Barclays and Standard Chartered picketed in London over Bidco business (23.08.2016)

Members of Prince Charles’ Banking Environment Initiative fail to cut ties with companies that deforest in Africa.

KAMPALA, Uganda, August 23, 2016 – East African protesters have taken to the streets of London to demonstrate against banks that do business with Bidco Africa, highlighting the connection between global financial institutions, The Prince of Wales and widespread deforestation in Africa.

Barclays and Standard Chartered saw their London headquarters picketed due to their funding of Nairobi-based Bidco, a company that cuts down thousands of acres of pristine rainforest in Uganda, and engages in human rights and tax violations in Kenya and Tanzania.

The Bidco Truth Coalition (No2Bidco.org), an activist alliance, has revealed that the Banking Environment Initiative (BEI), based at Cambridge University’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership under the patronage of The Prince of Wales, is failing in its mission to lead the banking industry in collectively directing capital towards environmentally and socially sustainable economic development.

The BEI’s nine member banks are Barclays, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Lloyds, Northern Trust, RBS, Santander and Westpac.

By signing up to BEI’s ‘Soft Commodities’ Compact, the nine banks have committed to only direct capital towards sustainable business models and achieve zero net deforestation among their client Companies.

Under BEI guidelines, member banks must drop clients that don’t measure up to socially and environmentally responsible policies.

Bidco Africa, which has engaged in multiple human rights, labour, tax and environmental violations, has publically stated that it does business with Barclays, Standard Chartered, Citibank, Equity Bank and Kenya Commercial Bank.

Bidco owns an oil palm plantation that has deforested 18,000 acres of rainforest in Uganda. Bidco has also grabbed land from over 100 smallholder farmers.

The environmental impact of the palm oil project has led activists to call on the UN Global Compact to eject Bidco from its roster of members.

In 2004, the World Bank pulled out of Bidco’s Uganda project, citing violations of the World Bank’s anti-deforestation policies.

But BEI has remained silent, and Barclays, Standard Chartered and other banks continue to do business with Bidco Africa.

The Bidco Truth Coalition calls on BEI, its patron, The Prince of Wales, and BEI’s nine member banks to publically state that they will no longer do business with Bidco and other companies that destroy the environment.

Press Statement: Coalition of activists chart Bidco abuses on new platform No2Bidco.org (31.05.2016)

Bidco Truth Coalition unites groups to demand accountability for Bidco

KAMPALA, Uganda, May 31, 2016 –  The Bidco Truth Coalition, an online activist organisation, has launched No2Bidco.org, a platform dedicated to charting the human rights and environmental violations of Bidco Africa, the Kenya-based edible oil producer headed by CEO Vimal Shah.

No2Bidco.org includes a catalogue of Bidco’s violations, including illegal labour practices in Kenya, deforestation in Uganda and tax evasion across East Africa. The platform also provides visitors with the ability to add their voices to a global campaign of petitions and letter-writing to reveal Bidco’s business practices.

No2Bidco.org’s central archive of independent reports about Bidco provides activists, businesses, governments and NGOs unfiltered access to information free from Bidco’s influence on the media.

No2Bidco.org includes a catalogue of Bidco’s violations, including illegal labour practices in Kenya, deforestation in Uganda and tax evasion across East Africa

The platform’s anchor organisation is the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE), the respected Uganda-based Friends of the Earth affiliate. Other organisations include the Bugala Farmers Association, a Ugandan group of more than 100 farmers who lost their land to Bidco; Citizens for Tax Compliance, a Kenya-based group that advocates corporate tax compliance; the Association of Non-aligned Bidco Workers.

Founded in 1997, NAPE has been instrumental in giving a voice to farmers displaced by Bidco’s deforestation on Uganda’s pristine Ssese Islands. NAPE and its dedicated staff have a history of exposing corporations and governments that collude to earn vast sums of money at the expense of poor individuals.

The Bugala Farmers Association, which has successfully challenged Bidco in court for more than a year over its members’ loss of land, recently submitted a petition to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for partnering with Bidco. As a result, UNDP has launched an investigation into its partnership with Bidco.

The Association of Non-aligned Bidco Labourers is a group in Kenya and Uganda that gives informal representation to aggrieved casual workers at Bidco’s factories. Most workers supported have been terminated illegally, experienced abuse by Bidco management or been injured at the workplace.

The Bidco Truth Coalition invites other like-minded organisations to join the No2Bidco.org platform to demand change at Bidco and accountability for those who support the company.

Press Release: AfDB approves US $76.7-million for Uganda’s agriculture programme (20.01.2016)

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a US $76.7-million loan to finance phase two of the Uganda Farm Income Enhancement and Forestry Conservation Programme (FIEFOC-2).

The programme, which was commended by the AfDB Board on Wednesday, January 20 for its good design and high-impact development objectives, comprises agriculture infrastructure and agribusiness development activities as well as an integrated natural resources management scheme aimed to consolidate and expand key achievements of its predecessor (phase one), which was completed in December 2012.

Designed within the context of Uganda’s National Development Plan and long-term development strategy – the Vision 2040 – the Project focuses on improving farm incomes, rural livelihoods, food security and climate resilience. It will also support sustainable natural resources management and agricultural enterprise development.

