RELON Uganda advocates for meaningful refugee participation in the decisions, policies, and programs that affect their lives. It champions the rights of refugees, including freedom of movement, self-reliance, and access to quality education, health care, livelihoods, and protection. By amplifying refugee voices in national and international spaces, RELON works to move refugees from being passive recipients of aid to active contributors and decision-makers in the response.
RELON recognizes that refugee-led organizations are best placed to understand and respond to the needs of their communities, but they often lack the skills, systems, and institutional support to do so at scale. Through this pillar, RELON strengthens their organizational, technical, and leadership capacities so they can manage programs effectively, meet donor requirements, and sustain their work over time. This builds a stronger, more credible, and more resilient refugee-led sector that can engage as an equal partner in the humanitarian ecosystem.
RELON Uganda generates evidence-based insights to inform and improve refugee response in Uganda. It hosts researchers from universities across the world, creating a platform where academic inquiry is grounded in the lived realities of refugees and where refugee perspectives shape the research agenda. The resulting evidence supports RELON's advocacy and gives policymakers, practitioners, and partners practical findings for designing more informed, inclusive, and effective interventions.
Through sub-granting, RELON advances the localization agenda by extending power and resources to local actors, particularly refugee-led and community-based organizations. By channeling funding directly to those closest to the communities they serve, RELON helps ensure that resources reach the ground and that local actors have the means to design and lead their own solutions. This pillar puts into practice the principles RELON advocates for: shifting decision-making authority and financial control toward the people most affected by displacement.
Education programs, community support, and active inclusion in decision-making.
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Driving sustainable livelihood & economic empowerment through partnership.
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Empowering organizations through capacity building, governance, and networking.
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Systemic change through continuous policy advocacy, equity, and networking.
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RELON Uganda strengthens RLOs' skills, systems and leadership through training, mentorship, technical support and knowledge sharing, enabling them to become stronger, more effective and sustainable organizations. The Network provides tailored, hands-on support to individual RLOs, facilitates joint learning and capacity-building sessions for groups of organizations, and strengthens organizations working together through consortia. This flexible approach ensures that support responds to the specific needs, capacities and realities of RLOs.
RELON Uganda supports RLOs to strengthen accountability, document their impact and demonstrate results, while promoting transparent, effective and community-responsive programming. This includes generating and using evidence to demonstrate what works, inform decision-making and strengthen advocacy for refugee-led solutions.
RELON Uganda connects RLOs with one another, government, donors, humanitarian actors and other partners, creating spaces for collaboration, information sharing, joint advocacy and meaningful refugee participation. The network also identifies and shares opportunities within Uganda and beyond, enabling RLOs to access partnerships, resources, learning and platforms that strengthen their work and reach.