FAO Representative a.i. Ms Priya Gujadhur with Swedish Ambassador, H.E Per Lindgärde at the Swedish Embassy in Kampala

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has signed an agreement with the Government of Sweden represented by the Embassy of Sweden in Uganda to implement a 5 year project to support women in Karamoja and West Nile in addressing climate change challenges and improving household income.

The project, “Climate Resilient Livelihood Opportunities for Women Economic Empowerment (CRWEE) in Karamoja and West Nile Regions of Uganda,” funded by the Government of Sweden aims to strengthen inclusive, gender responsive and climate change resilience of rural women populations depending on agricultural production systems in Karamoja and West Nile Regions.

This project will work to empower disadvantaged women and youth including those in refugee camps, through enhanced capacity, addressing the root causes of gender inequalities at both household and community level and improved access of women to productive resources such as land, water and forests in 8 districts in West Nile (Arua, Adjumani, Zombo, Yumbe, Koboko, Nebbi, Maracha, and Moyo) and 4 in Karamoja sub region (Abim, Napak, Nakapiripirit, and Moroto).

Working closely with national and district local institutions such as the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, in collaboration with Ministry of Water and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Prime Minister, Civil Society organizations and the private sector, the project will ensure sustainability of its results through aligning its activities to national and local priorities and plans,  using national systems where possible to promote local stakeholder participation and ownership.

Speaking at the signing ceremony held at the Swedish Embassy in Uganda, Ms Priya Gujadhur, and the FAO Deputy Country Representative and Representative a.i. said that FAO will work with responsible stakeholders to ensure that it benefits the rural women who suffer the biggest brunt of climate change impacts.

“This project is looking to effect change – change in the way we do agriculture by focusing on climate-smart agricultural techniques and change in the mindset of men, women and youth to be able to empower women and give them a voice as well as decision-making power within their households and within their communities. This change takes times. We are grateful to the Swedish Government for partnering with FAO for as much as a five-year period to see this change happen, and we are committed to ensuring the success of this project.” said Ms Gujadhur.

She further noted that project will also make significant contribution to the implementation of FAO’s current Country Programming Framework (CPF) in Uganda (2015-2019) as it  serves all the three priority areas under the CPF including (i) sustainable production and productivity of agriculture, forestry and fisheries commodities for men, women and youth in targeted populations increased; (ii) environment for equitable access by men, women and youth to, and utilization of agricultural knowledge and information for decision-making, enhanced; and (iii) resilience of vulnerable communities and households to livelihood threats, and food and nutrition insecurity improved.

The Swedish Ambassador, H.E Per Lindgärde reiterated that Sweden remains committed to supporting Uganda in addressing issues of women empowerment, particularly with access to productive resources including land, improving livelihoods of local communities through increased production and productivity and increased resilience of poor people including refugees and host communities. He also highlighted the partnership as a symbol of the trust the Government of Sweden has in FAO to deliver results.

The new Head of Development Cooperation, Mr Ola Hällgren, affirmed that the project strengthens Sweden’s belief in the need to build a strong nexus between humanitarian response and development in refugee hosting areas.

The Climate Resilient Opportunities for the Women Economic Empowerment project has integrated different elements to address the resilience of communities to shocks;  it has incorporated actions aimed at: addressing the environmental degradation in the two regions; improving the ability of communities to adapt to climate change; and enhancing the capacity of local partners including local governments, civil society organizations and the private sector to implement sustainable actions that can uplift communities in the two regions from poverty.

The Ambassador, in his concluding remarks, said “I would like to thank and congratulate FAO for taking the time to prepare this project. Now that the project has been approved, it is a start of an interesting phase of putting our plans into action. I would like to emphasize that our expectation is that FAO will provide an umbrella that enables various partners to plan, synergize and implement actions that reinforce each other basing on their experiences and mandates as a way of ensuring sustainability of the project and creating a long-lasting impact.”