Sometimes back, on a field visit to Karamoja, I was thrilled to unlearn factoids about Karamoja, popularized by the State and even civil society organisations (CSOs).

“The dominant perception of Karamoja within government, the civil service and among development partners, (including CSOs) that the population of Karamoja is a) extremely poor, b) their livelihoods are very vulnerable to frequent droughts and c) pastoral livelihoods are not viable in the long term. Empirical evidence shows that these three perceptions are not true. Detailed quantitative research clearly showed that even in a year with almost complete crop failure, the majority of households in the agro-pastoral and pastoral areas of Karamoja were able to cope without external assistance (Simon Levine, 2010).”

Read more in ““What to do about Karamoja?” Why pastoralism is not the problem but the solution.”

The observations I made during my field visit to Karamoja make me inclined to believe empirical evidence and to surmise that the majority of households in Karamoja have coped and will continue to cope without external assistance, including highly publicized food aid.

This is because I did observe that Karimojong have a robust food system, that is based on organic value addition, preservation and storage methods that are nature based – sun drying, indoor drying in the kitchen, smoking, granaries, etc.

Indoor value addition to maize on a cob – indoor drying in a kitchen house in Karamoja.

Majority of households in Karamoja are able to have food all year round – consuming mostly preserved harvest:

• Grains and cereals – sorghum, millet and maize
• Tubers – cassava
• Leafy vegetables and fruits
• Animal-based products – meat and milk
• Others, including food foraged and preserved – wild mushrooms, white ants, etc.  

Like all communities of Uganda, in particular, and the world in general, Karamoja needs the State to intervene on significant determinants of food production.

No community should be expected to cope on its own, case in point, with the effects of climate change, such as Karamoja is experiencing right now with flooding. Homes overrun and inhabitable, food gardens flooded and damaged, roads covered with water and are impassable.

With the right kind of help, that the State is duty bound to provide, households in Karamoja, through their own self-reliant participatory development efforts, can be food secure all year round.

Granted, the most recent 2024 national population and household census results indicate Karamoja as the least food secure sub-region, but there is every indication that there is need to triangulate such findings with more detailed qualitative investigations.

Read more in “Population of Uganda 45.9 million”

Read more in “A world free of hunger by 2030”

How is it, for example, that Karamoja, the poorest sub-region in the country, with only 18.2% of households that are food secure, has a higher life expectancy of 69 years; as compared to Ankole where 70.4% of households are food secure, but has the lowest life expectancy in the whole country of 60 years?

Questions such as this will be the subject of conversation during training of change agents – in media, in self-reliant participatory development and in research, under the joint CPAR Uganda and Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief Dr. Paul Hargrave Memorial Centre Human Development Project (July 2025 to October 2026).

Read more in “Dr. Paul Hargrave Memorial Centre Human Development Project”