganda nonetheless appears like a cage
Uganda hosts 1.8 million refugees – greater than another African nation. Its extensively praised settlement mannequin permits refugees to farm, begin companies, and transfer inside its nationwide borders. However the reward hides sharp limitations.
Encampment nonetheless guidelines: Refugees should reside in distant settlements, formally request permission to go away, and can’t legally settle in most host communities. The promise of permanency continues to be out of attain. Households who arrived within the Nineties – and youngsters born on Ugandan soil – stay categorized as refugees.
By 2024, cracks within the system had been inconceivable to disregard. Uganda’s refugee response ranked sixth on the Norwegian Refugee Council’s record of the world’s most uncared for crises. Meals support had dwindled to only $3 per individual monthly, whereas some reception centres had been working at 500% capability.
In Might 2025, UNICEF reported that solely 9% of the Uganda Nation Refugee Response Plan for the primary quarter had been funded – a 26% drop in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months.
Important sectors comparable to safety and well being and vitamin suffered dramatic funding reductions of 68% and 61% respectively, leaving the World Meals Programme, the refugee company (UNHCR), and UNICEF unable to satisfy even primary wants.
However past this fast funding shortfall lie deeper points within the structure of the worldwide refugee encampment coverage that Uganda – by extension – implements with just a few modifications.
A mannequin that will depend on indefinite humanitarian assist, with out providing a transparent authorized and social path towards inclusion, is certain to fray below stress.
The present cracks – meals insecurity, overcrowded reception centres, and mounting frustration amongst refugees – aren’t simply signs of donor fatigue. They mirror the long-anticipated penalties of a containment technique that gives neither permanence nor significant autonomy to the individuals it claims to guard.
Towards that backdrop, I requested the group a easy query: Should you had to decide on, between continued humanitarian support because it exists at present, or full authorized and financial rights by way of integration into Ugandan society, which might you choose?
There was no hesitation.
“Rights. Give us rights,” one refugee chief shortly stated.
“We do not want free land – we want the precise to purchase it,” one other added.
“This technique plans for us to attend – to attend for meals, look forward to resettlement. This technique makes individuals drunkards and misplaced,” stated one other.
“Individuals come right here when they’re enterprising however find yourself shedding their goals ready for handouts,” he added. “I’m personally not anxious concerning the stopping of support by (US President Donald) Trump. Perhaps individuals can get up.”
The “Belief Circle”
That type of honesty did not emerge by likelihood. It is the results of how my organisation, Cohere, operates at present. We name it a Belief Circle. Not like conventional humanitarian programmes that always exclude refugees from shaping choices that have an effect on their lives, Belief Circles prioritise deep, ongoing relationships with these most impacted.
Too usually, formal support techniques are top-down, rooted in paternalism and formed by the pursuits of donors, not communities. This results in insurance policies and programmes that misunderstand, misrepresent, and even hurt the very individuals they declare to serve. Belief Circles disrupt that by centering refugee management – guaranteeing that options mirror lived realities, not distant assumptions.
Every of our 5 regional Belief Circles throughout Africa consists of all our workers – from the CEO to the workplace accountant. Crucially, every circle is coordinated by individuals deeply linked to the communities: refugee leaders, Cohere workers with lived expertise or proximity, members of Cohere’s refugee advisory panel, host-community allies, and opinion leaders which can be prioritising the wants of essentially the most marginalised.
Technique would not stream top-down. It strikes sideways and upward. It begins not with logframes, however with relationships. This is not a funding mechanism. It isn’t a token gesture of session or a shortcut to examine the localisation field. It is a construction that makes belief and relationship-building operational. It prioritises proximity and shared values, eradicating the necessity for refugees to “carry out neediness” for outsiders.
That night in Rwamwanja, the refugee leaders did not want surveys to be heard – they had been already inside the net of belief. As one chief defined: “In a workshop, you include questionnaires. Right here, you include time and ears. That modifications the solutions we give and the concepts we share.”
And that shift issues. When belief leads, communities communicate with candour, reveal ignored priorities, and co-create options which can be extra grounded and sturdy. It results in higher programme design, stronger uptake, fewer blind spots, and, most significantly, to a way of possession that no quantity of funding alone can generate.
From listening to shifting energy
Inside a Belief Circle, voices do not vanish into donor templates, they actively form what occurs subsequent. Take, for instance, a collective choice to assist a women-led refugee organisation working with teenage moms. That call is not pushed by experiences or logframes, however by shared values and lived relationships.
Members belief the organisation, not due to paperwork, however as a result of somebody within the circle has walked alongside them, seen their work, and vouched for it. That belief ripples outward – shared, not centralised.
That is about an ethos that any company can undertake, no matter dimension: Construct relationships first, and let these relationships information what you do.
Uganda continues to be praised as a worldwide mannequin. But when that mannequin nonetheless leaves individuals boxed in after three many years, then maybe the mannequin is damaged. The refugee leaders I met are not asking for meals rations. They’re able to contribute – purchase land, pay taxes, and name Uganda residence. Their demand is modest: recognition and rights.
Mockingly, Uganda’s personal historical past exhibits that is potential. Most of the fighters who helped deliver the present authorities to energy – together with the previous deputy minister of defence, the late Fred Rwigyema – had been as soon as refugees educated and built-in in Uganda.
But present insurance policies stay tethered to exterior support incentives that prioritise containment over integration. Redirecting donor stress and sources towards rights-based integration may assist revive Uganda’s previous openness – and provide a extra sustainable path ahead.
Join free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the newest in African information delivered straight to your inbox
Success!
Virtually completed…
We have to affirm your electronic mail deal with.
To finish the method, please comply with the directions within the electronic mail we simply despatched you.
Error!
There was an issue processing your submission. Please attempt once more later.
Dignity should outweigh dependency
Again to that night on the Lexus bar compound – no grand “programme” was born. However one thing extra essential surfaced: a shared settlement that dignity should outweigh dependency, and that humanitarian scaffolding should ultimately give option to authorized inclusion.
Nonetheless, what allowed that demand to floor wasn’t a marketing consultant’s toolkit. It was a quiet environment of humble human connection – the Belief Circle at work.
It begins with three easy rules:
· Present up as a neighbour, not an skilled.
· Pay attention longer than you communicate.
· Should you’re removed from the issue, let these closest to it lead, and belief and again their company.
If we within the humanitarian world can try this – constantly and at scale – we could lastly transfer from rations to rights, from encampment to actual belonging.
However this requires governments to behave.
Donors should transcend funding providers and assist coverage shifts in the direction of integration. Uganda confirmed in the course of the 1985 Bush Conflict, when political pursuits drove the acceptance of inclusion, that it’s completely potential.
At present, the case have to be made once more, not for political acquire, however as a result of it is the precise factor to do.
In Rwamwanja, refugee leaders engaged by way of the Belief Circle are already modelling this shift. They don’t seem to be the bulk – but. However what we’re studying from them provides a blueprint. The query is whether or not the remainder of us will act upon it.
Micheal in Sinhaza – Programme lead at Coherecultivating trust-based partnerships with communities and leaders to prioritise the wants of essentially the most marginalised
