Social Sustainability of Settlement Housing in Uganda; Case of Pagirinya Refugee Settlement in Adjumani District.

Abstract

Access to shelter is essentially the first step in the process of refugee settlement and integration, as housing conditions greatly influence the ability of refugees to adapt to a new society. This study explores how housing can be a tool to attaining a socially sustainable settlement in Uganda, with Pagirinya refugee settlement as the case study. Data was collected from 318 proportionately sampled refugee respondents through administered questionnaires, as well as focus group discussions (FGDs) held with 02 community based organizations and interviews with selected stakeholders from Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and Non-Government Organization (NGO) officials operating within Pagirinya refugee settlement. The results finds a number of permanent housings constructed within Pagirinya refugee settlement much as they are deemed temporary residents. Further, the study established that, there are a number of conditions that influences access to and provisions of sustainable housing but these conditions have varying magnitudes with the availability of construction materials, family head and financial capacity evaluated as the most critical conditions with RII=0.595, 0.582 and 0.560 respectively. Social groupings such as VSLA and Farmer groups enhances social relationships and economically empowers the refugees to access and provide good housing as they use the proceeds to buy construction materials such as iron sheets, bamboos, grasses, wattle trees and meet the construction labor costs. The study also finds significant relationship between housing attributes and social sustainability (p<0.05). The study recommends that government should review the housing policy to provide for the refugee housing standards. This would facilitate integration and build refugee resilience, which is an indicator of social sustainability. Further, the implementing NGO partner should set up refugee housing committees, create local planning group to develop local regulations which will enable conformance to planning regulations and ensure safety of the refugees.