Human Security: Building Sustainable Peace and Development in Karamoja
Background
The Karamoja sub-region in north-eastern Uganda - where the link between the natural harsh semi-arid environment, security, development and human rights is profound - is an area of the country that appears to be locked into a vicious cycle. Karamoja is often referred to as Uganda's 'forgotten crisis'.
The Karamoja cluster lies across four countries (Uganda, the Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia) and the Ugandan Karamoja sub-region consists of the districts of Moroto, Kotido, Nakapiripirit and Kaabong. This region remains one of the poorest areas of Uganda in almost all development and humanitarian indicators with severe ramifications on neighboring districts. Armed violence continues due to a combination of factors including cultural/historic aspects, lack of formal security and justice system, competition amongst tribes for natural resources, prevalence of illegal weapons, government-local grievances, and militarization.
Development objectives
This project is designed to support implementation of activities linked to the Government of Uganda’s development framework for Karamoja. The overall goal of the project is 'to contribute to the promotion of human security, peace and stability in order to create conditions for sustainable development in Karamoja'.
Key activities & expected results
The project activities and expected outputs fall under five main components:
strengthen capacity of local governments in Karamoja to undertake peace building and conflict transformation
empower women to positively contribute to peace building and peaceful conflict resolution in Karamoja
support district local governments to undertake development interventions that enhance peace building and peaceful conflict resolution in Karamoja
collaborate with the district local governments to undertake cross-border peace building initiatives with pastoral groups in countries neighbouring Karamoja
strengthen national capacity for peace building and development
Implementation phase
This project is a follow-up to the pilot implemented by OPM between June 2005 and June 2006. Implementation recently began in August 2007 and is expected to run through to July 2010.
