KAMPALA — Uganda has called for stronger regional cooperation and increased financing for locally led climate adaptation as East African countries seek to strengthen community resilience to worsening climate risks.
The call was made on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, at the opening of a two-day regional workshop in Kampala bringing together government officials, local governments, development partners, civil society, private-sector representatives and climate practitioners from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
The workshop, held under the theme “From Local Action to Lasting Change: Shaping the Future of Locally Led Adaptation in East Africa,” is organised by the Government of Uganda with support from the Royal Danish Embassy and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
Opening the workshop, Beatrice Atim Adwong Anywar, Minister of State for Environment, said climate adaptation must move from national policy discussions to communities directly experiencing climate impacts.
“For too long, climate strategies have been designed and discussed from far away, from where the effects are felt, in boardrooms and meetings flying all over the world,” Anywar said.
“It was far from the soil where it is happening. It was far from the water bodies that are drying out. And now this must shift.”
Anywar said Uganda was implementing several locally led adaptation approaches, including the LDC Initiative for Effective Adaptation and Resilience (LIFE-AR) and the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL).
She said such mechanisms give communities and local institutions greater influence over how adaptation priorities are identified, financed and implemented.
“The people who are affected are the biggest stakeholders,” Anywar said. “It is the same people who can tell us what their priorities are. How do they want to implement it?”
She said Uganda had also launched a Locally Led Adaptation Community of Practice in March 2026 to strengthen coordination and knowledge-sharing among stakeholders.
“This regional workshop on experience and knowledge sharing comes at a crucial time to support Uganda and East Africa to transform adaptation strategies into grassroots interventions and investments that will address communities’ priorities,” she said.
Benjamin Kumumanya, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, said regional peer learning was necessary to identify successful community-driven approaches and translate them into policy.
“We need to create a middle ground for peer learning, where people from Uganda, counties from Kenya and local communities from Tanzania exchange lessons,” Kumumanya said.
He called for the scaling of community-driven innovations and stronger cross-border cooperation on climate-related disasters.
“We also need to enhance cross-border disaster preparedness and responses to floods,” he said.
Kumumanya also urged greater participation of women and young people in climate decision-making, saying women were heavily affected by climate shocks because of their roles in households and production, while young people would inherit the consequences of current climate decisions.
He said Uganda’s decentralisation framework provides a basis for local governments to play a leading role in building resilience.
“Climate resilience is not built in conference halls,” Kumumanya said. “Resilience is built in villages, parishes and communities, where people live and where people face these issues.”
Danish Ambassador to Uganda H.E. Signe Winding Albjerg said Denmark supported locally led adaptation programmes in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania because local communities and governments were best placed to identify vulnerabilities and adaptation priorities.
“We know that local engagement — engaging local communities and local governments in the identification of climate vulnerabilities, in the prioritisation of climate adaptation actions and in the monitoring of implementation — is super, super key and crucial,” Albjerg said.
She said bringing practitioners from the three countries together would allow lessons from one community or country to improve programmes elsewhere. “We want to bring them together and learn from each other,” she said.
Justine Audrain, UNCDF Regional Coordinator for LoCAL+, said the effectiveness of climate finance depended not only on how much money was mobilised but also on how effectively it reached local governments and communities.
“Lasting change does not only depend on the volume of climate finance mobilised, but also on its quality and, very importantly, how effectively that finance reaches local governments and communities on the ground,” Audrain said.
She said the LoCAL mechanism was designed to provide additional capital at the local level while strengthening systems for sustainable investment.
Audrain said the workshop would help countries exchange practical experience and develop approaches for scaling locally led adaptation.
“We all agree that climate finance should reach the local level. It is about how to build a system that enables climate finance to flow effectively, predictably and at scale to communities facing climate risks every day,” she said.
Serena Cavicchi, Senior Social Development Specialist at the World Bank, said climate finance and decision-making needed to move closer to communities experiencing climate risks.
“Historically, financing for climate adaptation has flowed from the global level to the national level, from capitals to districts, losing relevance and local ownership at every step,” Cavicchi said.
She cited the World Bank’s Financing Locally Led Climate Action programme in Kenya and Scaling Up Locally Led Climate Action programme in Tanzania as examples of national-scale approaches.
“Communities are not passive beneficiaries,” Cavicchi said. “They understand their realities and should be the most important actors and agents when they are given the power and resources they need.”
The workshop continues Thursday with discussions on lessons from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, financing mechanisms, community participation and opportunities for scaling locally led adaptation across East Africa.
