organizations (NGOs) to traditional authorities, the political elite, youth and women groups, the private sector, dominant and minority groups, among others, are involved in livelihood, social cohesion and natural resource systems interventions in the Karamoja cluster. Such diverse groups often interact in ways that establish relationships among them (whether strong or weak, lasting or mercurial), and produce power relations. These need to be understood by development actors such as the Cross-Border Communities Resilience (CBCR) Activity in order to appropriately design programmes that meaningfully contribute to the communities’ resilience and thus reduce the need for their reliance on humanitarian assistance.

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a powerful tool for understanding the relationship, interaction, and communication between actors in developmental contexts such as the Karamoja cluster. Within the context of the CBCR, social network analysis on social cohesion, natural resource systems and livelihoods actors in the Karamoja cluster was undertaken in order to understand and map the actors, relationships, information flows, gaps/roadblocks and the building blocks for systems level change.

Towards this end, the analysis was to enable the CBCR in identifying three kinds of organizations or people in social cohesion, livelihood and natural resource systems in the Karamoja cluster, namely:

1. Central nodes -the well connected, critical sources and repositories of information, and who have influence.
2. Knowledge brokers – those who create bridges between groups; and
3. Peripheral actors – those who are unconnected and can be at risk of exiting the network.

The social network analysis further explores the types and dynamics of relationships (for example, strong vs weak ties) between the various actors/organizations across the social cohesion, natural resource systems and livelihood sectors. The outcome of this social network analysis is supposed to support the CBCR Activity, and other stakeholders, in identifying opportunities for fostering collaboration, minimizing risks of conflict and ensuring operational effectiveness in resilience programming. It is our hope at the CBCR project that the findings in this report will remain useful and valid for individuals and organizations designing projects and programs across the four domains of social cohesion, natural resource systems, livelihoods and collaboration and coordination in the Karamoja cluster.