Okere City: Building a sustainable futuristic rural city

Problem

Okere is a community of around 5,000 in Northern Uganda that was heavily affected by the LRA conflict from the 90s until mid-2010s. The entire community was displaced; many experienced violence or even got killed. In 2020, 85% of households in Okere were living below $1.5 a day. Only 5% of children below the age of six were undertaking early childhood education. 98% of children below ten could not read. Less than 10% of young adults (16-40 years) could be categorized as technically skilled in any vocational discipline. Okere City set out to change that.

Solution

Okere City is on a mission to make Okere a model Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) village. To build a resilient, thriving, and self-reliant rural future in Okere, the team has analyzed integrated sustainable development approaches and explored how to truly localize them by fostering a collaborative ecosystem. The result is a holistic set of interventions covering 16 out of the 17 SDGs. For example:

• Health: Their health center currently treats 2,500 people per year.
• Education: They run an ECD center, a community school (with over 500 children enrolled in either the ECD center or the primary school) as well as adult education and gender awareness workshops.
• Culture: Theatre and music productions, sports, and an artist residency program. Okere City also supports shea butter production and promotes reforestation and conservation of the shea trees that naturally grow in the area. The Okere Shea Cooperative now counts over 500 women, and new markets such as international e-commerce increased sales by 65% in 2024.