The Uganda Vision 2040 aspires to pursue economic development and socioeconomic transformation premised on the principles of a green economy such as equity, environment sustainability, resource efficiency, climate change adaptation and mitigation and inclusiveness. Accordingly, the National Planning Authority in partnership with the Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Water and Environment with financial support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is in the final stages of developing a Green Growth Development Strategy. A multi-sectoral committee comprised of state and non-state actors chaired by the National Planning Authority is drafting the strategy. The Uganda Green Growth Development strategy seeks to operationalize the tenets of a green economy as espoused in the Uganda Vision 2040 and the National Development Plan and covers a time horizon of fifteen years. An implementation roadmap/action plan of the strategy is also being developed by the Global Green Growth Institute to sequence interventions for the short term, medium term and long term.

In Uganda’s context, green growth is defined as a system or development paradigm that aims at catalyzing economic growth through the efficient use of the country’s natural, human, and physical capital in an inclusive manner along a low carbon emissions, climate resilient development pathway. It is important to note that the transition to green growth entails a number of tradeoffs for some investments which calls for a clear understanding of where to devote policy effort and priority.

The Objectives of the Uganda Green Growth Development Strategy are to:

• Enhance Uganda’s economic growth while creating new opportunities for decent employment.
• Support a low-emissions economic growth pathway integrating resource use efficiency, climate resilience, disaster risk reduction and optimal use of natural capital;
• Undertake a socially inclusive growth that improves food and nutritional security;
• Put in place an enabling institutional, governance, financing framework to operationalize an optimal green growth development strategy

The Guiding Principles governing the strategy include:

• wealth creation and social inclusiveness;
• creation and promotion of green jobs
• low carbon emission climate resilient growth;
• science, innovations and compliance;
• resource use efficiency; and,
• creation of partnerships at global, national and sub-national levels.

Priorities for Investment in the Uganda Green Growth Development Strategy include green planned cities development, agriculture with focus on solar powered irrigation and upgrading the agricultural value chain, sustainable energy and natural capital management.

An economic analysis of the potential impacts of green growth on Uganda’s economy indicated that if green growth interventions are fully implemented, they can boost economic activity, worth around 10 percent of GDP by 2040 compared to business as usual, deliver employment up to 4 million jobs and reduce future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 28 percent relative to a conventional growth pathway
(Exceeding Uganda’s current commitments in the Nationally Determined Commitments.

Investment in the Above Areas is envisaged to generate the Following Outcomes for the Country:

• Green Jobs
• A Low emissions growth trajectory with focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation
• Increased incomes and economic gains and opportunities for all
• Sustainable Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management
• Food and Nutritional Security
• Resource Use Efficiency;
• Social Inclusiveness

Financing of the Uganda Green Growth Development Strategy

The envisaged sources of financing are; the Government of Uganda, the Private Sector and Development Partners. The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) has committed to partner with government to develop a national green growth financing vehicle. Additionally, focus will be on development of bankable project proposals guided by the aforementioned investment areas identified under the strategy. This will among others target existing green growth financing windows under climate change and the various environment funds at global and regional levels. Integration of green growth in the sector plans, annual plans and budgets shall be the entry point for accessing the finance from the government of Uganda.

Read more: UGGDS 2017/18 – 2030/31 - Global Green Growth Institute

By Valerie Traore

Members of South Sudan's government committed human rights violations "amounting to war crimes" in the country's southwest, the UN said Friday, urging investigations against dozens of individuals, including for abuses against children, AFP reports.

The world's newest nation has suffered from chronic instability since independence in 2011, with the UN warning last month that it risked a return to war as interethnic violence and political infighting threaten an already fragile peace process.

At least 440 civilians were killed in brutal fighting between rival militias in the country's southwest between June and September last year, a joint report by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the UN Human Rights Office said earlier this month.

That report blamed forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rival troops under Vice President Riek Machar, as well as "their respective affiliated militias", for the violence.

On Friday, the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan released a new report, saying it had "reasonable grounds to believe that members of the Government of South Sudan have engaged in acts... amounting to war crimes" in the southwestern districts of Central Equatoria and Western Equatoria. 

The commission has "drawn up a list of 142 individuals who warrant investigation for a range of crimes under national and international law," its chair Yasmin Sooka told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in a statement.

The report described grave rights abuses, ranging from mass rapes and sexual slavery of women to the deliberate killing of scores of children, including at least one infant who was beaten to death by soldiers in front of his mother.

"The notion that the localized violence is not linked to the State or to national-level conflicts, as suggested by the Government and South Sudanese military elites, is a fallacy," Sooka said. 

"These localized killings, massacres, torture, abductions, detentions, looting, burning of villages and forced displacement as well as the rape, and sexual violence are a reflection of the intense political contestation for power... at a national level."

 Refugee crisis 
South Sudan has struggled to draw a line under years of violence after a civil war between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar that cost almost 400,000 lives ended with a peace deal in 2018.

The two men formed a unity government two years ago, but the peace process has been hamstrung by political bickering, with key provisions yet to be implemented.

The failure to form a unified armed forces command -- a key component of the peace deal -- has created an environment in which violence remains rife, according to the UN.

Over the years more than two million South Sudanese have fled their country in search of safety, creating Africa's largest refugee crisis.

On Friday, the UN refugee agency UNHCR appealed for $1.2 billion (1.09 billion euros) to deliver humanitarian aid and protection to around 2.3 million South Sudanese living in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda.

"Two out of three South Sudanese refugees (are) under the age of 18," UNHCR said, warning that the crisis was severely underfunded, receiving only 21 percent of the cash it requested last year.

The UN has repeatedly criticized South Sudan's leadership for its role in stoking violence, cracking down on political freedoms, and plundering public coffers.

Meanwhile, the country has lurched from crisis to crisis, battling flooding and hunger, with 8.3 million people, around 70 percent of the population, requiring humanitarian aid last year, the UN said.

The world's newest nation has suffered from chronic instability since independence in 2011, with the UN warning last month that it risked a return to war as interethnic violence and political infighting threaten an already fragile peace process. - Radio Tamazuj