Hosted by President Yoweri Museveni and the UN Secretary-General, the Summit sought to rally international support for refugees and host communities in the form of donations, investments and relevant programmes, over the next four years.
Uganda is hosting a little over 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers, some 950,000 of them are from war-torn South Sudan, according to estimates from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also a co-chair of the international conference.
The Government of Uganda, the UN team in in the east Africans country, including its humanitarian partners, are all struggling to respond to this emergency. The new arrivals need life-saving assistance such as water, food and health services.
In his remarks at the opening ceremony of the Solidarity Summit, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, warned that close to one-third of the people in South Sudan have been uprooted from their homes by the ongoing conflict.
Mr. Beasley accompanied Mr. Grandi and Mr. Guterres to the settlement to hear about the challenges facing the refugees from South Sudan, as well as the host communities.
Uganda, through its Refugee Act of 2006, has a generous and progressive refugee policy which does not confine refugees and asylum seekers to camps and allows them to travel freely, own land, open businesses and go to school.
Twelve years ago, Mr. Guterres reminisced, he was celebrating with the South Sudanese who were about to return home full of hope.
Now they were back in exile and for him, the conclusion was obvious: everything must be done to end the war in South Sudan.
