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The Government of Uganda and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have signed a financing agreement for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) project to restore degraded wetlands, improve ecosystems, strengthen climate information and early warning systems.

Hon. Matia Kasaija, the Finance Minister signed on behalf of the Government and Ms. Rosa Malango, the UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator for Uganda signed on behalf of UNDP. It was witnessed by Hon. Sam Cheptoris, the Minister of Water and Environment during a ceremony held at Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development offices in Kampala.

The project is the UN’s response to the President of Uganda’s Presidential Initiative on Wetlands and a key spoke in the Government of Uganda’s integrated approach to building climate resilience and contributing to targets outlined in the Paris Agreements, 2030 Agenda, Sendai Framework and other Global Accords.

“Addressing the effects of climate change and mitigating them remains key for the Government of Uganda. This project will therefore be key for improved management of wetlands and other environmental resources enabling us to achieve the goals of our second National Development Plan, Vision 2040 as well as the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” Hon. Kasaija said during the signing ceremony.

He also thanked UNDP for working with the Government to acquire the GCF funding which will be an addition to the national budget and other government efforts to fight the effects of climate change.

The eight-year “Building Resilient Communities, Wetland Ecosystems and Associated Catchments in Uganda” project is supported with a US$24 million grant from the Green Climate Fund, US$2 million from UNDP and US$18.12  million in co-financing from the Government of Uganda.

“The project will augment our efforts to safeguard the environment and its natural resources”, Hon Sam Cheptoris Minister of Water and Environment said. He underscored the need to restore degraded ecosystems specifically wetlands and forests in order to contribute towards the realization of Vision 2040 and the middle income status. He pledged his Ministry’s continued commitment to ensure that the project is successfully implemented and the set targets are fully realised.

Ms. Malango, the UNDP Representative emphasized that the project’s main goal is to enable communities living near wetlands have alternative livelihoods that encourage wise use of this resource enabling them to be part of efforts to restore the wetlands.

“Restoration of wetlands is just the beginning, these conservation efforts will also be replicated and extended to protect forests and wildlife areas among others, so that Uganda is able to wholesomely address the issues of environmental degradation,” Ms. Malango stated.

This project builds on UNDP’s other efforts in climate change mitigation, including a Wetlands Atlas developed by UNDP, UNEP and the Government of Uganda which was  launched during the World Wetlands Day celebrations in February this year. In addition, UNDP held a dialogue to promote green industrialisation and also launched an emergency response strategy for refugees in West Nile, one of whose key components is environment protection.

About the project

The Green Climate Fund Project will restore an estimated area of at least 760 square kilometres of degraded wetlands and associated catchments while improving the lives of at least 500,000 people living in 20 districts in Eastern and South Western regions of Uganda which have experienced the highest levels of wetland degradation and climate change impacts.

To achieve this, the project will employ a three pronged approach including; restoration of wetlands and associated forests, improved agricultural practices and alternative livelihood options in the wetland catchment areas and strengthening access to climate and early warning information to farmers.

It is anticipated that the restored wetlands will also enhance communities’ climate change adaptation and resilience, by reducing risk to flooding and drought associated with changing climatic conditions.

About 4million people are estimated to be living adjacent to wetland areas in Uganda and rely on these areas to feed their families and make a living. Wetlands are also an important ecosystem that captures carbon and their conservation will contribute to lowered greenhouse gas emissions.

The project will also diversify economic activities for the vulnerable communities living in the South western and Eastern regions of Uganda through the introduction of improved fishing and agricultural practices among other activities.

These efforts will be key for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals particularly Goal 11 on Sustainable Cities and Communities, Goal 13 on Climate Action, Goal 14 on Life below water as well as Goal 15 – life on land.

The project will be implemented by the Ministries of Water and Environment, Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries together with the Uganda National Meteorology Authority. It will also engage various civil society and the private sector groups.

On August 22, 2017, senior officials from the Governments of Uganda and the United States and other Power Africa partners celebrated Power Africa Uganda Partnership Day, an event that highlighted important developments in Uganda’s electrification efforts.

