Welcome to The Third, Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF3) Project. Under the Office of the Prime Minister, Republic of Uganda.

The Third Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF3) Project was declared effective on March 14th 2016. NUSAF3 is a successor five-year Project to NUSAF2 that closed on February 29th 2016. NUSAF3 was approved by the Cabinet on 5th August 2015 and approved by the Parliament of Uganda on 4th September 2015.NUSAF3 is a programme is implemented under the Office of the Prime Minister and is funded by a 130-million-dollar loan from the World Bank.

NUSAF3 will build on the successes of the previous NUSAF Projects and will increase the impact of the Social Protection measures established under the Peace, Recovery Development Plan for Northern Uganda. In addition, NUSAF3, unlike the previous Projects, will focus exclusively on productive growth of beneficiary households through income generating activities. The Project Development Objective of NUSAF3 is to provide effective income support to and to build the resilience of poor and vulnerable households in Northern Uganda.

NUSAF3 is designed to assist the targeted poor communities of Northern Uganda to transit to sustainable livelihoods and towards the Government’s goal of a middle class economy. The NUSAF3 design for Northern Uganda, will do this through a pathway of interventions that involve; a) regular and short term deployment of labour in productive labour Intensive public works, b) engagement in selective market driven enterprises and c) through positive attitudinal change to work, production and saving.

NUSAF3 has four main components: a) Labour-Intensive Public Works and Disaster Risk Financing b) Livelihood Investment Support - comprised of Improved House Hold Income Support Progammes and the Sustainable Livelihoods Pilot- c) Transparency, Accountability and Anticorruption (TAAC) and d) Safety Net Mechanisms and Project Management.

The Labour Intensive Public Works and Disaster Risk Financing (LIPW-DRF) will provide temporary employment opportunities for poor and vulnerable households and is capable of being scaled up in response to disasters in selected areas. This sub-component will provide beneficiaries with seasonal transfers in return for their participation in LIPW that will enable them to sustain and increase their assets and smooth their consumption during lean seasons. This will also result in the creation of physical assets of value to the local communities.

The Livelihood Investment Support (LIS) component is aimed at increasing incomes and the productive assets of the targeted poor and vulnerable households in Northern Uganda. This component has two sub-components. The Improved Household Income Support Program (IHISP) and will increase productive assets and in the process improve the livelihoods and incomes through, market driven enterprises, comprehensive skills development training, provision of grants and follow up mentoring support.

The Sustainable Livelihoods Pilot Sub-component will test an approach to livelihood support that is expected to foster stronger community institution by focusing on self-help with beneficiaries accessing a village revolving fund rather than receiving grants. This revolving fund will be managed by the village community itself and not the local Government. The pilot will focus on universal coverage of poor in the target villages while also tapping into the already existing poor community savings groups and supporting other poor households to form savings groups of their own.

The NUSAF3 Project design is based on the Watershed approach to direct and focus the Project investments to selected geographical “watersheds” and in specific priority areas of investment in order to achieve critical mass, environmental regeneration as well as the enhancement and sustainability of household incomes. The design also prioritizes community ownership, capacity building and technical support, the accumulation of savings for revolving capital and convergence with other livelihood interventions.

Welcome to NUSAF3!