Atlas of the Dopeth Catchment A sociotechnical assessment Kotido & Kaabong Districts, Karamoja, Uganda Atlas of the Dopeth Catchment A sociotechnical assessment Kotido & Kaabong Districts, Karamoja, Uganda An assessment by This Atlas was designed and edited by Mieke Hulshof and Reinier Visser. The main au- 4 2018, de,elopment commissioned by Cordaid. All rights reser,ed. No part of this thors are Mieke Hulshof, James Kisekka, Ian Neal, Reinier Visser and Leonard Sweta. publica&on may be reproduced, transmi9ed or stored in any form by any means, elec- tronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise without the wri9en permission of Cor- daid :info;cordaid.nl) and without inclusion of the following reference: Significant contribu&ons were made by: The 2opeth Pro)ect :2018). Atlas of the 2opeth Catchment - A sociotechnical assess- The district o(cers of Kaabong and Ko&do, the women and men of Karamo)a, Karen ment, Ko&do & Kaabong 2istricts, Karamo)a, Uganda. A )oint pro)ect by Acacia -ater, Stehouwer, Susanne Boom, Frank ,an -eert, Maarten .nneweer, Paul Lochap, Ar)en RA N, -etlands nterna&onal, Cordaid and Caritas Ko&do. de Vries, 1rwin ,an den Berg and 2aniel Pol. Addi&ons and remarks are welcome ,ia info;acaciawater.com Pro)ect lead: Acacia -ater. Content, analysis and repor&ng: -etlands nterna&onal, Part of the data presented in this Atlas was obtained exis&ng databases of which the RA N and Acacia -ater. Map produc&on: Acacia -ater. 2esign and edi&ng Atlas: Aca- quality and accuracy may ,ary. No rights can be deri,ed. Cordaid and authors cannot cia -ater. Re,iew by all partners, including Cordaid and Caritas Ko&do. -ith $nancial be held responsible for any use which may be made of the informa&on contained support of Cordaid. herein, nor for errors or consequences. Atlas of the Dopeth Catchment A sociotechnical assessment, Kodo & Kaabong Districts, Karamoja, Uganda Karamo)a is characteriAed by acute po,erty and has the lowest social and economic de,elopment of Uganda. The situa&on impro,ed o,er the past years, but the region was unable to successfully implement and manage long term sus- tainable de,elopment processes. The many disaster risk reduc&on, capacity building and other support pro)ects pro,ed helpful, but the region remains disas- ter prone. Much too oBen haAards s&ll result in food insecurity, disease and con- Cict :e.g. UN2P 2014a, UN2P 2014b, FA. 201E, FA. et al. 2018)). The underlying sociotechnical asssessment is part of a larger pro)ect that aims to formulate a de,elopment strategy towards building li,elihood resilience. This sociotechnical assessment includes an analysis of the current biophysical situa- &on of the 2opeth Catchment, the iden&$ca&on of linkages, challenges and op- portuni&es, and the formula&on of the most eFec&,e, prac&cal and realis&c so- lu&ons. n agreement with the UCN guidelines and the policies adopted by the Go,ernment of Uganda :M-1 - 2irectorate of -RM 2012), a catchment per- spec&,e is adopted and integrated ecosystem based disaster risk reduc&on ap- proach is pursued. n this Atlas, the results of the sociotechnical assessment are presented in the form of thema&c maps. A descrip&on of the current biophysical landscape and the poten&al for impro,ed land management, sustainable water resources use and use of other ecosystem ser,ices is gi,en. Based on the assessment, at the end, the main challenges are summariAed and possible solu&ons are pro,ided. -e are con$dent that the data and analyses presented will assist to guide informed decision making in Karamo)a, upon building more resilient li,elihoods. Gouda, The Netherlands, No,ember 2018 The Project Team Table of contents 0 General legend n this Atlas, the main $ndings are presented on thema&c maps. 1ach map comes with its own sub)ect speci$c legend. Howe,er, there is a number of items that is presented on all map for TableBackground of contents orienta&on purposes. These items are included in the generaliAed legend on the right. 1. Background - 4 2. Land Use and management - 14 E. 1cosystemsH 2I 4. -ater Resources - E4 8. The way forward - 4I 1 Background Background Project context and approach 8 Karamoja The pro)ect area is situated in Karamo)a Region, more speci$cally in Kaabong and Ko&do 2istricts :A), a ,ast semi-arid landscape in the Northeast of Uganda and some 880 km from Kampala. Karamo)a :B) is characteriAed by acute po,erty and has the lowest social and economic de,elopment of Uganda. .,er I0% of the popula&on li,es below the po,erty line of one dollar a day :A,ery 2014). Factors contribu&ng to the situa&on in the region are insecurity, en,ironmental issues, marginaliAa&on, illiteracy , limited opportunies in marke&ng, poor health and poor infrastructure. Problems are largely a9ributed to droughts, Cooding and disease outbreaks. The region is marked by a long-term dependency on external aid programmes. Recently, peace has returned following the disarmamament programme of the go,ernment. 