COVID-19 relief food distribution: impact and lessons for Uganda

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause uncertainty to Uganda's food security among underprivileged households. The Corona virus Response Team inaugurated a relief food distribution campaign, ensuing from the countrywide COVID-19 lockdown to counter the rising food insecurities in many urban and rural poor households. However, the relief response campaign has received a lot of critics from both rural and urban communities who were planned as the beneficiaries. Three months into the COVID-19 pandemic the population reports; delays in the distribution, poor quality supplies, arrests and continued restrictions, slow paced distribution among household, and a negative impact on the health care system. As a learning from the current experience, we recommend; a multisectoral engagement, better planning, a decentralized food distribution, and formulation of clear food distribution guidelines to guide the future responses. Use of mobile cash transfers to reach out to the food insecure households can support local economies and lower the cost on middlemen and interrelated corruption.