Agoro International Vocational Institute, Lamwo District, Northern Uganda, Africa
Sustainable livelihoods for people in a former conflict zone

The Project

EDW is working with our partners in Northern Uganda, and in the UK and Germany, to create sustainable livelihoods, through trade, for people in a former war zone.

For 20 years, Northern Uganda was gripped by war, during which boys were forcibly enrolled as child soldiers and girls as sex slaves. Those not abducted were placed in ‘protected camps’ and acquired a total dependency culture. In January 2009, after two years of peace, the camps closed. Families returned to their villages, where utter poverty prevails. The project will be based in Lamwo District, where 230,000 formerly Internally Displaced People live.

Traditionally, 95% will become subsistence farmers with families, in plentiful, fertile land, but with few skills. This project will focus on ensuring that the population - predominantly young - are empowered with skills to kick-start the region’s economic recovery by growing for income and trading in identified markets.

The Partners

EDW is working with our partners, the Gulu Women’s Empowerment Network (GWENET) and Agoro International Vocational Institute (AIVI) in Northern Uganda, with British Consultancy Charitable Trust (BCCT) and Charity Bank in the UK and with GFA Consulting Group in Germany, to establish AIVI - set up as a Pilot Project in September 2008 - as a viable enterprise institute in the rural region of Agoro, Lamwo County, Northern Uganda.

Tackling the Problem

Following comprehensive consultation on the ground in Northern Uganda, the project aims to establish a sustainable agricultural enterprise network, incorporating best practice demonstration farms within AIVI and two satellite training centres, and farmers’ groups with model farms. These will be established through building capacity, working with local organisations and the community. Collocation with local farmers will promote skills acquisition by ‘seeing and doing’, while supply chain development will provide outlets to markets for produce.

This will build the infrastructure and skills base to enable local people to make a living during the course of the project and create a framework for establishing sustainable livelihoods, through trade, beyond the project’s conclusion.

The Challenges

The major challenge will be demonstrating that sustainable livelihoods can be achieved through moving from a culture of dependency towards one of aspiration, motivation, skills acquisition and self-determination through work. Vocational skills training, business training, community mobilisation, advocacy and specific actions to ensure self-employed participation in planned reconstruction and new economic activity will be key elements in bringing about this change in culture.

Another major issue is the heavy reliance on woodland for fuel and homestead construction, resulting in uncontrolled ‘slash and burn’, which will continue to degrade the environment if left unchecked. Conservation agriculture and building will be taught.

The project fits well with the Government of Uganda’s Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) for Northern Uganda, launched in October 2007 and implemented from 1 July 2008. The PRDP is a commitment by the Government to stabilise and recover Northern Uganda over three years through a set of coherent programmes in one organising framework.

The project is tailored to provide a practical basis for participation in the new Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF II), a commitment to promote broad-based agricultural and rural development through community development initiatives. Implementation of this project will be within government policy and NUSAF II strategy.

More about the project - Research and Consultation