USAID’s Supporting Access to Justice, Fostering Equity and Peace (SAFE) Program is a five-year initiative to improve citizen access to land-related justice and to strengthen peacebuilding and conflict mitigation.
This Report is organized to track to the program’s progress under the objectives and intermediate results identified in the program’s Work Plan. The Report highlights progress towards planned achievement of milestones and performance management indicators. The Report details the program’s contributions to access to justice and conflict mitigation in Uganda. The Report includes success stories and information on results, challenges, and next steps to be implemented in Quarter 1 of Year 3. Key documents produced in Year 2 are included in the Annex to this Report.
PROGRESS HIGHLIGHTS
During Year 2, the Supporting Access to Justice, Fostering Equity and Peace (SAFE) Program implemented activities to improve access to justice and peace and reconciliation in Uganda, with the deliberate aim of ensuring the sustainability of our activities even after Program ends. SAFE works closely with the Conflict Early Warning and Response Unit (CEWERU) at the Ministry of Internal Affairs during implementation of conflict monitors training, conflict assessment reports and conflict mapping. SAFE’s second round of grants cover multiple districts in the North and West, addressing a range of issues in both Component I and Component II and all have components targeting women and youth. Illustrative progress highlights are described below:
IMPROVED ACCESS TO JUSTICE
- The Program finalized and distributed the Land Rights Hand Book and Sensitization Toolkit to the Ministry of Lands and SAFE grantees.
- The program provided legal aid to a total of 932 beneficiaries (485 men and 447 women) and sensitized a total of 10,305 beneficiaries across the districts of Gulu, Amuru, Lira, Moroto, Kibaale, Jinja and Masaka.
- The program registered 116 cases for mediation. 68 of the cases were completed with Memoranda of Understanding signed between the parties.
PEACE AND RECONCILIATION
- SAFE completed a rapid assessment of the refugee crisis in West Nile region stemming from the influx of refugees from South Sudan. The assessment focused on conflict tensions and triggers and was able to inform grant-making activities through two CSOs.
- 180 conflict monitors from 27 districts were trained in conflict monitoring, analysis and reporting. The training involved a practical session on using the toll-free SMS system to report conflict incidents as they occur.
- SAFE conducted consultations with local government officials, civil society and oil and gas companies in the Albertine region to establish key activities to mitigate conflicts related to the discovery of oil and gas in the area.
- SAFE trained 28 radio journalists in conflict-sensitive reporting, introducing conflict transformation models that integrate diverse voices in reporting of conflict and highlight women’s and youths’ perspectives.