Ugandans will have to wait for at least three years before an enabling and integrated national policy on climate change is formulated.
Paul Isabirye, the Principal Programme Officer in charge of Adaptation, says the policy formulation process has begun with the creation of the climate change policy committee in the Ministry of Water and Environment.
Isabirye says that special care is being made to involve as many sectors and stakeholders as possible over a reasonably long period in order to capture the best issues and frameworks in the policy.
He says at the very least a climate change policy will be in place in three years' time after the passing of an enabling law by parliament.
//Cue in: "The challenges of #
Cue out: # with that policy"//.
Isabirye says the need for a national policy follows the weaknesses of implementing the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) launched in 2007.
The NAPAs provide a process for Least Developed Countries to identify priority activities that respond to their urgent and immediate needs to adapt to climate change.
The NAPAs include afforestation, soil, water, health and meteorological data management, drought adaptation, use of indigenous knowledge and climate change planning and mainstreaming.
Isabirye says the NAPAs, though being implemented by stakeholders, are not coordinated that is why there is a need to have an integrated climate change policy.
He adds that when NAPA was launched, they were looked at as distinct action points only to realize that in order to manage climate change and create resilient communities there is need for integration of the actions.
Isabirye says this will take time, citing challenges like difficulties in shifting people's mindset and limited resources.
//Cue in: "People think that #
Cue out: # have been doing"//.
Isabirye says a key part of the climate change management will include best practices from the past that enabled our ancestors manage and cope with climate change.
//Cue in: There is also #
Cue out: # introducing new things"//.
Lawrence Aribo, the Senior Programme Officer Adapation, says Uganda cannot rush climate change and policy because they need a lot of attention and detail.
The implication is that Uganda's management of the effects of climate change and global warming would still be done in a haphazard manner.
