Uganda
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Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
Our strategy
Catalyze change-makers to promote economic growth, increase government accountability, and improve health and nutrition for vulnerable communities.
The context
In the aftermath of a generation-long civil war that claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions more, Uganda is finally healing. But population growth is straining resources and services in a country that still has a long way to go. The economy is relatively stable, but conflicts over land threaten agricultural livelihoods, upon which 80 percent of the population depends. The challenges include fragmented markets, low productivity, stubbornly poor child health indicators and weak infrastructure that impedes rapid growth and makes it difficult to achieve a sustained improvement in living conditions.
Our work
- Agriculture & Food: Training farmer groups in business skills to grow subsistence plots to small-scale commercial farming operations
- Economic development: Providing jobs building roads that link farms to markets
- Conflict & Governance: Working with elder councils to promote peacebuilding efforts and lead events to foster trust between tribes
All stories about Uganda
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Uganda: Seeing and speaking it all September 23, 2010
He may be just 24 years old, but his experience with traumatic events would put him within the same levels of an individual in his late 40s. That’s Olanya Morris for you.
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Uganda: Comfort and peace reach across generations September 22, 2010
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Uganda: Joining their efforts and growing together September 21, 2010
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Uganda: Truly, skills for employment and skills for life September 14, 2010
A few weeks ago, I was honored to serve as the Chief Judge at an interschool debate on HIV/AIDS prevention. Under a perfect blue Ugandan sky, youth from two neighboring schools prepared to deliver remarks on the importance of abstinence, safe sex, delayed marriage and healthy life choices.
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Uganda: VIDEO: Empowering our African staff to be storytellers September 3, 2010
Wednesday was the last day of our writing and photography workshop in Kitgum, Uganda — and it was the day that we learned the most from each other.
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Uganda: An African kilometer August 31, 2010
In most parts of the world, a kilometer is shorter than a mile — but not in Africa. Here, a kilometer feels many miles long.
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Uganda: Three days, 22 people, 10 countries and many untold stories August 30, 2010
After a long day of traveling almost the entire length of Uganda — from the shores of Lake Victoria nearly all the way north to the Sudanese border — we arrived in the sweltering city of Kitgum last night.
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Uganda: In northern Uganda, hope springs eternal August 4, 2010
As the brutal twenty-year civil war in Uganda has unofficially ended, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have exited Pader — a district in the country’s northern Acholiland — which was for many years at the epicenter of atrocities committed by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
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Uganda: After the bombings in Kampala, learning from survival July 21, 2010
When I prepared to come to Uganda this summer to do a peacebuilding evaluation with Mercy Corps, I prepared for danger. I was going to the northeastern region of Karamoja, where armed warriors raid cattle and ambush vehicles in a conflict punctuated by extreme poverty and marginalization.
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Uganda: From our photo library: An 'Easter egg' from Uganda July 2, 2010
Staff members send me photos they've come across pretty regularly. The special ones I call "Easter eggs" because they're such a pleasant discovery.