Uganda: In Karamoja, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator stresses importance of disaster risk reduction to deal with climate change

(Kotido [Uganda] and New York, 23 October 2009): United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes today travelled to Kotido District in Uganda's northeastern Karamoja region where the economic and environmental effects of climate change have been added to humanitarian needs and chronic under-development.

"I am struck by the extreme vulnerability of the people who live in Karamoja," said Mr. Holmes. "They are living on the edge, daily facing the kind of challenges we must confront today as a global society. Climate change has brought increasingly frequent droughts and, with them, even greater food insecurity and water shortages."

The semi-arid Karamoja region, where the majority of the population follow a pastoralist or agro-pastoralist lifestyle, is one of the most under-developed parts of Uganda. Whereas droughts used to occur every ten years or so, there have now been four consecutive years of drought and/or poor rainfall. In January 2009, the World Food Programme (WFP), which has been operating in the region for over 40 years, launched an emergency operation to provide food to more than 970,000 people, or approximately 90 per cent of the population.

During his mission, the Emergency Relief Coordinator visited the Apa Lopama kraal, populated by an estimated 3,000 men and boys and 15,000 livestock, who move every month or so in search of fresh grazing and water, as well as the Lobanya resettlement site. Since April 2009, nearly 900 people have moved to the resettlement site, to access more fertile land for planting. However, the site sits on a major crossing between Kotido and Dodoth districts and serves as a dry season grazing belt for the pastoralist population, increasing the potential for conflict over access to pasture, farmland and water during the October to April dry season.

Cattle raiding and gun-running have been all too frequent in Karamoja region, which shares borders with South Sudan and the Turkana region of northwestern Kenya. In 2006, the Government began a disarmament operation in all five of the region's districts (Abim, Kaabong, Kotido, Moroto and Nakapiripirit) and in April 2008, re-launched the Karamoja Integrated Disarmament and Development Plan (KIDDP). The KIDDP has since been incorporated into the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) for Northern Uganda, the national framework that seeks to bring poorer northern parts of the country onto the same development level as the rest. Yet, while security concerns are prevalent, the region's most pressing problems are access to sufficient food, clean water, and livelihood security.

"Beyond the immediate humanitarian needs, we need to work with the government on creating long-term food security through improving agricultural and pastoralist livelihoods, and development of basic services such as education, health and road infrastructure. Disaster risk reduction activities are part of the key to this, for example gathering and making better use of what rain does fall," Mr. Holmes observed. "While voluntary resettlement of some of the population to areas in which they can farm more productively is one solution, we must also find more effective ways to support pastoralism as the most viable livelihood in many parts of the region, for example by improving animal health and building better rural infrastructure including access to markets," he added.

Against nearly every basic indicator, Karamoja exhibits the lowest standards in the country, even below the conflict-affected districts of northern Uganda: 82 percent of the population lives below the poverty line; maternal mortality averages 750 in 100,000 live births; and the under-five mortality rate is 174 per 1,000 live births, compared to the national average of 134; 9 percent of the population have access to sanitation facilities and 40 percent to safe drinking water. 11 percent of the region's population can read.

For further information, please call: Kristen Knutson, OCHA-Uganda, mobile +256 772 760018, knutson@un.org; Stephanie Bunker, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1 347 244 2106, bunker@un.org; Nicholas Reader +1 212 963 4961, mobile +1 646 752 3117, reader@un.org; John Nyaga +1 917 367-9262, mobile +1 917 318 8917; Elisabeth Byrs OCHA-Geneva, +41 22 917 2653, mobile +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org. OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int. For more information about CERF, please see http://cerf.un.org.