Dr. Deborah Ruth Amulen founded the Center for Insect Research and Development (CIRD), which has become a one-stop center for information and innovation related to the use of beneficial insects in Uganda. Since 2019, she and her team have piloted small-scale commercial black soldier fly (BSF) larvae farming as a potential replacement for more expensive and environmentally hazardous animal-protein feed ingredients. Through USAID's Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) program, the team plans to train and help create 100 youth- and women-led BSF farming businesses and establish CIRD as a knowledge center for commercial BSF farming, facilitating a platform for actors along the BSF farming value chain to engage with each other. As part of the BSF farming process, the research team purchases organic waste to feed the larvae from a group of women waste sorters. The women in this group are single mothers who work in Kampala dumps to sort organic and plastic waste to sell to farmers.
Climatelinks Photo Gallery
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In Kisubi Village, Katabi Subcounty, Uganda, marabou storks enjoy nature's abundance without disturbance from humans. Through seminars, workshops, coaching, and practice, the African Forum for International Relations in Research and Development (AFIRRD) educates local communities on the importance of wildlife. Occasionally, AFIRRD also collects plastic waste and transports it to safe areas designated by authorities. However, there is a shortage of technology to safely dispose of this waste, threatening wildlife like storks which often consume and become tangled in plastic debris.
This is a photo of wild African Snails feeding on pawpaw fruit. Snails are important organisms that keep soils healthy and well-aerated. At Urban Snail farm, we keep snails to educate locals about the value of soil organisms, as well as to conserve them and produce products like skin healing oils and anti-aging lotions without killing our snails.
Feeding snails with healthy, non-salted foods and water is one way to keep them healthy and encourage reproduction.
Slime is a product produced by snails that can help heal wounds and promote skin regeneration. At Urban Snail Farm, we encourage snail growing and conservation as part of eco-tourism.
Uganda, located at the source of the Nile River, has vast hydropower resources and is in the process of developing a number of run-of-river dams, including the soon to be commissioned Karuma Hydropower Station (600 MW). The country has an ambitious goal of achieving 80% of its electricity access by 2040 compared to a current access rate of about 30%, and most of it will be powered by hydroelectricity.
Under the Energy Utility Partnership Program (EUPP), the United States Energy Association (USEA), with USAID Power Africa funding, has been helping improve Uganda’s power generation by working closely with the Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) since 2017. Over the past five years, the program has prioritized building the capacity of Uganda’s hydropower plants through improving operations and maintenance, asset management, and dam safety using the expertise of volunteering American experts and hands-on training.
This photo was taken during an executive exchange on hydropower for Uganda Electricity Generation Company UEGCL that USEA hosted from May 16th to 20th. The purpose of this executive exchange was to discuss best practices in hydropower operation and maintenance, risk management, dam safety, and construction planning for UEGCL’s power stations. U.S. experts working with UEGCL and Eskom at the Nalubaale-Kiira Hydropower Complex helped improve dam safety and water resource management as climate change affects water levels in the Nile River.
Thanks to a Power Africa-supported mini-grid project developed by Bugala Island-based Kalangala Infrastructure Services Ltd (KIS), the Eunice Memorial Medical Centre on Uganda’s Bugala Island now has reliable, clean electricity and can utilize newer medical tools and devices, as well as refrigerate critical medicines and vaccines. The center’s founder formulated his plan to build this private medical facility following a series of Power Africa workshops on the Productive Use of Energy (PUE) in 2018. To boost connections to the mini-grid and propel the island’s economic trajectory, Power Africa and KIS embarked on this campaign to increase activities that require power and provide a service. Power Africa and KIS conducted a survey to determine PUE opportunities on the island and the latent entrepreneurial capacity. With this information, KIS, with Power Africa grant support, executed a robust PUE promotional and training campaign. The Power Africa/KIS awareness campaign resulted in more than 400 new connections and stimulated new industry services such as dairy production, steel welding, and fish processing.
Taken on May 18, 2022, in Jinja, Uganda, this picture shows a woman and her colleagues from the Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) at the Isimba Hydroelectric Plant in Uganda. About 30 employees from UEGCL were at the 188-MW Isimba Falls hydropower project (HPP) to get trained under an executive exchange on hydropower best practices by American experts. This project, located on the White Nile, was initiated by the Ugandan Government in 2013 and is one of its most important hydropower undertakings. Along with her colleagues, the woman pictured here gave experts from the Chelan Public Utility District, Moore Ventures, and Mead & Hunt a tour of the power station while experts spoke extensively on dam safety and water resource management. Under the Energy Utility Partnership Program, the United States Energy Association (USEA), with USAID Power Africa funding, has been helping improve Uganda’s energy generation by working closely with the UEGCL since 2017. Over the past five years, the program has prioritized building the capacity of Uganda’s hydropower plants through improving operations and maintenance, asset management, and dam safety. The country has an ambitious goal of achieving 80% of its electricity access by 2040 compared to a current access rate of about 30%, and most of it will be powered by hydroelectricity. However, Uganda is at risk of natural disasters and extreme weather events leading to disasters such as floods, droughts, and landslides that have increased over the last 30 years, hindering efforts.
June 2021, Lokokoi, Karamoja, Uganda.
Stephen Lomugemoi, 30, in his maize field. Stephen provides for his five children through farming, an increasingly difficult task in an agricultural area with increasingly inconsistent rainfall. He says his harvests are vulnerable to dry spells and severe flooding, which can both destroy crops, and he struggles with food shortages for 2-3 months of every year.
