PROMOTING A GREEN ECONOMY: IGEN-EA REFLECTS ON NETWORK’S MILESTONES, CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES

Written By Omar Elmawi

IGEN-EA members in a photo during the planning and reflection meeting in Kampala - Photo credits AFIEGO

On February 11, 2022, members of the Inclusive Green Economy Network- East Africa (IGEN-EA) held a planning and reflection meeting in Kampala. The meeting attracted over 25 participants. 

IGEN-EA is a network of over 26 registered Ugandan and East African civil society as well as private sector leaders whose main objective is to promote green economic development in Uganda and the region. 

Particularly, the network is focused on promoting the green economic sectors of clean energy, organic small-scale farming, fishing, tourism, and agro-forestry among others. 

During the February 11, 2022 planning and reflection meeting, IGEN-EA members discussed the key milestones that the network attained in 2021. Among others, the following milestones were identified:

  • Formally launching the network in May 2022;

  • With the support of RALLY Communications, putting in place documents such as a messaging framework, campaign plan, media engagement plan and others to guide the network’s work;

  • Using the media to increase the network’s visibility;

  • Using community meetings, media trainings, radio talkshows and others to raise stakeholder awareness on the economic potential of Uganda’s green economic sectors;

  • Increasing media reporting on the economic potential of Uganda’s green economic sectors;

  • Engaging youth to campaign for the promotion of green economic alternatives in East Africa;

  • Influencing the 2021 East African Crude Oil Pipeline -EACOP- (Special Provisions) Bill to protect green economic activities and;

  • Being among the first civil society groups to popularise the tourism potential of Bugoma forest to protect the forest from destruction among others.

During the meeting, the IGEN-EA members also discussed the opportunities for promoting green economic alternatives in 2022. These include: 

  • The opportunity to synergise with other civil society networks to influence Uganda’s 2022/2023 national budget to increase government investment in the green economic sectors.

  • The opportunity to synergise with the National Renewable Energy Platform (NREP) to promote investment in clean energy and increase community use of renewable energy.

  • The opportunity to engage funds such as the Uganda Green Enterprise Finance Accelerator (UGEFA) to increase investment in the green economic sectors.

  • The opportunity to produce research briefs that will be used by the network to lobby for public and private investment in the green economic sectors of clean energy, tourism, small-scale farming and agro-forestry among others.

The network members also identified challenges or barriers to promoting a green economy and these included: limited stakeholder awareness of Uganda’s green economic potential, limited media reporting on Uganda’s green economic potential, inadequate public and private sector investment in the green economic sectors and lack of adequate laws to promote green economic activities. 

Others included disruption of key green economic activities due to COVID-19 restrictions, restrained civic space in Uganda and others.

The network members resolved to work towards addressing the above challenges to promote a green economy in Uganda.  

Omar Elmawi
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