The government is set to roll out the fourth phase of the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund-NUSAF 4 in July.
The NUSAF program seeks to provide social and economic support to communities affected by the conflict in the country as well as increase their resilience to future shocks.
While speaking during President Museveni’s meeting with the leaders in West Nile at the West Nile Golf Ground in Arua City on Tuesday, Dr. Robert Limlim, the Executive Director of NUSAF explains that the program will focus on helping the poor to fight poverty.
According to Limlim, the NUSAF 4 program will have three major components which include Livelihood enhancement, Labour intensive public works, and Institutional and systems development.
Grace Freedom Kwiyucwiny, the State Minister for Northern Uganda said that the new phase is not a duplication of other government programs but rather complementary.
Kwiyucwiny further notes that the project will cost US$250 million which is higher than the US$100 million that government invested in the third phase.
Records at the Office of the Prime Minister indicate that the NUSAF 4 program will target about 667,000 households and 31 million beneficiaries and it is expected to create 21,000 self-employment enterprises for youth beneficiaries.
In 2002, the government in partnership with the World Bank started the implementation of the NUSAF program which was created as a response to the devastating effects of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in Northern Uganda.
The program which has been implemented in phases over the years has provided direct support to over 1.2 million households in Northern Uganda according to information from the Office of the Prime Minister.