Uganda - Better data, better resilience: lessons in disaster risk finance from Uganda

This brief describes lessons learned from the implementation of a disaster risk finance (DRF) mechanism for the expansion of public works, an initiative in Uganda's Karamoja region that was piloted in July 2016. Some of the lessons may apply more broadly to scalable social protection initiatives where different disbursement mechanisms are used (for example, unconditional cash transfers).

In Uganda, the third northern Uganda social action fund (NUSAF III) makes use of social safety nets to invest in the livelihoods of poor households, and it specifically includes a disaster risk finance (DRF) subcomponent that scales up protection in response to disaster shocks. NUSAF III is designed to lessen this vulnerability and to provide effective income support to and build the resilience of poor and vulnerable households in northern Uganda. The DRF subcomponent is activated temporarily and automatically in response to crisis or shocks, primarily climatic shocks such as drought.