Public Financing disasters and Humanitarian Crisis

Coming soon!

Introduction

Disasters in Uganda, both naturally and human induced, are becoming frequent, increasing in complexity, consequently affecting more people, livelihoods, and systems than ever before. The complex nature of disasters manifests through the overlapping and interconnectivity of certain risk drivers as seen with COVID-19 and mass flooding across the country. Such convolutions, continue to test Uganda’s ability to deal effectively with the ever-increasing threats and crisis drivers.

The 2020 Annual State of Disaster Report reveals that by December 2020, floods in Uganda had killed 72 people and that natural disasters had caused Uganda an economic loss amounting to UGX 563,239,697,910 (US$152.2 million) in FY 2019/2020. This loss was distributed across key sectors namely, Transport and infrastructure sector mainly roads and bridges – UGX 206.73billion, Commercial and Residential Housing – UGX 154.21billion; Agriculture – UGX 77.37billion; Education – 35.44billion; Environment and Natural Resources – UGX 33.75billion; Health – UGX31.86billion and Water and Sanitation – UGX 23.88billion.

The refugee impact on host districts:  Uganda is home to over 1,549,181 refugees and the overall increase in population has led to increased pressure on the host community for the available resources leading to economic, social, development, and humanitarian consequences (GIZ, Report on refuge impact 2019). Notably, 95% of the refugee population depend on (Firewood and charcoal) as their main source fuel for cooking leading to high level of deforestation, and environmental degradation and host communities to human induced disasters that affect the health, environment and livelihood of people hence undermining sustainable development efforts

CSBAG Intervention: 

CSBAG is working with several stakeholders to engage Government to address some of the gaps in disaster risk reduction and humanitarian management strategies.

1.   Advocacy for adequate financing for refugee: CSBAG has since engaged government on financing strategies for to finance its strategies for effective refugee settlement and management in Uganda in the national budget.  Some of our work in this area can be accessed Public Financing For The Refugee Crisis In Uganda Study Report

2. Monitoring Government operationalizing of the Contingencies Funding: CSBAG monitors Government adherence to Sec. 26 of the PFMA, 2015 which requires that every financial year Government allocates resources to the Consolidated Fund a portion of which should be for responding to natural disasters. Some of the work can be accessed:

·    Financing Mechanisms For Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation And Prevention In Uganda

• Independent assessment on the operationalization of the Uganda’s Contingencies Fund

3. Local Government preparedness to manage and respond to disasters: At Local Government, CSBAG together with other CSOs and District Disaster Management Committees to advocate for increased local Government financing for integration of DRM agenda into the Local Government budgets and plans. We also work with other partner to support Local Governments to update their District Contingency Plans (DCPs), a process that is coordinated by the Office of the Prime Minister and monitor LG operationalization of the DCPs.

4. Legal and Policy Framework for National Disaster Preparedness and Management: Working together with ECHO consortium members, CSBAG in 2021 joined existing efforts by other actors to have a National Disaster Preparedness and Management Act to guide Uganda’s interventions on Disaster Preparedness and Management. CSBAG is a member to the Uganda Humanitarian Platform, and we use this platform to build a collective voice to advocate for National Disaster Preparedness and Management

Whom we worked with