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UGANDA – New digital tool to empower farmers to access extension services The new digital tool is going to empower farmers to access extension services and market information through mobile telephones……The program is being implemented with the support of the Swedish government, through Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency, which is targeting women, youth, refugees and migrants, who are normally underserved when it comes to digital solutions.

Since the beginning of UNHCR’s COVID-19 response in Southern Africa, almost 1,900 health workers have been trained on COVID-19 prevention and response, nearly 4,400 additional hand washing facilities have been established and over 329,300 households received soap for handwashing to prevent COVID-19.

An estimated total of 1,2 million refugees, internally displaced persons and host community members had been reached by awareness-raising sessions on COVID-19.

UNHCR had installed 3,125 handwashing stations across DRC, over 102,000 persons received soap, and 2,069 community infrastructures had been disinfected

The humanitarian situation continues to aggravate in the east of the DRC. Attacks against civilians by armed groups and in some cases attributed to the Congolese army continue to uproot thousands of families.

In a press release, UNHCR has called upon states to urgently release refugees and asylum-seekers who are being unlawful and arbitrarily held in detention, asking that states act in accordance with international law and that amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable refugees are not placed at heightened and unnecessary risk.

The ILO Approach to Inclusive Market Systems (AIMS) team and UNHCR Refugee Livelihoods team have organized a webinar to discuss how a Market Systems Development (MSD) approach can provide a useful framework for actors in this triple nexus to plan strategic, market-driven interventions to build back better, more resilient and inclusive economies in forced displacement settings. This webinar has been organized under the framework of the ILO-UNHCR Joint Action Plan on advancing employment opportunities and decent work for refugees, other forcibly displaced persons and national workers. Panelists shared their reflections and first-hand experiences from the field on how they are adapting their market-based approaches and programmes to contribute to the post-COVID-19 jobs and livelihoods recovery for refugees and host communities. The recording of the ILO-UNHCR Webinar is now available here: https://bit.ly/2DWeOgY

IKEA Foundation contributes $3.5 million to support FAO's work with refugees and host communities in eastern Africa 30 July 2020, Rome - A $3.5 million dollar contribution from the IKEA Foundation will support efforts by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to empower refugees and their host communities in one of the world's largest displacement crises. The partnership will help vulnerable populations in Kenya and Uganda to generate a reliable source of income, by helping them to cultivate in-demand crops and connecting them to market opportunities. The support from the IKEA Foundation will allow FAO, in partnership with UNHCR, to help 17 000 refugees and local residents earn a decent income by growing high-quality crops, using regenerative farming methods that protect the environment. The initial phase of the project will run for four years, and will link the farmers with local food companies which need to develop a reliable supply base for these products. The initial collaboration will focus on passion fruit and groundnut production and will involve two local private sector companies: KadAfrica, which operates in Uganda and exports passion fruit pulp, and INSTA Products, a Kenya-based company that manufactures Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) items where the main ingredient is groundnut paste. Although refugees living in both countries have some access to farmland and rights to work, the majority are still dependent on food aid: more than 70 percent of refugees in Uganda and more than 80 percent in Kenya depend on UN agencies or their partners to meet their basic food needs. Those who can grow their own food often lack ways to sell any surplus, as agricultural production is not linked to market opportunities. In Uganda, for example, only 22 percent of refugees and 45 percent of host communities manage to sell part of their produce. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1300750/icode/

On 28 July, the Secretary-General released a policy brief on the impact of COVID-19 in an Urban World, which notes that cities are at the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting for an estimated 90 per cent of cases. However, there is no evidence that urban density per se correlates with higher virus transmission. In fact, most of what has made cities vulnerable is a result of choices about how cities are organised and how people live, work and travel in and around them. The crisis has exposed deep inequalities and showed that tackling the virus is more challenging in urban areas where access to quality healthcare is uneven, housing inadequate, water and sanitation lacking, transport infrastructure patchy and jobs precarious. While local governments play a critical role as front-line responders, they also face a significant financial strain from declining tax revenues. On the other hand, cities are hubs of resilience and human ingenuity, and this crisis has shown how city dwellers can adapt overnight to new ways of working and functioning while demonstrating extraordinary solidarity and support for one another. The policy brief offers three key recommendations. First, all phases of the pandemic response should seek to tackle the inequalities and long-term development deficits that have been so cruelly exposed and that have made certain communities so vulnerable. Second, the capacities of local governments need strengthening to avoid disruptions to essential public services in the near-term and enable them to steer effectively sustainable urban development in the coming decades. Third, it is critical to pursue a green, resilient and inclusive economic recovery that builds on some of the innovations we have seen during lockdowns.