Our Cross Cutting Themes

Gender and Feminist Approach; Building on our past experiences, we have learnt that gender integration remains a critical gap in assessing the extent to which development programming is inclusive and participatory by all. Our work on gender integration is crosscutting in all programs. We thus strive to build skills and a culture through our membership for gender-responsive and transformative programming. This strategic plan will also underscore the Charter of Feminist Principles for African Feminists. These principles envisage a world that is just and free from patriarchy through processes that enable leaders to enable others to lead and build power with them instead of over them. We align with the view that patriarchal ideology enables and legitimizes the structuring of every aspect of our lives by establishing the framework within which society defines and views women and men and constructs male supremacy. Through our work we undertake intentional actions that focus on fighting patriarchy within the systems of knowledge production, research and advocacy. Our energies is drawn towards building a better world for women and men and ensure that the knowledge we produce or propagate contributes to the elimination of all forms of patriarchal oppression and exploitation in development processes.

Disability and Inclusion; As BRUCI, we acknowledge that persons with disabilities face widespread barriers to assessing services. They have worse health and socioeconomic outcomes, lower education achievements, less economic participation and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities. To response to these realities we recognize that our work with the disability community to build a world that’s accessible to persons with disabilities through making the disability community ideas and experiences of disability accessible to all our partners, membership and beneficiaries. We recognize that large and growing number of people in developing countries experience a disability, which disproportionately affects vulnerable populations. Persons with disabilities are more likely to experience adverse socioeconomic outcomes than persons without disabilities.

Humanitarian challenges; In 2006, Uganda enacted the Refugee Act 2006 and has implemented provisions of that act since 2008 that incorporates all international and regional standards for refugee protection as provided for by the 1951 United Nations Convention, the 1967 protocol, and the 1969 OAU convention into municipal law, making these instruments a part of Ugandan law enforceable by national courts. For several decades, Uganda has been generously hosting refugees and asylum seekers from the conflict-affected countries in its neighborhood, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Rwanda, and Burundi. Since achieving its independence in 1962, the country has been hosting an average of approximately 161,000 refugees per year. As of 31st December 2021, , there were over 1,573,291 refugees in Uganda in nine host districts located mainly in the northern, southern, and southwestern regions of the country. The refugees come from 13 countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, and Eritrea.

Whereas there is openness and generosity of Uganda local communities towards refugees coupled with elaborate and clear legal framework, many of the provisions relating to the welfare of refugees have not been implemented. This is mainly due to limited resources and as a result, support to refugees have mainly been assisted by development actors. As a result, the condition and welfare of refugees in Uganda has not been improved yet. Civil society who have played a role to address the plight of refugees. The development of the Refugee and Host Population Empowerment (ReHoPE) strategy was one of the most significant joint initiatives undertaken to build resilience capacity building especially amongst humanitarian agencies. BRUCI works with these initiatives to ensure that we continue to strengthen our collective response to the refugee plight and work collaboratively with other partners that are first responders in the host districts.

Disaster Management and the Impact on Livelihoods; Disaster loss and damage is on the rise in Uganda with grave consequences for the survival, dignity and livelihood of our citizens, particularly the poor. It also erodes Uganda’s hard-won development gains. Disaster risk is increasingly of global concern and its impact and actions in one region can have an impact on risks in another, and vice versa. This, compounded by increasing vulnerabilities related to changing demographics, technological and socio-economic conditions, unplanned urbanization, development within high-risk zones, under-development, environmental degradation, climate variability, climate change, geological hazards, competition for scarce resources, and the impact of epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, COVID 19 points to a future where disasters could increasingly threaten Uganda’s economy, and its population livelihoods. In the past two decades, on average more than 200,000 Ugandans were affected every year by various types of disasters each year. BRUCI has particular interest in understanding the role of disaster and build disaster resilient communities and mitigation.