Abstract:
Uganda has established numerous policy and institutional frameworks to counteract
the negative impact of Climate Change (CC), since the adoption of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) in 1992. There have
been concerns, however, that the implementation progress is debilitated by a surge
of deficiencies ranging from policy to institutional mechanisms. Several institutional
actors, for example, were said to remain anonymous, disparate and uncoordinated,
causing parallel initiatives that could stifle the effort to address CC.
This article, presents results of a fieldwork and desk research study conducted
to analyse the major policy and institutional mechanisms, as well as, the actors
involved in CC efforts in Uganda. The article reviews major CC-related policies,
actors and institutional arrangements, to establish how far they represent suitable
mechanisms of dealing with the problem; and in essence fostering human
development (HD). The discussion highlights on who is doing what, with whom and
with what progress – across the spectrum of government, development partners,
NGOs, private sector and research institutions. The study established a great
effort by different stakeholders, but their initiatives remain largely disparate and
weak. This is due to poor coordination and communication, exacerbated by weak
organisational structures, poor inter-agency relations, limited human skills and
technical capacity, and failure to enlist the private sector and local governments to
support responses to CC-HD. The need to establish a national CC policy (currently
lacking), create more formal and authoritative institutions, promote institutional
and human resource capacity, and strengthen monitoring are advocated.
