Daily Monitor: Amid Aid Cuts, Uganda’s Right to Work for Refugees Must Become a Reality

This story was originally published by the Daily Monitor.

Every morning in Kampala, Sadio* (a pseudonym) wakes up before dawn to sell handmade baskets. She did not plan on doing this professionally: she does it because she is a refugee, and employers in Uganda do not recognize her accounting degree from Somalia. Each day, she weaves hope from straw, wishing she could use more of her education and potential.

Uganda should be recognized worldwide for its progressive refugee policies. The 2006 Refugees Act has guaranteed refugees, for the last twenty years, the right to work and to run businesses. On paper, these are among the most generous provisions on the right to work for refugees in Africa. 

However, there is a gap between what the law says and what really happens. I know because I am a refugee in Uganda.

While the right to work is written in law, in reality, it often stops at the settlement gate. Most refugees are limited to informal, low-paying jobs. Refugees in Uganda include engineers who now drive boda boda (motorcycle taxis), nurses who sell vegetables, and teachers who cannot find work. 

All of this professional talent is a missed opportunity for Uganda. The problem is not a lack of skills, but a lack of recognition and bureaucratic hurdles that leave meaningful employment out of reach. 

Now, as global cuts have reduced the availability of humanitarian aid for refugees in Uganda, the situation is becoming more urgent. Refugees don’t want more aid – they want to work and support themselves. 

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports that Uganda now hosts almost 2 million refugees and asylum seekers – a 10 percent increase from last year – making it the largest refugee population in Africa. As of early 2026, approximately 663,000 refugees in Uganda – or roughly one-third of all refugees – directly receive food assistance from the World Food Programme (WFP).

The aid cuts are already affecting food, healthcare, and education programs in Uganda. By the end of 2025, the Uganda refugee response remained severely underfunded, with reports indicating it was only roughly 25 percent funded by August 2025. As outside funding shrinks, relying on aid is becoming both unsustainable and hard to justify.

Making it easier for refugees to find work is not just about rights. It is now essential for survival. And doing so is a win-win for refugees and their Ugandan-born neighbors. The World Bank has found that when refugees can fully join the formal economy, productivity increases, tax revenues rise, and long-term aid needs decline. Allowing refugees to work and access land has reduced needed international aid by nearly 45 percent. According to the Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement, empowering refugees leads to a “triple win” where refugees gain autonomy, host countries receive development support, and donors save on humanitarian aid. Programs run by Finn Church Aid and the ILO’s PROSPECTS Partnership show that vocational training and start-up support do not just help refugees find jobs – they also help create jobs for Ugandans. In Nakivale, refugee-led tailoring groups make school uniforms for both refugees and the local community. 

Despite good laws on the books, refugee-led organizations in Uganda have consistently documented the barriers to refugee employment: qualifications are not recognized, hiring practices are unfair, and there are few ways into formal work. The issue is not what refugees can do. The issue is that the system excludes them.

One administrative barrier to refugee access to the formal labor market is the costly, slow, and unclear process of validating their academic credentials. For instance, a refugee will require 50,000 shillings (almost U.S. $14.00) to have a page of their academic qualifications translated for government approval. Additionally, equating academic qualifications for recognition in Uganda’s system costs 250,000 Uganda shillings (nearly U.S. $72.00).

Another issue is access to credit. While refugees can start their own businesses, banks and other financial institutions have often been reluctant to serve refugees, citing that they might leave or lack credit histories. However, Kiva reports that refugees repay loans at a rate above 96 percent, which is nearly the same as that of non-refugee borrowers. VisionFund Uganda found that savings groups among refugees had the highest repayment rates in the country – 94.2 percent – even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Uganda has already set an example in protecting refugees. Now it must ensure its law allowing refugees the right to work translates from paper to reality. Three practical steps could help.

First, Uganda should set up a simple national system to recognize refugee academic and vocational qualifications. This system should have clear timelines, lower fees, and information that is easy for all refugees to access, whether they live in settlements or cities.

Second, the government should encourage banks and microfinance institutions to lend to refugee entrepreneurs by offering credit guarantees or blended finance options – a de-risking tool that uses public money to bridge the gap between a bank’s perception of risk and the actual reality of a refugee’s reliability. The repayment data already shows this is a smart business move.

Third, Uganda should integrate refugees explicitly into national employment and private-sector development strategies. Public-private partnerships should include refugee talent pipelines as a matter of policy, not an exception.

These are not extreme changes. They are practical steps that align with the law and current reality, and they match Uganda’s strong moral leadership with the country’s economic needs.

Uganda’s welcoming policy toward refugees has saved lives. Now it must secure livelihoods. As global humanitarian aid decreases, the best refugee policy is not to keep providing assistance, but to provide access to work. 

Ismail Hussein Ismail is a fellow at Refugees International and a refugee living in Uganda.