Leading the Change: Civil Society, Rights and Environment : WWF Uganda <b>Problem and context description</b>
	  <p>The programme seeks to address the drivers of increased degradation and loss of forests, wildlife and fresh water catchments resources within and outside high conservation value ecosystems in the Albertine Graben, specifically in the protected areas. This degradation compounded by climate change impact has had negative impacts on both nature and human livelihood in the Albertine Graben that stretches from the northern tip of Lake Albert (in Uganda) to the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania. This is a rich biodiversity area with globally unique and threatened species. More than 70 % of Uganda’s protected areas are located within the Albertine Graben.</p>
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	  <p>The loss and degradation of natural resources is caused by weak and uncoordinated policy and institutional frameworks, limited community and civil society participation in natural resource governance due to limited knowledge and skills on legislative processes and the key issues for advocacy. Grass root civil society have limited institutional, technical and financial capacity to deliver on their mandate in terms of research on issues, awareness raising and policy engagement. This is also affected by the limited civil society networks for sharing knowledge and for increased voices on natural resources management.</p>
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	  <p>The challenge is more pronounced in rural areas characterised by limited access to information especially on human rights issues. This facilitates uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources. Communities living in rural areas of the Albertine Graben lack decision-making power, opportunities and tools to manage the natural resources upon which they depend. They often have low knowledge about their rights and lack skills to engage duty bearers on forestry, energy development, biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development. Women, girls and youth in communities adjacent to natural resources are most impacted because they are rarely involved in discussions on natural resource management. Empowering them to participate and articulate their concerns is paramount to shaping a sustainable society.</p>
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	  <p>The geographical coverage of this programme framework takes into account areas affected and or prone to conflicts around natural resource use. With the nexus between conservation, conflict and development more pronounced following petroleum development activities and inflow of immigrants/refugees, the danger of disregard of rights of local people to land, forests and water resources impedes.</p>
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	  <b>Programme goals</b>
	  <p>The overall desired change of the programme is that people in programme areas are effectively controlling decisions and receiving full benefits from natural resources and exercising their responsibility for ensuring that key ecosystems and habitats are sustainably managed in Uganda.</p>
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	  <b>Programme activities</b>
	  <p>The activities aimed at achieving the programme’s goal will be implemented by national CSO coalitions, multistakeholder platforms, landscape based CSOs who will engage other grass root CBOs that directly interact with the communities. These activities include:</p>
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	  <li>developing CSO engagement strategy, strengthening the institutional and technical capacity of CSOs to effectively engage in policy advocacy;</li>
	  <li>raising awareness on climate change and benefits of forests, water resources management, wildlife and renewable energy;</li>
	  <li>promoting knowledge and technology transfer on sustainable natural resources management, promoting climate change adaptation options amongst communities;</li>
	  <li>building community resilience to climate change impacts through piloting climate change adaptation measures;</li>
	  <li>promoting development of nature based enterprises and their value chains, as livelihood options for communities adjacent to protected areas, and reducing impact on key natural resources through regulated trade and improved governance;</li>
	  <li>strengthening CSO and community capacity on human rights based approaches and gender.</li>
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