Power Africa Coordinator Andrew M. Herscowitz handed over master plans to the Government of Uganda for three rural electricity service territories, which identified 140,000 potential new connections and over 100 mini-grid sites that further advance Power Africa’s goal of creating new connections through grid extensions and off-grid projects. The master plans will play a fundamental role in the achievement of the Government of Uganda’s 2013-2022 Rural Electrification Strategy and Plan.

The recently launched Energy Efficiency Roadmap for Uganda, produced under a Power Africa-United Nations collaboration, will further advance Power Africa’s goals to increase energy access and power generation in sub-Saharan Africa by providing a framework for calculating energy savings through efficiency improvements.

Launched at the same event, the Power Africa 2017 Annual Report highlighted that Power Africa has facilitated the financial close of power transactions expected to generate more than 7,200 megawatts and supported private sector companies and utilities to connect over 10 million homes and businesses.

“As we look to the future of Power Africa, Uganda is ready to tap into all of its resources, including human resources along with the water, wind, sun, gas, and steam that will power our economy,” said the Honorable Irene Muloni, Minister for Energy and Minerals in Uganda. “We appreciate the partnership of the U.S. Government, and welcome the investment from outside developers and investors.”

“The Government of Uganda is an important Power Africa Partner that is supporting a predictable investment environment that attracts private sector interest in the energy sector. We look forward to using the momentum from Uganda’s Power Africa Day to support Uganda’s electrification efforts,” stated Herscowitz.

The U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) concluded the day by signing two grants for $100,000 each under the Power Africa Women in Energy Grand Challenge to grantees Eseza Musoki of CODE-Uganda and Mariah Bawubya of Joint Energy and Environment Projects (JEEP). This is a testament of Power Africa’s efforts of recognizing and supporting Women in African Power and further increasing access in areas not served by national electricity grids.

U.S. Ambassador Deborah R. Malac, who presented the grants, said, “Female entrepreneurs have the power to bring change from the bottom up and from the top down.”

For additional information on Power Africa or its private and public sector partners, please visit the Power Africa website (www.usaid.gov/powerafrica).

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Rebecca 4 years old has just recovered from severe malaria. Her mother explains that they arrived from South Sudan one year ago. They now live in the world’s biggest refugee settlement, Bidibidi. Despite having few livelihood opportunities they are at least safe.

Last week the Embassy of Sweden went on a field visit to West Nile together with UNICEF. The purpose of the visit was to follow up UNICEF’s health activities focusing on improving maternal newborn and child health, targeting both refugees and the host community in eight districts. Sweden has supported the project since January this year. The Embassy met with several of UNICEF’s implementing partners, including districts and NGOs, and visited Regional Referral Hospitals and health facilities in refugee-receiving areas.

Sweden’s support to UNICEF aims specifically at strengthening the capacity of the district health teams to plan for, coordinate and provide services aiming at improving the health of mothers, newborn and children.

In Ocea health facility II in Rhino camp the target population has doubled in one year. Rose, the in-charge, explains: “We used to be only two nurses working here. Now there are 28 trained staff, we are conducting deliveries, providing HIV/AIDS services and receiving many in-patients”.

Still there are many challenges. Shortages of drugs, blood, and women coming too late for delivery are only some. Child marriages are common with increased teenage pregnancies as a result. The temporary health facilities set up for the refugee response are in a very bad condition and need to be replaced by permanent structures.

Despite the many challenges UNICEF is doing a great job supporting the district to provide improved health services for the growing population.

During 2016 – 2017 Sweden has provided 21.4 million USD to the refugee response in Uganda and plans to support various partners with an additional 5.7 million USD before the end of the year.

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Most of Uganda’s children are going to school hungry and 29 percent of those aged under five are stunted due to poor feeding. Nearly half of all the country’s citizens overall, meanwhile, are consume less calories than they require each day.

Uganda does not store food for use in emergencies and the land tenure system, while recently improved, is undermining the country’s agricultural potential.

These are some of the findings of a ground-breaking independent review of hunger conducted over the last 11 months in Uganda. The review was commissioned by the National Planning Authority (NPA) with support from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to assess Uganda’s readiness to end hunger – and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 of Zero Hunger by 2030.

