Support for Needs-Based Adaptation to

Climate Change in Uganda

Presented by Kimbowa Richard on behalf of PACJA Uganda

to the Rotary Club of Kyadondo
On April 9, 2024 at Uganda Golf Club
Tel: +256 772 457465 | Email: kimbowa.richard@gmail.com
Twitter: @rkimbowa
Outline
• Introduction – the climate change challenge

• Climate Change at the global level

• Climate Change Adaptation Vs Mitigation

• Climate change adaptation at global level

• Key statistics and information: Uganda

• Case study: Strengthening Community Resilience and Promoting Innovative Local

Adaptation Actions to Address Food Insecurity in Mityana district

• Lessons Learnt and Conclusion

• References for further reading

We all want a clean and
health environment…..
• Clean air – ambiance, tranquillity…

• Habitat – homes and shelter for a wide range

variety of birds, insects, mammals and more..

• Carbon sequestration – trees help absorb carbon

dioxide from the atmosphere

• Recreation – green areas encourage recreational

activities like golf, soccer; reduce stress

• Water conservation – water cycles, reduce runoff

and prevent floods; citizens’ safety

• Shade and cooling – green spaces offer shade,

reduce temperature fluctuations
Climate Change at Global Level

Source: floodresilience.net
But, today the world is warmer than it has been many years ago
– growth of cities, more and more cars and factories,
deforestation all pump carbon dioxide into the air… steady use
of fossil fuels, unsustainable consumption and production
pathways.

Global response:

• Mitigation - any action taken by governments, businesses, or

people to:
o reduce or prevent carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by
transitioning to renewable energy sources like wind and solar, using energy more
efficiently, adopting low carbon or carbon-free transportation modalities,
o or to enhance carbon sinks that remove carbon dioxide and other gases from the
atmosphere by restoring forests, wetlands, and marshlands, maintaining soil health,
and protecting terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

• Adaptation (Uganda’s priority) in climate action*

Climate change adaptation involves actions that
help reduce vulnerability to the current or expected
impacts of climate change like weather extremes
and natural disasters, sea-level rise, biodiversity
loss, or food and water insecurity.

Many adaptation measures need to happen at the

local level, so rural communities and cities have a
big role to play. Such measures include

• Planting crop varieties that are more resistant

to drought and practicing regenerative
agriculture (minimizing land ploughing,
practicing rotating crops, and using animal
manure and compost)
Floods in Bulambuli (Eastern Uganda Photo: Uganda Red Cross Society

• improving water storage and use

• managing land to reduce wildfire risks

• building stronger defences against extreme

weather like floods and heat waves
Climate Change Adaptation at Global Level
In 2023, temperature records toppled, while storms, floods,
droughts and heat waves caused devastation.

The United Nations Environment Programme’s Adaptation

Gap Report 2023: Underfinanced. Underprepared –
Inadequate investment and planning on climate adaptation
leaves world exposed finds that progress on climate
adaptation is slowing when it should be accelerating to catch
up with these rising climate change impacts.

 The updated costs of adaptation for developing countries

are estimated to be in a plausible central range of
US$215 billion to US$387 billion per year this decade.

 The adaptation finance needs of developing countries are

10-18 times as great as international public finance flows
– over 50 per cent higher than the previous estimated
range.

 In 2021, ca. 0.3% ONLY of total international climate

finance from both public and private sources was
directed at small-scale family farmers and rural
communities (Climate Focus et.al, 2023).

• Developed countries committed in the Copenhagen Accord, 2009, to jointly mobilize 100
billion USD a year in climate finance by 2020, to address the needs of developing countries
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ’s sixth Assessment Report
(AR6) conclusions (Carbon Brief, 2023):

⁻ “Overwhelming majority” of global climate finance has so far been targeted at climate
change mitigation

- ‘Where climate change impacts intersect with areas of high vulnerability, it is

“contributing to humanitarian crises” and “increasingly driving displacement in all
regions, with small island states disproportionately affected”;

- ‘Climate change “will increasingly put pressure on food production and access,
especially in vulnerable regions, undermining food security and nutrition”
Key statistics and information: Uganda
• Uganda has over six and half million agricultural households (UBOS, 2019), out of which
more than three and a half million are family farms, many of who are among the poorest
people in the world (FAO, 2023)

• Uganda at 0.581 is the 15th most vulnerable country (Notre Dame Global Adaptation
Initiative (ND-GAIN) matrix).

• Adaptation is Uganda’s priority in climate change actions: ref: Third National

Communication, where climate variability and changes as well as climate change
vulnerability and adaptation measures are underscored

• Uganda’s Adaptation Goal is Uganda’s Adaptation Goal (2022-2030) is to address risks,

vulnerability, impacts for adaptation and resilient building to cap climate induced loss and
damage

• W/o implementation of adaptation actions, studies have estimated that, the cost of
impacts of climate variability and change in Uganda would range between USD 270 and
USD 332 billion over the 40-year period 2010- 2050, for the sectors of agriculture, water,
infrastructure and energy

• Uganda is a beneficiary of financial entities to the Financial Mechanism of the UN

Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement
Uganda

Since 1950, average temperature has increased at a rate of

0.23 °C/decade. The increasing temperatures have
resulted in increased trends in the frequency of hot days
and nights (UNMA, 2019 State of Climate Report).

