STRENGTHENING NATIONAL FEEDBACK AND GRIEVANCE REDRESS MECHANISM FOR UGANDA’S REDD+ PROGRAMME (Contract No. MWE/SRVCS/14-15/00018) DRAFT REPORT TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE MINISTRY OF WATER AND ENVIRONMENT CONSULTANT: ADVOCATES COALITION FOR DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENT (ACODE) PLOT 96, KANJOKYA STREET, KAMWOKYA. P. O. BOX 29836, KAMPALA - UGANDA. TEL: +256312812150, http://www.acode-u.org/ Email: [email protected] , [email protected] Submission Date: 27 September 2016 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Uganda’s REDD+ study for the development of the National Feedback and Grievance Redress Mechanism (FGRM) was undertaken by the Advocates’ Coalition for Development and the Environment (ACODE) on the behalf of the Ministry of Water and Environment (MoW&E). The study process was funded by the World Bank. The study was commissioned and overseen by the REDD+ Secretariat under the Forest Sector Support Department (FSSD) on behalf of the Ministry. The MW&E is grateful to all the efforts of all these key partners in the entire process. During the preparation of the proposed FGRM, MW&E immensely benefited from the invaluable contribution of the Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) Taskforce convened by the FSSD and the REDD+ Secretariat, among other ongoing REDD+ assessments. In addition, MW&E benefited from the input of ACODE’s FGRM taskforce comprising an array of experts drawn from areas relevant to the study scope. The Taskforce not only made a significant contribution to the development of the draft inception report but also reviewed and made invaluable comments to the draft report. MW&E would like to thank the team of researchers who mobilised the communities and fully participated in the data collection processes. Also commended for their role are the individuals and institutions that participated in the assessment at the different stages of the study process. These include; community members in the four field case study areas (Gulu, Mbale, Mbarara and Kyankwanzi districts) who provided data through various ways. MW&E is greatly indebted to the leadership of the various local governments (political leaders and technical officers) as well as the NFA and UWA officials in the four districts. MoW&E would also like to thank the District Forest Officers (DFOs) in the four districts and the various forest user groups and communities under the Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) arrangement for their valuable contribution through interviews during the field visits. MW&E is also grateful to the management of Global Woods—a private tree planting company in Kikonda central forest reserve (Kyankwanzi district) for the cooperation during the assessment. Finally, MW&E would like to express its sincere gratitude to a number of agencies that played a significant role in the entire process of preparing and producing this report. Appreciation goes to ACODE for undertaking this study; to the Forest Sector Support Department (FSSD) of the Ministry of Water and Environment for their technical support during the exercise - particularly the REDD+ Secretariat- for the invaluable guidance and support to the entire study process; and to the World Bank for the generous funding that enabled the Ministry to commission and undertake this study. In particular, MW&E would like to recognize and appreciate the invaluable and consistent technical support and guidance provided to the ACODE team of consultants by Mr. Xavier Mugumya, Mr. Alex Muhweezi, Ms. Margaret Mwebesa, Ms. Sheila Kiconco as well as other officials of the REDD+ Secretariat who always promptly responded to ACODE’s requests for information, contacts of Key Informants (KIs) and other forms of consultations. 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is a global climate change effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, encouraging creation of policy approaches and positive incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. REDD+ goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Under the REDD+ initiative, Uganda is developing a national strategy for addressing deforestation and forest degradation thus enabling the country to benefit from the REDD+ strategy. As part of the preparations to implement the strategy, the Government of Uganda contracted the Advocates’ Coalition for Development and Environment to build upon the framework assessment already undertaken by the Government of Uganda during the formulation phase by developing a Feedback and Grievance Redress Mechanism (FGRM) in preparation for the REDD+ readiness and implementation of REDD+ activities. Objectives of this assignment There were two specific objectives of this assignment: The first objective was to undertake an assessment of existing national institutional capacity for feedback and grievance redress, so as: (a) to identify existing and potential conflict and grievances that could arise during REDD+ readiness, and implementation of REDD+ Strategy/ activities’ implementation; (b) to identify mechanisms that can detect, prevent and minimize the escalation of, and resolve conflicts and grievances; (c) to strengthen policy, legal and institutional framework for managing grievances and Conflicts that can assist in handling/ addressing stakeholder concerns and issues relevant to REDD+ implementation; (d) to strengthen institutional capacity and presence of an active mechanism to receive feedback and handle conflict in a timely manner and at all levels; and (e) to build the capacity on REDD+ Readiness and FCPF for key stakeholders and personnel on the presence of a clear FGRM. The second objective was to establish an easily accessible and well publicized mechanism to receive feedback and handle grievances in a credible and timely manner. The assessment exercise was conducted in field case sites selected in four districts, namely: Gulu, Mbarara, Mbale and Kyankwanzi. The four case studies consisted of a central forest reserve and a local forest reserve. The consultant also undertook desk-based literature review to understand the nature of conflicts in community forests as well as private forests and forests forming part of a wildlife conservation area declared under the Uganda Wildlife Act (Cap 200, Laws of Uganda). During the assessment, the team interacted with a total of 122 respondents through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). Eighty four (84) of these respondents were male while thirty eight (38) were female. Although the consultant was quite gender sensitive in the selection of respondents for this exercise, it should be noted that there was no pre-determined sample size. Accordingly, the research team could only interact with the respondents who turned up for the FGDs without much influence on their respective gender. In addition, it should be noted that most FGDs were being held during 3 the rainy season when more women than men were engaged in garden work and other related activities and could therefore, not be in position to make it for the FGDs in equal or even bigger numbers. The participants included local government officials (political leaders and civil servants), NFA officials, CSOs, as well as local community members who are also forest dependent and forest adjacent. In addition, the assessment reached twenty two (22) respondents through Key Informant (KI) interviews. Of these, seventeen (17) were male while five (5) were female. The majority of these respondents were from government departments, CSOs, the private sector, cultural institutions, religious organizations, international agencies, development agencies, the academia, and the REDD+ secretariat. Contents of the Report This report consists of five main chapters. Chapter one provides a general introduction to the report as well as providing information on the national context. Chapter two sets out the methodology for undertaking the study and describes the approach to executing the assignment. Chapter three presents the major findings of the study, including a description of existing and potential grievances; the potential grievances and conflicts that could arise during REDD+ readiness; the key drivers and actors in existing and potential conflicts; existing mechanisms to detect, prevent and minimize the escalation of conflicts and grievances; and an analysis of the adequacy of the existing policy, legal, regulatory and institutional framework for managing grievances and conflicts. Chapter four presents the proposed feedback and grievance redress mechanism (FGRM) for REDD+ in Uganda. Finally, Chapter five presents conclusions and recommendations of the study. The assessment used the following methodology to collect data: . Literature and document review . Selection of field case studies that provided insight into the national context . Data collection through focus group discussion and key informant interviews . Semi-structured questionnaires to obtain detailed data . FGD and Key Informant guides to obtain the relevant data from respondents . Forest stakeholder mapping to understand the major stakeholders in the forestry sector . Problem solving workshop to promote dialogue and initiate resolution of the conflicts . Use of other vital tools such as the GRM evaluation tool; the conflict dynamics framework; the trend analysis tool; the problem/solution tree tool. The assessment found out that the major