Solidarity Summit on Refugees: NGOs Biggest Beneficiaries

Non-Governmental Organizations-NGO took more than US$ 500 million that was pledged by different countries and donors towards refugee support during the Uganda Solidarity Summit on Refugees, the Minister for Relief and Disaster Preparedness has disclosed.

In 2017, President, Yoweri Museveni hosted the Uganda Solidarity Summit on Refugees with the aim of raising support from donors, well-wishers and governments to deal with the high numbers of refugees in the country. The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guteres was one of the key guests at the summit.

Uganda is said to be home to over 1.6 million refugees from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwandese, Eriteria, Burundi and Somalia among others spread in different settlements in the country. The Summit realized US$ 545M (about Shillings 2 trillion) in cash and pledges.

However, the Relief and Disaster Preparedness Minister, Hillary Onek, says over US $ 540 million went to NGOs involved in refugee responses in the country leaving government with only US$ 1.5 million.

He explains that after the summit, NGO's negotiated with the donors and their homes governments to pass to them to the donations directly. 

Onek says only China and India fulfilled their pledges and channeled their donations directly to government while the others said they had channeled their support through NGOs.

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Onek told journalists the Uganda government owned media center on Thursday that they intend to trace the NGOs that received the pledges and task them to account for the money.

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According to the break down, the European Union (EU)  was the biggest contributor with Euro 85 million ($95 million). The total contribution from European Union and its member states amounted to 210 million euro or $ 234 million. 

Japan pledged US$10 million followed by China with US$5 million, United Arab Emirates US$5 million, Canada US$11 million, India US$1m among African Union US$100,000, Gabon US$250,000 and Equatorial Guinea US$100,000 among others.