Two years ago, Stephen and his neighbors participated in a Mercy Corps training to learn about drought-resistant crops and improved agricultural techniques, then started a farmer group to maintain a plot of maize together. The practices they’ve implemented have greatly improved the productivity of the land, and Stephen was motivated to diversify his personal farming to include beans, groundnuts, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes, which has benefitted his family. He says that before, he didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but with the knowledge he received from Mercy Corps, he feels confident that his family will be food secure in the future.
This is what the shores of Lake Victoria look like from Luzira Port Bell in Kampala, Uganda. Local industries dump chemicals, while fishermen, residents and tourists dump plastic bottles and old fishing nets. The water hyacinth has also invaded the lake, making it difficult for even motor boats to travel across the lake.
Lake Victoria is the world’s largest tropical lake and supports the largest fresh water fishery in the world, producing about 1 million tons of fish every year. Fish cannot continue to survive in this water much longer. While global climate dialogue and policies are great, we need leadership that can take action today to save this precious resource.
This photo was taken during a Nursery Bed Establishment Training conducted by GWF-Uganda with the aim of promoting Environmental protection through Agroforestry.
Many farmers are already adopting different sustainable agriculture practices, such as conservation agriculture techniques (mulching, crop rotations and pruning crops), and planting more climate-resistant crop varieties. This is because climate change is increasingly threatening our food systems.
Adapting to change is of interest to all, particularly in work that previously seemed odd. For instance, from the most formal to the most informal mining sites, all actors perform the various jobs associated with the production process, with the exceptions being kiln construction, firing and loading.
In some instances, women miners are almost totally excluded on the highest-paid tasks on site. In this image, women load minerals and other construction materials.
There are an estimated 10 to 15 million artisanal gold miners worldwide, working in about 70 countries. Women, children and men estimated to be more than 400,000 people in Uganda are directly engaged in the mining activity, and an additional 1.5 million are benefitting indirectly.
In Uganda, women are busy mining without protection, which requires addressing these new risks to human health in vulnerable communities in rural areas. Particularly, because even access to better health services is limited in such remote mining sites.
Briquettes are blocks of flammable matter made from biodegradable waste. Rural households in Uganda use them to cook food. They burn with no air pollution; hence, maintain hygiene protecting natural systems in a changing world.
Briquettes are also cheaper and affordable than traditional charcoal. Additionally, they are made from locally available materials and waste improves sanitation. Briquette making is a simple and affordable technology. Above all they are important for protecting natural systems in a changing world for instance of cutting many trees, waste from charcoal made from forests may be utilized.
Palabek Refugee Settlement, Northern Uganda. July 22, 2019.
Incorporating the Resilience Design and Permagarden methodologies of the USAID TOPS/SCALE program.
Mapping natural resources in Palabek refugee settlement, Northern Uganda. African Women Rising’s female agricultural staff and community mobilizers understand that long-term solutions to climate change begin in the field, working directly with refugees and farmers on the frontlines. African Women Rising works with women to create self-sustaining solutions, educating and employing a majority of women community mobilizers to lead this charge.
For more information: https://www.africanwomenrising.org/about-us/agriculture/
Palabek Refugee Settlement, Northern Uganda. August 31, 2018.
Incorporating the Resilience Design and Permagarden methodologies of the USAID TOPS/SCALE program.
Learning principles from African Women Rising’s resilience design and permagarden program, South Sudanese refugees in Palabek refugee settlement deploy techniques that help mitigate destructive flooding and seasonal drought. Mulch, contour swales and berms, deep soil preparation, biomass planting, drought tolerant perennials and tree crops. The permagarden method helps meet the short-term food needs of the refugees as it builds their long-term resilience. Despite refugee camps being inherently degenerative, refugees learn to manage natural resources through the intentional design of their compound, harvesting water and capturing waste streams to enhance the fertility and productivity of their 30m x 30m plot of land. The management of existing trees and planting other multipurpose trees, living fence and other biomass plantings provide materials for building, pest remedies, dry season nutrition and medicine. This helps reduce pressures on the environment – such as the collection of fuelwood, gathering of wild foods, burning of charcoal - that will continue to worsen as time goes on, exacerbating tensions between host communities and refugees. Strengthening the ecological base of food systems also reduces vulnerability across time by shoring up resilience in the face of climate instability and extreme weather events.
For more information: https://www.africanwomenrising.org/about-us/agriculture/
Drying the harvest from her refugee permagarden at the onset of the dry season, Palabek refugee settlement.
Palabek Refugee Settlement, Northern Uganda. Incorporating the Resilience Design and permagarden methodologies of the USAID TOPS/SCALE program. December 13, 2018.
Learning principles from African Women Rising’s resilience design and permagarden program, South Sudanese refugees in Palabek refugee settlement deploy techniques that help mitigate destructive flooding and seasonal drought in the context of displacement. Mulch, contour swales and berms, deep soil preparation, biomass planting, drought tolerant perennials and tree crops- these are all core activities that help AWR farmers plan for a food-secure future. The permagarden method helps meet the short-term food needs of the refugees as it builds their long-term resilience. Despite refugee camps being inherently degenerative, refugees learn to manage natural resources through the intentional design of their compound, harvesting water and capturing waste streams to enhance the fertility and productivity of their 30m x 30m plot of land. The management of existing trees and planting other multipurpose trees, living fence and other biomass plantings provide materials for building, pest remedies, dry season nutrition and medicine. This helps reduce pressures on the environment – such as the collection of fuelwood, gathering of wild foods, burning of charcoal - that will continue to worsen as time goes on, exacerbating tensions between host communities and refugees. Strengthening the ecological base of food systems also reduces vulnerability across time by shoring up resilience in the face of climate instability and extreme weather events.
For more information: https://www.africanwomenrising.org/about-us/agriculture/