Investing in Peace

The five years of relative peace in Northern Uganda has enabled the majority of former Internally Displaced Persons to return to their home areas and begin rebuilding their lives. During and after the long war in Northern Uganda, women have emerged as critical economic actors, taking advantage of economic opportunities to secure their families’ livelihood, security and advancement. This report explores gender dynamics in the peace economy, particularly focusing on women’s economic and political status, and the extent to which government and development partner recovery interventions are sensitive to these issues.

This report examines the potential of Uganda’s newly discovered oil reserves and recommends increased transparency and principled leadership to promote broad economic opportunities of oil discovery for peace and development in Uganda.
This discovery of oil, taking place within a context of a variety of tensions that exist on both sides of the DRC-Uganda border, represents a potential risk of conflict and presents a peacebuilding challenge for local communities, the government, private sector investors, donors and civil society. With a proactive approach that takes into account conflict risks, the dual dividend of peace and development can be realised through the equitable and transparent exploitation of this resource.