Uganda: Poor Proposal Writing Costing Uganda Billions – A senior official in the ministry of Environment has revealed that Uganda is failing to tap into available climate change funds due to poor proposal writing, a something he said must change immediately if the country is to access money meant for mitigation and adaptation.
Mr Chebet Maikut, the head of climate change department in the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) said during the Conference of the Parties (COP 19), former Finance minister Maria Kiwanuka was chosen to be the chief negotiator on behalf developing countries.
In the process, Ms Kiwanuka lobbied for climate change funds from global entities but when she directed an institution Mr Maikut declined to mention to write a proposal to tap into the billions, the institution failed and the money went elsewhere.
“This is the reality of the matter” Mr Maikut said yesterday at a civil society organisations consortium on Climate Action Network Uganda (CAN-U) and the Environment and Natural Resources Civil Society Organisations Network (ENR CSO Network) in Kampala.
“This year, they are supposed to dispatch $2.5milion (about Shs8.5bn), from GCF [Green Climate Fund] but there are no good bankable projects,” he added, at a pre-cop22 meeting scheduled for next month in Marrakech, Morocco.
Uganda needs such money to carry out mitigation and adaptation to climate change activities like improving research and knowledge on the impacts of climate change, train and build capacity of farmers to survive during harsh conditions, development of more efficient irrigation techniques among others.
But due to capacity gaps, Mr Maikut said the money is not flowing in as it supposed to be. The UN set aside billions under the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF).
Also, under the Paris climate change agreement, parties agreed to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with climate change impact and funding to a tune of $100 billion (Shs342.8 trillion) will be availed by 2020.
Mr Denis Mugagaga, an official from the ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, said as the team of negotiators goes to Marrakech, they will demand for simplified procedures to access the money.
“We have to look at how best GCF can provide this readiness finances. There are number of requirements highlighted but is not easy. So we want to have clear guidelines that are attainable by developing countries to get this funding,” Mr Mugagaga.
Mr Isaac Kabongo, the chair of CAN U, said development partners should support climate change activities independently instead of combining investments in roads, health and other sectors as part money meant for addressing climate change.
Read more: All Africa
Photo credit: Daily Monitor
