Overordnede mål
To improve the life of the Ugandan population by reducing the negative health and environmental effects of pesticide use.
Umiddelbare mål
1. To create a public accessible data bank of knowledge on integrated pest management (IPM), treatment of pesticide poisoning and food safety for the consumers in Uganda. 2. To raise awareness nationally and globally, on prevention of pesticide poisoning and negative environment effects. 3. To advocate for a national mainstreaming of sound pesticide management and prevention of poisonings by different CSOs, Private and Public stakeholders.
Målgrupper
The primary target groups are farmers, health care workers and consumers in former and new project districts and in fact all over Uganda as this phase will work on mainstreaming activities that can help to prevent pesticide poisonings among all Ugandans, whether they are due to occupational poisonings, self-harm or stems from the food we eat. Primary target groups • Farmers: At least 5,000 smallholder farmers (200 per district) are targeted to be reached. These farmers will be accessed through the structures of at least two Community Based Organisations per district working with farmers across the district. • Extension workers: At least 500 extension workers (20 per district) are targeted by this project. Extension workers play a significant role in guiding farmers across the country, thus if supported with information materials, they will play role in getting the information to farmers through a multiplier effect. • Pesticide stockists: At least 500 pesticide stockists (20 per district) are targeted to be engaged in this project phase through their association of Uganda National Agro-dealers Association (UNADA). Pesticide stockists/agro-dealers are at the bottom of the pesticide distribution chain in the country. They interface with hundreds of farmers in the community who come to their shops to buy pesticides. If supported, they play a critical part in information dissemination. • Health care workers: At least 500 health care workers (20 per district) will be reached in this phase of the project. Intentional and unintentional pesticide poisoning remains a key challenge across the country, unfortunately majority of the community health care work force doesn’t have the needed skills to diagnose and manage these cases. Therefore this will be a crucial group for the project to engage. • Consumers: Statistics from the recent national census show that population in districts of the targeted regions is eastern (1,581,992), central (3,274,574), western (1,689,048), northern (1,226,727), and southern (1,524,095); thus a total population of 9,296,436 in the 25 targeted districts. At least 70% (6,507,505) of this population will be targeted as consumers by this project’s information dissemination campaign through newsletters, radio talk shows and television documentaries. Secondary target groups/collaborators • Pesticide importers/distributors: At least 3 leading pesticide importing and distributing companies are targeted by this project through their association of Crop Life Uganda. Companies of Bukoola, Nsanja, and Balton account for more than 70% of pesticides imported and distributed in the country. These and more will be targeted by the project as collaborators in spreading pesticide safe use information. • Gold Seed Limited. An interesting and successful IPM technology for managing fruit flies will be promoted across the country in collaboration with Gold Seed Limited, a private company. • Uganda Food Rights Alliance. This project will collaborate will collaborate with Food Rights Alliance (FRA), which is a coalition of NGOs in Uganda advocating for food security and sustainable agriculture systems. • National level CSOs: The project targets to engage at least 5 national level non-governmental organisations to adopt the project’s information materials and to support the project’s dissemination and awareness raising efforts. For instance the project will continue to work with UNFFE (Uganda National Farmers Federation)’s district branches across the country to reach out to more farmers and with NOGAMU (National Organic Agriculture Movement of Uganda). • International Organisations: At least 3 international organisations operating in Uganda including FAO, WHO, and UNEP will be targeted by the project for possible collaboration in promotion of pesticide poisoning prevention and sound pesticide management. • Ministries: The project will target at least 3 government ministries (MAAIF, MOH, MWE) and 5 agencies/authorities (NEMA, DGAL, NWSC, UNBS, DWE) as its collaborators. • MAAIF (Ministry of Agriculture) regulates importation, registration and trade of pesticides in Uganda, and is about to adopt materials developed in the PHE project as their own, hence a key player at the centre of this project. • MWE (Ministry of Water and Environment) and NEMA (National Environment Management Authority) will be vital in discussions to seek and mainstream certain issues to do with safeguarding water from pesticide pollution, and managing of pesticide waste, especially empty containers. • The project will directly engage MOH (Ministry of Health) on incorporation of pesticide poisoning registration into the national health management information system, adoption of training manual for health care workers, and food safety standards and guidelines in the country. • The project will be working with DGAL (Directorate of Government Analytical laboratories) under the MIA (Ministry of Internal Affairs) in concretising the establishment of National Poison information Centre. • Academic institutions have been and will continue to collaborate with the project in organising lectures for students on pesticide poisoning prevention and management, engaging students in documentation studies, and lobbying for mainstreaming of the project’s teaching curriculum in the teaching plans/course units of the different universities across the country. Experience has shown that as a rub on effect from this project, Makerere University introduced a course unit on pesticide safe use and handling. In this phase, the project will reach out to at least 10 institutions of higher learning. • As the legislature, Parliament of Uganda will be key in this project’s policy advocacy efforts. • Technical and political district leadership in the 25 districts will be targeted as key collaborators. The project will advocate for mainstreaming of some of the project initiatives into the district’s technical work, regulating pesticide trade in the district, and passing bye-laws/ordinances to regulate other pesticide use related issues such as food safety and waste disposal. Regarding the composition of target groups, this project has always and continues to ensure gender equality in selecting the different stakeholders to engage with, especially in the community. Different ethnicities in country will be represented as the project reaches out to the different regions. All the above mentioned community, district, and national actors will be stakeholders that the project will directly engage. In addition the project will indirectly reach out to all consumers, farmers, Village Health Team members, public spray personnel, and the general public across the country through the media. On their role in preparation of this project, the different aforementioned ministries and CSOs are represented on the project’s national steering committee. They have been involved in discussion on and preparation of this project and will be influential in its implementation as project advisors and links to their respective institutions. In preparation of this project farmers were represented through their umbrella association, UNFFE.
Resume
Gennem 7 årig har Dialogos/ICOEPH sammen med vores lokale partner i Uganda UNACOH arbejdet med forebyggelse af forgiftninger og forurening med pesticider i landbruget. Formålet med denne afsluttende fase er at fortale for en mainstreaming af de gode erfaringer vi har gjort mht. at nedbringe faren for forgiftninger ved håndtering af pesticider og for forbrugere ved indtagelse af pesticidforurenede fødevarer samt muliggøre en bedre diagnostik og behandling af forgiftninger. Mulighederne herfor synes gode da der lokalt i distrikterne bakkes op om projektet af bøndernes organisationer, ligesom universiteter, ministerier og private pesticidsælgere og importører har været involveret i aktiviteter og i flere tilfælde har taget initiativer til at overtage oplysnings- og undervisningsmaterialer og strategier til nedbringelse af pesticidforgiftning og forurening.