# Data and descriptive statistics

Primary data used in this brief comes from the Uganda Refugee and Host Communities Household Survey 2018 (RHCS). The RHCS is one of the few surveys in the region providing a representative picture of the socio-economic status of the refugee and host community population. The survey is representative of the refugee and host population in the West Nile and Southwest regions, and the city of Kampala. The host population is defined as the native population in districts where refugee settlements are situated. One important advantage of the RHCS is that it uses an identical survey instrument as the Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS). The UNHS is the key survey conducted by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics to measure poverty. Using the same instrument allows measuring poverty in the RHCS in a way comparable to how the UNHS measures official national poverty rates.

According to the World Bank (2019), despite all economic inclusion efforts and basic service integration, refugees in Uganda were much more likely to be poor than Ugandans in 2018, 46 versus 18 percent using the national poverty line. This implies that almost half of refugees did not have enough resources to satisfy the minimum daily caloric requirements and basic non-food needs – an issue that has become more acute recently as WFP’s general food assistance has had to be prioritized and reduced for many refugees due to financing shortfalls. Using a different daily poverty line, the international poverty line of US$2.15 expressed in 2017 purchasing power parities (PPP), one finds even higher poverty rates: 70 versus 38 percent accordingly. The highest poverty rate among refugees is observed in the West Nile region reaching 58 percent using the official national poverty line and almost 80 percent using the international poverty line. Having a better educated household head is associated with lower poverty among refugees. There is little difference in poverty incidence among refugees who depend on income from economic activities or aid. However, the poverty rate for refugees who depend on remittances is lower.<sup>3</sup> Higher poverty rates among refugees are associated with higher food insecurity and lower asset ownership compared to hosts. About seven out of ten refugee households in Uganda experience severe food insecurity, while for hosts the proportion is five out of ten (World Bank 2019). Food insecurity among refugees in Kampala (57 percent) is lower than in the Southwest (89 percent of households) and West Nile (85 percent). Regarding assets, refugees are less likely to have access to productive assets such as agricultural land and livestock compared to Ugandans. Land ownership and size of land are also significantly lower respectively smaller among refugees than the hosts but with some variation among refugees across settlements and their time of arrival.

Access to basic services among refugees is either on par with hosts or sometimes better according to World Bank (2019). Access to improved water and sanitation is found to be higher among refugee households compared to host households (94 and 39 percent versus 66 and 26 percent accordingly). There are no substantial differences in school enrollment among refugees and hosts with primary enrollment being high, but secondary enrollment being remarkably low for both groups. Elevated costs and language of instruction (which changes from local vernacular to English) are often mentioned as important constraints to staying in school among refugees. There are no major differences in illness prevalence between refugees and hosts, but refugees have slightly better access to health care.

Refugees are less likely to be employed than hosts, with agriculture being the largest sector of employment. Only 28 percent of refugees are employed compared to 64 percent among Ugandans. Unemployed refugees are more likely to be young, with low levels of education, who arrived in Uganda less than two years ago. One in five refugee households own a non-agricultural enterprise which is slightly less than among Ugandans. Among the employed, seven out of ten hosts and half of refugees work in the agriculture industry. As mentioned earlier, refugees are less likely to own land than hosts and mostly have user rights instead of owning the land (World Bank 2019).

The COVID-19 shock had a substantial negative impact on refugees who demonstrated a much slower recovery than Ugandans. According to results from phone surveys conducted since onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (Atamanov et

> 3 These are mostly Somalian refugees living in Kampala and who are not getting aid.

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