An assessment of economic and environmental impacts of refugees in Nakivale, Uganda
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Date
2020
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Routledge Taylor and Francis group
Abstract
Uganda is one of the leading host countries for refugees in the East
and Horn of Africa. Uganda’s location among instable neighbouring
countries and its open door policy to refugees has seen a big
number of refugees flowing into the country from Southern
Sudan, Rwanda, Somalia, Burundi, Eritrea, Kenya, Ethiopia and
Democratic Republic of Congo. Some of the refugees are hosted
in Nakivale one of the biggest refugee camps in the country located
in South Western Uganda. This paper documents the economic and
environmental impacts of refugees in Nakivale refugee camp. Data
were generated through Focus Group Discussion and interviewing
camp leaders, government officials, local leaders, the refugees and
community members. This paper contends that the establishment
and dense occupancy of Nakivale refugee camp have exerted pressure
on the environment as the refugees’ endeavor to revitalize
their livelihoods. The increasing numbers of refugees and their
active involvement in the production systems has had an impact
on the economy. The government should harmonize the interpretation
of the 2006 Refugee Act on the right of refugees to employment
so that they can increasingly be engaged in production
systems, sizes of land allocations should be increased to facilitate
expansion in economic activities; and scale up the environment
management aspects that has been rolled out in new Uganda
Development Response to Displacement Project
Description
Keywords
Economic; environment; refugees; Uganda
Citation
To cite this article: Mwangu Alex Ronald (2020): An assessment of economic and environmental impacts of refugees in Nakivale, Uganda, Migration and Development, DOI: 10.1080/21632324.2020.1787105