MWE ALIGNS National Environment Management Policy ( NEMP ) to the National Environment Act 2019

With financial support from the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), Officials from the Environment sub-sector in the Ministry of Water & Environment, CSOs and NGOs supporting Sector programs and activities conducted a two days workshop(from 26th_27th June 2019) at Silver Hotel in Bugolobi with an objective of aligning the National Environment Management Policy 2017 (NEMP)to the National Environment Act(NEA) 2019

The official opening remarks for this workshop were made by Hon Mary Gorreti Kitutu, the State Minister for Environment who highlighted the following key issues;
1) Uganda is very good at writing policies but more emphasis should be put on enforcement of the laws rather than policies
2)The cabinet is in the process of finalizing the climate change act.Penalties in the Climate Change Act are stronger than those in the Environment that will help to curb the vice.
3) A lot of damages have been done on the environment but nature fights back which has been evidenced in the recent floods, change in the rain patterns  and the prolonged dry spells.
The Minister further advised the team to reach out to communities through capacity building such as conservation of  soil and water instead of being in offices. These interventions will create visible impacts at the grassroot level. The Minister requested MWE to integrate  the parish model into MWE programs through tree planting.
While making his remarks at the event, the Ag Director of Environment Affairs, Mr.Collins Oloya said that the judicious management of natural resources remains paramount and needs to be addressed in the context of new emerging issues like climate change, oil and gas and that is why there is need to align the NEMP to the NEA
 Presentations of the Regulatory Impact Assessment and identification of emerging issues for alignment related to the NEA were made by the consultant  Dr.Patrick Byakagaba. Reviews were done and  changes identified  were to be adapted by the secretariat  and incorporated in the final policy.
In his closing remark, Mr.Collins Oloya thanked the Global Green Growth Institute(GGGI) for facilitating this workshop and requested that GGGI should continuously support them in their endeavors.