The Deputy Ambassador of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bouwe-Jan Smeding, has called for a shift from traditional humanitarian grants towards sustainable entrepreneurship and investment in refugee-hosting communities.
Smeding made the remarks during the official closure of the AVSI Foundation's Y-Connect project in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, where he challenged development partners to reconsider how they deliver assistance to refugees and host communities.
While commending the project's achievements, the diplomat questioned the effectiveness of fragmented aid interventions, in which multiple organisations implement short-term projects in the same communities.
"The Dutch do say thank you for sure, but the Dutch always have something to complain about as well," Smeding said.
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He questioned why some communities and schools have to deal with as many as 25 organisations running separate projects lasting only two or three years.
"We won't make a real change if we continue doing it like this. If we don't support the government to really make a transition, things will not happen," he said.
Smeding cited examples of beneficiaries who had turned small agricultural investments into significant earnings. He said some farmers had grown their initial investment of Shs150,000 into Shs900,000 through cabbage production, while others earned Shs4.4 million from tomatoes in a single season.
However, he argued that while such achievements demonstrated the potential of the beneficiaries, development programmes should do more to prepare them to operate as independent entrepreneurs.
"All these stories mean people are successful, but we did not make them entrepreneurs -- because entrepreneurs take risks, entrepreneurs take loans," he said.
Smeding urged development partners to move beyond treating refugee settlements primarily as humanitarian assistance zones and instead support businesses through investment and credit facilities.
"Investing means people know that once they become an entrepreneur, they take a loan and pay it back," he said.
He suggested that replacing some grant-based interventions with revolving loan funds could allow development capital to reach more beneficiaries.
Under such an approach, money repaid by borrowers could be lent to other entrepreneurs, potentially expanding the number of people supported by the same pool of funds.
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"Not 1,700 people could have started a business, but maybe 3,000 for the same amount of money. Imagine doubling the amount of students who are confident and have a business -- to me, that sounds like music in my ears," he said.
The Embassy called on UN agencies, non-governmental organisations and the Ugandan government to adopt scalable, market-driven approaches that strengthen economic self-reliance among refugees and host communities.
The call comes amid concerns over declining donor funding and the need for development programmes that can sustain livelihoods beyond the lifespan of individual projects.
