East Africa 2025 Regional Leadership Retreat
East Africa 2025 Regional Leadership Retreat
East Africa 2025 Regional Leadership Retreat
The retreat is themed “A New Dawn: Navigating Complexity with Purpose.” This email is the first in a series of logistical updates we’ll be sharing to help you prepare for the upcoming retreat.
In recent years, aid policies, funding, and delivery methods have evolved—especially amid growing crises and funding constraints. At the same time, conflict, climate shocks, and structural barriers continue to undermine and complicate humanitarian efforts.
The decline in global donor funding—especially from the US, UK and EU—has forced aid reductions, ration cuts, and funding gaps that have severely strained humanitarian responses. These reductions have been driven by rising domestic pressures (inflation, politics), competing global crises (Ukraine, Gaza, climate disasters), and “donor fatigue” after protracted emergencies. Chronic underfunding is pushing agencies to prioritize life-saving services over long-term solutions while host governments and local actors are under greater pressure to fill critical gaps — often with limited resources or capacity.
At the same time, governments and partners have been working to shift from camp- and settlement-based emergency aid toward integration, including by transitioning service provision away from humanitarian organizations and towards government provision. This shift towards economic and social inclusion within host communities is anchored in the Global Compact on Refugees, and national policies like Kenya’s Shirika Plan (2023–2030), Uganda’s Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), and Ethiopia’s Refugee Proclamation (2019).
There has also been a rising push to localize aid, empowering local NGOs, CSOs and refugee-led organisations to take central roles in planning and delivery—yet only a small percentage of funding currently reaches them.
The retreat will discuss the current changes and transitions currently unfolding in the humanitarian sector in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, among others. Speakers will explore how we, as leaders and partners, can navigate these changes, including the transition of refugee services from NGOs and UN agencies to governments, with purpose and resilience.
The event will be held on from Monday, 22nd September 2025 to Wednesday 24th September 2025 at Speke Resort, Munyonyo in Entebbe, Uganda.
