Advancing climate change adaptation in Ugandas agricultural programming for sustainable development: Key milestones and constraints

Abstract

Climate change remains a crucial threat to sustainable development, particularly to the farming communities, which are more vulnerable to climate impacts. Uganda has made commendable steps in building an institutional framework for addressing climate change. However, the framework remains scattered in several documents making it difficult to track and conceptualize. This paper provides a one-stop center for understanding how effectively climate change is institutionalized in the agricultural sector and identifies the critical issues for future actions towards effective mainstreaming of climate change in agricultural programming. Findings in this paper are based on data collected through document review and a case study of Bududa district, representing the local governance of climate change adaptation mainstreaming. The paper observes that significant steps have been taken to mainstream climate change adaptation in agricultural programming, but adoption of adaptation measures will necessitate robust institutionalization of agricultural insurance as a climate change adaptation strategy particularly in the context of the rural, resource-constrained farming communities which are also more vulnerable to climate change hazards. Secondly, effective mainstreaming of climate change adaptation in agricultural programming in local governments will necessitate increased budget support from the central government towards addressing the critical institutional capacity gaps which hinder climate change adaptation programming and implementation of adaptation measures in local governments of Uganda. Key words: Climate change adaptation, agricultural programming, institutional frameworks for adaptation, Uganda regulatory frameworks for adaptation.