Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD) became involved in Uganda in 1979. This was immediately after the “Liberation war” which saw the departure of Idi Amin’s regime. The first programme was in the North of the Country based in Gulu district. ACORD was majorly responding to the emergency needs as a result of the war. ACORD has now expanded its programme in the whole of Acholi sub region, Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, West Nile sub region, Adjumani and Moyo and the Western part of the country Mbarara programme all under ACORD in Uganda programme. The main intervention currently is focusing on developmental issues and to address the injustices in service delivery by using the right based approach to development as a strategy. ACORD is also engaged in Advocacy and Lobbying for the voice less society in the region to present their issues to the policy makers for a better life. In 2004, ACORD conducted a research to find out the relationship between HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Gender Based Violence. The result of the study showed very strong linkages between the two.

The war in Northern Uganda started in August, 1986 when the Ex-UNLA soldiers who fled into Sudan following their defeat by the National Resistant Army (NRA). In January they crossed back into Uganda and attacked NRA detaches in Gulu district. The attackers returned under the auspices of Uganda Peoples’ Democratic Movement/Army (UPDM/A). This report was presented by; Charles Asowa Okwe Makerere University-Kampala during a two days international conference that was organized by ACORD in February 1997. This event opened a volatile situation in as far as security in Uganda was concerned. The war resulted to massive population dislocation as people flee from the war zones to the safer areas within their districts and beyond.

In some of the affected districts, the situation was more pathetic. People were not only displaced, but some were forced to commute between their homes and trading and urban centers on a daily basis. Children as young as two years old used to commute from their homes to the trading centers looking for shelter. The situation increased cases of defilement and rape as young girls were at the mercy of the older men for material support. The younger boys were too being exploited by older women and sugar mammies and being promised easy life if they accepted their demands.