Climate change, food, and nutrition policies in Uganda: Are they gender- and nutrition-sensitive?

This policy brief (no. 14, March 2020) draws attention to some gaps in the mainstreaming of gender and nutrition in climate change, and food and nutrition-related policy documents, which may affect the effective implementation of nutrition-focused actions and the realization of improved nutrition outcomes.

The following recommendations are proposed:

1. Relevant sectors should align their provisions for gender and nutrition integration in policy documents with the national objectives, goals and targets in the Comprehensive National Development Planning Framework (CNDPF).
2. Sector government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) should systematically mainstream gender and nutrition throughout sections of the national guiding documents by stating explicit commitments that address gender and nutrition concerns, which should be informed by gender analyses.
3. The offices mandated with coordination, monitoring and evaluation of climate change and nutrition actions across sectors should regularly hold joint performance reviews involving relevant stakeholders to reduce duplication of efforts, strengthen cross-sectoral synergies and alignment to the national vision, goals and targets.

In addition, according to the paper, solving food insecurity and undernutrition through policy would require the following:

1. a thorough context-specific and gender-differentiated understanding of risks, vulnerabilities, constraints and opportunities of populations by relevant sectors;
2. inclusion of multiple stakeholder groups (within and outside government) in the identification of priority actions and policy development processes;
3. explicit and adequate allocation of funding by MDAs to identified actions;
4. the appropriate organization, coordination, management and monitoring of the implementation of actions by mandated offices; and
5. periodic joint performance reviews among relevant actors to learn from and address emerging challenges.