Organisations (CSOs) under the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) have asked the Government to produce a certificate of financing climate change, saying the national budget framework paper lacks one confirming the budget for the financial year 2023/2024.

They argued that there is non-compliance with the National Climate Change Act 2021 provisions on climate financing.

“Despite the existence of section 30(b) of the National Climate Change Act 2021, which requires the minister responsible to consult with the chairperson of the National Planning Authority and issue a certificate, certifying that the Budget Framework Paper is climate change responsive and contains adequate allocation for funding climate change measures and actions, this has not be done,” Patrick Lubangakene, an economist with CSBAG, said.

The civil society actors asked Parliament to task the minister with producing the certificate of climate change responsiveness as stipulated in the law and ensure that various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) work plans and budgets are climate change responsive before the final approval of the National Budget Framework Paper.

The civil society advocates made the remarks during a joint media conference in Kampala yesterday.

The resource envelope for 2023/2024 FY is projected to increase from sh48.1 trillion to sh49.9 trillion as per the budget framework paper.

The advocates decried the high budget cuts saying it will affect service delivery for vulnerable groups.

“We note with great concern that the community mobilisation and mindset change programme budget is projected to reduce by 70.6%. This is likely to affect the implementation of critical interventions for vulnerable groups,” Lubangakene said.

He added that subvention grants under the gender ministry will experience a budget cut of 80%.

He said some of the affected grants include support to special grants for persons with disabilities (PWDs) from sh16b in the 2022/2023 FY to sh3.32b in 2023/2024FY, special enterprise fund for old persons from sh5b in 2022/2023FY to sh1b and the social assistance grants for empowerment from sh121.3b in 2022/2023FY to sh24.26b.

Others affected by budget cuts

Other components the civil society pointed out that are going to be affected by the budget cuts are the implementation of the Parish Development Model programme, labour disputes, and gender-based violence prevention and response.

“We call upon the Government to reconsider the budget cuts with a focus on the provision of service delivery to the vulnerable groups as we target economic recovery,” Teopista Kizza, the head of programmes at African Youth Development Link, said.

On the increased level of food insecurity due to low agricultural production, the CSOs made a raft of demands to the Government among them is direct strategic investments in water production, agricultural extension services, post-harvest handling, improving standards and access to affordable credit by smallholder farmers.

Irrigation master plan

Mariam Akiror, the advocacy and communications co-ordinator with Action Against Hunger, said there is a need to finalise the national irrigation master plan and the national agricultural extension strategy and support interventions geared to securing land ownership rights for women who play a key role in Uganda’s agricultural productivity and food production.

Call to prioritise secondary education 

 The civil society actors also said there was low prioritisation of the lower secondary school curriculum to enhance learners’ skills and competencies.

“We are, however, concerned about the glaring gaps in implementing this curriculum specifically in retooling and instruction materials,” Dr Obed Kambasu, the policy and research specialist at World Vision Uganda said. 

They cited the education ministry's budget deficit of sh14.3b to train 1,000 lower secondary school teachers as it has only targeted retooling 150 secondary school teachers.

Kambasu pointed out that the education ministry requires sh24b to print six million copies of instruction materials for the lower secondary school curriculum for S1 and S2 learners for both public and private schools.

“Failure to provide the required funding will negatively impact the delivery and successful implementation of the new curriculum for lower secondary school,” Kambasu said.

Other critical issues the civil society implored government to address include inadequate funding to the National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) non-functionality of medical equipment in health facilities, high stock of public debt and high public expenditure.