Promoting Community-Based Adaptation in

Uganda; experiences, lessons, emerging issues and recommendations (for policy and practice) based on

Environmental Alert led initiatives.

Prepared and presented By Dr. Joshua Zake (PhD),

Executive Director, Environmental Alert during the CBA Symposium, Hotel Africana, 16th June 2017 to inform

Uganda’s position paper on Community Based Adaptation ahead of the 11th CBA conference scheduled 22nd-29th June 2017 at Royal Suites in Kampala.

Email: ed@envalert.org or joszake@gmail.com

P. O. Box 11259 Kampala, Uganda, Tel: 0414510215;

Website: http://www.envalert.org

Outline of the Presentation

A) Introduction• About Environmental Alert (EA)

• Actions contributing to release of green house gases resulting in Climate change impacts

• Definition and key principles for CBA

• The motivation for promoting CBA as an approach to contribute to Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

B) EA initiatives/interventions promoting Community based adaptation to climate change (adaptation/mitigation

C) Key lessons for CBA

D) Emerging issues for CBA and proposed recommendations (policy and practice)

E) Conclusions

About Environmental Alert

• EA was founded in 1988 and is officially registered NGO with board. Thus, in 2018 – EA will make 30 years of contribution to food security and sustainable environment and natural resources management in Uganda.

• EA is a 1st prize winner of the Energy globe award for environmental sustainability-2005 under the category, earth.

• EA is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and a Member of The IUCN National Committee for Uganda.

• EA in 10 years 2016-2025, envisions, ‘Resilient and dignified communities, managing their environment and natural resources sustainably.’

• EA’s mission is to, ‘Contribute to improved livelihoods of vulnerable communities by enhancing agricultural productivity and sustainable natural resources management.’

About Environmental Alert ………. Cont’d

Scale of Implementation:• EA operates in selected districts (in 2016, EA facilitated engagements reached 23

districts – directly and indirectly) for generation of evidence to inform policy engagements on agriculture, environment and natural resources at National and International levels.

• EA undertakes area wide (through radio, print media, social media) targeted awareness (illustrative posters, policy briefs, issues papers) on selected issues in agriculture, environment and natural resources engagements

About Environmental Alert ………. Cont’d

EA represents ENR CSOs on the Environment and Natural Resources sub-Sector Working Group

EA is a Secretariat for following networks:

a) The Network for Civil Society Organizations in Environment & Natural Resources Sector (ENR-CSO Network) http://enr-cso.org/;

b) Uganda Forestry Working Group http://ufwg.envalert.org/;

c) The Standards Development Group; and

d) Promoting Local Innovation in ecologically oriented agriculture and natural resources management (PROLINNOVA-Uganda Network) http://www.prolinnova.net/uganda.

Actions contributing to release of green house gases resulting in Climate change impacts

i. Environment and natural resource (land/soil, wetlands, forest, grassland, water) degradation

ii. Deforestation/forest clearing for charcoal, timber, poles, urbanization

iii. Uncontrolled bush and forest fires

iv. Inefficient technologies in the energy, production, construction and transport industrial sectors.

v. Poor land use in the agricultural sector resulting in encroachment on forest resources

ENR CSO Secretariat C/o Environmental Alert

Illustration by EA, 2005.

Eastern Uganda, 2012 Tabu

Iguluibi village, L.

Victoria basin.

Science direct

Teso floods, 2007. Pilgrim

Nakasongola .

Drought in Mubende, 2009. Ben

T.

Teso floods, 2007. Pilgrim

Some of the impacts of climate in Uganda at community level….

Kawempe Division,

Kampala, 2012 EA

Definition of CBA

Community based adaptation (CBA)

• CBA is a community-led process, based on communities’ priorities, needs, knowledge and capacities, which should empower people to plan for and cope with the impacts of climate change’ (Reid, Alam, et al., 2009)

• It’s a partnership between institutions and communities—rather than something done for and imposed upon local peoples.

• CBA largely aims at supporting the adaptation needs of ‘those most vulnerable:’ vast numbers of poor and marginalized peoples living in high-risk environments, primarily in developing countries.

ENR CSO Secretariat C/o Environmental Alert

Principles of CBA

• The overall aim of CBA is to empower communities to prepare for and respond to climatic stress by facilitating adaptation that is inclusive, community driven and sustainable.

• The CBA process begins with an assessment of vulnerabilities to climate stress, the factors underlying such vulnerabilities and related capacities to adapt. The assessment process typically combines technical appraisals by external actors with participatory self-assessments.

• CBA practitioners then seek to work in partnership with local peoples to strengthen their capacity to prepare for and respond to the effects of climate variability and change.

