Scientists Assess Life of Youth Displaced by Climatic Incidents

Makerere University has embarked on gathering evidence that the government can use to respond to the challenges faced by youth displaced by drought, landslides, and floods.

Speaking on Thursday at the launch of the study, which ends in March 2028, Rawlence Ndejjo, a Research Fellow based at Makerere University School of Public Health, said the study will be conducted in Mbale and Mbarara cities to assess, among other things, how youth migration impacts social and health systems.

He says they are focusing on those individuals who move voluntarily when calamities hit and not those relocated under government programmes as there is currently little evidence to show where and how they end up as they are rarely tracked.

The study team which also comprises researchers from the School of Gender Studies say that their baseline assessment found Mbale to be hosting climate migrants from as far as Teso and Karamoja and Mbarara to be hosting migrants from Kazo, Ntungamo and Isingiro districts among others.

Peace Mutuuzo, the State Minister for Gender and Culture said this study comes in handy considering that their projections show about 12 million Ugandans will migrate internally due to climatic challenges by 2050 and yet the government is baffled about where all these huge numbers will be migrating to.

According to Dr John Bosco Isunju, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health, while such displacements are commonly known for hygiene-related diseases and sexual reproductive health concerns, they are seeing displacement causing mental illnesses to young people.

Last year alone, statistics show up to 47000 people were displaced internally and on his part, Solomon Elungat a Disaster Preparedness Officer in the Office of the Prime Minister recommends more awareness creation to help especially the youth affected by such incidents noting that when people understand their risks, it usually becomes easy for them to embrace programmes geared towards helping them.

He mentions that while they previously found challenges convincing people in Bududa to migrate to safer locations, these days it’s the population asking to be relocated.

To date up to four hundred thousand people are demanding to be resettled and according to Elungat, some have been given money by the government to relocate themselves.

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