National Stakeholder Workshop in Uganda

The SWITCH Africa Green National Stakeholder Workshop in Uganda was held on 19 and 20 November 2015 at the Hotel Africana in Kampala. The workshop was officially opened by Mr. Arnold Waiswa, Director of Environmental Monitoring and Compliance at the National Environment Management Authority, who delivered a statement on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda. In those remarks, the Permanent Secretary urged all partners in the SWITCH Africa Green programme to emphasize the effective and efficient implementation of sustainable consumption and production and green economy practices and patterns to achieve green growth in Uganda. Workshop participants included members of the National Technical Coordination Committee, representatives of the SWITCH Africa Green grantees and their partners, non-governmental organizations and micro-, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) beneficiaries of SWITCH Africa Green projects in Uganda.

The challenges discussed during the workshop included: 

• Low awareness and limited appreciation of greening concepts by MSMEs in Uganda;
• MSMEs’ lack of capacity (financial resources) to implement greening concepts; 
• The delayed development of the Country Implementation Plan;
• The lack of readily available  documentation on green business development;
• The lack of regulatory measures supporting green project sustainability; 
• Poor communication between MSMEs and stakeholders;
• Lack of financing to support the uptake of green technology by MSMEs.

Regarding the way forward, it was agreed that:

• A platform for information-sharing would be established for the grantees (grantees’ forum);
• The various stakeholders would fast track SWITCH Africa Green project implementation in Uganda in their respective roles;
• The grantees would finalize the monitoring and evaluation frameworks and submit them to the United Nations Office for Project Services in the stipulated timeframe;
• The Country Implementation Plan would incorporate stakeholders’ comments to encourage the uptake of green technology by MSMEs in Uganda; 
• The final plan would be circulated widely.