Action Agenda
Community Resilience
Whether a neighborhood in Kampala or a rainforest village or a band of pastoralists, all Ugandans belong to communities much too vulnerable to either natural or human forces that threaten their ways of life and livelihoods. These threats range from climate change-caused water stress to land grabs by government or special interests – and to incompetent management of vital public services.
These communities may be isolated by geography, as in remote forests, or by economics, as in urban slums – but they share the same lack of cohesion, information and political power that renders them vulnerable to abuse by powerful government or corporate interests.
NAPE’s action agenda for community resilience includes projects that strengthen their capacity, mobilize public opinion locally and nationwide, and provide them with science-based sustainability knowledge.
Vulnerable to Arrogant Government
The resilience of many communities throughout Uganda is being, or will be, tested by corporate and government officials eager to exploit natural resources in misguided “economic development” projects that can do more harm than good. Viewed as isolated, powerless and uninformed by these officials, these communities are, in fact, targeted for such projects for this reason.
In the course of project development, communities and poor families have been forcibly removed from their traditional lands with no proper resettlement and compensation – in some instances rendered landless, hunger stricken and destitute. Legal protections meant to cushion such impacts are rendered meaningless when government officials refuse to enforce them – because of corruption or callousness – believing that these communities are too docile, fearful or unaware to challenge them and hold them accountable.
These officials also refuse to disclose publicly even the most basic documents about these projects, citing specious “confidentiality clauses” or national security interests. Influenced by short-term thinking or their own private interests, they show no regard for environmental sustainability – the key to long-term viability and prosperity of Uganda.
When such projects deplete or degrade the natural resources these communities depend on, many suffer loss of livelihood, health and property as a result. For example, powerful companies and officials have illegally acquired land in the Albertine oil region to sell or lease to oil companies, depriving communities of their traditional rights. For example, in the summer of 2011, the army illegally seized the land of some 3,000 people, forcing them to move and lost their livelihoods, to make way for a new army base for military units guarding the oil fields there.
Incompetent Public Services
Failure to manage vital public services competently is more subtle, but a form of abuse nonetheless. When taxpayers fund public water systems that fail to provide uncontaminated water because of mismanagement, only resilient communities can be effective in holding public officials accountable. So too are vulnerable forest communities prey for illegal projects like mining, factory farms, or land grabs.
Communities like these are especially vulnerable because their geographic, social and political isolation keeps them from understanding their legal rights and how to carry their grievances to government officials and the larger public. Moreover, women in these communities too often are consigned to passive roles by traditional customs, further depriving communities of the vast potential of women to contribute their knowledge and energies to such vital struggles.
NAPE Actions
For years, NAPE has responded to numerous crises in vulnerable communities with intensive efforts to organize and protect them, for example:
In organizing vulnerable communities affected by the proposed sugar biofuels plantation in the Mabira Central Forest Reserve, NAPE not only mobilized the communities, we enlisted national organizations, Members of Parliament, and religious leaders to create the Save Mabira Crusade; this stopped the project.
In helping vulnerable communities in the oil region of Lake Albert, we provided extensive research, community organizing, a new Oil Watch Network, and extensive communications support, with some success in modifying some of the most harmful aspects of development activities there.
Other intensive community organizing has taken place in vulnerable communities affected by the Bujagali Dam, by the proposed palm oil plantation on Kalangala Island, and by the proposed Karuma Falls Dam in Kiriandogo District.
Despite our effective responses to crises, NAPE in 2009 decided on a more active, instead of reactive, approach, as follows:
In applying Community Ecological Governance approaches, NAPE identified cultural forests in Uganda nurtured with centuries-old indigenous strategies, recommending special conservation efforts there and good practices to follow in other forest communities.
We established the Sustainability School, selecting communities in need to receive intensive training in such areas as their political and legal rights, environmental self-governance, and how to hold governmental officials accountable.
By 2011, Sustainability Schools were in eight districts. We expect to continue expanding them to even more districts in the years to come.
To read documents about vulnerable communities, click here for Library.
To read more about NAPE’s action agenda, click here.
