UMOJA for Peace and Resilience successfully conducted a five-day Training of Trainers (ToT) on Social Innovation in Nakivale Refugee Settlement from 17th to 21st May 2025, strengthening local capacity to drive community-led solutions and scale impact across the settlement.
The training was designed to equip community-based trainers with practical skills, tools, and facilitation techniques to cascade social innovation programming to wider refugee and host-community populations. By investing in trainers from within the community, the initiative ensures sustainability, ownership, and wider reach of innovation-led development efforts.
Training Objectives
The ToT aimed to:
- Strengthen participants’ capacity to facilitate social innovation processes
- Equip trainers with participatory and human-centered facilitation skills
- Promote problem identification, ideation, prototyping, and solution testing
- Prepare trainers to mentor and support community groups during program rollout
- Enable large-scale, community-driven implementation of social innovation initiatives
Training Approach
The five-day program adopted an experiential and participatory learning approach, combining group work, practical exercises, peer learning, and reflection. Participants explored key stages of social innovation, including:
- Understanding community challenges
- Design thinking and solution ideation
- Prototyping and testing ideas
- Mentorship and community facilitation techniques
- Planning for scale and sustainability
Sessions emphasized inclusivity, collaboration, and context-specific adaptation to Nakivale’s diverse refugee communities.
Participants
A total of 25 participants (women and men) were trained, drawn from refugee-led groups and community structures within Nakivale Refugee Settlement. Participants brought prior experience in community mobilization, youth engagement, and livelihoods programming, enriching peer learning and practical application.
Key Outcomes
- 25 trained community trainers equipped to lead social innovation activities
- Strengthened facilitation and mentorship capacity at community level
- A pool of trainers ready to cascade training and implementation to larger groups
- Increased readiness for community-led problem solving and innovation
Next Steps
Following the training, the trained trainers will:
- Facilitate social innovation sessions within their respective zones
- Support community groups to identify challenges and develop solutions
- Contribute to scaling UMOJA’s social innovation programming across Nakivale
UMOJA will continue to provide technical support, mentorship, and monitoring to ensure quality implementation and sustained impact.
Conclusion
This Training of Trainers marks an important step in building local leadership and scaling community-driven innovation in Nakivale Refugee Settlement. By empowering trainers from within the community, UMOJA reinforces its commitment to sustainable, inclusive, and locally owned development solutions.