In 2013, about 19.7% of the population, or 6.7 million people, were unable to meet their basic needs, according to a Uganda National Household Survey, which also disclosed that the incidence of poverty was highest among the food-crop growing category in the rural areas due to low income. Thus, the programme seeks to increase production and farmer incomes through improvements and expansion of irrigation schemes, development of agribusiness and adoption of sustainable land, forest, and water management practices and technologies to generate income from natural resources.

The programme will be implemented over a five-year period in five districts – Nebbi, Oyam, Butaleja, Kween, and Kasese – where irrigation schemes are located. The districts have an estimated 1.8 million population, 52% of them women. It will also benefit 300,000 households of which 20% are female-headed outside the irrigation command areas, by introducing or improving soil-conservation measures in the catchments feeding the irrigation schemes.

Furthermore, the project is expected to provide technical skills in conservation and other farming practices that promote environmental management and thereby increasing agricultural productivity in the project areas. It will also assist in the formulation and implementation of measures that reduce deforestation and promote agro-forestry which will lead to emission reduction and the protection of carbon reservoirs as part of the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) agenda. Carbon dioxide (CO2) to be sequestered in 20 years through tree-planting is estimated at 245,000. Training under the project will provide an opportunity for special attention to be given to intensification of climate-smart farming operations.

The project is anchored on the Bank’s Country Strategy for Uganda (2011-2016), which focuses on infrastructure development and increased agriculture productivity as well as human capacity improvement and skills development for poverty reduction. It is also in line with the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy (2013-2022) and High 5s, which prioritize agriculture and food security as one of the key areas for the Bank’s future assistance.

The total cost of the project is estimated at US $91.43 million. In addition to the US $76.7-million AfDB loan, the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) will provide a US $5.6-million grant while the Government of Uganda will contribute US $9.13 million in counterpart funding.

The People’s President campaigns in Budaka and Namutumba; The Calvary tear-gassed Budaka town the day before

Yesterday in Budaka there have been events transpiring around 9:40 AM in Budaka Town to around 10:00 AM where the Police wanted to be scary. The Calvary wanted to show their power the day before the People’s President and Forum for Democratic Change campaign convoy have rallies in town. They was successful and proves the reach of Dr. Kizza Besigye! Take a look!

 

The Police claimed yesterday that the FDC would not be allowed to have rallies in the central of the town, and would be confined with having the rallies on the outskirts.

In Budaka Dr. Kizza Besigye said this:

“Instead of Mr. M7 using our taxes to provide us with social services, he uses it for his survival in power. After visiting Abim Hospital in Karamoja, now every health centre and hospital all over the country is guarded like a barrack”.

Message from the People’s President after the rallies today:

“Thank you Budaka and Namutumba for the support for my candidature and all the FDC flagbearers. Our pledge to you Budaka and Namutumba your vote for me and FDC on 18th February 2016 is a choice for Equal Opportunity and Shared Prosperity. One Uganda One People. For God and my country! #WesigeBesigye”. 

Well, this will not be extensive on the one district because of my limited time, but this tells enough!

Good governance level of Budaka:

Schooling:

“The Budaka district local government is grappling with the challenge of inadequate primary school teachers. The district is currently short of about 227 teachers needed to cope up with the overwhelming number of children enrolled under the Universal Primary Education” (93.3 KFM, 18.11.2015).

Environmental issues in Budaka:

“Budaka, Mt Elgon and Moroto areas in Eastern Uganda. Today CISU, which administrate the Danida grants for small Danish NGOs, has approved our Environmental Awareness Project, nearly 1.9 mio DKK. The project will focus on the energy crisis, deforestation, waste management, water management, land pressure: reasons, solutions, capacity building and advocacy. A 4 year project in partnership with NFRE ( Nordisk Folkecenter for Vedvarende Energy ), JEEP and SNF in Uganda” (Good Source, 05.03.2015).

NRM actions in October 2015:

“A group of Kanyamas/ militias have been ferried to Kibuku district & Butebo county to torture voters. These have been dispatched & led by Kalangala action plans. These were brought by the yellow bus and they have had over a break at Iganga from where they will be distributed to Kibuku district & Pallisa district to help other candidates i.e Dr. Mutono Patrick. These incidences have rocked these areas where over 200 voters have been tortured, property destroyed. They have petitioned the president & the Uganda human rights commission & the case is due for hearing. The masses are determined and unless police intervenes, there is likely to be a catastrophy ever registered in the area. The voters have petitioned the RPC & IGP to intervene in time” (Good Source: 25.10.2015).

BTW – Forum for Democratic Change volunteers:

“TEAM BESIGYE VOLUNTEERS. Next meeting will take place on 16th Saturday January 2015 still at Katonga road and we shall be meeting according to our regions. Central and Eastern Uganda will meet in the morning at 10:00am; While Northern and Western Uganda will meet in the afternoon at 2:00pm. Every one who is ready to volunteer for Dr Besigye’s mobilization campaigns is welcome and come with a friend. For any details kindly contact 0752871050. We are winning!!!!”

Thanks for today and more later when I don’t have too much ordinary work! Peace.

Land Grab – Uganda’s farmers battle with palm oil producers and insights to the business.

What the Ministry of Agriculture press release earlier this august:

The Press Statement from the Government of Uganda

Here is another blogger who has followed the land grabbing and has great article:

BIDCO Oppressed poor Ugandans

And a few sheets of information to prove that their more to this business then just some words here and there!

Another fact sheet as well:

More information read this:

Peace!