About Us:

Integrated Rural Development Initiatives (IRDI) is a national Non Governmental Organisation established in 1994 by a group of people with experience and interest in environmental conservation, rural and peri-urban development work. We are currently running projects in Wakiso and Rakai districts and we are members of several national and regional networks addressing environmental management and energy issues. 

Previously, our efforts have been religiously geared towards strengthening communities for sustainable development through sustainable natural resource management however; in her new Strategic Plan, (2009-20013) IRDI has considered it necessary to undertake a strategic shift in programming emphasis to include market access as a critical addition to its work. We envisage that this will ultimately give rise to a community earning a decent living with improved production capabilities and a sustainable resource base.

 Activities in which our organisation engages in are categorized under three objectives, which include, Increasing capacity of rural agricultural communities in gainful agricultural production, facilitating rural agricultural communities to access markets and enhancing sustainable utilization of tree resources. We have further internally and externally mainstreamed HIV/ AIDS and gender into our programmes.

 Consultancies that fall under the budgetary wing of the organisation are carried out in the fields of energy, environment, forestry, gender and agriculture. To this end, IRDI has published manuals on bee keeping, fish farming, mushroom growing and Sustainable Agriculture.

 Our partners with similar objectives that boost our performance include, International Solidarity Foundation (ISF), UWASNET, GTZ, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development among others. We have also worked with CORDAID, UNHCR, UNDP Africa 2000 Network, NEMA and ITDG.  

Our Mission

We are a National NGO, supporting capacity development of rural communities to improve household income through increased agricultural production, marketing and sustainable environmental practices.

 Our Vision

We envisage a community earning a decent living with improved production capabilities and a sustainable resource base.

 Objectives

1. To Increase capacity of rural agricultural communities in gainful agricultural production.

2. To facilitate rural agricultural communities to access markets.

3. To enhance sustainable utilization of the tree resources.

Our values

• Cohesion

• Linkages

• Innovations

2. History

Natural resources play a major role in determining people’s standards of living in poor nations. As sources of essential commodities namely agricultural land, firewood and water, there is considerable pressure on them. This has resulted in high and unsustainable rates of harvesting. 

For more than 10 years, IRDI has witnessed the impact and flaws of different conservation efforts.  Our approach and activities have been shaped by experience and events in the local and international community.

 In the 1990s, we promoted tree planting as an independent activity. Over time trees have been integrated with agriculture in the form of agroforestry where they contribute to the improvement of soil fertility. In addition tree planting has become one way of increasing the amount of fuel available to households in a country where 92% of the population is sorely dependent on biomass energy for cooking.  

With time and through experience, IRDI came to recognize the wider conservation benefits of tree planting, sustainable agriculture and energy conservation. It was then that IRDI started the integration of the three activities for the protection of areas rich in biodiversity namely: forests, national parks, forest reserves and river banks.  

However, even with our remarkable achievements in past projects, IRDI’s progress seemed to stagnate at one point. It was then that we realized that a major and influential part of society had not been adequately reached; the women. These are the unrecognized laborers in the agricultural sector where they contribute 80% in labor. They are also the key users of household energy. Thus not targeting them left a big gap in our interventions. IRDI has since streamlined gender in all her activities and projects. With trained and sensitized women, technologies such as stoves, biogas and sustainable agriculture became more sustainable with women acting as the repairers and teachers of technologies beneficial to the household. Other marginalized groups now recognized are people infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.    

Lack of alternative sources of livelihoods is one of the causes of environment degradation in Africa with people marketing forest and wetland products for a living. Within this context, environment conservation cannot count unless it provides economical growth besides food or firewood. For a long time, our efforts have been on sustainable production with families producing bananas, fruits and vegetables for home consumption. Now that the bans have overflowed, farmers have begun to cry out for market. This outcry is addressed by the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) at national level, and the liberalization of trade between developed and less developed countries at the international level. It is within such a context that IRDI is addressing herself to the marketing of products like organic honey, fish and vegetables which were originally promoted sorely for home consumption. To this end several farmer, women and youth groups have been equipped with marketing skills.  

3.0 Achievements: 

3.1 Advocacy

The policies of any country tremendously influence the livelihoods of its population. For this reason IRDI is involved in policy advocacy as one of the means of promoting good natural resource management and improved livelihoods in Uganda. Past achievements to this effect include: 

3.1.1         Advocacy Campaign against Indoor Air Pollution

The majority of Ugandans (92%) depend on firewood or charcoal for cooking. This produces smoke and other invisible pollutants which pollute the environment in kitchens and houses. In Uganda, Acute Lower Respiratory Infections which is linked to Indoor air pollution, is the third commonest killer among children.  

