Themes
Financing integrated lake management
| Lake management inevitably costs money but social and economic benefits of good management far outweigh costs. Securing internally raised funds from the fisheries sector itself is the best way of financing the recurrent administrative operations of management organisations, but this requires fisheries fiscal reforms. Financing the implementation of lake management plans is best done through existing local government development programmes which themselves receive substantial support from Uganda's development partners. |
Funding for lake management must come from several sources, with funds raised by member stakeholder groups being essential for sustainability. Fisheries provide an important source of revenue, but changes are needed to ensure there are funds available for reinvestment and that money raised is done so in an equitable, transparent and accountable way. The fisheries sector is undergoing considerable change and it will take time for the sector to adequately fund itself.
Now is the time for central government and its partners in development to use the opportunity to support national government, and civil society-local government partnerships in establishing a new fisheries co-management approach in Uganda.
Key issues of, and opportunities for, financing lake management are:
- Revenue raising at community-level: There has long been concern about multiple fisheries taxation. The range of taxes include landing fees for fishing boats landing and fish marketed at landings. The collection of these fees are tendered out, which particularly draining on the sector, as substantial amounts of money are collected, yet little finds its way to local government and none is invested in fisheries management. The Department of Fisheries Resources plans to introduce a Landing Site User Fee to replace fisheries tendering to ensure more of the money collected goes to fisheries management through BMUs, whilst local governments will receive the same or more funds than obtained through tendering.
- Funding Lake Management Organisations and Plans: LMOs are raising funds from their community and local government members. The LMOs will eventually become self-financing but they need time to achieve this. During their early years, they therefore require co-funding from central government and development partners to strengthen their capacities and operations.
- Funding the Uganda Fisheries Authority: The UFA, as a largely autonomous body, will provide better focused and more efficient service delivery to the sector. The costs of this service delivery will be raised from within the sector itself in the medium term but external support is required to establish the UFA and allow it to develop capacity in the short term.
| Click here for full chapter | Click here for full report | See reports for this theme |