National Risk and Vulnerability Atlas of Uganda identifies

droughts, floods, landslides, windstorms, hailstorms,
lightning, as the major climate-induced hazards  Threats
to econ. sectors

A lot of planning has been done to counter climate change

adaptation, but there are several challenges related to
implementation:
• inadequate local level climate adaptation financing
• inadequate individual and institutional capacity
• limited access to international climate finance
• Limited support for technology and capacity-building

Uganda Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment

Report (2012): More rainfall expected during traditional
dry season and that temp. will rise > 2°C by 2030 
additional stress for households in Uganda, often food
insecure during the dry season
Case Study on Community-Based Adaptation
• The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) Uganda , part of a consortium of
more than 1000 organisations from 51 African countries, brings together a diverse
membership drawn from Grassroots, Community-based organizations, Faith-based
Organizations, Non-Governmental organizations, Trusts, Foundations, Indigenous
Communities, Farmers and Pastoralist Groups with a shared vision to advance a
people-centered, right-based, just and inclusive approach to address climate and
environmental challenges facing humanity and the planet.

• PACJA Uganda a three-year project: “Supporting Needs-Based Advocacy on

Adaptation in Africa (NBAA)”. Project implemented in 10 African countries incl.
Uganda, and is aimed at “raising the importance of climate change adaptation at all
levels of climate debates and dialogues”

• What: Document and amplify Ugandan voices in national, regional and international
climate change and environmental dialogues and processes to ensure equity;
responses are based on this evidence / realities faced by vulnerable communities.

• 2 Case studies were conducted (October 2023) one of which is Kikandwa

Environment Association (KEA) in Mityana district - how are they coping / addressing
the climate change challenge of adaptation at the local level?
Kikandwa Environment Association (KEA):
Strengthening Community Resilience and Promoting
Innovative Local Adaptation Actions to Address
Food Insecurity in Mityana district
• KEA is a CBO, with secretariat located in Kasejjere village

• Membership: 70 (40 women and 30 men including youths), initiated a number of local climate
adaptation and coping actions

• Driver: a need to address alarming low levels of food security, low income in the rural
communities + need to protect the area against further rapid degradation of natural high
forests on the characteristic hilly landscapes  meet the demand for fuel wood and charcoal

• In a span of 20 years, KEA has planted > 300,000 indigenous trees in Kasejjere village and
neighbouring localities

• Many activities are within members / communities themselves

• Comparing their community with the neighbouring communities: there are less incidences of
storms and water run-off in Kasejjere due to the relatively higher vegetation cover. Indeed, the
Sub county Chairman Mr. Jackson Kamya Ssempala summed it up that, ‘In Kikandwa we get
rains others get storms’.

• Climate adaptation and coping innovations implemented by individual members

Financial and Non-Financial support received

• KEA has largely depended on its own generated resources from its members
(membership contribution, donations and in-kind support).
• Support is also from volunteers that have come to support KEA, in terms of training
staff, and developing project proposals for funding (TerraMatch Fund / AFR100 project
running now to plant 100,000 trees in the period 2021-26).
• KEA has also received short term grant support

Next steps

• Promoting local Innovations and use

• Scaling up resource mobilization to promote agro ecological practices among more
members and communities in Kikandwa Sub County; replicate them in other areas in
Mityana district and other activities that will require an est. USD 300,000 in the period
up to 2030.
Key successes by KEA in promoting adaptation actions from ‘bottom-up’

• Members have adopted agro ecological practices including intercropping, companion

planting, live mulching, farm yard manure, bokashi manure, use of botanical pesticides, seed
saving for example amaranthus (doodo), rain water harvesting, contours, terracing and
organic manure use

• Restoration of forest cover through the ‘half + half 1,000 acre’ community forest project
concept of planting trees on private land

• Community road water harvesting

• A medicinal plants section

• Bee keeping

• Livestock production incl. free-ranging chicken, turkeys, goats, sheep, pigs and cattle.

• Value addition on amaranthus (doodo) seeds

• Growing and conserving drought resistant, water tolerant indigenous food crops like yams

