By Amule Mansuru: Executive Director of the Rural Initiative Alliance for Development (RIAD) (Uganda)

Omugo zone in the Rhino Refugee Settlement was established in 2017. I joined the settlement in 2019, and when I joined Omugo zone, we had more than 30 partners operating in the area. I remember all departments, such as wash, protection, health, education, livelihood, which were all supported by the international partners in the settlement. When I joined Omugo in 2019, my focus was first to have my family resettled and then work on other programs later.

A year later, in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic, the Government of Uganda, adopted a new policy of social distancing. As a result, we were restricted from moving to the neighboring villages. When the pandemic intensified, the ministry of health put into place additional restrictions on some operations, such as work related to livelihoods and environment programs, that would bring people together. Some actors were given permission to operate only for a limited time (one month) and they kept extending the dates.

All the refugees in the settlement rely on the support coming from the partners for assistance in different areas of livelihood, health, education and protection. In May 2021 the pandemic intensified and many international organizations rushed in leaving the settlement. 

Thus, the task of coordinating all humanitarian work fell on the shoulder of local communities themselves. But this was fraught with challenges. Many people were missing services, children were staying at home, learning materials issued by the ministry were not reaching the refugees. I remember when the late assistant settlement commandant became positive of COVID 19, he was requested to isolate himself from the public. He sent someone to call me to reach him, and when I reached him, he was talking to me through the window, requesting us to support in the election process of refugee welfare council members. At that time, we were the only refugee led organization (RLO) in Omugo zone. That is how RLOs in the area started to play an increasingly prominent role.

But I was asking a question to myself: why is our role needed only now, just at the height of a crisis triggered by the pandemic, why not previously? I was confronted with the same question when I went back to my community, explaining why I was called. Now that other major actors have left the settlement, I told my community,  we have to help our people. 

When the Ugandan Government lifted COVID-19 restrictions, many partners were not sufficiently operating in Omugo due to financial gaps. Those that were available on the ground were working just because of the resilience of their volunteers despite the challenging circumstances. They were doing their best within their limited resources.

Looking back, I observe that a lot has been achieved by RLOs over these past years. But there are also daunting challenges. From my most recent experience, the following is a good example. I live in Arua town, and I travel every day to the settlement, for reasons best known by me and my team. In the morning hours of Tuesday, 26 August 2025 I tuned to a local radio to listen to the 7am news. The news reader was reporting about what some stakeholders were saying in a certain meeting organized the previous day by VNG International. The latter is an international organization that works in the refugee response sector in collaboration with local government actors in Arua city and Koboko district.

The problem with the above plan is that in our understanding there was not sufficient level of consultation with the refugee communities in the area in terms of how the tree planting plan is to be implemented, how the refugees are going to access land in order to plan the trees, or what resources are they going to have to do that. Looking at the current crises in Rhino Settlement, where people are looking at food as the only basic need in their plan, this kind of working methodology comes as problematic.

In a follow up conversation related to the above matter, and based on similar other conversations my colleagues and myself have had recently, we are also realising that there are some local actors that are no longer comfortable with the generic name of a “refugee led organization” or an RLO as it is widely known in abbreviation. There are arguments, rather unconvincing ones, based on claims that the terminology is discriminative – discriminative towards other local actors in the field which are doing the same work like RLOs. There are some who argue that it has also the potential to discredit the work of other local actors, particularly so-called community based organizations (CBOs). We do not agree with unsubstantiated comments of this nature, because we do not see a major problem as to why the term RLO is seen as problematic. After all, it is now a term, which is widely used in the broader humanitarian sector.

Most importantly, however, if displaced communities themselves are ok with the use of the term, it does not come as convincing if others find it problematic (and when this is not sufficiently substantiated). In broader terms, RLOs in West Nile over the past several years have shown considerable progress in addressing the needs of their communities. While such developments are promising, some challenges remain, some of which I have briefly addressed in this contribution. Through continued engagement and collaboration with the host community, including local government actors, one hopes that progress can be scaled up in the future.