Migration Innovation in Uganda

Travelling to East/ Central Africa always comes with surprises. As for example that Ruanda’s plastic ban is really enforced. When the plane held in Kigali for a stop-over, the personnel reminded the deboarding passengers that it was strictly illegal to bring any sort of plastic bag into the country. From a European point of view, Ruanda took a leap that will take us Europeans probably another decade. The same applies for the use of mobile phones and connectivity by the way. My cellphone network coverage was better and more reliable in Kampala than it is in Berlin.

A similar insight came with a closer look to Uganda’s migration politics: Uganda is hosting the largest number of refugees in Africa, but instead of putting migrants into camps and leaving them without any rights to wait for some sort of help, the Ugandan government is providing land and work permits to displaced persons.

Yet, a lot of challenges remain and we could address some of those in our multi-stakeholder planning workshop, which I moderated. We came out with a solid annual work plan, taking into account the views and ideas of the national partners – and making sure with the other international donor community that we do not double our efforts.