• CBA practitioners aim to build upon existing adaptive capacities, which consist of existing local knowledge, networks, practices, skills, technologies, expertise, norms and institutions—as well as peoples’ intrinsic motivations, aspirations and goals.

ENR CSO Secretariat C/o Environmental Alert

Environmental Alert’s motivation for promoting CBA as an approach to contribute to Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

• Their exists a wealth of knowledge and experiences at community level which should be tapped into to inform policy formulation and implementation to advance community resilience to climate change impacts.

• CBA provides opportunity for translating Government commitments in multi-lateral agreements at international level into real actions of ground (at community level) to advance community resilience to climate change impacts.

• CBA is an empowering process for all stakeholders involved, thus builds their capacities – thereby contributing to ownership and sustainability of the initiatives.

EA’s initiatives for promoting CBA in the last 2-3 years

Initiative/project CBA interventions Area funding Partners involved Dev’t partner

a) Strengthening Community Resilience to Change: Combining Local Innovative Capacity with Scientific Research

Climate change adaptation & mitigation farmer Innovations –documentation, awareness, joint experimentation, policy dialogue

Nakasongola, Moyo 172,273,000 UGX

Prolinnova-Uganda Country platform members – EA and KulikaUganda

Ford Foundation through KIT

b) Community Empowerment for Improved Food Security and Income in West Nile

Early maturing varieties, Apiary, Community knowledge center, awareness creation, capacity building for mainstreaming climate change, policy dialogues

Moyo, Adjumani and Yumbe

400,000 euros over 3 years

Local Governments --Moyo, Adjumaniand Yumbe

Bread for the World

c) Provision of capacity building services for LG, NGOs and private sector towards strengthening stakeholder coordination, and mainstream Climate Change into the S/C Development Plans

Documentation of adaptation actions e.g. Early maturing varieties, irrigation technologies, village savings and credit schemes, community-based irrigation systems

6 cattle corridor districts (Luweero, Kiboga, Nakasongola, Nakaseke, Mubende)

About 360,000,000UGX

EA, Kulika-UG,EMLI, RUCID, VEDCO, ARUWE

UNFAO

EA’s initiatives for promoting CBA in the last 2-3 years

Initiative/project CBA interventions Area funding Partners involved Dev’t partner

d) Policy engagements at national level through the annual joint sector review for ENR sector

Participation in the annual joint Water and Environment sector review – ENR-CSOs annual performance report and position papers

National level and sub regional engagements

About400,000,000 UGX

ENR-CSO Network members

Care International in Uganda, IUCN, ENR-CSO Network members --ACODE, EA

e) Descent Living – access to water and sanitation targeting slum dwellers in Kampala

Construction of drainage channels, sanitation facilities-water borne toilets, promotion of WASH-basedenterprises (charcoal briquette making, )

Kampala 569,807,295UGX

KCCA, We Effect, CIDI/Environmental Alert, SSA/USHNET

Water Aid Uganda

f) Kampala Slum transformation Initiative (KASTI) – access to water and sanitation targeting slum dwellers in Kampala

Targeted awareness on access to safe water and sanitation, policy dialogue

Kampala 371,000,000UGX

KCCA, UWASNET Water Aid Uganda

Key lessons for CBA

• The CBA actions (adaptation/mitigation) must be issue based derived from climate change impacts vulnerability assessment

• There must be resources (financial, human…) for implementation of CBA plans. These resources can be generated from within and outside the community. Thus, some adaptation actions/strategies can be funded through community initiatives/self help, government development plans or other development partners plans

• Key stakeholders, their roles and responsibilities should be properly understood streamlined for effective implementation of the CBA plans – tapping into their mandates, strength, competences and capacity -- sustainability of the initiatives

• For wider impact, CBA should not remain as isolated activities within a community. It must also be scaled-up – which requires communicating local needs to higher levels of decision making – and scaled-out, which involves turning small-scale projects into large-scale endeavors and/or expanding local adaptations over a large geographic area.

• The CBA process build the overall capacity of communities regardless of whether or not specific climate change impacts manifest.

• CBA should be integrated/mainstreamed into broader adaptation and development schemes.

• Mainstreaming allows the needs of the most vulnerable to be reflected in subnational, national and international adaptation programs, policies, plans and investments.

