In order to prevent future environmental displacement and conflict, actors across the humanitarianpeace-development nexus should systematically embrace resilience-design approaches that limit the environmental footprint of their programming while contributing to the regeneration of ecosystems.
Climate change and environmental degradation continue driving more conflict and displacement in East Africa, Great Lakes and East Africa. Actors across the humanitarian-peace-development nexus are adapting their programming to meet the emerging needs of people of concern, and are also exploring how to reduce their environmental footprint. However, Nexus programming should go beyond preventing future ecological and environmental damage and aiming to help regenerate ecosystems while increasing community resilience to shocks.
This is the approach of the Northern Uganda Resilience Initiative. (NURI) was launched in May 2019, with funding from Danida. This ambitious 4-year development program combines climate smart agriculture, rural infrastructure management, water resources management, and district capacity building. All components are intrinsically linked and contribute to the objective of enhancing farmers’ yields, ensuring that their practices are ecologically friendly and connecting them to markets.
NURI is a quintessentially bottom-up project and a true example of collaboration between Ugandan authorities, the Danish Embassy – which spearheads the programme – and DRC. DRC is responsible for the implementation of the rural infrastructure and management of water resources components of the programme. This is done in close collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Environment and the district authorities. The budget for the project is USD 20.4 million. This includes building community access roads, water ponds, food forests, protecting springs, and constructing markets.
NURI, however is different from other infrastructure projects in that it aims to adopt a resilience design approach. The programme’s engineers and staff assess the interaction of infrastructure with the landscape in order to not only mitigate environmental hazards but also to contribute to regenerative principles. DRC and communities create what is called Green Roads for Water. This is a way for communities and engineers to rethink the way roads are constructed so that rain water can be harvested for agricultural production. It also reduces negative impacts like flooding and drought. The rainwater that would normally make the road unpassable in the rainy season is made into a positive input. It can be used to flood the area or to produce food.
By the end of the project in December 2022, DRC and communities will have completed 1,504 infrastructure projects and provided cash-for-work opportunities to over 60,000 people – half of them youth. Women are encouraged to lead the project management committees as well as user groups.
Although you can see the effects of new infrastructure almost immediately, not all of them will be visible.
over time, as the environment regenerates, communities’ resilience is enhanced and communities and
Local governments continue adopting resilience design principles.
Contacts
Jean-Christophe Saint-Esteben, DRC Uganda Country Director, [email protected]
Pauline Wesolek, DRC East Africa and Great Lakes Advocacy Coordinator, [email protected]