Building climate resilience through sustainable land management and climate-smart agriculture

About MLHUD

The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development is responsible for providing policy direction, national standards and coordination of all matters concerning lands, housing and urban development in Uganda. The general mandate of the ministry is to ensure a rational, sustainable, practical use and management of land and orderly development of urban and rural areas as well as safe, planned and adequate housing for socio-economic development. The Ministry is articulated in three Directorates: Land Management, Physical Planning and Urban Development, and Housing. The three are complementary in their activities to address sustainable rural and urban development, land management, poverty eradication and agricultural development.

Local context

In Uganda, land is the most valuable asset for its citizens. 82% of its inhabitants rely on agriculture for livelihood and the majority practice subsistence farming. With the population rapidly increasing, and farming methods being exacerbated by climate-change-induced, extreme weather events, problems related to land such as access, fragmentation and degradation also rise. These factors threaten the food production systems, livelihoods and food security of millions of people; especially women, who constitute 70% of the population employed in the agriculture sector and in the food production and trade chain employment. A certain trend of self-initiated urban and peri-urban agriculture is already present in Uganda, especially in Kampala, proving the need for strong intervention in the agricultural sector, currently unable to sustain the growing population. According to the Irish Aid Climate Action Report of 2017, climate change poses one of the greatest challenges for Uganda to realize its full development potential. For instance, climate change has brought about more and longer drought periods which impact men and women farmers differently. In farming communities, men go further away to look for pastures, while women walk longer distances for water and firewood, limiting the time for agriculture and food production. There are also cases of cross-border migration, especially in the districts neighbouring other countries, where men cross in search of work and women remain home to fend for the children. 

The Directorates’ mandates are highly affected by the effects of climate change across urban, rural and peri-urban activities. The requested TMT aims to support their understanding of the nexus of land, food security and agriculture to achieve sustainable food systems in the country in different aspects.

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) to tackle climate change

The training addresses Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), as a capacity-building theme, but also as a key method of building local resilience to climate change. Additionally, there is a strong need for risk-sensitive land management and to address the current land issues to adapt and mitigate climate change effects on agriculture. CSA will help reduce the vulnerability of Uganda’s agriculture sector by increasing productivity, enhancing adaptation and resilience of the farming systems and reducing emissions intensity in the context of achieving sustainable development and poverty eradication. Public and private sectors as well as public-private partnerships will play a critical role in this goal. The land component constitutes a finite, natural resource and a key factor in agriculture production.

In Uganda, there is a strong need for risk-sensitive land management and for addressing current land issues in order to adapt and mitigate climate change effects on agriculture. Poor agricultural land management, increased extreme weather events, and population pressure, have escalated land degradation, making it vulnerable to climate-related hazards like drought, floods, landslides, storms, and pests and diseases.
To address this challenge, the Ugandan government has identified building resilience and associated mitigation co-benefits through CSA as strategic priorities.

Impact of the training
The TMT could develop the capacity of ministerial staff by equipping them with the necessary knowledge and skills to adapt and mitigate climate change impacts on land management in order to ensure increased agricultural productivity toward long-lasting food security in Uganda. Trained ministerial staff will be able to inform as well as formulate policies and regulations that are climate-proof and gender-sensitive. The training could also contribute to harmonizing the three directorates' plans, programmes and policies by bringing in equal representatives of staff trained from each directorate.

Learning objectives
At the end of the training, participants would be able to achieve the following:

• Understand and describe the impacts of climate change on land, food security and agriculture
• Define and apply the concepts of climate risk-sensitive land use planning and land management
• Illustrate how to integrate gender equity and women empowerment in land management policies and strategies
• Understand and apply climate-smart urban agriculture practices and programmes
• Understand and apply innovative and nature-based solutions to land management
• Utilize Climate action prioritization tools in policymaking
• Apply the Climate Action Planning Process

Take a glimpse at TMT Uganda