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MADI-OKOLLO - Charles Sunday, a three-time refugee from South Sudan living in Eden One cluster, Eden Zone in Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in Madi Okollo district has seen his life transformed through four acres.

Sunday says ever since he started experiencing refugee life in three different countries of DR Congo, Sudan and Uganda, it is the first time he owned land for commercial farming.

Sunday, with 15 dependants in his family, says when he was brought to Eden in 2016, life was very difficult and made worse by the reduction of food rations due to the prioritisation strategy by World Food Programme until 2023 when through the Housing Lands and property rights (HLP) project.

According to him, through the HLP project implemented by Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) under Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) with funding from the European Union, he was able to secure documented land of about four acres from a host community where he has raised over shillings 10 million by producing rice.

Sunday testifies that, through the proceeds from the rice production, he now has over 20 pigs which has helped empower him economically.

“At first, I entered into an informal agreement with a host community who offered me about two acres of land but he kept disturbing me even before the end of agreed period, he would demand more money and sometimes threaten to confiscate my produce in the garden and I had no peace at all,” Sunday says.

 After getting close to 20 bags of rice from two acres last year, Sunday has already prepared four acres where he expects to earn over shillings 20 million and says all his children are now in better schools in Koboko district while he also plans to expand the piggery business to further expand his economic desires.

Uganda currently hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world and continues to receive more.

According to a 2023 report from the World Food Programme (WFP), refugee households in the West Nile are generally poorer and less resilient than those in the host communities, have low levels of land for agriculture or livestock rearing and rely heavily on assistance as a main source of food and income.

Access to land is crucial for them, both for accommodation and livelihoods and to help increase their resilience for the future.

Meanwhile, the Refuge Welfare Council one chairperson Eden One village and the paralegal for NRC ICLA programme, Samuel Simon Albino, confirmed receiving and resolving a number of land-related disputes between the host community and refugees due to lack of documentation which has since reduced tremendously.

“This project helped us resolve a lot of land-related issues through provision of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms where we sit with the affected parties and resolve their issues as well as make them enter into formal land agreements that are documented and this has been a helpful strategy for peaceful co-existence,” Albino says.

The communication and media co-ordinator Norwegian Refugee Council, Dixon Odur, says the pressure exerted due to protracted displacements in the neighbouring countries necessitates the need for additional land for refugees as donor funding has been dwindling over time.

Refugees seek legal assistance at Eden cluster in Rhino camp. (Credit: Robert Adiga)

He says the European Union-funded ICLA projects ably addressed the housing, property and land-related challenges that often put the refugees at loggerheads with their host communities.

“This HLP component under ICLA has been a game changer in peaceful co-existence and this has seen transformed lives of refugees through increased production due to formal ownership of land by the refugees and we have developed systems where landlords enter into agreements with the refugees who need land as a result the food output among refugees has improved and we think this will help address the rampant conflicts being witnessed,” Odur says.

NRC legal aid services include collaborative dispute resolution methods (such as meditation to resolve boundary disputes); drafting legal documents; assisting with due diligence regarding potential HLP land transactions; referrals to partners for court representation and other services; and legal accompaniment for administrative procedures or other engagement with authorities.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports 54,196 new arrivals since January 2024, bringing the total up to 1,644,870 refugees in the country as of May 31, 2024.

The NRC Information Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) Programme has been implementing activities in three settlements in the West Nile region: Bidibidi, Rhino Camp and Imvepi.

 In these locations, NRC says it provides legal aid services on HLP. Through the ICLA project, a number of refugees have been able to own land to increase their productivity, especially after the rationalisation that saw refugees receiving only 70 and 30 percent respectively of the food ration by the World Food Programme.