“A large majority of school children enter class on an empty stomach and only one in three children gets to eat a meal at school,” NPA Chairperson Dr. Kisamba Mugerwa said today as the findings of the review were launched in Kampala.

Dr Mugerwa said that although data shows that rates of stunting, which leads to reduced physical and mental development, had reduced from 33 percent to 29 in the last six years, Uganda is not moving fast enough to meet the Zero Hunger target by 2030. As such, he said, the futures of hundreds of thousands of children in Uganda are under threat.

Diets of Ugandans in general have improved in the last seven years. However, Ugandans consume an average of 1,860 kilocalories per person per day compared to the minimum daily requirement of 2,200 kilocalories. People heavily depend on staple carbohydrates for calories while these staples are being produced in reduced quantities.

Uganda was found to have few food reserves, most of them being grain silos owned by private entities. Unlike its neighbours Kenya and Tanzania, the review states, Uganda has limited policy options to address sudden food shortages.

Only one in five land holdings in Uganda has a formal title, with a small share of those holdings being registered in the names of women. This, the review found, is just one of many land tenure challenges that contribute to low farm yields, food shortages and high food prices.

“Only 4 percent of households in Uganda were food secure over the last six years,” said Dr. Mugerwa, attributing food shortages and poor diets also to droughts, erratic rains and other impacts of climate change, as well as rapid population growth and urbanization, inconsistent application of Ugandan policies and poor public financing.

Fixing public financing structures, establishing a comprehensive school feeding policy, and high political commitment to land reform are some of the recommendations of the review, as well as fast-tracking pending Parliamentary bills relevant to ending hunger.

Other recommendations include effective early warning systems, the establishment of food reserves, support to irrigation and water-harvesting in dry areas, mass production of staples and conservation of Uganda’s lands and plant and animal species.

The national review was conducted by Makerere University’s Economic Policy Research Centre guided by experts from NPA, seven government ministries, UN and specialist agencies, private sector, civil society organizations, Parliamentary fora and farmers’ organizations.

Titled Toward Zero Hunger: A Strategic Review of Sustainable Development Goal 2 in Uganda, the review focused on the four targets of SDG 2, which are: end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030.

For more information please contact: John Ssekamatte-Ssebuliba, NPA, tel. +256 414 250 229/312 370 730 cell: 256 700 169 256/782 584 822

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A national online hub for everything you wish to know on children in Uganda

KAMPALA, 21 June 2017– the Economic Policy Research Centre (ERPC) and UNICEF have today unveiled the Uganda Children’s Portal – a one stop shop on key information and knowledge related to children in Uganda.

The portal, the first of its kind represents a national online ‘one stop shop’ with information on the lives of Ugandan children in regard to their fundamental rights – the rights to health, education and development, protection, and participation. It is a unique online resource to share ideas, and draw on success stories to replicate and/or scale up relevant interventions.

There have been commendable efforts in Uganda on data collection, dissemination and advocacy for the benefit of Uganda’s population, especially its young citizens. It is crucial for stakeholders including government, UN agencies, donor community, research institutions, and universities to also invest resources in strengthening the utilization of knowledge and data for the monitoring of policies and programmes affecting children and to support policy implementation.

The new online hub offers a user-friendly experience and includes various features to help users quickly navigate and find what they are looking for. The website provides visitors with:

• Publications: A collection of child-related data, research materials, policy briefs and reports.

• News: An opportunity to stay up to date on the latest information and events, as well as live feeds to social media sites, including U-Report – a free SMS social monitoring tool for community participation, designed to address issues that people care about.

• E-Newsletter: Sign-up to read and receive Uganda Children’s Digest, a quarterly newsletter outlining progress on the efforts to safeguard the welfare of children in terms of policy, research and ongoing debates.

• Children’s Corner: Access to colouring pages, fun problems, child-friendly documents as well as an opportunity to send in drawings, paintings and stories.

In addition, visitors to the new site can engage with EPRC and UNICEF by sending in questions and comments on any child related issue. The visitors will also actively engage with numerous social media outlets including U-report, Twitter and Facebook to learn more about the situation of children in Uganda and appreciate the role different partners including the government of Uganda are playing to invest more in children.

