The conflict in the North has profoundly eroded the cultural, social, and economic fabric. Therefore, there is need to rebuild community relationships. While the other pillars focusing on improving the environment for economic growth, this pillar focuses on social aspects that should be considered to ensure inclusive development and long-term peace. Social protection in Uganda has mainly focused on vulnerable groups such as orphans, vulnerable children, and people living with disabilities. While interventions for these vulnerable populations should remain a priority, there is need to expand services to other people in the communities who are unable to access economic opportunities and public services. For instance, people with post conflict mental health problems are a particularly vulnerable group.
Northern Uganda is currently at peace. However, there are many underlying potential drivers of new conflict which hinder peaceful co-existence. The issues threating long-term peace include, but are not limited to:
a) Conflicts over land and natural resources: Disputes from contested boundaries, tensions over potentials for oil, competition for land with minerals and forests, the gazetting of land by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, land ownership and disputes around internally displaced persons, and land for refugees. 1 Advisory Consortium of Conflict Sensitivity (ACCS), Northern Uganda Conflict Analysis, 2013
b) High levels of sexual and gender-based violence: Changing gender relations have been a contributing factor to increasing instances of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence which in turn fuel conflicts within families and communities.
c) Youth who are unemployed, disillusioned, and lack opportunities: Among youth, there are increasing feelings of exclusion and hopelessness arising from poverty, unemployment, low educational attainment, and poor governance, a pattern seen globally and recognized in areas of armed conflict.
d) Incomplete or inadequate transitional justice and reintegration process: The lack of a comprehensive and transparent transitional justice to adequately address war inflicted losses leaves community members with long-standing grievances.
Furthermore, there have been little reparations for ex-combatants and a poor reintegration process of ex-combatants into their communities. Structural transformation can promote rapid growth but it needs to be accompanied by
fundamental social development, to be sustainable. Pillar 4 deals with significant social issues including; gender, mental health, community relations, and harmful social practices.