Noticias

After seeing the many negative effects that climate change is having on smallholder farmers and their livelihoods in Uganda, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) is now gearing up to take nation-wide climate action.

With the assistance from the Policy Action on Climate Change Adaptation (PACCA) project, led by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and the USAID project ‘Feed the Future - Enabling Environment for Agriculture’, MAAIF has been asking farmers for first-hand information on the specific effects that climate change is having on their farming, yields and livelihoods.

We specifically wanted to hear from farmers in the different areas. It is really the farmers themselves who are on the ground, feeling the negative effects of climate change; so who would be better than them to compile this information?” said Hakuza Annuciata, Climate Change Focal Point at MAAIF, during a recently held a consultative workshop for the Ugandan Northern region.

Participants who joined the seven regional consultative workshops from November last year to July this year were farmer representatives and associations, local government staff, and production- and natural resource officers from each of the districts.

New Info Note

Mainstreaming of climate change issues into agriculture plans and policies in Uganda is not only a brave step, but a necessary one.

A recently released Info Note reveals that up to now, Uganda hasn’t paid enough attention to climate change in national development and agriculture plans, which needs to be turned around sooner rather than later.

Download: Barriers to successful climate change policy implementation in Uganda (PDF)

The objective was to find specific climate challenges faced by the different regions, and explore ways to use and incorporate these experienced climate issues into district strategic agriculture plans and policies.

The PACCA team has worked closely with MAAIF to assist with the organization of the workshops, as well as facilitating the agricultural group discussions and documenting the overall process.

The information collected from the consultative workshops will also inform the process of developing the Climate Change Mainstreaming Guidelines for the Agricultural Sector, the Adaptation Action Plans for the Agricultural Sector and to climate-proof the Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan (2016-2021), which is nearly complete.

Climate needs differ across districts

Just like many other nations, Uganda’s landscape varies across its borders. The land covers farm-covered hills and plateaus, dense forests, mountains and semi-arid plains. The development plans for the different districts therefore need to be sensitive to the different contexts and local institutional set-ups. Andrew Nadiope, Cimate Change expert at the Ministry of Local Government, had this in mind as well:

We saw the need to zone our country, since the different regions have different challenges and needs for adaptation.

When we plan, we need to plan with climate change in our minds. If we document the climate change problems in our district plans and in our budgets, the adaptation actions will be more targeted and easily adoptable.

Challenges to mainstreaming climate change in policies

As with any new policy development process, climate mainstreaming could prove to be quite the challenge – but not an impossible one. 

The process requires strong coordination and a great deal of collaboration between different sectors, from district local governments to sub-national and national authorities and institutions.

For example, the Ministry of Finance needs to be onboard to ensure financial support. The Ministry of Local Government has to provide guidance on how to best incorporate climate change provisions in district development plans. The Climate Change Department in Ministry of Water and Environment will need to participate to coordinate mainstreaming efforts at national level.

Getting these authorities to work together on climate mainstreaming in a coordinated and integrated way could be challenging as it involves significantly changing the way these institutions traditionally work and operate. Climate change however can only be managed, and mitigated, through consorted efforts.

Photo from the West Nile regional workshop, aimed to collect input from farmers and start the climate change mainstreaming into agriculture plains.

Policy progress and road ahead

Incorporating climate issues into agriculture plans is not the only climate advancement work undertaken by Uganda however. The country has already developed a climate change policy and implementation framework and a Country Climate-Smart Agriculture Programme (2015-2025) (PDF).

The National Planning Authority has also provided overarching guidelines for mainstreaming climate change, which steers sectors as they themselves develop sector-specific guidelines. MAAIF has also established a climate change task force to spearhead and prepare the agriculture sector for climate impacts.

Uganda’s dedication to establish climate-resilient agricultural plans and sectors could really serve as a model to other countries.

The next steps for the PACCA research team and partners are to link up with local governments to support the mainstreaming of climate issues in pilot district agriculture plans. The team is also planning to establish District Learning Alliances where key climate- and agriculture-linked stakeholders will be able to share climate change knowledge, region-specific priorities and decide on joint actions.

The Alliances would complement the already established National Learning Alliances, featuring policy planners, government representatives, researchers and private sector members, in Uganda and Tanzania. Learn more about this activity here: Policy action for climate change adaptation in East Africa.

Download: Okolo W, Twyman J, Ampaire E, Acosta, M. 2015. Barriers to successful climate change policy implementation in Uganda: Findings from a qualitative policy study in Nwoya and Rakai Districts, Uganda. CCAFS Info Note. Copenhagen: Denmark.

This blogs is part of the ongoing efforts that the Policy Action for Climate Change Adaptation (PACCA) project, which forms a crucial part of CCAFS Policies and Institutions Flagship. PACCA is led by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and aims to build a climate-responsive environment together with policy makers in Uganda and Tanzania.