• Spearheaded advocacy for replanting of Lukuga Forest Reserve

Climate-related challenges
 Rural to urban migration – leaves behind the elderly
 Drying of natural water points / wells resulting - people walking ling distances
 High demand for firewood and charcoal – theft
 Disease outbreaks in livestock during both extremes; humans - malaria, measles due to
changing weather patterns that favour parasites to thrive and develop resistance to drugs.
 Conflicts over grazing land and water points for livestock
 Pollution of water ways – unsustainable practices like draining wetlands, brewing waragi
 unpredictable (sporadic and delayed) rains resulting in poor crop returns trapping
communities in poverty
 Increased occurrence of persistent pests and diseases on tomatoes, eggplants, beans,
bananas etc. that is costly or hard to wipe out. This has resulted overuse and misuse of
agrochemicals like Mancozeb - organometallic fungicide that has been associated with
human neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration.
 The lack of dependable agricultural extension
services worsens the situation.
 Lack of resources to expand KEA work in other
localities where demand exists
Lessons learnt and Conclusion
• Support to community-led adaptation / sustainable solutions through their
networks, groups, cooperatives, farmer associations, etc. will be key to
addressing the climate change challenge – though external support is crucial
given that Uganda can only meet a fraction of the predicted adaptation needs
• All Development actors depending on the economy, climate and other resources
ought to play their role to address the climate change challenges – especially the
adaptation and coping strategies already elaborated by Government in the
National Climate Plan (Updated NDC, 2020)
• Promoting local innovations and use of Indigenous Knowledge is key: for
example, water use efficiency, value addition to food and livestock products,
indigenous seed conservation, root crops that can withstand climate extremes,
etc.
• Current general weather forecasts be transformed into climate smart advisories
to better inform farmers and also elaborate on the geographical areas they
target as much as possible --- improved packaging (translate, simplify
information to make it understandable; and to use creative innovation methods
• Promote agro processing / value-addition, agro-ecotourism and other forms of
alternative income generation that can significantly enhance community coping
capacity and resilience building to climate change
• Partnerships for capacity building to mobilise adaptation finance through
bankable proposals need to be developed / strengthened
More information

1. Kikandwa Environment Association (KEA) work in Mityana

district, contact:
Mr. John Kaganga
Tel: +256 772 494697
Email: johnkaganga@gmail.com
Website: https://www.kikandwaenvironmentalassociation.org/

2. The Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance Uganda (PACJA Uganda):

Mrs. Florence Kasule
Tel: +256 772 496431
National Designated Coordinator
E mail: pacja@pacjauganda.com
ssebbowaflorence@rocketmail.com

Thanks for listening to me!

For further reading
o Carbon Brief (2023): Carbon Brief’s definitive guide to the entire IPCC sixth assessment cycle https://www.carbonbrief.org/carbon-briefs-definitive-guide-to-the-entire-ipcc-
sixth-assessment-cycle/?utm_source=pocket_saves

o Climate Focus et. Al (2023). Untapped Potential. An analysis of international public climate finance flows to sustainable agriculture and family farmers:
https://www.ruralforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ENG_Untapped-Potential_Embargoed-14-Nov.pdf

o FAO (2023). Family Farming Knowledge Platform - The smallholder farmers of Uganda: https://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/1629961/ accessed November 14, 2023

o GoU (2021). The Uganda National Climate Act (2021): https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/uga208305.pdf

o MoFPED et. al (2023). Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Policy Brief: The Potential of Innovative Instruments to Finance Climate Action in Uganda.
Supported by IKI, GIZ and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action:
https://media.licdn.com/dms/document/media/D4D1FAQHSmOsBp3mPog/feedshare-document-pdf-
analyzed/0/1695822281385?e=1698883200&v=beta&t=FcAmS4iQlj_dclKdzc3Q9nCwCW89YzA6heR2IpEDcQY

o Updated NDC for Uganda (2020): https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/NDC/2022-09/Updated%20NDC%20_Uganda_2022%20Final.pdf

o Ministry of Water and Environment (July 2022). Uganda’s Third National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change:
https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/Final%20TNC%20Uganda.pdf

o The Impact of Climate Change on Coffee in Uganda: Lessons from a case study in the Rwenzori Mountains. OXFAM Research Reports https://policy-
practice.oxfam.org/resources/the-impact-of-climate-change-on-coffee-in-uganda-lessons-from-a-case-study-in-t-277813/

o Partners for Resilience, CARE and EMLI (2020). Climate finance adaptation study report Uganda: https://careclimatechange.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Uganda-Climate-
Adaptation-Finance-Tracking.pdf

o The Paris Agreement: https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/parisagreement_publication.pdf

o UCSD (2019). The East African Sustainability Watch E bulletin February 2019. Mityana Farmers Decry the Rampant Tree Cutting, Unguided Use of Agrochemicals
https://www.scribd.com/document/401116123/Final-EA-SusWatch-Ebulletin-February-2019

o Uganda Bureau of Statistics (2017). The National Population and Housing Census 2014 – Area Specific Profile Series, Kampala, Uganda https://www.ubos.org/wp-
content/uploads/publications/2014CensusProfiles/MITYANA1.pdf

o Uganda Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Report (2012), https://www.climatelinks.org/resources/uganda-climate-change-vulnerability-assessment-report

o UNEP (2023). Adaptation Gap Report 2023: Underfinanced. Underprepared – Inadequate investment and planning on climate adaptation leaves world exposed
https://www.unep.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2023?utm_source=pocket_saves

o USAID (2012). Climate Change Adaptation in Uganda: https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/Agency%20Climate%20Change%20Adaptation%20Plan%202012.pdf

o Catalogue: 80+ Local Sustainable Solutions in East Africa 2nd edition, print, 2023 148 pp. ISBN 978-87-970130-6-9:
https://www.inforse.org/africa/pdfs/Catalogue_LocalSustainableSolutions_EastAfrica_March2023_F.pdf