Africa-Press – Uganda. A total of 60 government officers from seven ministers have completed specialised training in climate related issues to safeguard the country from climate effects that are causing havoc on the environment and the economy at large.
Climate change affects our society through the impact of different social, cultural, and natural resources. For example, climate change could affect human health, infrastructure, and transportation systems, as well as energy, food and water supplies.
Speaking during the certificate awarding ceremony at the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development headquarters on Thursday, the acting deputy Swedish ambassador to Uganda, Ms Azadeh Alian-Söderqvist, said; “Allow me to begin by congratulating you the participants, the change teams who have completed this training and who recognise the role of sustainable public procurement through training, dialogue, and discussion within the fundamental public institutions.”
“Sweden is giving Uganda considerable support on climate related issues through our work with FAO and World Bank,” she added.
Ms Azadeh explained that in a sustainable public procurement, you not only consider the benefits arising for your own organisation, but look at society as a whole. At the same time, you minimise environmental damage and safeguard certain social aspects such as equitable working conditions.
“If we include sustainability requirements in public procurement, it benefits the economy as well as society,” she said.
Ms Azadeh said sustainable public procurement is an important instrument in achieving public policy goals.
“I was thus very pleased to note that the Ugandan public sector has shown considerable commitment to this programme. We learnt that the MoFPED quickly agreed to act as the Lead Partner from the time the programme was introduced, recognising it as an important contribution to help the Government of Uganda meet its National SPP Implementation Action Plan goals,” she said.
She acknowledged that the certificate award ceremony is an opportunity to give attention to this important achievement and to highlight the priority this is being given by the Government of Uganda.
“The ceremony is not only to award certificates but to formally present you – the participants – as professionals who are now highly skilled in SPP. You are ready to utilise these skills to both train additional public procurement professionals in the subject and to apply SPP practices in an even larger scale within your own organisation. I therefore congratulate all the participants once again,” she said.
In a speech read by the deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Partick Ocailap, the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Matia Kasaija said: “Uganda’s green growth development strategy has identified sustainable procurement as one of the potential resource mobilization strategies for the transition to green economy.”
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