Towards identifying an effective and suitable approach of guided aid response in situations of prolonged conflict: Case study: Uganda

Foreign aid has had a significant role in Uganda's development as well as economical activities. It has been hailed by international donors, especially the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as an African economic success story. While the effectiveness of aid has been questioned by Ugandan and foreign scholars as well as policy makers alike, none doubt the pervasive role it has played in the last decade. Today, however, the disruption in the country's political sphere as well as the intensification of the onslaught by the LRA has not only led Uganda to a situation of a political stalemate but it has also hampered expected outcomes of development programs in the northern part of the country. This has led to aid actors rethinking their roles in the conflict ridden northern part as well as bringing about a debate between development and humanitarian assistance gradually dominating donor discourse. The issue of fungibility of aid at the national level and the imminent possibilities of 'leakage' at the local level has immeasurable implications for further fuelling of the conflict in northern Uganda not to mention the efficacy of development programs. This paper attempts to unpack these issues concerning aid effectiveness in a country that is experiencing intra state conflict and gives insights on how the situation can be improved from the donors' side ofthe equation.