This policy brief provides a summary of climate trends in Uganda and recommendations for providing support to communities.

With agriculture providing about 70% of Uganda’s export earnings and the primary economic activity for much of its population, livelihoods are particularly sensitive to the fluctuations and uncertainties of seasonal rainfall − whether premature, delayed, prolonged or failed.

Recommendations for providing support include:

• District governments must make services available to support communities to pursue sustainable livelihood choices in a changing climate and to protect them from maladaptation.
• District governments must guide communities (e.g. through alternative specific district livelihoods programmes) to ensure communities indulge in sustainable adaptation rather than ‘maladaptation’.
• Central government must invest in reliable and accurate meteorological data production. The government needs to invest more in infrastructure and human capacity for collecting, disseminating and using relevant knowledge and information at macro and micro levels.