1conomic and social de,elopment are slowly seKng in. n total 1.2 million people li,e in Karamo)a, less than E.8% of the total popula&on of Uganda. The total area of Karamo)a region is 27 900 km 2, 12% of the countryNs total surface :A,ery 2014). A,erage popula&on density is low, equalling 4E personOkm 2. A. ,oca$on of Kaabong and Ko$do Districts in -ganda Project Approach The underlying Atlas presents the results of the sociotechnical assessment of Ko&do and Kaabong 2istricts in Karamo)a, Uganda. The assessment is one of the inputs to a larger pro)ect that aims to formulate a de,elopment strategy to wards building li,elihood resilience. Next to this sociotechnical assessment, the pro)ect includes a social context study, a stake- holder mapping exercise and an assessment on knowledge and coordina&on, especially at district le,el. The ul&mate goal of the pro)ect is to strengthen and di,ersify li,elihoods, build community assets and strengthen systems and structures that promote resilience to haAards. Since a few years programmes by interna&onal organiAa&ons are being phased out in Karamo)a. There is a clear cut back on emergency opera&ons and food distribu&on. Karamo)a has to explore new strategies to sustain its growing popula- &on. To minimiAe the eFects of haAards such as hea,y rainfall and droughts, amongst others in the light of climate change, disaster risk reduc&on, capacity building and other de,elopment pro)ects were ini&ated by authori&es and non- go,ernmental organisa&ons. Though these in,estments had their posi&,e eFect at community le,el, the impact of pro- grammes can be increased by coordina&ng ac&,i&es at a larger scale. Such coordina&on will increase the e(ciency, eFec- &,eness and long-term sustainability, especially because the systemPs processes are all interlinked :e.g. higher runoF rates in the mountainous areas may result in Cooding downstream). This study aims to showcase the importance of an in- depth and integrated assessment at catchment scale to understand and describe the current situa&on before looking at inter,en&ons. The pro)ect aims to determine where to focus on, especially with regard to infrastructure and natural re- sources management, to ensure long term sustainable de,elopment in,estments. The pro)ect adopts a catchment based natural resources management approach, following the introduc&on of this frame- work by the Go,ernment of Uganda. The approach impro,es the analy&cal underpinning of conclusions and recommen- da&ons and pro,ides an opportunity for stakeholders to par&cipate in the formula&on of plans and the de,elopment of new :water) infrastructure :M-1-2irectorate of -RM 2012). B. Cale maize cul$va$on and To put the catchment based approach into prac&ce, $rst all rele,ant data was collected, calibrated and ,alidated. The grasslands in Karamoja (Wetlands results presented in this Atlas :maps, $gures and analyses) are the outputs of integrated sociotechnical assessment and aim to support the fact-based decision making processes that will follow. 2uring these processes priority inter,en&ons Interna$onal 2015) will be short-listed and the de,elopment strategy will be de,eloped in collabora&on with all stakeholders. 6 Building livelihood resilience The results presented in this Atlas are input to the formula&on of a de,elopment strate- gy towards building li,elihood resilience in a disaster prone area. Resilience is the ability withstand or reco,er from a haAard e,ent. High chance of haAard occurrence, coupled of a system exposed to haAards to resist, absorb, accommodate to and reco,er from the with high ,ulnerability and weak coping capacity, translate into high risks. Though haA- eFects of a haAard in a &mely and e(cient manner, including through the preser,a&on ards cannot be a,erted as such, ,ulnerability and capacity are factors that can be ad- and restora&on of its essen&al basic structures and func&ons :UN S2R 2009). dressed, so that the system becomes more resilient, and disasters can be warded off. HaAards are natural phenomena that may cause property damage and loss of li,e, such Vulnerability is herein defined as the susceptibility to the damaging effect of a haAard, as hea,y or ,ery low rainfall. A disaster :e.g. food insecurity) occurs when a system can- while capacity refers to the collecti,e strengths which allow people to sur,i,e and re- not cope with the effects of a haAard.