Uganda demobilization and reintegration

The project will include: (1) financial support for Phase II of the Uganda Veterans Assistance Board"s (UVAB) program to demobilize and resettle soldiers, and (2) an agricultural technology and credit program, to be administered by World Learning Inc (WLI) and Appropriate Technology International (ATI). The first component will finance demobilization severance packages for some 10,000 male and female veterans under the UVAB program. Under the program, veterans and their dependents are transported to their home districts and receive cash or in-kind allowances for food, clothing, medical care, per diem, child education (partial), and building and roofing materials, agricultural tools, and seeds. To a limited extent, medical treatments needed by disabled and chronically ill veterans are also covered. The agricultural technology and credit program will include four activities to benefit approximately 2,000 veteran households in Lira, Apac, Soroti, Kumi, and Palisa districts in north central Uganda. First, WLI and the Animal Traction Development Organization (ATRADO), a local NGO, will provide veterans and their families in Soroti, Kumi, and Palisa with oxen and farming implements at a subsidized rate along with training in oxen plowing; to avoid singling out and inadvertently isolating the veterans, a small number of other villagers will be included in the training program. In addition, a small number of veterans will be trained to construct ox-drawn carts, plows, and related equipment. Second, the National Agricultural Research Organization will multiply mosaic-resistant cassava and improved sorghum, millet, and soybean seeds at Namulonge and Serere Research Centers. The seeds will be distributed at cost by WLI and the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries (MAAIF) extension system to veterans" families and the groups they have formed. Demonstration plots of mosaic-resistant cassava will be planted in villages where returned veterans reside. Third, the project will make available up to Ushs. 2 million in grant funds (to be matched by the veterans" association or communal groups) for use by veterans" families and community groups in activities such as construction of on-farm grain storage facilities, communal marketing of produce, or development of communal woodlots. WLI will assist in this activity. Finally, ATI will manufacture and sell, at cost, (or when appropriate on credit, to be repaid at the end of the harvest season) 200 Comertec hand oil presses, which can easily be operated by both men and women, to 400 veterans" families and veteran/villager family groups. Initially, ATI will target Lira and Apac, and later Soroti district. Recipients of the oil presses will also receive training in the use of the equipment, receive Sunfola sunflower seeds at cost, and be provided with TA in marketing and oilseed cultivation. Amendment of 6/9/95 extends PACD 1 year to 12/98 and redefines the geographic and implementation scope of the project"s agricultural technology and credit component, which will now operate nationally and will target 70% of demobilized veterans. Grant proposals from other U.S. PVOs besides WLI and ATI will now be considered. Special attention will be given to the wives and widows of veterans, especially female heads of families; credit provision will be linked with the official financial sector. In addition, project funds for demobilization will be used for phase III of the UVAB demobilization program instead of phase II as originally planned, and will be channeled through the World Bank. (PD-ABM-732)