UGANDA – Extended Credit Facility: On 21/06, the IMF Executive Board concluded the fourth review under the Extended Credit Facility arrangement with Uganda. This completion enables the immediate disbursement of approximately $120 million. reforms focus on creating fiscal space for priority social spending, preserving debt sustainability, strengthening governance and reducing corruption and enhancing the monetary and financial sector frameworks. read more here: https://tinyurl.com/2fv2rve8

UNHCR Iran marked World Refugee Day with a series of events celebrating refugees’ resilience and courage and the country’s commendable inclusive policies towards refugees. With over 3.4 million refugees and refugee-like populations, Iran has become the second-largest refugee-hosting country globally this year. Throughout Iran, a range of events were organized to commemorate this year’s World Refugee Day, under the theme “Hope Away from Home.” These events emphasized the importance of solutions, inclusion, and compassion towards those forced to flee their homes due to conflict, persecution, or natural disasters. UNHCR Representative a.i., Ms. Inna Gladkova, in her Refugee Day message, paid tribute to the courage and remarkable resilience of refugees and commended Iran for its inclusive refugee policies, particularly in the sectors of education and health.

Youth with Refugees Art Contest: What if your creativity had the power to spread hope? The theme of the 2023 art contest is “Hope away from home”. UNHCR is calling on young people globally to submit a drawing that illustrates the power of including refugees. This year, the best designs will be turned into t-shirts by our partner UNIQLO and sold to support displaced people globally! Find more details here: https://www.unhcr.org/youth-refugees-art-contest

World Refugee Day 2023: On World Refugee Day, we honour the courage and hopes of the millions of people forced to flee war, violence, and persecution. Including refugees in the communities where they have found safety is the most effective way to help them restart their lives and contribute to the countries hosting them. In real terms, this means ensuring that refugees can apply for jobs, enroll in schools, and access services like housing and health care. It also means fostering a sense of belonging and welcome that gives hope to refugees uprooted from their homes. At UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, we know that inclusion is the best way to support refugees in exile, to prepare them so they can help rebuild their countries when conditions allow them to return, or to thrive if they are resettled to another country. But host countries cannot do it on their own. The rest of the international community must step up and provide the financial resources to enable such progressive policies. We have seen enormous progress in this area over the past years, with outstanding donor generosity, innovative approaches to financing, and huge investments by the World Bank, regional development banks, and other international financial institutions. But clearly, more must be done. It is time for us all to commit to including refugees in our communities at all levels – in our schools, workplaces, health-care systems, and beyond, so that refugees can regain hope away from home.

Amahoro Fellowship Program: As we celebrate World Refugee Day, we are excited to launch the Amahoro Fellowship Program. The 12-month program will give Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs) leaders a platform to cultivate and disseminate their ideas on the world stage, expand their networks, seize numerous professional opportunities, and unite as a collaborative and impactful Cohort. Fellows will also have the opportunity to participate in a competitive funding process where they can secure up to $100,000 to scale their growth. The Fellows will be a powerful group of change agents, using their voices, skills, expertise, and innovations in business, government, and development institutions to create sustainable solutions in Africa and globally. More information is available here: https://amahorocoalition.com/

UNHCR calls for concerted action as forced displacement hits new record in 2022: UNHCR’s flagship annual report, Global Trends in Forced Displacement 2022, found that by the end of 2022, the number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence and human rights abuses stood at a record 108.4 million, up 19.1 million on a year earlier, which was the biggest ever increase. The upward trajectory in global forced displacement showed no sign of slowing in 2023 as the eruption of conflict in Sudan triggered new outflows, pushing the global total to an estimated 110 million by May 2023. Read the full report here: https://www.unhcr.org/global-trends

https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/101182

The USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance funded Graduating to Resilience Activity held a two-hour virtual learning event on the 13th of April 2023: "Transitioning from Graduation to Resilience." The event was part of USAID’s Agency Learning and Evidence Month, where the 7-year livelihoods program presented learnings from its first cohort of implementation to an audience of about 160+ virtual participants following invitations to a wider cross-section of partners in the Uganda Government, nonprofit, multilateral, and private sectors. Read more here: https://avsi-usa.org/g2revent-april2023/

WFP Uganda - Market Monitor for Refugee settlements for March 2023: The main objective of the market monitor is to understand market price trends to provide timely information to actors providing cash and in-kind assistance in the refugee response. The monitor also analyzes the relative performance and purchasing power of the WFP cash transfer value relative to in-kind assistance across the refugee response. The data has been collected by WFP, through key informant interviews with traders in markets across the 13 refugee settlements and their host communities. The market monitor further provides an update on the prices, costs and market performance of food and non-food commodities and the cost of the food and full Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB). The interactive dashboard and is available through the link: https://analytics.wfp.org/t/Public/views/2023RefugeeMarketMonitorDashboard/UgandaRefugeeMarketMonitor/774de4a8-bc05-4223-90d4-e4ebaf197761/fd6b8fb3-82ec-41b2-8515-78870c360457?%3Adisplay_count=n&%3Aembed=y&%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&%3Aorigin=viz_share_link&%3AshowVizHome=n

UNHCR handed over essential medical equipment and medicines worth USD 10 million to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME), in partnership with and the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants’ Affairs (BAFIA), on 11 April 2023 in Tehran. The equipment including, ambulances, dialysis machines, CT scanners, X-Ray machines, ventilators, mobile health post and laboratory, rapid testing kits for malaria, COVID-19, Cholera, Hepatitis, and other communicable diseases, as well as many other essential medical items, will be delivered to some public hospitals and health posts in 27 provinces across the country in refugee hosting areas and refugee settlements.