African Intermediary Cities as Actors and Partners in Urban Migration Governance (Gulu, Uganda)
Gulu is one of Uganda's fastest growing intermediary cities. With about 150,000 people living in the city and more than 275,000 people living in the wider district, Gulu is the largest urban center in Uganda's northern region. Migration and (internal) displacement related to past civil wars, regional conflicts, economic inequality, climate change and environmental degradation play an important role in shaping the city of Gulu. As a result, various actors are addressing issues of human mobility in the city. To gain an overview of activities, partnerships and gaps in cooperation, the Equal Partnerships project conducted participatory field research and organized a local workshop in July 2022 in cooperation with the City of Gulu. The stakeholder mapping revealed that despite Uganda's internationally lauded "open" refugee policy, the predominant focus on refugee resettlement in rural settlements has rendered self-settled urban refugees highly invisible, limiting the capacity of local government, civil society and international organizations to support refugees in Gulu city.
