SCALA Uganda
Introduction
Uganda experiences the effects of climate change in the form of increased temperatures, frequent disease outbreaks and insect infestations, disrupted rainfall patterns, and frequent floods and droughts. While Uganda has progressively undergone social and economic growth and transformation, consequently reducing its poverty rate by 23 percent over the last two decades, sustained gains will require continued investments in agriculture, and the inclusive participation in the economic growth of women as well the population reported poor in 2019. With 81 percent of the population engaged in rain-fed subsistence farming for food and cash income, the country’s reliance on rain-fed agriculture remains a risk to economic growth, income of farmers, as well as export earnings. Agriculture contributes up to 40 percent of Uganda’s total GDP and over 90 percent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. The agriculture sector contributes to 27 percent of emissions, followed by the land-use and forestry sector with approximately 60 percent of emissions.
Country Climate Plans
Uganda was part of the FAO and UNDP supported Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans (NAP-Ag) Programme from 2015-2020, and developed a gender-responsive National Adaptation Plan (NAP) for the agriculture sector and its monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework which now requires support for implementation. Uganda has undertaken steps to implement the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and increase its ambition. The country developed its latest NDC through inclusive and participatory processes and aligned the NDC with its climate-resilient, long-term emission strategy. Most significantly is Uganda’s formulation of the National Climate Change Act 2021 to give the force of law to the Paris Agreement.
Based on the first and updated interim NDC, Uganda continues to prioritize adaptation as the first response to climate change and aims to strengthen mitigation actions, starting with the expansion of extension services and climate-related information. The country is committed to working on reducing climate change vulnerability and addressing climate actions in several key economic sectors including energy, waste, and industrial processes and product use (IPPU). As well the agriculture and livestock, forestry, sustainable land management (SLM), and sustainable natural resources management (mainly wetlands and natural forests restoration, open water bodies protection), are considered as the country’s greatest source of emissions. The country will scale up to increase resilience and adaptability at the community level and leverage synergies with the county’s land-based mitigation goals.
Barriers
Project details
With the support of the SCALA programme, Uganda is moving towards the implementation of its agriculture and land use transformative priorities in its NAP and updated NDC. The country aims to further mainstream gender-responsiveness in the implementation of both the agriculture NAP and the updated NDC, through multi-stakeholder engagement in the cattle corridor. According to the discussion held during the inception workshop and the orientation of the theory of change, the SCALA programme supports the integration of climate resilience and adaptation information into the agricultural extension system especially at the local government levels. SCALA also supports the government to promote crop varieties and livestock breeds that are better adapted to the production practices and weather variability in the cattle corridor. To address challenges associated with rain-fed agriculture, and expected variability in rainfall, SCALA can help Uganda develop an irrigation policy to ensure sustainable access to water and its efficient use for enhanced crop production and profitability for smallholder farmers. The programme generally focuses on strengthening the sub-national-to-national linkages during planning, implementation and monitoring processes of adaptation and mitigation actions, with an emphasis on promoting private sector investment in climate-resilient agriculture in the cattle corridor.
Signature programmes:
Thematic areas:
Key collaborators:
Implementing agencies and partnering organizations:
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
BMUV/IKI
Project status:
Under Implementation
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Uganda identifies barriers, solutions, and investment opportunities for gender-responsive agri-food value chains in the cattle corridor
26 October 2021 - The SCALA team sat down with Mr. John Chrysostom Birantana, Senior Principal Policy Analyst at the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries to understand the challenges related to scaling up both climate change adaptation and mitigation in the cattle corridor landscape, and how the country plans to overcome those barriers to achieve its ambitious climate agenda.