Oil impacts, districts are prepared - Uganda

23 April 2019

Kampala/Hoima - What are the impacts of oil developments in your district? And how can local government authorities respond to them through their role in ESIA's? And what are points of attention when reviewing ESIA's? 

These were the subjects covered in two recent workshops, part of the SRJS programme.

• For a group of 30 CSO representatives, the focus of a 1-day workshop in Kampala was specifically on how to review ESIA reports in the oil & gas sector. For example, whenever information is missing, make sure that you justify why this is important and what should be done next to supplement this information.

• The 3-day workshop in Hoima was attended by 30 political leaders and technical staff of 10 local governments/districts. Here we focused specifically on their role in the ESIA process. What are (legal) responsibilities,  why and how involve all stakeholders as soon as possible, what is the role of local government ESIA review, and in monitoring the implementation of the Environmental and Social Management Plans?

The discussions in both workshops were very enthusiastic, with pragmatic actions to be taken forward.