The Power of Inclusion in Uganda
How USAID supports Indigenous communities in our work
A group of Indigenous people in Uganda working on community development with a USAID-supported researcher. / Makerere University-ResilientAfrica Network
Around the world, USAID incorporates practices and policies into our programs to ensure that Indigenous peoples’ rights are upheld and their voices heard. Uganda is home to a rich diversity of Indigenous peoples — including the Benet, the Tepeth, the Batwa, the Ik, and the Basongora — and it is critically important to include their perspectives when addressing development challenges that impact their communities. Each group faces their own unique challenges and historically have been excluded from most opportunities such as social services that other Ugandans enjoy.
In an effort to address this, USAID’s Mission in Uganda tapped three universities. With a consortium of higher education researchers around the world, USAID’s LASER PULSE (short for Long-Term Assistance and Services for Research Partners for University-Led Solutions Engine) is uniquely able to investigate a wide range of topics.
In Uganda, the consortium of Makerere University’s ResilientAfrica Network (a development lab founded by USAID), Mbarara University of Science and Technology, and Gulu University Constituent College are taking the lead. These three institutions are located near or within the areas where the Indigenous groups involved in this project reside or frequent.
In 2019, research teams from the three institutions worked with the Batwa, the Tepeth, the Ik, local governments, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector, to learn more about areas that need urgent attention: language and culture, health, education, and land ownership.
The research teams set out to collect the most current data and understand the needs of these Indigenous groups, with the objective of translating that information into development programming tailored to their needs.
ResilientAfrica Network’s Director Operations and Co-Investigator Julius Ssentongo visits with a group of Indigenous men in Uganda.
Makerere University-ResilientAfrica Network
“As a So/Tepeth youth myself, I don’t think the voices of the Tepeth are heard by our neighbors, who hold almost all the government positions in the district. The marginalization is a result of the diminishing Tepeth language,” says Joseph Lomer, who translated study instruments from English to Tepeth, and conducted surveys, interviews, and data analysis.
The research and data collection team consisted of members of each Indigenous group, who collected data from their own communities. This allowed community members to speak freely in their own language, and put local voices at the center of our work.
It also led to new discoveries, including details about the Ik’s origin. Also known as Teuso, the Ik have an estimated population of about 16,000 and their primary livelihoods are subsistence farming, bee keeping, fruit gathering, and hunting.
Despite the Ugandan Government’s efforts to improve service delivery, most Ik still live in poverty. They face marginalization and have high levels of illiteracy, limited health care, and insecurity resulting from land grabbing by neighboring pastoralists.
A community meeting in Uganda.
Makerere University-ResilientAfrica Network
Research teams held workshops with the Indigenous peoples and relevant stakeholders. Many participants expressed their desire to be meaningful partners in international development programs. And, local and national government representatives in Uganda want to use the research findings to inform policies and future programs.
The research teams sent out a call for proposals and potential partners applied for small grants to pilot activities to revive the Tepeth So Lang language from extinction, develop sustainable cultural tourism among the Ik, improve access to education and alleviate gender-based violence among the Batwa communities.
Although the project is relatively new, ResilientAfrica Network’s Director Operations and Co-Investigator Julius Ssentongo already sees positive gains, including increased engagement between the Indigenous communities and local stakeholders and negotiations between religious institutions and Indigenous communities.
Notably, he says, religious institutions expressed willingness to have a dialogue with the Batwa about land ownership. Religious institutions, especially the Church of Uganda and affiliated non-government organizations, bought land to resettle some Batwa communities after the government evicted them in the early 1990s. However, the Batwa indigenous communities do not run the religious institutions nor own the land titles.
Indigenous women at a meeting with ResilientAfrica Network.
Makerere University-ResilientAfrica Network
Discussions between the Batwa and religious institutions would pave the way to increasing Batwa land access and could eventually offer Batwa communities and households land titles that would give them permanent ownership of the land they currently occupy.
“There has also been a shift in the perceptions of the Indigenous communities, both within the communities themselves, as members feel more confident to express their opinions and needs, and in the Ugandan public, who are more apt to view them as equal citizens,” says Brian Kaheru who works on the project with the Action for Batwa Empowerment Group.
About the Authors
Eseroghene Oruma is a Communications and Outreach Specialist in the Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization and previously worked on communications in the Innovation, Technology, and Research Hub at USAID. Julius Ssentongo, the ResilientAfrica Network Director Operations, and Harriet Adong, the Director of Communications, Learning, and Knowledge Management at the ResilientAfrica Network, also contributed to this story.