KAMPALA – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has on Monday given a set of ICT equipment to Makerere University to help in the collection and storage of climate information that can be used by districts and the wider public to improve their ability to adapt to climate change and improve resilience.
Handing over the equipment which included servers, computers, printers, cameras among others, Ms. Priya Gujadhur, Deputy Reprentative, FAO Uganda noted that it’s their mandate to look at ways of improving food and nutrition security but also improve incomes and job creation.
She says that, however, this is becoming increasingly difficult due to climate change which is a huge contributing factor to multiple shocks and crises that affect people’s lives on a daily basis.
She is optimistic that such a project will help households and communities adapt to these climate change effects on the ground.
“So if we’re able to foresee a drought, we’re able to foresee changes in the climate and how that should translate into actions on the ground that can help people adapt to these effects before they become crises for them before they affect their livelihoods, before it starts affecting their food security, before it sends them 20 steps backward,” noted Ms. Priya.
“This knowledge information system that is being set up in partnership with Makerere University is going to help provide the kind of climate change-related information that is going to help districts, local governments, and communities on the ground, adapt to climate change, adapt to its effects and protect their food security, protect their incomes and protect their livelihoods.”
Dr. Kennedy Igbokwe – Team Lead for the Climate Change Program at FAO says that there is not enough information on climate change in Uganda accessible to the communities that need them.
“If Uganda is to be climate resilient, that means that at least 70% of Ugandans must have knowledge and skills on climate change, or at least have access to information but at the moment, it is less than 30% of access to climate change information,” he said, noting that out of that 30%, about less than 10% are applying what they know on the ground.
Dr. Igbokwe says that the equipment will enable each of the targeted 16 districts have access and ability to store climate change information which the communities and other stakeholders can use.
“You know, as it has been testified by many of the farmers, weather is becoming very unpredictable. Farmers don’t know when the rain will come, or even if it has come, they don’t know how long it will stay…..and, of course, other issues like pests and diseases seem to be on the increase. Floods seem to be on an increase in some areas of the country. So there’s really a need to address the impact and the consequences of climate change in Uganda.”
Dr. Igbokwe notes that much as there is a need to give a lot of emphasis on providing information readily, it needs also to be translated into action.
Mr. Revocatus Twinomuhangi – Coordinator of the Makerere University Center for Climate Change, Research and Innovations said that one of the challenges that they have been having is generating climate information “but with this equipment, we’ll be able to package the information that we have and put it in a public domain so that the public can be able to access it and use it to address the climate change challenges that they have, whether at national level or district level and their communities.”
He noted that with this equipment, they will enable the communities and stakeholders to capture the climate change challenges but also capture the adaptation practices, and be able to input it into the system so that the others can be able to get to the knowledge.
Twinomuhangi says that much as there is climate change problem, there are also solutions in some places that are both known and not known.
“So with this system, people can be able to capture the information and put it on the system and then the other people can be able to see what is being done in particular areas and the copy and the practices, but also, in some of the areas you can be having a problem and they don’t know the solution. So the climate challenges or risks in particular communities can also be captured and put on the system and then those who have solutions can be able to advise on how those climate problems can be handled.”