Uganda Response Innovation Lab

The Uganda Response Innovation Lab (U-RIL) was founded in 2018 by Save the Children Uganda as part of the global Response Innovation Lab network, with a mandate to strengthen Uganda's refugee response through innovative systems, technologies, and locally driven solutions. Uganda is Africa's largest refugee-hosting country, hosting over 1.4 million refugees — approximately 60% of whom are children — across 13 districts under one of the world's most progressive refugee frameworks, granting refugees freedom of movement, the right to work, and access to national services.

Despite Uganda's progressive refugee model, the humanitarian system faces mounting pressures — chronic funding shortages, overstretched services, climate stress, food insecurity, and rising youth unemployment. These realities make innovation a necessity. U-RIL exists to help humanitarian response transition from short-term aid delivery toward resilient, scalable, and locally owned systems — reducing costs, improving efficiency, strengthening accountability, and enabling sustainable livelihoods for refugees and host communities alike.