East African legislators have been urged to expedite the domestication of the Malabo Declaration by putting in place a regional legally binding protocol or instruments to ensure the realization of Malabo's goals. 

Without domesticating it at the regional level, it will hinder the full implementation of the Declaration which stakeholders in the agriculture sector see as a vital protocol that can transform the agriculture sector among the East African Community (EAC) member states.

Although the EAC member states signed the Declaration, its implementation has been a big challenge since none of the member states has respected the protocol which they endorsed on their signature in Equatorial Guinea.

 ‘’Our government are not serious when it comes to the implementation of the Malabo Declaration; that is why the agriculture sector among the EAC member states is still underfunded,” Hakim Baliraine, the Chairperson of Eastern and Southern Africa Small-scale Farmers’ Forum (ESAFF).

He was speaking during the 6th East African Agriculture Summit held in Arusha Tanzania. He added: “If the protocol was implemented among the seven member states, we could be seeing big achievements in the agriculture sector’’  

The summit was hosted by ESAFF and partners concurrently with the East African Civil Society Summit. The Arusha Summit was attended by various stakeholders including small-scale farmers, policymakers from various partner states, and civil society organisations. 

The focus of the Summit was "Agriculture and Climate Change." Key to the discussion was the financing of the agriculture sector in the region.

It’s the agriculture financing that attracted the stakeholders to raise the matter of the Malabo Declaration. They said that although each African state is supposed to allocate 10 percent of its national budget to the agriculture sector none of them has respected the Declaration, even those in the EAC Member States. 

Yet during the meeting agriculture was considered as the major sector that can transform Africa including EAC member states. 

How member states are responding to the Malabo Declaration, in his presentation, Fahari Marwa, the Principle Agriculture Economist at the EAC agreed with the comments from the farmers who said that the region is not doing well to attain the commitment targets. 

‘’In all the biennial reviews that were carried out in 2017, 2019 and 2021, it was discovered that the region is not on track to meet any of the Malabo Commitments. Therefore, the region needs to pay much attention to all Commitment areas if it’s to meet the Malabo Declaration by 2025,’’ Marwa explained.     

The Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods is a set of new goals demonstrating a more targeted approach to achieving the agricultural vision for the African continent which is shared prosperity and improved livelihoods.

 The Malabo Summit reaffirmed that agriculture should remain at the top of the continent's development agenda and is a crucial policy initiative for economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa. The African Heads of State and governments agreed to seven broad commitments.

These include upholding the principles and values of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP); enhancing investment finance in agriculture; ending hunger in Africa by 2025; halving poverty by 2025 through inclusive agricultural growth and transformation; and boosting intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services.

Statistics indicate that the EAC region is still performing poorly as meeting the Malabo Declaration Commitments is concerned. Reflecting on the third biennial review, the EAC region achieved an average overall performance score of 5.60 compared to the benchmark score of 7.28 which is the minimum score required for a region to be on track in implementing the Malabo Declaration commitments. 

This shortfall indicates that in 2021, the region was not on pace to meet the Malabo commitments by 2025.

Youth for Green Communities, a local Non-Government Authority, on 20th March 2023, wrote to the Executive Director of Hoima Sugar Ltd protesting the delayed restoration of Bugoma Central Forest Reserve.

The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), on 27th September 2022, released a Press Statement in which it ordered Hoima Sugar to safeguard the environment and stop any further damage to the environment.

In the statement, NEMA asked Hoima Sugar to immediately stop any further deforestation of the natural reserved forest area, ecotourism area, cultural sites and land reserved for the urban centre.

It also asked Hoima Sugar not to plant any sugar cane in the said reserved area, restore degraded areas, prepare and implement a restoration plan for the affected areas at the company's cost and permit third parties approved by the Authority to participate in the restoration process.

Further, NEMA halted the urbanization of the 312.3ha which had earlier in 2020 been approved to be developed into an urban centre - NEMA said that the said area should be kept as a natural forest in view of the country's effort to recover forest cover loss.

In September last year, NEMA had warned that failure to comply with the given instructions would result in NEMA cancelling the ESIA certificate and further legal actions against Hoima Sugar Limited.

The National Environment Management Authority issued Hoima Sugar Ltd an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) certificate No. NEMA/ESIA/13709 on 14th August 2020 to implement its projects.

Section 4 of the ESIA Certificate indicated specific conditions and components of the project as follows: Sugarcane Plantation (9.24 sq. miles); Urban Centre (1.206 sq. miles); Eco-tourism Centre (1.97 sq. miles); Cultural Site (0.156 sq. miles / 40.4038 ha) and The natural reserved forest and nature walk-ways/trails (6.17 sq. miles).

But according to the protest letter by Youth for Green Communities, Hoima Sugar has not heeded to the directives by NEMA, almost a year later.

According to Aryampa Brighton, the Chief Executive Officer of Youth for Green Communities, they are demanding that the company immediately stops the forest destruction for sugarcane plantations in compliance with NEMA orders.

Female news reporters and editors from the Albertine Graben region on 11^th March 2023 converged in Hoima City to undergo training aimed at improving their skills as environment reporters.

