Uganda

The political climate in Uganda has changed during the last couple of years, and the Norwegian government has expressed deep concern over the development. After a new re-election of President Yoweri Museveni, the country has been characterised by unrest and arrests of protesters demonstrating against rising fuel and food prices.

 

The Norwegian focus:

• Energy
• Forest
• Climate
• Peace and reconciliation in Northern Uganda
• Human rights and gender equality

 

Peace and reconciliation

The feared rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) no longer ravages Northern Uganda. Even if the refugee camps have been closed and people have returned to their villages, there is still a long way to go. Norway contributes in the peace and reconciliation process by supporting the repatriation work through the government’s amnesty programme.

Previously the Norwegian Refugee Council ran 34 refugee camps in Northern Uganda. They are now limiting their involvement and expect to be out of the country by 2014. The humanitarian and the transitional support to repatriated refugees has been important to stabilise the situation.

Uganda has also received Norwegian assistance to establish a war tribunal in the aftermath of the conflict in the north. Through non-governmental organisations in Northern Uganda, Norway has also supported other peace-building measures, including demobilization of LRA soldiers and a programme to reintegrate child soldiers into society.

Through the Norwegian Refugee Council, Norway has provided assistance for legal advice to internally displaced persons; a project that has produced important results in individual cases.

 Persecution of homosexuals

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda. The police and the general public are increasingly persecuting homosexuals, and one of the foremost gay right activists was killed in January 2011.

A new bill proposes stricter punishment and a possibility of imposing capital punishment. In addition it proposes allowing for the prosecution of people who know about homosexuality without reporting it.

The bill has attracted strong criticism from Western leaders. The organisation Human Rights Watch has stressed that it is in conflict with human rights conventions. On a number of occasions Norway has raised the homosexuality issue with the Ugandan authorities. During a visit to Uganda, the Norwegian Minister of the Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim, reported back home that the Ugandan government had assured him that they would not support the bill. The bill has not yet been debated in the Ugandan parliament (summer 2011), but activists stress that they have no guarantee of winning the battle even if it seems that international pressure has made an impact.

Petroleum

Uganda has discovered large petroleum reserves of approximately two billion barrels of oil in the Rift Valley/Lake Albert area in the western part of the country. The authorities plan to construct an oil refinery and turn the country into a petroleum supplier for other countries in the region.

Norway contributes to the development of Uganda’s petroleum sector through the Oil for Development Programme. The goal is to further enhance the country's competence within management of finance, resources and the environment as the oil industry gradually grows.

There is a great need for modern energy services in Uganda. Norway is a strategic partner for development in this area. The energy sector is one of the three selected major priority areas for Norwegian development assistance in Uganda leading up to 2015.

Forest

Deforestation is a vast problem in Uganda. The country is number six out of 62 on the list of tropical countries with the highest deforestation worldwide. Norway has supported the forest sector in Uganda for a number of years, and has contributed considerably in the country’s efforts to restore damaged forests, plant new forests and at the same time engage in public education about the importance of the forest. During the six past years Norway has also provided technical and financial assistance for the establishment of Uganda’s National Forest Association (NFA). Support to various NFA projects, such as mapping of national forest resources, seed development, and information activities, has also been provided.

But now Norway has stopped large payments to Uganda. In 2010 Norway withheld support to the Ugandan forest authorities after a comprehensive corruption scandal. The scandal was uncovered in connection with a contract disagreement between the forest authorities and a Ugandan company. In line with a court ruling, a bank account holding almost NOK 10 million from Norwegian payments to forest projects in 2009, has now been frozen. Still Norway has not ruled out the possibility for future cooperation in this field, and is now assisting the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment in a review of the entire public forestry administration in the country.

Uganda is increasingly affected by natural disasters caused by the deforestation of steep hillsides that are part of important water towers, especially in the Greater Virunga ecosystem (on the border to Rwanda and DR Congo) and Elgon ecosystem (on the border to Kenya).

The great landslide disaster in Buguda in the Elgon area in early 2010 was due to a combination of deforestation and heavy rain. There is an enormous population increase in this area, to a great extent caused by the local custom for men having several wives. Studies have shown that second, third and fourth wives with children often build a home in areas where there is a great danger of landslides, even though the local population is aware of this danger. Education, socio-economic change and increased awareness are therefore long term disaster prevention measures.

Norway has supported the management of protected areas here, with emphasis on solutions that bring local communities into active management and give them a share of the revenues.

New power plant

In the past few years Norway has worked actively to contribute in the financing of the Bugoye hydropower plant. The plant was completed in October 2009 and will produce approximately 82 gigawatt hours, which is about seven per cent of the total power sold in Uganda every year. Like many other African countries, Uganda struggles with a shortage of power. In rural areas, only four to five per cent of the population has access to electricity. But also in the towns frequent power cuts cause problems for the manufacturing industry and ordinary people. The power plant in Bugoye is the first privately financed hydro power plant established in Uganda in more than a decade.

Miscellaneous:

• Norway has supported a number of studies aimed at exploring the possibilities for hydropower plants, transmission lines and rural electrification projects.