The Role of Entrepreneurship Skills Training in the Economic Reintegration of LRA Ex-Combatants in Post-armed Conflict in Northern Uganda

Reintegration of ex-combatants has been a concern after every armed conflict the world over. Northern Uganda experienced two decades (1986-2006) of such conflict. After the Juba Peace Talks that ended the hostilities between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and the government forces, many LRA ex-combatants, under the Amnesty Act, have returned and are being reintegrated into their communities. This is under the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programme. Some received a reinsertion package between 2005 and 2009 to allow them reintegrate economically but this has not been effective. The purpose of this study was to assess the relevance of entrepreneurship skills training in the economic re-integration of the LRA ex-combatants. It was conducted in Gulu, Nwoya and Kitgum districts in Acholi Sub-region in northern Uganda. A sample size of 99 respondents was drawn from ex-combatants, their family members, business persons and Civil Society Organisations staffs. Forty eight were ex-combatants who were proportionately and randomly drawn from the three study districts. Both descriptive and inferential analyses carried out using SPSS software version 16. It was established that majority of the ex-combatants have extreme financial burdens arising from their marital status, polygamous type of marriage, number of children, and number of dependants that they have. Majority of them had no formal education while many had only primary education. Most were in the youth age group (18-35yrs) and 47.8% of them had no formal education. They had poor employability and low financial independence. Entrepreneurship skill training was established to be correlated to economic reintegration and that 44.7% of economic reintegration can be explained by entrepreneurship skill training. Business skills and financial literacy training were statistically significant predictors of economic reintegration. It was recommended that the government leads in financially supporting and cultivating the environment suitable for entrepreneurships skills training of ex-combatants