TotalEnergies commissioned an outside evaluation of its Albertine resettlement programme. Households in the pipeline corridor are reading it for the gaps, not the reassurances.
By Grace Nabirye..Hoima and Buliisa Districts.6 min read
Hoima and Buliisa Districts. 4 August 2026.
AccountabilityLand & Resettlement
The paperwork on the Albertine oil development is now thicker than the pipeline. The latest addition is an independent evaluation of the Tilenga land acquisition, resettlement and livelihood restoration programme, commissioned by the operator and carried out by an outside social performance firm.
What the review was asked to do
TotalEnergies EP Uganda engaged Land People Planning Ltd to assess the programmes run between 2022 and 2024, identify remaining gaps and recommend further action. A separate consolidated advisory report covers resettlement action plans 2 to 5. Both documents are published by the operator.
The distance between a completed file and a restored livelihood
Government and operator statements this year have described compensation as nearing completion as first oil approached. In the parishes, completion means something narrower: a signed file and a payment made. It does not always mean replacement land of comparable quality, a functioning grievance route, or an income that has recovered to its pre-acquisition level.
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The file says settled. The garden says otherwise. Those are two different words.
Smallholder, Buliisa District
Why independent review still matters
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An operator commissioned evaluation is not the same as external oversight, and it should not be read as one. It is still useful. A published assessment that names outstanding gaps gives district officials, civil society and affected households a common document to argue from, which is more than most projects of this scale offer.
Why an operator-commissioned review still carries weight
International finance institutions that have historically set standards for resettlement, including the World Bank's performance standards rules, generally need some form of third-party monitoring even when the operator selects and pays the reviewing firm, on the reasoning that a published, methodologically transparent report is more useful to affected communities than no external assessment at all. Land People Planning Ltd's evaluation follows that convention, though it is still distinct from the fully independent oversight that rights groups have called for.
Civil society organisations working in Hoima and Buliisa have said they will use the published review's own stated gaps as an advocacy document, arguing that an operator's admission of shortfalls, but limited, is more actionable than an external report the company can simply dispute.
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We do not need TotalEnergies to admit everything. We need them to admit enough that the next negotiation starts from their own document.
Land rights advocate, Hoima
The most consequential thing to watch next is whether the consolidated advisory covering resettlement action plans two through five produces a household-level livelihood restoration dataset, the kind of granular record that would let district officials and affected families verify claims of completion parish by parish rather than accepting an aggregate percentage.
Frequently asked
Frequently asked questions
Who reviewed the Tilenga resettlement programme?
TotalEnergies EP Uganda commissioned Land and People Planning Ltd, an external social performance firm, to evaluate the land acquisition, resettlement and livelihood restoration programmes carried out between 2022 and 2024.
Is EACOP and Tilenga compensation finished?
Official statements describe compensation as nearing completion, but a closed compensation file is not the same as restored livelihood, replacement land of comparable quality, or a resolved grievance.
Where can affected households read the review?
Both the land acquisition review and the consolidated resettlement advisory covering RAPs 2 to 5 are published on the TotalEnergies website.
Evidence & documents
Every claim above is checked against the records below. Open each one to see where it comes from.
01Tilenga land acquisition and resettlement plan review, 2026▾
Grace Nabirye investigates land, water and energy projects and how they land on households. She has long-running coverage of the Albertine oil region, including company jobs and community health programmes there, and of Kampala water supply.
