18 June 2019, Entebbe, Uganda - With the launch of Uganda’s National Adaptation Plan for the Agriculture Sector in November 2018, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) took one step further by sharing the lessons learnt with the wider NAP community. Climate change and natural resource focal points from the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE), National Planning Authority, and the Parliamentary Committee on Climate Change – as well as from civil society, academia, and development institutions—were invited to close the NAP-Ag programme in Uganda with a three-day workshop to discuss how lessons learnt and challenges faced from formulating the country’s first NAP could be applied in other similar processes.

The NAP for Agriculture was supported by the Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans Programme (NAP-Ag) and developed by MAAIF in conjunction with the Climate Change Department of the MWE, and FAO and UNDP. The NAP has 21 action areas with adaptation options for crop production, livestock, fisheries, climate information, forestry, land and resources management, knowledge sharing, and early warning and disaster preparedness.

The discussion on lessons learned, facilitated by representatives of the NAP-Ag programme and the Global Water Partnership, began by addressing the importance of the multi-stakeholder consultative process. In the lively discussion that followed, it was found that a stakeholder mapping was useful for identifying all the actors who were involved in various roles related to the NAP process, from laying the groundwork, to appraisal of options, to implementation and monitoring of outcomes. Engaging stakeholders also builds ownership and secures political will not just for the formulation stage but for effective policies and implementation of activities.

Participants also highlighted that while the urgency of adaptation can give politicians the chance to set targets and ambitions, the real challenges remain engaging farmers and local-level stakeholders (including the private sector) on implementation. They emphasized the need to tailor actions to farmers and producer groups in order to take adaptation plans and strategies beyond meeting rooms and increase their relevance and applicability at the community level. For example, recognizing that men and women play different roles at the household and community level, efforts were made to develop a gender-responsive NAP, with recommendations for how to consider the different ways in which gender drives adoption of adaptation practices.

Finally, the importance of knowledge management was discussed. To ensure that recommended actions gain a foothold in stakeholder communities, more resources are required to ensure findings are adequately disseminated through proper channels and media. The value of leveraging lessons from other projects was linked to the need for clear, timely and comprehensive documentation of these lessons and opportunities to inform ongoing NAP processes.

The workshops were closed by a panel comprising key representatives from the Parliamentary Committee for Climate Change, MWE, MAAIF, and FAO/UNDP. Mr. Antonio Querido, the FAO Representative in Uganda, summed up the commitment of both national and global institutions to make economic growth in Uganda more inclusive through the continued resourcing of the timely and highly-relevant NAP for Agriculture framework.