By APN Reporter
apearlnews.com
Uganda Wildlife Authority on Wednesday received an assortment of equipment from United States Agency for International development (USAID) Biodiversity for Resilience (B4R) Activity.
The equipment will help UWA to strengthen the institution’s financial management system, enhance effective reporting, efficiency and effectiveness in revenue collection, and promote transparency in revenue collection among others.
The items that include 44 laptops, 39 scanners, 20 printers and 11 complete solar units were received from the Chief of Party B4R Jennifer Talbot by the Acting Executive Director UWA Mr. Stephen Masaba at Uganda Wildlife Authority Headquarters in Kampala.
Mr. Masaba Steven thanked USAID for the continuous support they have always been giving UWA mostly during the period of COVID 19 and was happy to note that USAID understands the role of UWA.
He said that the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities is working hard to promote destination Uganda and therefore support from USAID comes in handy to ensure that UWA executes its mandate well in order to give visitors to protected areas a good experience.
“The Ministry is working hard to promote destination Uganda and we should be doing our part in terms of readiness to give visitors a good experience. Now that we are recovering from COVID 19, we are pleased to receive support that is going to improve on our revenue collection systems and enhance our efficiency,” he said.
The Chief of Party B4R Talbot Jennifer said that their area of focus is to support Lake Mburo Queen Elizabeth, Murchison Falls and Kidepo Valley conservation areas. “These are the conservation areas that we are looking at, we believe the equipment will be installed in those areas and there will be no need of tracking because we know UWA is a transparent organization,” she said. She expressed hope that the equipment will be put to good.
About the USAID/Uganda Biodiversity for Resilience (B4R) Activity Program
The main goal is to support communities, the Government of Uganda (GoU), and the private sector to conserve and manage biodiversity in target ecosystems for lasting environmental, economic sustainability, increased community, and household resilience.
The B4R Activity works collaboratively with key government agencies that include Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and National Forest Authority (NFA) and other related ministries and departments, as well as district and local authorities in support of community wildlife ranches, collaborative forest management areas and protected area management while promoting market-based solutions to improve stewardship of the natural resources necessary to sustain Uganda’s economic development.
B4R provides direct financial support in the form of sub-awards from its Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) to the private sector and other community-based enterprises. This support is tied to achieving the biodiversity conservation objectives in Kidepo Valley, Murchison Falls, Lake Mburo, and Budongo forest landscapes.
