Summary

Since its inception, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), through its work, aims to deliver a vibrant, attractive and sustainable Kampala City. In the context of delivering on this vision, KCCA with support from the French Government and agencies developed the Kampala Climate Change Action Plan

Background and Objective

Kampala covering an area of 196km2 is home to 1.5 million with 60% classified as the urban poor. The city suffers chronic congestion, destruction of local natural ecosystems causing environmental degradation, pollution and reduction in air quality, owing to rapid urbanization, poor planning, increasing the city's vulnerability to climate change impacts.

Actions and Implementation

The main challenge faced was a general apathy and lack of understanding of climate change issues and its impacts on society and quality of life. To overcome this, the communication and participation strategies were designed with the aim of empowering the inhabitants with information, making the strategy more comprehensive, showcasing simple eco-solutions to implement (behaviour change, equipment, and everyday actions) and with a direct benefit for them and their immediate environment. KCCA used an inclusive and participatory approach in developing the Action Plan. It continues to leverage this approach well into the implementation phase as a way to get all actors and stakeholders on board. Internally, KCCA has built a network of focal persons from among its staff who are charged with gathering, tracking, reporting and disseminating the status of implementation of the actions using action data sheets designed for reporting progress on actions. As a government agency, KCCA leverages this position to collaborate with ministries and agencies on the formulation of supporting policies and strategies. At the community level, the involvement of local communities through a participatory process, sensitization activities and pilot projects was and is a fundamental combination to design the Action plan as well as the implementation frameworks. The pilot projects and demonstration centers are set up within the communities to demonstrate practical solutions. Households implementing these solutions are developed as change champions within their areas and over 70 community dialogues were held to support design of these practical solutions. On a monthly basis, the Authority leads community clean up drives through the "Kampala Goes Green" campaigns, tree planting drives, and community barazas engaging both community members and KCCA personnel. At the institutional and private sector level, KCCA has fostered partnerships with companies and development partners through which actions and projects have been financed and comprehensive implementation strategies defined. Reporting on progress has been fostered through the Annual stakeholders dialogues, 2 have been held so far since the Action Plan development process started. These dialogues bring together all actors and stakeholders from different sectors in the city to reinforce commitment and partnerships to address the climate change issues in the city. Among the main problems that remain to be solved, key is the policy environment. There still remain significant gaps in the policies and legal frameworks required to integrate and provide funding for climate change response as well as inadequate capacities to adopt emerging technologies and methods.

Outcomes and Impacts

The financial resources used in developing the Action Plan were received as grants through the development partner support networks. Agencies provided funds through payments for technical assistance, studies and capacity building. additionally, the Government of Uganda through their youth and community development programs provides lines of credit to community groups to engage in income generating activities. These groups are further trained in basic financial and management skills to grow their enterprises. Additional funding to support the initiative and carry forward actions is through engaging private companies and actors through corporate social responsibility. Actions were designed together with communities and community leaders to be practical and relevant for the different groups (youth, women, market vendors, transport hubs, slum dwellers, etc.). For instance, 72 parish level visits were conducted throughout the various divisions of the city to raise awareness on climate change issues and to support the design of the most relevant solutions towards each specific type of community. With the aim to reduce over dependence on biomass and charcoal fuel which has greatly impacted the tree cover, the action plan aims to promote alternative and more energy efficient technologies such as briquettes, energy efficient cook stoves. The actions encompassed under the waste theme seek to promote the 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) to reduce the amount of waste generated. More efficient and eco-friendly use of land resources, through organic farming, protection of fragile eco-systems such as wetlands, increasing the coverage of green spaces and encouraging sustainable building practices. Institutionally, this initiative has fostered a framework in which government and policy agencies, civil society organizations and communities collaborate and cooperate on defining mechanisms in which climate responsive solutions can be decomposed and adapted to the local communities and individual household level.

Gender and Social Inclusivity

The development of the Kampala Climate Action Plan benefited from the Climate and Energy action plan methodologies used under the European cities' Covenant of Mayors. Because of the principle of accountability therein and the general consensus that local authorities have a key role to play in the fields of reliable access to sustainable energy and climate change adaptation and mitigation, Kampala will work with the 4 municipalities that form the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA) to develop similar area climate action plans. Specifically, Kampala will share its experience and this best practice with the municipalities of Entebbe (one of the GKMA municipalities) and Kasese towards the development of their own action plans. Leveraging, this smaller network, the objective is to build a network at both GKMA and Uganda levels in order to share best practices, develop joint action and promote the role of cities in the fight against climate change. During the Kampala Climate Change Action experience, some cities and districts of GKMA joined KCCA to set up a working group whose purpose is to share experience and to develop cooperation in the field of climate change and energy management.

Innovative Initiative

Some of the key lessons that have been learned include; -The importance of engaging stakeholders and enhanced public participation. With the primary beneficiaries of the Action Plan identified as the city inhabitants, it was thus important that a diverse range of stakeholders be engaged.It was key to not only define the action plan at a policy and governance level but also define it down at the individual level in a way that would get every last resident in the city have a basic awareness of climate change and its associated impacts on their way of life. This meant decomposing the largely technical report on the Energy and Climate Profile of the City into the highly visual and simple Action Plan document - The need to define comprehensive practical and simple solutions - it was recognized that the solutions and recommendations of the actions that could be taken in building climate resilience do depend on developing a critical mass of the city residents implementing them. Because households and institutions could only implement those actions that are relevant to their situations, it was important to have them involved in the design of actions and solution. Moreover, since these solutions/actions had the potential to impact their way of life, they also did define what the priorities as well common identification of responsibility centers. - The mileage on achieving the Action Plan would be greatly enhanced by the existence of supporting policy and legal frameworks to integrate and provide funding for comprehensive responses to climate change and support the adoption of low emissions technologies and solutions. During the development of the Action Plan, a comprehensive mechanism for monitoring and tracking progress was not developed. In scaling the practice, this shall be a focus area for the network of municipalities

Resources devoted to delivery

No. Title Source Author Publication Title Volume Number Date Page Number 1 EU funding for Kampala city climate change plan APA - Kampala Uganda APA news APA News web portal 18/03/2017 web portal Edit 2 EU funding for Kampala city climate change plan APA news APA news APA News web portal 18/03/2017 web portal

Conclusion

The National Development Plan II identifies sustainable urban development as a key pillar in attaining Uganda’s aspirations of a middle income country by 2040. Accordingly, the National Climate Change Policy enshrines the strategies the country will take towards climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Kampala Climate Action Plan represents a step further the Authority took to adopt the policy provisions at the local level. It is in line with the objectives, strategies and interventions highlighted in; the National Development Plan II (2015/16 – 2019/20) with regard to the energy sector (section 11); the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, objective XXVII, i.e. to promote and implement energy policies which will ensure that people’s basic needs and those of environmental protection are met; the Kyoto Protocol’s GHG reduction commitment; and Goal number 7 on Energy of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in September 2015. Through this action plan, KCCA will work with the Ministry level actors and other key policy actors to advocate for provisions within the national policies on standards on green