Who knows the needs of refugees better than refugees themselves? As Uganda hosts Africa’s largest refugee population of nearly two million people, refugee-led organisations in Uganda can offer crucial expertise and trust needed to succeed in the local communities. The short documentary Filling the Gap or Taking the Lead? draws attention to the initiatives that refugees and refugee-led organisations develop to support their own communities. This includes farming groups, savings schemes and other forms of collective action, as well as more formalised work that often receives far less attention than the international aid system.
On 2 March, the film was screened at Sellanraa at Litteraturhuset in Trondheim. Following the screening, a sofa conversation was held with Kuol Arou, one of the refugee leaders featured in the film. The event was organised in collaboration between the Norwegian Council for Africa and Gemini Global Impact.
The documentary was produced by the Refugee Law Project (RLP) together with NTNU and Makerere University under the PRIO-led project AidAccount (with continued work through the EXPAND project). The film raises wider questions about the humanitarian localisation agenda and what changes when refugee‑led actors are recognised as central, not supplementary to aid.
Kuol Arou is a South Sudanese living in Uganda as a refugee and a co-founder of the refugee youth-led organization called the Shabab Peace and Environment Action Group (SPEAK), which fosters peaceful co-existence between the refugees and their host and among the refugees themselves. Kuol is also a fellow at the African Changemaker Fellowship, the Young African Leaders Initiative and the Peacebuilding Institute in Rwanda.
Hilde Refstie is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography and Social Anthropology at NTNU. Refstie is currently working on the EXPAND project: Expanding the search for new ways of working along the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus (2024-2028).
Organizer: Norwegian Council for Africa and Gemini Global Impact