During the breakfast launch of the Children’s Portal, participants were given a chance to discover the online hub as well as engage in a Q&A discussion.

According to Dr. Ibrahim Kasirye of EPRC, “there is an opportunity for Uganda to benefit from the demographic dividend, however this will only be possible with adequate and targeted focus and investments in children. EPRC is committed to supporting the use of the portal to provide evidence and share information that is critical for child sensitive policies and interventions. We welcome all stakeholders to effectively utilise and engage with this platform”. To echo Dr. Kasirye’s sentiment, Dr. Diego Angemi of UNICEF reaffirmed the importance of establishing systematic approaches to generate and, most importantly, utilize research to inform policy discussions and decisions.

For more information and to view the Portal please visit www.eprcug.org/children

The Government of Ireland today completed the airlifting of essential relief items worth €500,000 (more than 2 billion UGX) to support South Sudanese refugees in Uganda. This critically needed assistance includes blankets, shelter construction materials, cooking sets and mosquito nets.

Irish Aid, the Irish Government’s programme for overseas development, covered the costs of two separate airlifts to Uganda – one from Dubai on the 11th of June and another one from Accra today. The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, received the supplies at Entebbe International Airport and will distribute them to South Sudanese refugees in Uganda’s districts of Arua and Lamwo.

This support comes at a critical time, with around 2,000 South Sudanese refugees arriving in Uganda daily since July 2016, when a new conflict erupted in Juba and quickly spread to other parts of the country. The fighting has continued to drive people from their homes across the border into Uganda, which now hosts more than 1.2 million refugees – 960,000 from South Sudan alone. Despite the pressure of this unprecedented influx, Uganda has maintained its refugee welcoming policy, keeping its borders open and continuing to provide refugees with land, shelter, freedom of movement and access to services.

The people of Ireland have continued to offer support to the South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, and have provided €3 million in lifesaving assistance in 2016, including €1,114,000 to UNHCR.

“We are so grateful to the Irish people for showing solidarity with refugees,” says Bornwell Kantande, UNHCR Representative in Uganda. “Such display of generosity clearly signals that Ireland stands with Uganda and the communities who have opened their doors and hearts to men, women and children fleeing conflict and violence in their home countries.”

In September 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted the New York Declaration, whereby 193 states pledged robust support to countries affected by large movements of refugees and migrants. “We hope more countries will follow the example of Ireland and will join forces to support Uganda’s progressive refugee model,” says Kantande.

On 04 July 2017, the Delegation of the European Union to Uganda held its bi-annual Structural Dialogue meeting with Civil Society Organisations. The dialogue focussed on the recent refugee crisis and ran under the title ‘The Civil Society Response to the Uganda Refugee and Migration Situation’.

The conference featured introductory remarks by EU Head of Delegation to Uganda, H.E Ambassador Kristian Schmidt and Mr. Godbar Tumushabe representing the Civil Society in Uganda.

“The European Union greatly values the relationship with the civil society. This is why, over the last two decades, the partnership between the EU Delegation and CSOs in Uganda has expanded on all fronts,” said Amb. Schmidt. “Over my last 3.5 years here in Uganda, I have seen the relevance and growing competence of an empowered civil society. It is crucial to any democratic system, but I believe it has never been more crucial than now. Uganda faces opportunities, but checks and balances are under pressure, whether in politics, economic life or environmental sustainability.”

Amb. Schmidt offered EU commitment and support to CSOs and said: “We will continue to provide support to CSOs, not only in service delivery but also in building civil society’s capacity for dialogue and advocacy work. Our commitment will be further strengthened through the 25million Euro ‘Civil Society Support Programme; implementation of which we expect to commence within the next couple of months.”

The dialogue was enriched with the presence of key note speaker (Dr. Busingye Kabumba, Makerere University) and three panellists Ms. Helen Kezie-Nwoha (Executive Director, Womens International Cross cultural exchange Uganda), Mr. Francis Iwa (Care & Assistance for Forced Migrants, a local CSO) and Mr. David Othieno (Safer World, an International organisation). The event was attended by representatives of over thirty CSOs, four EU Member States and members of the academia.

