Uganda hosts more than two million refugees, making it one of the largest refugee-hosting countries in the world. Nearly eighty percent are women and children living in long-term displacement. In refugee settlements such as Nakivale and Oruchinga, women and girls are rebuilding their lives amidst shrinking humanitarian support, fragile livelihoods, rising food insecurity, climate shocks, and overstretched public systems.

Most households survive on unstable and extremely low incomes, often far below the international poverty line of $2.15/day

But poverty in refugee settlements is not simply a lack of income. It is multidimensional. It is shaped by interconnected barriers that reinforce one another and trap women and girls in cycles of vulnerability and dependency.

Health Barriers

Limited access to reproductive healthcare continues to undermine women’s ability to participate fully in economic and social life.

Women and girls face:

• Limited access to family planning services
• Poor access to cervical cancer screening
• Inadequate adolescent and youth-friendly SRHR services
• Menstrual health challenges
• Long distances to health facilities
• Overstretched health systems
• Stigma surrounding reproductive healthcare
• Limited access to trusted information and referrals

The consequences are immediate. Women delay care. Girls leave school. Participation in work, training, savings groups, and enterprise becomes inconsistent. Preventable health challenges become long-term economic setbacks.

Economic Barriers

Economic opportunities available to refugee and host-community women are often unstable, low-return, and highly vulnerable to climate and market shocks. Women frequently rely on subsistence agriculture, informal petty trade, seasonal labor and irregular and low-paid work. Also, many women lack access to: Productive resources, climate-smart agriculture skills, financial service, enterprise development support, market engagement opportunities and vocational and workforce pathways. For adolescent girls and young women who are out of school, the pathways are even narrower.

Agency Barriers

Gender norms, exclusion from decision-making, and low confidence continue to limit women’s participation and voice. Without agency, women and girls struggle to: advocate for healthcare and services; access productive resources and opportunities; influence community decisions; sustain economic gains and shape the systems affecting their lives

These barriers reinforce one another. Poor health undermines participation. Limited participation weakens livelihoods. Fragile livelihoods deepen dependency. And dependency limits women’s ability to influence the systems surrounding them.

Yet despite these realities, refugee and host-community women continue to demonstrate extraordinary resilience. They are ready to learn. They are ready to earn. They are ready to lead.

What they need is an integrated pathway that removes barriers and creates sustained opportunity.