A white elephant in a changing climate: a territorial approach to climate change adaptation in Uganda.

Abstract

This chapter examines the institutional sustainability of internationally financed support for rural climate change adaptation in Uganda. The most common approach for such support is the 'planned climate change adaptation approach', which relies on projects as a mechanism for implementation and governance. This raises two concerns. Firstly, a project mode of implementation frequently establishes structures, procedures and funding mechanisms parallel to those of government, have limited time framework and have been widely criticized and abandoned in development work in favour of participatory planning and decentralized governance structures. Further, this chapter seeks to explore the implications of the skewed funding modality for climate change activities for implementation at the subnational administrative levels. This project mode of implementation centralizes decision making at the ministerial and UN agencies level. However, adaptation measures can best be implemented at the district level in the context of decentralized local governments.