LAKE VICTORIA BASIN

Opportunities

Food Security There are various efforts aimed at improving household food security in the Basin, including the Sustainable Land Management (SLM) strategy, and the Mount Elgon Conservation Programme. The LVBC developed the SLM Strategy and Guidelines, with the primary aim of improving both food security and household incomes within the Basin. The SLM strategy and its guidelines have been implemented in all five partner states through the second phase of the Lake Victoria Basin Environmental Management Programme. The LVBC has also partnered with VI-Agroforestry Project, which aims at improving farming and cropping systems at the household level. The LVBC has been instrumental in implementing the Mount Elgon Regional Ecosystem Conservation Programme with a view to providing a more secure and productive ecosystem by promoting effective transboundary natural resource management (between Kenya and Uganda) and participatory benefit sharing. The Mount Elgon Regional Ecosystem Conservation Programme aims to ensure the sustainable use of shared natural resources, benefiting livelihoods while mitigating against, and adapting to anticipated climate change impacts in the Mount Elgon transboundary ecosystem.

The second phase of the programme addresses the challenges of decreasing land productivity, increasing food insecurity and declining household incomes, while ensuring compliance with conservation measures in the protected areas of the Mount Elgon landscape. The ‘landscape approach’ – using private sector involvement and climate smart agriculture – is adopted to achieve the three main objectives: conservation, food security and improved household incomes. Investment and Infrastructure Development The LVBC has initiated some projects which address investment, financing and infrastructure in the areas of maritime safety, transport corridors, water and sanitation, and energy. The second phase of the Lake Victoria Basin Environmental Management Programme, the Mount Elgon Regional Ecosystem Conservation Programme and the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation (LVWTSAN) Programme, are some of the programmes through which the Lake Basin seeks to deliver on its infrastructure needs. The infrastructure development programmes complement those of the East Africa Community, whose main focus is on the improvement of roads and railways, ports, power pools and fuel pipelines, and other infrastructure services.

Woman tending to tomatoes in Kapseror Village, Kapchorwa, Uganda.

102