ALM UNDP

Summary:

This project seeks to create an awareness of climate change vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies among the Lukwanga communities. It will also work to strengthen the capacity of the Lukwanga Community Knowledge Centre as a reservoir for climate change adaptation information by using multimedia tools focussing on indigenous knowledge systems.

Food insecurity, prolonged droughts, diminishing water supplies, erratic rainfall patterns and hailstorms are the most obvious impacts of climatic change impacting rural communities in Uganda. However, at present there is very limited understanding of the causes of these changes or of best practice climate adaptation strategies within these communities. In part due to this lack of understanding and in part due to high levels of poverty, communities engage in economic activities that degrade the environment, such as deforestation, with consequences for the regulation of local climate. The resulting climatic changes aggravate the multiple vulnerabilities experienced by men and women in these communities and push them further into a situation of chronic poverty. This project seeks to create an awareness of climate change vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies among the Lukwanga communities. It will also work to strengthen the capacity of the Lukwanga Community Knowledge Centre as a reservoir for climate change adaptation information by using multimedia tools focussing on indigenous knowledge systems. The project activities include: organising public forums and workshops, forming drama clubs, developing an open access database of locally relevant climate change information, establishing a number of information centres to display climate change information, developing education and communication resources through farmer-led documentation approaches and purchasing multimedia equipment for use documenting and disseminating local climate change adaptation practices.