New Oxfam and ACODE Uganda Report Highlights the Need for Enhanced Climate and Fiscal Justice in Uganda

Oxfam in Uganda, in partnership with the Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE), today released an in-depth report on climate finance in Uganda. The report emphasizes the urgent need for equitable funding to address the country’s intensifying climate challenges. The Climate and Fiscal Justice Scoping Study reveals significant gaps in Uganda’s climate finance accountability and proposes solutions to ensure fair, transparent, and effective climate-related expenditures.

Communities across Uganda are increasingly vulnerable to climate disasters, yet funding systems are insufficiently equipped to handle these challenges. The study identifies critical structural barriers within Uganda’s current climate finance systems, showing that while national frameworks, such as the Certificate of Climate Change-Responsive Budgeting, are in place to hold government agencies accountable, implementation gaps and inadequate budget allocations persist.

The report identifies that International adaptation finance to Uganda fluctuated considerably, from USD 80 million in 2019 to a peak of USD 408 million in 2020, followed by a decline to USD 176 million in 2021. This instability, coupled with adaptation finance accounting for only 27% of total climate funds globally, underscores the need for a robust, consistent increase in adaptation finance at a local level.

This study aims to drive urgent action from all stakeholders, including government agencies, civil society, and international funders, toward establishing robust, inclusive climate finance systems that align with Uganda’s development goals.

Francis Shanty Odokorach, Oxfam in Uganda’s Country Director, stated, “We are at a crucial point for achieving fiscal justice for climate action. This report advocates for responsive climate finance systems that prioritize the needs of those most affected by climate change, setting forth practical recommendations to bridge the gap between climate finance commitments and community-level impact.” He added

The report recommends the following:

• Widen the focus of advocacy and monitoring beyond budgetary allocations to actual releases and expenditure outturns.
• Civil society should propose and advocate for stringent penalties for non-compliance with climate-responsive budgeting by government agencies.
• Fast-track the local definition of climate finance for harmonized reporting and tracking.
• Enhance civic participation in budget implementation and monitoring.
• Establish independent climate finance accountability and tracking frameworks.
• Work with local governments to improve climate finance accountability and tracking.
• Influence multilateral development banks for results at scale
  Enhance partnerships with bilateral agencies and multilateral development banks to increase adaptation flows for locally-led adaptation action.
• Ugandan CSO networks should establish a task force with ministries to speed up the delivery of locally-led adaptation finance.
• Develop a CSO-based locally led adaptation action and finance framework to track adaptation finance flows and progress towards resilience-building.
  Integrate climate change into local government performance assessment frameworks.

As COP29, scheduled for November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan, approaches, Oxfam and ACODE urge respective stakeholders to meet climate finance commitments and strengthen accountability frameworks to prioritize funding for communities least responsible for yet the most affected by climate change. This is a critical moment when a “new collective quantified goal on climate finance” will be established, aiming to achieve balance and ensure a fair distribution of adaptation and mitigation funds.

You can access the report here.