Better Data, Better Resilience: Lessons in Disaster Risk Finance from Uganda

A growing number of low- and middle-income countries are investing in social safety nets to improve the lives and livelihoods of their poor and vulnerable residents. According to the World Bank (2015) report The State of Social Safety Nets, more than 1.9 billion people in 136 low- and middleincome countries are now beneficiaries of social safety net programs. In Africa alone, the number of countries setting up such programs has doubled over the past three years, and rigorous evaluations prove that these programs work to reduce poverty. But around 55 percent of the world’s poor, or 773 million people with acute needs, still lack safety net coverage. Moreover, even where safety nets are in place, the gains they make possible can be undermined by disasters, which tend to have the highest impact on the poorest. Recent studies show that disasters drive over 26 million people into poverty each year (Hallegatte et al. 2016).

Supported by a US$130 million World Bank lending operation, the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) is a safety net project which aims to improve the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable pastoralists and smallholder farmers. This brochure highlights ten lessons learned from a scale-up of the project (NUSAF III) and unveils key factors behind an effective DRF mechanism.