Post Covid-19 recovery plan ignores climate change funding, says report
Motorists wade through a flooded section of the road in Kampala following a heavy downpour on March 14, 2023. PHOTO/ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- The report titled “Uganda’s Post-Covid-19 Recovery Strategy & NDC Implementation” says Uganda adopted a two-fold response to Covid-19 of dealing with the emergency of the pandemic and addressing the short to medium-term recovery of the economy.
A new report by Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) has painted a grim picture of Uganda’s post Covid-19 recovery plan, noting that while the country focused on health and economic recovery, climate change issues have been relegated and meagre funds allocated to green recovery.
The report titled “Uganda’s Post-Covid-19 Recovery Strategy & NDC Implementation” says Uganda adopted a two-fold response to Covid-19 of dealing with the emergency of the pandemic and addressing the short to medium-term recovery of the economy.
Attention, according to the report, was paid to addressing health-related expenditures, restoring household incomes and safeguarding jobs, providing emergency social protection and providing tax relief to businesses and reigniting the business community
“The main focus of the recovery strategy was strengthening healthcare systems and attaining economic goals indicating that the opportunities have largely not been tapped. Environmental and climate issues were relegated to the back burner. Uganda’s fiscal response, in part targeted at accelerating the development of industrial and business parks whose climate effects are projected to be negative and the recovery measures did not focus on green issues,” the report says.
“For instance, the total allocation for the programme for FY 2020/21 was Shs804.24 billion ($219.09 million) against the NDP III annual requirement of Shs895.14 billion ($243.87 million) representing 90 percent of funding. Climate change and the environment got the minimum allocation despite their major contribution to the attainment of programme goals and objectives,” the report adds.
While presenting the report on Tuesday last week in Kampala, Mr Ronald Kaggwa, the lead researcher, said the reliance on heavy borrowing has direct and indirect negative effects on the country’s transition to a green economy.
He said the current and future debt-servicing costs are likely to undermine investment in green economic recovery and transition.
“Climate action during and after the pandemic is likely to continue to be side-lined in terms of resource allocation, and any progress on climate change will depend on the policy choices adopted for economic recovery,” he said.
Uganda has faced a triple crisis in recent times including Covi-19, locusts invasion and floods, highlighting the interface between economic growth and climate change.
The water levels of Lake Victoria reached their highest point in 120 years, displacing thousands of people. Figures in 2019 indicated that 65,250 people were displaced and roads, hospitals, schools and bridges destroyed in the process.
These disasters affected the economy, which decelerated to its slowest pace in three decades, from a projected growth of 6 percent to 3 percent in FY 2019/20
“To cope with the multiple crises amid reduced economic activity and constrained household incomes, many people turned to the already strained natural resources,” the report states.
