Teso Karamoja Community Dialogues and Regional Corporate Accountability Platform

From 7th to 8th June 2022, the UCCA with the support of its members Ecological Christian Organisation (ECO), Teso Karamoja Women Initiative for Peace (TEKWIP) and Karamoja Development Forum (KDF) held focus group discussions with communities affected or likely to be affected by the geophysical aerial minerals mapping an exercise being conducted by the department of Geographical Surveys and Mines as an opportunistic prospect for the development of the extractives industry in the region. The communities raised concerns about the exercise which included among others; lack of feedback from the conducted survey, lack of access to information regarding the mapping, unclear boundaries due to different historical demarcations, intimidation during the mapping exercise and land grabbing as a result of anticipation of minerals in the region.  These concerns were addressed in a Regional stakeholder dialogue to prepare the stakeholders and the communities on the prospects of the Geophysical Survey mapping. The Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines pledged to share information about the breakdown of the types of minerals and their amount in every district in addition to organizing sensitizations on licensing and the mining processes for communities and their local leaders while working with the UCCA. The security personnel within the region pledged to increase efforts in addressing intimidation and violence meted out on communities.