- The 4 year project is aimed at improving the environment.
- As government we are happy to get any support form our partners for us to realize our goal of having a safe and clean environment.
EU injects 4.7m Euros in a 4 year project aimed at Restoring and Conserving Degraded and Fragile ecosystems for improved livelihoods among refugees and host communities of the Mid-Albertine Rift and West Nile region.
Under the project Save the Children will work closely with Enable, International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), Joint Energy and Environment Project (JEEP) and Vision for Humanity (ViFoH), the Response to Increased Environmental Degradation (RED) consortium to address environmental degradation and related challenges in the refugee response in the West Nile region of Uganda.
The target districts include Arua, Kiryadongo, Adjumani and Yumbe which host a combined 701,821refugees primarily from South Sudan
Speaking at the launch in Kampala the Hon. Beatrice Anywar Atim Minister of State for Environment said Uganda has an open door policy to refuges and currently is home to 1.3 million. “Our generosity generosity has come with some negative effects such as environmental degradation as pressure for fire wood and food is real amongst the refugees and of course the host communities, a trend that must be reversed
We will continue to engage the refugees and host communities in tree planting and other alternative use of cooking material fuel so this support we are getting today from different partners is timely.Beatrice Anywar
Caroline Adriansen head of cooperation at the EU delegation to Uganda notes that it is important to support the refugees. “Our focus is improving their livelihoods and those of the hosting communities through restoring and conserving degraded ecosystems which include the forests, Savannah woods, wetlands and river banks as well as promoting sustainable land management, Climate smart agriculture and agroforestry. “Environmental protection is very important, there is no good will in continuing to destroy trees and continue to talk about environmental protection” she added.
The project will address supply and demand side factors, rapidly scaling up access to ensure that 234,800 refugee and host community populations directly have access to alternative sources of cooking fuel, environmentally sensitive livelihoods opportunities, including sustainable savings options, decreasing the demand and utilization of natural resources within and around refugee settlements.
Strinic Dragana save the children country director said that Children and youth should be involved in solutions that will influence the environment that they live in as this is an extremely important realization of their being.
When children live in an unhealthy environment they definitely cannot realize their rights for example to education and health because their existence is threatenedStrinic Dragana.
The project contributes contributes directly to the implementation of Ugandan governments water and environment sector refugee response plan and seeks to achieve synergies and strengthen coordination with other actions and development partners.
The outcomes include improved access to sufficient, healthier, sustainable and alternative sources of energy from un-sustainable and unregulated sources for households and causes of conflicts between refuges and host communities are addressed.
Also to be achieved is energy, environment and climate action programming, coordination and that there is capacity strengthening at local government and sub country levels.