IDP policy in "last stages" of formulation

A new policy for internally displaced persons (IDPs), which the Ugandan government is formulating with support from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has reached the last stage of consultations and is expected to be ready for implementation soon, according to a senior official in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). Uganda has an estimated 550,000 IDPs, mainly in the north and west of the country, where years of insurgency have created large population displacements and severe humanitarian crises, according to humanitarian sources. Martin Owuor, Assistant Commissioner for Disaster Preparedness and Management within the OPM, told IRIN on Tuesday that his office had received at least 80 percent of views from stakeholders, which were being incorporated in the draft policy. "It is going according to plan," he said. "It is reaching its last stage of consultations. We are now collecting opinion, which we are adding on. They are just an addition to what we have written down. They are bringing in what we have missed out; others are adding into what is already there." The new policy, expected to articulate broad protection rights for IDPs, should be ready for implementation by the end of August, according to Owuor. He said the original document, which was jointly drafted by OPM and OCHA, based on the UN's Guiding Principles on IDPs, had been circulated to stakeholders in April for comments. The next step would be checking for conformity with Ugandan and international laws, and then presentation of the draft policy to cabinet for approval. Owuor told IRIN in May that the policy had already been circulated to stakeholders, including NGOs, international humanitarian agencies and the relevant government departments, who would then be called upon to review the document. "I believe in the next three months, we should have a policy in place," he said, though he cautioned that a new policy alone would not do much to change the situation of IDPs, since the government had already recognised the rights and needs of IDPs. Uganda was one of 16 countries which, in mid-May, attended the International Migration Policy Conference for East Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Participants discussed the plight of IDPs, among other issues. During that meeting, Ugandan representative Martin Odwedo, Permanent Secretary of the OPM, admitted that although authorities had the "will and determination" to deal with the massive problem of internal displacement in the country, their efforts were hampered by a weak administrative and institutional framework within which to provide protection and assistance. "In trying to address the problem of internal displacement and find durable solutions for IDPs in Uganda, the government decided, with valuable assistance from OCHA, to develop a policy on the internally displaced," Odwedo said. A summary of the proposed IDP policy draft has highlighted five major areas of focus: the goals, objectives and principles of the proposed policy; the institutional framework; the rights of IDPs; external assistance and coordination among different interest groups on the issue; and the methods to be used to disseminate information on implementation of the national policy.