Uganda
WWViews on Biodiversity
On Saturday September 15th 2012, thousands of people around the world will take part in a global event: “World Wide Views on Biodiversity”. The project will engage ordinary citizens in as many countries as possible in the process of policymaking and awareness raising to sustain a living and healthy planet. At least a hundred citizens in each participating country will attend day-long meetings to learn about biodiversity issues, make up their minds about them, and express their views. The meetings will start at dawn in the Pacific and continue until dusk in the Americas. All meetings will have the same agenda and use the same approach in order to make results comparable and useful for policymakers gathering the following month in India to discuss future policy measures for preserving biological diversity.
WWViews on Biodiversity in Uganda
Choice Africa and the Youth Social Association are the national organisers of the WWViews day in Uganda.
CHOICE AFRICA
ChoiceAfrica is a new era innovative Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that aims to increase alternative survival and livelihoods choices to the most vulnerable people at the center of increasing climate change disasters in Africa. It has its headquarters in Kampala, Uganda with Innovative Platforms in African Countries of Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and Uganda.
Choice Africa’s Mission is to identify Innovative and Alternative ways to reduce poor people’s vulnerability to climate variability and change; in other words to make Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Pro-Poor through building the resilience of vulnerable communities, especially in the context of agriculture biodiversity, food security and water eco-systems.
Choice Africa works through ground-breaking community managed processes in order to create an enabling environment for implementation of CCA/DRR programmes (CCA/DRR model community managed initiatives, awareness raising and advocacy for policy reforms.
It is a conviction of Choice Africa that the time is right to take debate and action on these themes further as:
Understanding of how most vulnerable communities in Africa can pro-actively contribute to Biodiversity Protection, Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation. Draw Pool of community based experience from which to draw lessons and examples of innovative and alternative good practices.
Our Aim is to:
- Increase awareness of the connections between Agro-biodiversity, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, and the potential synergies necessary for community managed innovations and alternative actions.
- Raise understanding and reforms in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation policy and interventions.
- Draw lessons as a way forward to effectively engage vulnerable communities protection interventions -to help poor and vulnerable people manage risk and adapt to climate variability and change in Africa.
- Contribute to the capacity building of community level NGOs, Government Institutions and Individuals in areas of Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and evaluation for improved delivery of services to reduce vulnerabilit
Choice Africa builds a resilient community through partnerships that encourage sense of solidarity with like minded NGOs, Local governments, International organizations and Individuals. In brief We:
- Bring a diversity of People (Citizens) to a collective voice platform of action
- Develop skills and opportunities for vulnerable communities
- Build global solidarity-Act locally and network globally
- Empower individuals and communities
- Encourage resilient, active citizenship and initiative
- Provide innovative and alternative assistance choices for the poor and marginalized
WWViews Venue
The citizen consultation on international biodiversity politics in Uganda will take place on September 15th at Hotel Africana in Kampala.
Hotel Africana Limited
Plot 2-4 Wampewo Ave, Kampala
Results from WWViews
Link to the results from the citizen meeting in Uganda
Find more photos from the citizen meeting in Uganda on Flickr
Recruitment strategy for the citizens
How were potential participants found?
To get in contact with potential participants, the following strategies were used:
• Special Support to illiterate citizens to Participate: national illiteracy rate is 34%- of the total population who can’t read and write and deserved an opportunity to participate in WWViews since they are the major stakeholders in biodiversity protection. We used grassroots community organizations networks linked to the Uganda Land Alliance NGO to recruit citizens. We were able to set up four (4) small pre-event (WWViews day) meetings to make that category of citizens aware of the purpose and how they can be helped to present their views.
• Mobile telephone Calls: With the recent increase in mobile telephone network in most rural areas in Uganda, personal phone calls were used to reach out to individuals. Names and contacts were got from local government community councils’ profile.
• Community Networking: Working through partnership with YSA and ULA which have grassroots rural nodes/networks will help us to reach and identify participants within their constituencies. We developed written materials interpreted in local language- Runyakitaara/Luganda/Swahili to introduce the WWViews meeting and call for citizens’ participation and we e-mailed to residents and farmer groups who were selected as representatives of five (5) ecological zones of Uganda. We worked through the parliamentary committees that helped to get more information on different consitituencies.
• Rural Bus parks/stage and Market Places: Buses from the city centre regularly go to rural areas market places and trading centers. We sent mails especially to south and north parts of the country by buses which dispatched invitations.
• Use electronic social platforms. A facebook page and Google mail group accounts were opened to share information and aid recruitment: For town centre and more accessible areas we used e-mail, social network to reach especially the youths. 30 urban citizens are estimated to have been recruited through this strategy.
Invitation letters were sent to the selected 120 citizens in Uganda with a call to take part in the WWViews meeting on September 15. Addresses were provided by the national NGO networks and local government through the parliamentary constituencies profiles and allowed a diverse selection of citizens.
People were invited via Face-to-Face recruitment in different areas following certain demographic parameters. Regional networks like NGOs and parliament were used to spread the word.
The citizen meeting was advertised in different social media like twitter, face book and ugandaonline. Interested people were able to sign up via internet by answering a brief questionnaire about personal details and their background.
How were the participants for the citizen meeting selected?
In order to make the results comparable, the participating citizens of the WWViews meeting around the world were selected according to the same set of criteria.
The citizens were invited to join the meetings and out of those who signed up for the event, about 117 were selected according to certain parameters aiming to reflect the distribution of the general population. The main parameters used for the selection were age, gender, residence, education level and occupation. In our country, the parameters of including citizens who could volunteer at the event also had to be taken under consideration.
