In August 2022 Mesfin Ayele from the KRSU was a panelist on an online event organized by the USAID IDEAL team, which shared experiences of ‘Backbone Mechanisms’ supported by USAID in Africa. The KRSU is a long-running backbone mechanism, providing coordination, knowledge management and technical support to the Government of Uganda, aid donors and implementing agencies in Karamoja. The event was framed around Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) coherence, and Mesfin explained the conflict context in Karamoja, KRSU’s work in the region, and the ongoing need for effective coordination within and between sectors. He emphasized that the KRSU used an evidence-based approach to advise partners on their strategies and programming. He further outlined some of the challenges to coordination in Karamoja, and the important of backbone mechanisms such as the KRSU acting as independent and objective entities.