Dr. Busingye Kabumba gave a key note address, setting the scene for the panel discussion.  In his address he dwelt heavily on the newly adopted EU Consensus document and highlighted themes relevant for the discussion.  The interlinkage between the themes of forced migration and human dignity were well underlined.

The discussion had several important conclusions including the following; a shift to addressing the root causes of the conflict, the inclusion of South Sudanese CSOs in the process, role of women in conflict resolution and the need to adopt a more sustainable approach in dealing with the influx of refugees in Uganda among others.

“The European Union has stood beside Uganda from the very onset of the refugee situation by providing financial support both for immediate humanitarian life-saving activities as well as for long-term development needs – for refugees as well as host communities,” said Amb. Schmidt. “ECHO, our humanitarian office has returned to Uganda, having left at the end of the LRA insurgency.”

See in full:

Speech by Ambassador Schmidt EU-CSO dialogue.pdf

Kampala – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Uganda in partnership with the country’s Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development have launched YouthConnekt, a platform aimed at  addressing issues of youth unemployment and inclusion in economic and political processes.

The programme which was started in Rwanda as a platform for bringing young people together and linking them to the public, private and civil society sectors is also is a convener and a catalyst for partnerships that taps into young peoples’ potential to lead development. It gives youth a seat at the table.

Speaking at the launch of the event, Mr. Pius Bigirimana Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development said that Uganda’s problem is not the number of the youth per se, but what proportion of youth who are actively engaged economically.

He added that the youth in Uganda continue to share a disproportionate burden of poverty, unemployment and diseases, partially as a result of limited opportunities for practical skills acquisition and viable employment.

“The concept of YouthConnekt is therefore timely to enhance connectivity of existing youth innovations and building partnerships among all stakeholders in youth development. YouthConnekt should enable us adopt practices and approaches that work well within our legal frameworks, “Mr. Bigirimana said.

YouthConnekt Uganda is aimed at connecting youth to their role models, peers, resources, skills, economic opportunities. The YouthConnekt Uganda Initiative will build on and scale up already ongoing innovations in the country.

Some of these initiatives include the Youth Livelihood Program (YLP), Youth Venture Capital Fund (YEVCF), Skilling Uganda, Green Jobs and Fair Labour Markets, Youth Entrepreneurship Facility, Pakasa and Young Achievers’ Awards among others, all of which were designed to address youth unemployment.

The United Nations Agencies in Uganda have also promoted initiatives that encourage youth Innovation such as International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s Youth to Youth fund model which allows youth in Uganda to come up with up with innovative ideas and the UNDP led Adjumani design challenge which engaged youth from both refugee and host communities in Adjumani district to turn their challenges into opportunities using Human centred design. The innovative approach enabled the young people to identify their main challenges and work together to identify pragmatic solutions for them.

“Our hope is that YouthConnekt will give youth space to create novel innovations that will enable them to contribute to reducing the youth unemployment challenge in the country today, Ms. Rosa Malango, the UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator said while opening the event.

She added that UNDP has also partnered with Outbox, a youth innovation hub to develop an online youth innovators platform that will allow youth to share their innovative ideas as well as link them to role models and funding institutions which can help them develop their ideas further.

“At this time last week, the world came to Uganda for the first time ever for the Uganda Solidarity Summit on Refugees – which re-positioned Uganda as a place of innovations that respond to development and humanitarian issues. We therefore need to think about how Uganda can influence Africa’s development through initiatives such as YouthConnekt,” Ms. Malango said.

She also called on youth to use this platform to discuss what kind of solutions they can come up with to address the contemporary issues affecting the country such climate change, environment degradation and refugees among others.

Mr. Njoya Tikum, A Policy and Programme Advisor, at UNDP’s Regional Service Centre agreeing her called on the youth to innovate around the various development challenges that Uganda and Africa face and not just within the ICT sector.

He also encouraged them to look out for partnerships that would enable them to promote their innovations.

The UNDP and the entire UN family is great at supporting young innovators make this connection with the right partners,” Mr. Tikum said.

Uganda’s YouthConnekt will focus on three out of five components that make up the programme. These include the boot camp for innovators, a hangout to connect the youth to available opportunities and finally a champions’ event to those who excel in the boot camp but also recognise inspirational and innovative youth for their creativity and innovations as well as their ability to create employment and engage their fellow youth.

