By Diana. N. Kintu
Uganda is set to introduce a groundbreaking national framework that will transform how progress in refugee and host community development is assessed. The Uganda Self-Reliance Index (UG-SRI), to be officially launched on November 27, represents a major step toward standardizing how government and development partners measure resilience, economic independence, and well-being among displaced populations and the communities that host them.
The new tool is a product of a collaborative process spearheaded by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, with substantial technical and financial support from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). It responds to a long-standing challenge in Uganda’s refugee response system: the lack of a harmonized method for determining whether different interventions are truly enabling people to become self-reliant.
For years, humanitarian and development agencies running livelihood, education, health, food security, and empowerment initiatives have used different indicators to evaluate results. This made it difficult to compare the success of programmes from one district to another or across agencies. For example, determining whether economic empowerment initiatives in West Nile were performing better than those in South Western Uganda has been difficult due to varying assessment methods.
WFP’s Head of Programme, Ms. Genevieve Chicoine, emphasized the significance of standardization in improving accountability and visibility of impact.
“Without a harmonised tool, it becomes difficult to compare results or truly understand whether participants are becoming self-reliant across interventions and locations,” she noted.
The UG-SRI seeks to eliminate these gaps. As a unified, government-led measurement framework, it will require all partners implementing refugee and host community programs to assess progress using the same indicators. This will create a clearer national picture of what is working, where improvement is needed, and how well Uganda is advancing toward its long-term resilience goals.
The development of the UG-SRI also fulfills a major pledge Uganda made at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum. WFP co-chaired the technical working group that brought together multiple government ministries, humanitarian agencies, and development partners to build the framework. By supporting the pledge financially and technically, WFP helped ensure that the tool meets global best-practice standards and aligns with Uganda’s progressive refugee policy environment.
The index will track progress in key dimensions of self-reliance, including food security, household income, health and well-being, educational attainment, and overall socio-economic capacity. It is expected to serve as a central resource for monitoring development over time, improving planning, and guiding policy adjustments that target the needs of refugees and host communities more effectively.
WFP has reaffirmed its continued commitment to supporting the government during the rollout phase and has encouraged all organizations working in refugee response—both humanitarian and development—to adopt the index as a standard reporting tool. This move is expected to deepen coordination within the sector, reduce duplication of efforts, and promote investment in interventions that demonstrate measurable results.
With the launch of the Uganda Self-Reliance Index, the country is taking a decisive step toward a more evidence-based, consistent, and transparent refugee response system—one that strengthens resilience, accountability, and shared prosperity for both refugees and the Ugandan communities that welcome them.