The Program is designed to address a range of public policy issues involving good ecological stewardship, democracy, and equity. For over a decade, Africa has faced a deepening crisis in environmental management, which has been widely recognized by major global, regional, and national policy instruments. The continuing destruction of protected areas by anthropogenic activities, extraction of fossil fuels, environmental pollution, land degradation, and climate change constitutes some of the major ecological problems facing our generation today. These challenges are mirrored at the national level, in which official and unofficial government decisions are partly responsible for the growing rate of environmental degradation. The increased disenfranchisement of natural resource-dependent communities, combined with bad governance, poses the single largest threat to national and personal security, not just in Uganda, but around the world.
The growth of environmental advocacy clearly shows that the environment is an essential building block for democratic governance and the rule of law. It is against this backdrop that EGI has developed a program designed to mobilize different populations to demand for better accountability and good environmental governance.