On the 21^st of February 2005, IRDI and International Technology Development Group East Africa (ITDG-EA) launched an advocacy campaign against indoor air pollution in a National workshop. Being the first workshop of its kind, it created awareness on the dangers of indoor smoke and brought together key stakeholders important to the curbing of indoor air pollution. This created a foundation for addressing indoor air pollution in the country. Participants of the workshop included members from government institutions, the private sector and international and national civil society organizations.  

The workshop was an introductory event to a series of others aimed to stop indoor air pollution at household level.  

IRDI is keeping the public informed on indoor air pollution through its quarterly publication, “Environment Concern”. 

3.1.2        Advocacy Campaign to Protect the Banks of River Nile

Kamuli district is one of the districts in Uganda through which river Nile flows on its way to the Sudan and Egypt. In 2004 IRDI led a campaign that aimed to effect the implementation of Uganda’s policy on the conservation of river banks. The campaign was meant to lead to improved quality of water in the Nile in fulfillment of Uganda’s obligation to safe guard international waters.   IRDI carried out an advocacy campaign that included workshops with district authorities and communities as well as radio programmes and publications.   

3.1.3        Advocacy campaign for the elimination of Child labour in Agriculture

Coffee is one of Uganda’s major exports. This year 2005, IRDI implemented a project in Mbale district in partnership with ILO’s International Program for Elimination of childlabour (IPEC). The project promoted the use of labour saving technologies as one way of reducing the incidence of child labour in coffee.  

In order to secure permanent elimination of child labour in the district, IRDI carried out an advocacy campaign that included workshops with district authorities and communities as well as radio programmes and publications. The campaign has yielded bye-laws against employment of children not only in coffee but in all work sectors. Alternative livelihood opportunities outside coffee have also been demonstrated. 

      3.1.4   The Advocacy Campaign for joint forest management of Mt. Elgon Forest

In 2000 Mount Elgon forest was gazetted as a National Park. The communities living around it suddenly lost access to forest resources including food, water, timber, worship sites and grazing land. The landless households settled in nearby villages causing congestion. The resultant land shortage led to food insecurity and increased poverty levels among communities. IRDI, International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Forest Action Network Kenya (FAN) spearheaded an advocacy campaign for joint forest management between forest communities and the national park.

The campaigns achieved access to the forest for the communities. This enables them to carry out nondestructive activities such as bamboo, firewood and mushroom harvesting, beekeeping and traditional rituals. 

3.1.5        Advocacy Campaign for Fair Evaluation of Tree Resources on landholdings

While assets such houses and crops are easily recognized for the value they add to a landholding, trees are under valued even if they have a multitude of functions including protection of soils against erosion and loss of fertility, and carbon sequention.  Lack of secure land tenure by women and the poor makes it unprofitable to grow trees for fear of loss of their trees to land lords or spouses.  

Hence in 1999 IRDI organized an advocacy workshop to underline the value of trees and to advocate for fair recognition of the value trees. This would encourage people to grow trees. Our partners included the Ministry of Lands Water and Environment and Makerere University. The campaign created awareness on the value of trees and the threat of insecure land tenure to environment management. 

3.2 Capacity Building  

3.2.1 Building capacity at community level

IRDI builds the capacity of communities to produce food for home consumption and income generation.  We have trained communities in fish farming, mushroom growing, banana management, vegetable growing, beekeeping, energy conservation and marketing. 

3.2.2 Building capacity at organization level

IRDI builds the capacity of civil society organizations and community based organizations in the following areas:

§         Community Training

§         Project formulation, Monitoring and Evaluation

§         Resource Mobilization

§         Group Dynamics

§         Appropriate Natural Resource Management Practices (Sustainable Agriculture, Environment Management and Wood-Energy Conservation Technologies).

§         Marketing

 4.0 Our Approach 

IRDI has considerable expertise and experience in rural development. We have invaluable knowledge through direct interaction with communities and individual households during implementation of projects at grass root level. Our understanding of communities has further deepened through our involvement in development oriented research on issues of energy, environment and agriculture.  

We now pass on our skills to others by building the capacity of other organized groups namely Civil Society Organizations, Community Based Organizations and other organized groups. Partner-groups within running projects are trained in accordance with their needs and as required by particular projects for purposes of sustainable environment management.  In this case local organized groups are equipped with the capacity to train communities in the project area and implement project activities. IRDI provides checks and balances during the course of the