Qualitative Study Links Kampala Refugee Well-Being to Economic Stability and Livelihoods

Both urban refugees and host community residents in Kampala define mental well-being in fundamentally practical and economic terms, viewing livelihood access, economic stability, and the capacity to meet basic daily needs as the primary foundations of health, according to a qualitative study published in Conflict and Health. The investigation revealed that psychological well-being cannot be isolated from the structural conditions that generate distress, demonstrating that fulfilling social responsibilities and securing reliable subsistence are central to how displaced populations understand mental wellness.

The study was conducted as a qualitative component of a broader mixed-methods research initiative, holding ten focus group discussions between July and August 2025 across Kampala neighborhoods with dense refugee populations. The discussions gathered 117 adult participants across Congolese, Eritrean, and Somali refugee populations as well as Ugandan host community members, stratified by gender and conducted in local languages. Investigators employed a participatory conflict tree framework to map structural, community-level, and individual drivers of stress and conflict, analyzing the qualitative dataset through an inductive-deductive thematic approach.

Intergroup relations were heavily shaped by misperceptions regarding humanitarian assistance distributions, which fostered discrimination, exacerbated social isolation, and heightened community tensions and mistrust. Observed coping strategies—including religious faith, community solidarity, informal labor, substance use, and transactional sex—reflected severe structural constraints imposed by conditions of poverty and insecurity. Participants emphasized that vocational skills training, sustainable livelihood opportunities, accessible basic services, and responsive community leadership represented the most vital mechanisms for restoring trust and mitigating conflict dynamics.

The findings contextualize conditions in Uganda, one of the world’s largest refugee-hosting nations, where Kampala’s urban refugee population nearly doubled between 2020 and 2025 despite receiving comparatively limited humanitarian assistance. The researchers concluded that effective mental health interventions in displacement contexts require integrated programming combining livelihood support, equitable service access, psychosocial services, and targeted information campaigns to dispel aid misperceptions, highlighting responsive local governance as an underutilized tool for reinforcing social cohesion.

Subject of Research: Mental well-being, social relations, and coping among urban refugees and host communities in Kampala

Article Title: Mental well-being, social strain, and coping: refugee and host community perspectives from Kampala, Uganda

Article References: Koreis, J., Mugazi, J., Lubanga, D., Fowler, R., Willman, A., & Abuelgasim, A. (2026). Mental well-being, social strain, and coping: refugee and host community perspectives from Kampala, Uganda. Conflict and Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-026-00859-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s13031-026-00859-1

Keywords: mental well-being, urban refugees, Kampala, Uganda, qualitative research, social cohesion, coping strategies, humanitarian assistance, Mental, well-being, social, strain