The twenty environment-enthusiastic newswomen were drawn from the districts of Hoima, Masindi, Mubende, Kiboga, Kikuube and Buliisa among others. 

The training, organized by Western Media for Environment and Conservation (WEMECO) with support from Global Green Grants Fund and other Environment conservationists, among other issues looked at how journalism can be used to conserve the environment and avert climate change.

One of the training facilitators, Leila Bbale, an editor at Spice FM, a Hoima-based radio station, highlighted that women are the most affected when the environment is damaged because of their positioning in society. 

“When water sources like wetlands and lakes are destroyed, it is the women who suffer most. When there are floods or drought because of the climatic changes, the women and children are vulnerable to the sufferings caused,” Bbale said.

She encouraged female journalists to consistently report on the issues of the environment because they can create climate change awareness through their work. 

In an interactive presentation, Precious Naturinda, who works with the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) and Uganda Community Green Radio Kiboga, highlighted the importance of women's involvement in combating environmental degradation.

Baz Waiswa, the editor of Earthfinds, an environment and extractives publication, trained the participants in the use of digital media to tell environment stories. 

He demonstrated how the participants can create their own blogs to tell community stories and the use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube and TikTok among others.

Waiswa also conducted an afternoon session where he introduced the idea of using shareable podcasts to voice out the issues concerning the environment. He demonstrated how to create and set up podcasts. 

The Executive Director of WEMECO, Peter Akugizibwe Araali, encouraged female journalists to use the available media tools and skills learnt at the training to put out stories that are impactful and can influence change in the way communities engage with the environment.

He said that reporting on the environment offers female journalists opportunities that can scale them up. “There are organizations that are willing to collaborate with journalists like you. When this happens, you are able to get funding to facilitate your journalism and stories output,” he said. 

Akugizibwe said the main objective of the female journalists’ workshop was to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to enable them to understand how to deal with climate change by using new media tools like blogs, social media and podcasts.

Charles Batambuze, a member of WEMECO, and represented the WEMECO board chairperson, Ndeezi Doreen, thanked organizations that facilitated the workshop and the participants and encouraged them to put the knowledge acquired into practice.

Failure to invest the bare minimum needed to withstand projected climate damage could cost emerging markets hundreds of billions in climate damages and lost GDP growth this decade, according to a new study by Standard Chartered. 

The Adaptation Economy, which investigates the need for climate adaptation investment in 10 markets – including China, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan – reveals that, without investing a minimum of USD30 billion in adaptation by 2030, these markets could face projected damages and lost GDP growth of USD377 billion: over 12 times that amount. 

The projection assumes that the world succeeds in limiting temperature rises to 1.5°C, in line with the Paris Agreement. In a 3.5°C scenario the estimated minimum investment required more than doubles to USD62 billion and potential losses escalate dramatically if the investment is not made.   

Examples of climate adaptation projects include the creation of coastal barrier protection solutions for areas vulnerable to flooding, the development of drought-resistant crops and early-warning systems against pending natural disasters. 

India to benefit the most from adaptation investment 

Among the 10 markets in the study, India is projected to benefit the most from adaptation investment. The market would require an estimated USD11billion to prevent climate damages and lost growth of USD135.5 billion in a 1.5°C warming scenario – equal to a thirteen-to-one return for the Indian economy of investment in climate adaptation. 

Meanwhile, China could avoid an estimated cost of USD112 billion by investing just USD8 billion. And Kenya could avoid costs of an estimated USD2 billion by investing USD200 million in adaptation. 

The case for adaptation

Even if the world’s nations manage to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, measures to adapt to climate change must be pursued alongside the global decarbonisation agenda, with the banking sector having a critical role to play in unlocking finance. 

The USD30billion investment required for adaptation represents only slightly more than 0.1 per cent of combined annual GDP of the 10 markets in the study and much less than the estimated USD95 trillion emerging markets require to transition to net zero using mitigation measures, as outlined in Standard Chartered’s Just in Time report. 

The Adaptation Economy also surveyed 150 bankers, investors and asset managers and found that, currently, just 0.4% of the capital held by respondents is allocated to adaptation in emerging markets where investment is needed most. 

However, 59% of respondents plan to increase their adaptation investments over the next 12 months. And on average, adaptation financing is expected to rise from 0.8% of global assets in 2022 to 1.4% by 2030. 

Marisa Drew, Chief Sustainability Officer, Standard Chartered said: “This report makes it clear that irrespective of efforts to keep global warming as close to 1.5C as possible, we are going to have to incorporate climate-warming effects into our systems and adapt to its reality.   

“All nations will need to adapt to climate change by building more resilient agriculture, industry and infrastructure, but the need is greatest in emerging and fast-developing economies with a disproportionate risk of exposure to the negative effects of rising temperatures and extreme weather.   

“We must urgently recognise that adaptation is a shared necessity, and as our Adaptation Economy research so effectively highlights, inaction creates a shared societal burden of exponentially increasing cost. The financial sector has a crucial role to play in directing capital towards adaptation and creating the proof points to demonstrate that investing in adaptation can be a commercially viable attractive proposition for the private sector."