Despite Uganda’s flourishing economy, food insecurity remains a challenge in many parts of the country, particularly in the northeastern region of Karamoja. As in other fragile contexts, understanding and measuring the resilience of affected populations is crucial in order to provide better and more informed solutions and to empower vulnerable populations to withstand shocks. As such, an institutional set-up for resilience policy is essential for tackling chronic vulnerability to food insecurity.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI) addresses the effects of drought and related shocks in the IGAD region. This initiative provides a necessary framework to coordinate action and enhance partnerships at national, regional and international level to develop resilience-building interventions.

Informed by the IDDRSI strategy, Uganda developed its Country Programming Paper (CPP), a 15-year resilience strategy that identifies priority areas for intervention at both national and regional level. Uganda has since seen substantial investments made toward implementation of the CPP.

Against this backdrop, a Resilience Measurement Unit (RMU) was set up in Uganda in 2016 by FAO. It was tasked with coordinating and undertaking national resilience measurement efforts. It systematically measures the returns on investments aimed at increasing the resilience of vulnerable households in Uganda through the application of appropriate tools.

The RMU receives technical guidance from FAO and IGAD through the Resilience Analysis Unit (RAU) (see Key Facts) on the design of tools for data collection, analysis and reporting, following the Resilience Index Measurement Analysis (RIMA) model.

How does the process of institutionalizing resilience measurement and analysis contribute to increasing the resilience of livelihoods?

Institutionalization refers to having national institutions become part of, and eventually lead, resilience analysis in their country. This is achieved by developing local capacities in resilience measurement and analysis. It also implies involving key stakeholders to collect key research questions and to raise awareness on the measurement findings and their possible use as policy indications and/or impact assessments.

This process brings ownership at country level and ensures that the government is able to measure and analyse resilience of livelihoods, allowing for policy design and impact assessment. Institutionalization ultimately enables better targeted solutions to be designed for vulnerable populations that help to build their resilience to shocks and stressors.