Uganda National Networking Forum

SWITCH Africa Green held the Uganda National Networking Forum on 14 and 15 September 2017 in Kampala under the theme “Sustaining Uganda’s resources through promoting green business production”. The key objective of the forum was to foster open sharing of information and knowledge among stakeholders on the transition towards an inclusive green economy. The forum brought together about 150 participants, including government officials, members of parliament, development partners, academics, researchers, and representatives of civil society, cultural institutions and the private sector.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Polly Mugisha, speaking on behalf of Ms. Almaz Gebru, Country Director for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), applauded the cost savings achieved and investments made in Ugandan MSMEs to support them in integrating resource efficiency and cleaner production in their operations.

Mr. Patrick Mwesigye of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlighted the importance of holding the networking forum as part of the SWITCH Africa Green networking facility component, which provided a platform for knowledge-sharing among the beneficiaries to distill best practices and replicate and scale up projects. He also said that SWITCH Africa Green aimed to provide compliance assistance to ensure that micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) increased their profits while conserving the environment. He noted that the European Union had approved phase 2 of the SWITCH Africa Green programme, which was set to run from 2018 to 2021.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Pavlos Evangelidis, Head of Inclusive Green Economy, Delegation of the European Union to Uganda, said, “An inclusive green growth economy with a brilliant private sector is a very good opportunity to make a long-lasting economy while safeguarding the environment.” 

“An Inclusive green growth economy with a brilliant private sector is a very good opportunity to make a long-lasting economy while safe guarding environment” - Mr. Pavlos Evangelidis 

He said that the European Union was committed to supporting the second phase of the project, which would add Ethiopia to the six countries already implementing the current phase. A key focus of the second phase would be information-sharing.

Mr. Paul Mafabi, Director, Environmental Affairs, Ministry of Water and Environment, delivered the keynote address on behalf of the Permanent Secretary of the ministry. He welcomed participants and said that people’s perception and attitude needed to change in order to embrace the green growth initiative

“Uganda is endowed with rich natural diversity that necessitates incorporation of sustainable consumption and production practices into the economy to ensure the sustainability of natural resource capital.” — Mr. Paul Mafabi

He thanked the European Union for funding SWITCH Africa Green, and UNEP, UNDP and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) for partnering to support Uganda’s transition to an inclusive economy.

Mr. Edward Odipio, speaking on behalf of the Executive Director of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), welcomed participants to the networking forum and urged stakeholders to integrate green growth policies into national development plans to ensure green growth and the advancement of Uganda’s economic status.

Mr. Silver Ssebagala, representing the Uganda Cleaner Production Centre, made a presentation on “Cleaner production practices as a tool for green growth”, in which he noted, among other things, that there was a need to green all industries to make them more resource-efficient and resilient without necessarily slowing them down, stating that they could progress from cottage-scale to medium- and eventually to large-scale. This would lead to the creation of a green path for sustainable consumption, hence achieving huge impacts, with a long-term focus on more employment opportunity and increased revenues while decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation.

Ms. Norah Mugita (UNEP) responded to questions and comments on how laws, policies and standards across the region and beyond worked to ensure compliance with the green growth strategy, noting the progress the country had made in developing a green growth strategy.

Presenting the draft Uganda Green Growth Strategy, Mr. Kaggwa Ronald, of the National Planning Authority, said that efforts were being made to mainstream green growth budgets into the national budget, as well as to steer budget policy and advocacy towards green growth. While incentive packages for greening were encouraged, some projects, like those of the Uganda Investment Authority, were collaborating with various entities to promote green growth. The draft strategy emphasized the need to green all sectors to make them more resource-efficient and resilient without necessarily slowing them down. Mr. Simon Etimu, representing the Directorate of Water Resource Management, emphasized the importance of water conservation and water audits to ensure sustainable water use in industry and even in the tourism and agriculture sectors. 

In his presentation, Mr. Godfrey Kabbyanga, Mayor of Kasese Municipality, noted that there was a need to invest strongly in technology and research, to develop modern cookstoves and to discourage charcoal use. Through a clean development mechanism initiative being implemented by NEMA, the Kasese District converted municipal waste into compost for agricultural use. As the first district to develop a renewable energy strategy, it now encouraged communities to use cookstoves, gave them free tree seedlings and was conducting a street beautifying campaign, which had led to improved waste management.

Mr. Joshua Mutambi of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives focused on sustainable manufacturing in his presentation, saying that greening initiatives were bringing Uganda innovation and investments. During his presentation titled “Sustainable Tourism Development and Green Practices”, Mr. George Owoyesigire of the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities was optimistic that the reform of the Tourism Act 2008, to include ecotourism, sustainable management of tourist sites and community tourism, would boost Uganda’s tourism sector and earnings. Mr. Peter Beine of the National Agricultural Research Organization noted that Uganda was moving into organic agriculture, which had the potential to increase revenue.

In his closing remarks, Mr. Mwesigye said that the grantees would provide an update on their progress in implementation during the regional networking forum to be held in Burkina Faso, giving Uganda an opportunity to showcase its achievements of the last four years. He encouraged investors to register for the United Nations Environment Assembly exhibition due to take place in Nairobi and thanked all the participants and organizers, in particular NEMA, for holding the forum.
Speaking on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Mr. Joshua Mutambi thanked the organizers and forum participants for their active participation, for sharing their experiences and lessons learned and for networking with each other. “This is an opening for more investments,” he said.

Uganda has six grantees working with about 400 enterprises helping them green their businesses, with agriculture, manufacturing and tourism as the priority sectors.

The overall objective of SWITCH Africa Green is to support six countries in Africa in achieving sustainable development by engaging in the transition towards an inclusive green economy, based on sustainable consumption and production, while generating growth, creating decent jobs and reducing poverty. SWITCH Africa Green is promoted and funded by the European Commission and implemented by UNEP in partnership with UNDP and UNOPS.