Building resilient refugee and host communities with DLT The primary target area for the project will be part of Imvepi refugee settlements and surrounding host communities in Imvepi Parish, Odupi Sub-County, Arua District. Arua District has a (original host) population of 846,491 and a refugee population of 151,439, which is 15% of total population Arua District, as per UNHRC website.

The settlement is selected due to the high humanitarian needs in shelter, livelihoods and environmental protection. The settlement is ranked as one of the lowest in economic empowerment. Compared to the oldest settlement in Arua District, Rhino Camp, Imvepi has lower levels of income, smaller scale businesses, is heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture compared to their counterparts and is still emerging from welfare support to small scale Income Generating Activities (IGAs) to subsidise their income. Though there are several actors involved in all sectors, gaps still exist, also considering the fact that the camp still receives new arrivals of approximately 200 people on a weekly basis. Nevertheless, by end of 2018 there is no need for life-saving emergency aid activities.

Out of the humanitarian agencies active to provide for basic needs in Arua District, there is a gap in psycho-social support. Lack of opportunities for income generation and widespread exposure to traumatic events put refugees at risk of poor wellbeing. The Transcultural Psycho-social Organisation Uganda (TPO Uganda) have indicated that youth in refugee settlements score high on indicators relating to severe mental distress, including suicidal thoughts. In the livelihoods sector, young people struggle to meet their own subsistence needs, rely heavily on food aid and are often unable to generate an income.

Market interaction among host and refugee communities is vibrant. Apart from the retail and wholesale shops that both groups can access easily, they have designated weekly market days in each location where they all bring commodities for sale. In some cases, refugees are selling relief items in order to meet their other basics needs. Which then calls for more activities in livelihood for them to sell and meet their other needs, since the amount of food distributed in most cases only meets a percentage of their monthly food requirements.

From disaster risk perspective, besides the influx of the high numbers of refugees, the target area is faced with changing weather patterns resulting in unpredictable and more intense rains combined with longer dry spells. Deforestation is weakening the ecosystem health. Systems and structures for disaster risk management as well as management of natural resources are not functioning well. Long-term objective: 

- Through this integrated resilience project, Cordaid aims for South Sudanese refugees and host communities to have increased capacity for peaceful co-existence and resilience to future hazard events of drought or flash flood and have increased economic self-reliance.

Short-term objectives:

- Target groups are able to satisfy their basic needs for water, food, shelter and psycho-social support.
- Target groups are engaged in resilient livelihoods to provide for sufficient and nutritious food, provide for (additional) income, and contribute to the economic development of the host districts.
- Target groups are sustainably managing the ecosystem and sustainably exploiting ecosystem services.
- Target groups have established sustainable and adequate structures for multi-stakeholder coordination and collaboration on disaster risk management and resources management.
- Government and donor policies support resilience and self-reliance of refugee and host communities. The project is targeting part of Imvepi refugee settlement and the surrounding host communities. The total newly verified figures per settlement as per the OPM/UNHRC latest (completed in October 2018) verification is 53,902 refugees in Imvepi. A secondary target area might be Rhino refugee settlement because of its specific needs on access to water. The total newly verified figures per settlement as per the OPM/UNHRC latest (completed in October 2018) verification is 72,296 in Rhino (Omugo camp is included in Rhino figure).

Five communities (comprising of both refugee and host communities) will be supported through this resilience project. The exact refugee and host communities are to be identified in the inception phase. Communities are seen as mixed groups representing both refugees and host communities living together or side-by-side. Criteria for community selection will include accessibility, safety and security, political situation of the community and openness to resilient recovery. The project will diversify the strategy and interventions per specific target group from the refugee and host communities as per their needs and capacities, aiming to cover the entire development spectrum from emergency support through resilient recovery to development support.

Instead of the minimal divide of 70/30, the project will target beneficiary groups with a 50/50 (selection) divide, between refugees and host communities. By this we hope to get the land required by the refugees for expanding their farmlands, as you have more host community members who can share land with refugees. When having 30% of host communities and 70% refugees, host community households sharing their land would be overwhelmed by the numbers. The project will also work with community leaders managing communal land to increase access to land.

Beneficiaries will be drawn from the following groups:

1. Vulnerable refugees who need psycho-social support, shelter and WASH support
2. Refugees who have settled for some time and who are establishing their lives in the camps 
3. Most-at-risk households from the refugee and host communities to strengthen their resilience capacity
4. Micro-entrepreneurs among the refugees and host communities
5. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in and around Arua