Uganda — Publications

VNG: WORKING WITH LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN MIGRATION CONTEXTS - A call for a localisation agenda in urban migration

August 2025

Migration management cannot happen without local governments (LGs), given their proximity to migrants and their mandate to provide service delivery and safe environments to their constituents. LGs understand local socio-spatial dynamics and are best placed to identify needs and solutions, implement policies and coordinate service delivery. Yet, they are not fully integrated into international organisations’ development and migration responses.

So what would it take to bring LGs to the centre of this agenda?

This position paper is built on a research project that sheds light on the role of local governments in migration contexts, to inform local and international stakeholders of the migration, humanitarian and development sectors.

The research was conducted in Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon and Uganda as well as at global level. The research team reviewed 54 documents written by academics and practitioners, and collected primary data in the form of 35 key informant interviews (KIIs), one focus group discussion (FGD) gathering 15 participants, 4 country-level validation workshops with VNG International’s teams, a stakeholder workshop gathering 17 participants from civil society, academia and the humanitarian sector, and an online survey with 25 responses, providing anecdotal evidence referenced in the research. Together, these tools took stock of existing forms of engagement between LGs and other stakeholders to identify gaps and good practices.

Download report here.

Samuel HallAugust 28, 2025VNG, Local government, Migrants, migration systems, iraq, kenya, Lebanon, Uganda, Research

HBS & RELON: Policy Brief: Strengthening Gender-Sensitive Responsiveness among RLOs in Kenya and Uganda

June 2024

Refugee-led organisations (RLOs) are essential in bridging the gap between refugees and broader communities, facilitating services and advocating for refugee rights. Despite their crucial role, RLOs are often sidelined in decision-making processes. This policy brief aims to address these challenges by providing recommendations for donors and stakeholders.

This brief results from a workshop held in Nairobi, supported by Heinrich Böll Stiftung (HBS) - Africa Migration Hub, Samuel Hall, RELON Kenya, and RELON Uganda and calls for the following policy recommendations

Inclusive Decision-Making: Ensure RLOs have representation in all relevant decision-making bodies to influence policies directly affecting refugees.
Financial Empowerment: Promote direct and sustainable funding approaches for RLOs to enhance their financial inclusion and long-term impact.
Gender Transformative Agenda: Support RLOs in developing and implementing gender strategies to ensure gender inclusivity within their activities.
Digital Advocacy: Enhance RLOs’ capacity to use digital media for advocacy, communication, and storytelling through additional training and resources.

Read full brief here.

Samuel HallJune 19, 2024REFUGEE LED ORGANISATIONS, RLOs, Refugee rights, Nairobi, East Africa, Uganda, advocacy, empowerment

World Bank - Regional Learning on Development Responses to Forced Displacement in the Great Lakes Region: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia

October 2021

The World Bank commissioned Samuel Hall to develop and coordinate a year-long series of learning events among government representatives from the Great Lakes region to generate a regional dialogue and government-to-government exchange on development responses to forced displacement. Through unique peer-to-peer learning model, the learning series centred on government sharing share their understanding, learning, and best practices on selected topics, with a specific link to wider development responses and planning processes.

Download Event 1 output: Engaging Refugee Hosting Communities (English) (French)
Download Event output: COVAX Distribution (English) (French)
Download Event 2 output: Documentation (English) (French)

Download Event 2 output: Education(English) (French)

Download Event 3 output: Integrated Approaches to Farm-Based Livelihoods (English) (French)

Download Event 3 output: Private Sector Involvement in Non-Farm Livelihoods (English) (French)
Download Event 4 output: Data Collection Mechanisms (English) (French)

Download Event 4 output: Reducing Data Fragmentation (English) (French)

ILO – Towards decent work for young refugees and host communities in the digital platform economy in Africa

August 2021

Samuel Hall worked with the University of Edinburgh, commissioned by the ILO's Youth Employment Sector and the PROSPECTS partnership, to conduct a study to characterise the nature of platform-related opportunities in Africa. The report focuses on digital labour platforms (gig work) and e-commerce, developing an overview of the level of access, and identifying initiatives that these opportunities. Samuel Hall conducted 36 Interviews in Uganda, Kenya and Egypt to identify the key drivers, levers and constraints that catalyse and/or hold back the growth of the platform economy in Africa in the future. It accounts for COVID-19 implications, with a focus on labour market implications.

Download Report

RDPP – Progressive Effects Evaluation of the Regional Development and Protection Programme (RDPP) in the Horn of Africa: 2018-2020

April 2021

The Regional Development and Protection Programme (RDPP) is a European programme to create evidence-based, innovative and sustainable protection and development approaches for refugees and their host communities in Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs contracted the Learning and Evaluation Team (LET), co-led by Samuel Hall and MDF with Maastricht University and ECDPM, to conduct a progressive effects evaluation over a three-year period, with a baseline in 2018, and an endline in 2020. The RDPP objectives focus on capacity building, protection, integrated services, and socio-economic development for displacement affected communities. The LET implemented a combined quantitative and qualitative evaluation to assess progress on each domain and conclude on the relevance, coordination, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the RDPP in the Horn of Africa.

Download Endline LET Executive Summary

Download Endline LET Synthesis Report

Download Endline LET Report (Ethiopia)

Download Endline LET Report (Kenya)

Download Endline LET Report (Somalia)

Download Endline LET Report (Sudan)

Download Endline LET Report (Uganda)

Download Baseline LET Report (Consolidated)

Download Baseline LET Report (Ethiopia)

Download Baseline LET Report (Kenya)

Download Baseline LET Report (Somalia)

Download Baseline LET Report (Sudan)

Download Baseline LET Report (Uganda)

Open Society Foundations - Free and Safe Movement in East Africa

October 2018

A multi-region study analysing migration policy and practices in Central, East and Southern Africa. This report reviews findings at the East African sub-regional level at a time of growing attention to fostering mobility and mobility’s gain for protection and development.

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EARF - Understanding Intra-Regional Labour Migration in the East Africa Community - Literature Reveiw

July 2017

The aim of this study, commissioned by DFID and Sida and conducted by Samuel Hall, Maastricht University and the University of Oxford, is to generate new evidence to support government and development interventions aimed at eliminating poverty and reducing vulnerabilities in the EAC by exploring the potential of labour migration across five countries: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

Download the Literature Review

Resilience, East & Southern AfricaSamuel HallJuly 28, 2017DFID, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, labour migration, Sida, EAC, EARF

DRC - Great Lakes Civil Society Project

December 2014

Samuel Hall was commissioned by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in October 2014 to conduct a mid-term review of the second phase of the Great Lakes Civil Society Programme (GLP), a regional programme implemented since January 2010 by DRC with funding from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

Download Report

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