Emerging issues for CBA and proposed recommendations (policy and practice)

Key emerging issues Proposed recommendations

a) Weak information management system fordocument and disseminate lessons, experiences and emerging issues at all levels

--Stakeholders involved in promoting CBA should consider documenting and disseminating lessons, experiences and emerging issues at all levels;--An annual national stakeholders sharing event/s should be organized through coordination by the Climate Change Department/Ministry of Water and Environment

b) Inadequate coordination for effectingreporting and monitoring among stakeholders during implantation of community based adaptation/mitigation plans at local and national levels

--Regular stakeholder sharing meetings should be organized and coordinated by the Directorate of Natural Resources at Local Government level --Stakeholders/partners involved in CBA at different levels should plan and conduct joint monitoring and evaluation

c) Some technologies are costly/expensive, thus not affordable by smallholder farmers

--Government should subsidize farmers to access such adaptation technologies --Government should remove taxes charged on adaptation technologies --Government should provide soft loans for farmers to invest in adaptation technologies --Government should prioritize investments in large scale adaption technologies or infrastructure e.g. valley dams, bridges

Emerging issues for CBA and proposed recommendations (for policy and practice)

Key emerging issues Proposed recommendations

d) Farmers and directly natural resource dependent communities have developed climate change adaptation and mitigation innovations within their own reach

--Existing government programs should support (access to finance, linkages with research for joint experimentation and validation) farmers to advance their innovations as a contribution towards climate change adaptation

e) Inadequate capacity (technical knowledge and skill, limited funding …) among technical and political leaders for mainstreaming CBA in development planning process at the sub county and district level

--The Climate Change Department, International/National Non-Governmental Organizations should advance targeted capacity building for mainstreaming CBA into development planning at sub county and district level targeting stakeholders (i.e. technical and political leaders, Non-Governmental Organizations, Community Based Organizations, Farmers Organizations, Private sector

E) Conclusions

• CBA has a great potential and opportunities to contribute to community resilience to climate change impacts and make tangible results and benefits in terms of food security, sustainable natural resource management, reproductive health and disaster risk reduction.

• The results and achievement so far should be up-scaled and out-scaled based on the experiences and lessons learnt.

• The key emerging issues from application of the CBA approach should be addressed through ongoing policy and programs implementation for effective climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction responses and different levels and scales.

F) Acknowledgements

• The Environmental Alert staff involved in the implementation of these initiatives on a daily and regular basis are appreciated for the efforts.

• All Environmental Alert partners involved in the implementation of the interventions in the respective sites. They appreciated for the technical and financial inputs.

• All Environmental Alert development partners (including: Bread for the World, UNFAO, Water Aid Uganda, KIT, Ford Foundation, Care Uganda International in Uganda, IUCN-Uganda Country, WWF-UCO ) are very much appreciated for the financial support and technical backstopping that enabled Environmental Alert to deliver on the results and outcomes as a result of promoting CBA in the different parts of the country.

• The Government line Ministries (i.e. Ministry of Water and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and fisheries) Local Government Leadership and Agencies (Forestry Sector Support Department, National Environment Management Authority Climate Change Department, National Forestry Authority, Kampala City Council Authority) are appreciated for the value adding partnerships and collaboration.

• The local community stakeholders that put into action the CBA practices and technologies as first line implementers and direct beneficiaries

• The media (print and radio) for the supporting area wide awareness of the results (key lessons learnt and experiences) from the CBA implemented interventions.

References for further reading

18

Kirkby, P., Casey, W., & Huq, S. 2015. A brief overview of community based Adaptation. http://www.icccad.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/A-brief-overview-of-Community-Based-Adaptation.pdf

Ayers, J. & Forsyth, T. 2009. Community-Based Adaptation To Climate Change: Strengthening Resilience through Development. Environment, 51, 22-31.

Ayers, J. & Huq, S. 2013. Adaptation, development and the community. In: Palutikof, J., Boulter, S.L., Ash, A.J., Smith, M.S., Parry, M., Waschka, M. & Guitart, D. (eds.) Climate Adaptation Futures. First Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., p. 203-214.

Ayers, J., Schipper, L., Reid, H., Huq, S. & Rahman, A. 2014. Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change: Scaling it up, London, Routledge.

Dodman, D. & Mitlin, D. 2013. Challenges For Community-Based Adaptation: Discovering The Potential For Transformation. Journal of International Development, 25, 640-659.

References for further reading

19

Ensor, J. & Berger, R. 2009. Understanding Climate Change Adaptation: lessons from community-based approaches, Practical Action Publishing, Rugby, UK.

Ensor, J., Berger, R. & Huq, S. 2014. Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change: Emerging Lessons, Practical Action Publishing, Rugby, UK.

Forsyth, T. 2013. Community-based adaptation: a review of past and future challenges. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews-Climate Change, 4, 439-446.

Magee, T. 2013. A Field Guide to Community Based Adaptation, London, Routledge.

Reid, H., Alam, M., Berger, R., Cannon, T., Huq, S. & Milligan, A. (eds) 2009. Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change, Participatory Learning and Action 60. London, IIED.

Thank you for listening!!

Mwebale nnyo!!

Asante sana!!