07.07.2020 – Kampala (Uganda) – The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in collaboration with Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment are convening a 2-day validation workshop in Uganda’s capital Kampala on Knowledge Management and Capacity Building on Ground Water.

The validation workshop is to review Uganda’s needs assessment report that was done in 2017 on Knowledge Management on Ground Water and Capacity Building on Ground Water and Drought Resilience in Uganda, with the objective to assess the status of knowledgebase, challenges and opportunities for enhancing groundwater management in IGAD region. Dr Callist Tindimugaya, Commissioner at Ministry of Water and Environment and Member of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) for Uganda in his opening remarks noted that the contributions and recommendations by the experts will enrich, update and inform the report so that it is ready for utilization by the experts, academia and other stakeholders. Dr Tindimugaya also thanked IGAD for embarking on regional assessments to inform the utilization and management of the region’s groundwater resources for drought resilience in view of the increased impacts of climate change. The assessments are also key in ensuring that groundwater meets the demands for various socio- economic activities, and maintain existing ecosystems without compromising groundwater availability and quality. The participants of the workshop called for information and knowledge sharing, enhanced capacity and engagement of key stakeholders such as the private sector, civil society organisations, academia and other relevant experts, in research and update of various groundwater management and development methodologies in order to inform policy among other things. The workshop is being attended by groundwater experts from the Ministry of Water and Environment, private sector and academia. The meeting is being supported by the World Bank under the IGAD Horn of Africa – Ground Water Initiative (IGAD HOAGWI).

Nearly 28 million people were already food insecure before COVID-19 in the IGAD region

Nairobi / Djibouti, 4th June 2020: An estimated 27.6 million people across the IGAD region were classified in Crisis or worse (IPC Phase 3+) levels of acute food insecurity in 2019. This figure represents 20% of the total population facing food insecurity that required urgent action across the world. Without taking into account the effects of COVID-19, projections indicate that around 25 million people would face acute food insecurity in the region requiring urgent action (IPC Phase 3 or above) in 2020, largely as a result of weather extremes, conflict/insecurity and economic shocks. However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is likely to push the numbers of acutely food-insecure people well beyond these early 2020 forecasts.

East Africa’s agro-pastoral areas at risk of new wave of desert locusts 

The Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2020 was launched today. IGAD contributed to it and is a member of the Global Food Crisis Network, consisting of 16 organisations that produced the report.

Attachments:

GRFC_2020_KM_200420.pdf	[ ]	1343 kB	2020-04-21 11:47
GRFC_2020_ONLINE_200420.pdf	[ ]	8312 kB	2020-04-21 11:52