In July 2017, The YouthConnekt initiative will be launched as an Africa initiative in Rwanda during an event attended by Heads of State and Youth Ministers Summit from all over Africa. Uganda’s roadmap for the initiative will also be shared.

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Kampala – On 21^st and 22^nd June 2017, the world gathered in Uganda to stand in solidarity with the country as it hosts over 1 million refugees. This was during the Uganda Solidarity Summit on refugees. The summit, hosted by H.E President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and the United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Antonio Guterres raised over USD350m out of the targeted USD2m.

“We the indigenous people of the Great Lakes, have been dealing with refugees for millennia.  Our concept of refugees was dynamic, not static like the concept we hear about today,” President Museveni said while opening the 2^nd day of the summit which was also the pledging day. He further said that Uganda’s Pan-Africanist ideological orientation and the history of the people made it easy to absorb or co-exist with refugees from within Africa. However, he added that the sudden large numbers present problems that include providing food and shelter, energy for cooking and light while preserving the environment, providing water, education, and addressing health needs among other needs. It was on this basis that he was calling on the international community to assist in coping with these challenges.

Agreeing with him, Mr. Guterres described the refugee influx from South Sudan as, “the biggest refugee exodus in Africa since the Rwandan genocide.” He recognised Uganda’s exemplary refugee policy and called on the international community to recognise it. “Even today faced with the largest refugee in-flow of the past year, Uganda remains a symbol of the integrity of the refugee protection regime that unfortunately is not being respected everywhere in the world,” Mr. Guterres said. He called on the international community needs to step up and give to the Ugandan people and to the refugees hosted by the Ugandan people the kind of support that is absolutely needed because the circumstances in which these sacrifices are being made are extremely challenging. “International solidarity with Uganda is not a matter of generosity, it’s a matter of justice. International solidarity is absolutely crucial at the presence,” he said.

Several countries heeded the call with Equatorial Guinea kick-starting pledging USD100, 000, it was followed by several other countries such as the United Arab Emirates which pledged USD5m, China – USD500, 000, United Kingdom – USD50m, Japan – USD10m, Gabon – USD250,000, Kenya – USD200,000, Somalia – USD100,000, Germany – USD56m, Australia – USD5m, Italy USD 5.6m, Canada – USD11.5m, Sweden USD 27.1M, Norway – USD4m, Austria  -USD2.2m, Netherlands USD6.2m, Republic of Korea – USD6.8m, Denmark – USD62m , Ireland – USD2.6m, Finland – USD2.4m.

Regional groupings such as the European Union pledged USD 96.3m while African Union pledged USD100, 000. The private sector pledges were led by MTN Group Uganda who pledged USD1m and more pledges were made in kind on the first day of the summit during the Private Sector Side event whose theme was – “Enabling the Private Sector to support Refugees and Refugee hosting communities.”

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) led side event was intended to showcase the contribution of the private sector to refugees and host communities as well as present successful business models that provide a compelling business case for investing in refugee hosting communities. UNDP together with the Japan International Development Agency (JICA) also led the side event Local Government with the theme: “Enhancing Development Approaches for Resilience and Self-Reliance of Refugees and Host Communities: Strengthening the Capacity of Local Governments in Uganda.” 12 districts in Uganda host refugees and this meeting called for partners to support these districts improve their social service delivery for both their local communities as well as their guests. “We must respond simultaneously to the needs of newly arriving refugees as well as of those in protracted refugee situations, living in local communities. And these communities, in turn, must be supported by local governments,” Mr. Hiroshi Kato, JICA Senior Vice President who attend the event noted. Ms. Almaz Gebru, the UNDP Country reiterated UNDP’s commitment to work with both the Private Sector and the Local Governments to provide both humanitarian and development solutions to the refugee hosting communities in Uganda.

Ms. Rosa Malango, the UN Resident Coordinator as well as the UNDP Resident Representative described the Summit as a milestone event that had put Uganda’s on the global map for its development oriented initiatives. She thanked all partners for their contributions and called on others to continue pledging as the pledge lines were still open.

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