Multisector Needs Assessment Karamoja Region - Uganda

Welthungerhilfe (WHH) conducted a multi-sector needs assessment over March and April 2023 to provide an updated understanding of the humanitarian situation in Karamoja, particularly in light of climatic shocks, and localised conflict and insecurity. The assessment provides information on emerging and increasing needs in the area, highlighting the dire conditions many people are facing, and seeking to response organisations better adapt their programming to meet these urgent needs. Key findings include:

FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION

• 98% of respondents said they did not have enough food to eat in the past 7 days. 41% of interviewees reported that the main constraint to accessing food was the unavailability of money. Similarly, 41% of respondents reported poor climatic conditions, resulting in poor crop yield.

• Almost all respondents (96%) of households surveyed were either employing a medium or high degree of coping strategies, highlighting that many households are needing to adopt more frequent and/or extreme coping mechanisms to meet their immediate food needs.

• Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) scores highlighted that the number of women who achieved minimum dietary diversity was extremely low. Only 8% of women reached this in Moroto, 6% in Nabilatuk, and none in Napak.

LIVELIHOODS

• In many households, the loss of livestock has disrupted the traditional roles of men. As a result, households have diversified their economic activities, such as engaging in casual labour outside of the livestock sector, selling firewood/charcoal, and local brewing. Women have increasingly taken on a more prominent role in these economic activities, leading to a significant shift in their contributions to the household income.

• Women in 94% of surveyed households contribute to the family income, compared to men who are only part of household income generation in 60% of households.

• The main sources of income are charcoal burning/sales (27%), casual labour related to agricultural activities (25%) and selling firewood (19%). Both men and women are engaged in casual agricultural labour and charcoal burning at similar levels, with the primary difference being that women were much more likely to engage in selling firewood (56%), and men more likely to provide casual labour for construction (40%).

WASH

• Only 1 out of 10 households has access to the minimum humanitarian standard of 15 litres of water per person per day'. 89% of households do not have a toilet or latrine of their own. 67% of households share their latrines with other households. Of those, the majority (68%) share it with between one to three families.

• 43% of households with children under the age of 5 reported they had diarrhea within the past two weeks. Additionally, 91% of households do not have a place to wash their hands.

• On average 30% of households stated there has been conflict or fight over water use in the community or with the neighbouring community.

PROTECTION & HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

The most cited major challenges in terms of protection in the community are the insecurity of lives and animals, followed by the presence of armed groups and/or raiders, and domestic violence. 89% of surveyed respondents stated they had not received any humanitarian assistance in the past 30 days. Of the 11% who said that they humanitarian assistance reached them, 59% received food aid and 28% agricultural inputs (such as tools and seeds).

99% of the respondents reported not being able to meet the basic needs of their households in the past 30 days.