Kiswahili
WWViews juu ya Bioanuwai Septemba 15 2012 Jumamosi, maelfu ya watu duniani kote kushiriki katika tukio la kimataifa: “World Wide Maoni kuhusu Bioanuwai”. Mradi kushiriki raia wa kawaida katika nchi kama wengi iwezekanavyo katika mchakato wa sera wa kuinua uelewa wa kuendeleza sayari hai na afya. Angalau mia wananchi katika kila nchi kushiriki watahudhuria mikutano siku kwa muda mrefu kujifunza kuhusu masuala ya mazingira na viumbe hai, kufanya juu akili zao juu yao, na kutoa maoni yao. mikutano ya kuanza alfajiri katika Pasifiki na kuendelea mpaka jioni katika Amerika. Mikutano yote itakuwa na ajenda moja na kutumia mfumo huo ili kufanya matokeo kulinganishwa na muhimu kwa ajili ya watunga sera kukusanya mwezi uliofuata nchini India kujadili hatua ya sera ya baadaye kwa ajili ya kuhifadhi viumbe hai.
WWViews juu ya Bioanuwai katika Uganda
ChoiceAfrica (Uchaguzi Afrika) na Youths Social Association ni wa kitaifa waandaaji wa siku WWViews katika Uganda.
Choice Africa
ChoiceAfrica ni mwanzo mpya ubunifu yasiyo ya kiserikali (NGO) ambayo ina lengo la kuongeza maisha mbadala na uchaguzi maisha kwa watu wanaoishi katika mazingira magumu katika kituo cha kuongeza majanga ya mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa katika Afrika. Ina makao yake makuu mjini Kampala, Uganda na majukwaa ya ubunifu katika nchi za Afrika ya Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia na Uganda.
Ujumbe wa uchaguzi Afrika ni kubaini njia ubunifu na mbadala ili kupunguza uwezekano wa watu maskini ya hali ya hewa tofauti na mabadiliko, kwa maneno mengine ya kufanya Mabadiliko ya Hewa Kukabiliana na Maafa Kupunguza Hatari kwa kujenga uimara wa jumuiya mazingira magumu, hasa katika mazingira ya kilimo viumbe hai, usalama wa chakula na maji.
Uchaguzi Afrika hufanya kazi kupitia jamii imeweza taratibu ili kujenga mazingira mazuri kwa utekelezaji wa programu mfano jamii imeweza mipango ya kuinua uelewa na utetezi kwa ajili ya mageuzi ya sera.
Ni dhamira ya Choice Afrika kwamba wakati ni haki kuchukua mjadala na hatua juu ya mandhari haya zaidi kama:
Uelewa wa jamii jinsi mazingira magumu zaidi katika Afrika inaweza pro-kikamilifu kuchangia Biodiversity Ulinzi, Disaster Kupunguza Hatari ya Hali ya Hewa na Udhibiti Change. Kuteka Pool ya uzoefu kwa jamii ambayo kwa kuteka mafunzo na mifano ya mazoea ya ubunifu na nzuri mbadala.
Lengo letu ni:
■ Kuongeza ufahamu wa uhusiano kati ya Kilimo viumbe hai, majanga ya kupunguza hatari na kukabiliana na mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa, na umoja uwezo muhimu kwa ajili ya ubunifu wa jamii na kusimamiwa na vitendo mbadala. ■ Kuongeza ufahamu na mageuzi katika kupunguza maafa hatari na sera za mabadiliko ya kukabiliana na utekelezaji. ■ Chora masomo kama njia mbele kwa ufanisi kushirikisha jumuiya dhaifu ulinzi hatua-kwa kusaidia maskini na wanaoishi katika mazingira magumu watu kusimamia hatari na kukabiliana na hali ya hewa tofauti na mabadiliko katika Afrika. ■ Kuchangia ujenzi wa uwezo wa NGOs ngazi ya jamii, Taasisi za Serikali na Watu katika maeneo ya Marekebisho ya Hali ya Hewa Change (CCA), Disaster Kupunguza Hatari (DRR) na tathmini ya utoaji wa huduma bora za kupunguza vulnerabilit
Uchaguzi Afrika hujenga jamii resilient kwa njia ya ubia ambao kuhimiza hali ya mshikamano na kama NGOs timamu, Serikali za mitaa, mashirika ya Kimataifa na binafsi. Kwa kifupi Sisi:
■ Lete utofauti wa Watu (Wananchi) na jukwaa pamoja sauti ya hatua ■ Kuendeleza ujuzi na kutoa fursa kwa jamii katika mazingira magumu ■ Kujenga mshikamano wa kimataifa-Sheria ya ndani ya nchi na mtandao wa kimataifa ■ Kuwawezesha watu binafsi na jamii ■ Himiza resilient, kazi uraia na mpango ■ Kutoa uchaguzi ubunifu na mbadala msaada kwa ajili ya maskini na wanyonge
WWViews Ukumbi
mashauriano ya raia juu ya kimataifa ya viumbe hai katika siasa Uganda utafanyika juu ya Septemba 15 katika Hoteli ya Africana mjini Kampala.
Hoteli ya Africana Limited
Njama 2-4 Wampewo Ave, Kampala
Results from WWViews
Link to the results from the citizen meeting in Uganda
Find more photos from the citizen meeting in Uganda on Flickr
Information Material for Citizens
World Wide Views on Biodiversity – Information Videos for the Citizens – English
1. Introduction to biodiversity, 2. Biodiversity on land, 3. Biodiversity in the sea, 4. Burden and Benefit Sharing