Climate Change Integration and Budgeting in National and Subnational Policies in Tanzania and Uganda

Abstract Climate change integration and budgeting are essential components of policies, programs, and strategies for addressing climate change. Integrating adaptation and mitigation measures into policies and strategies ensures a more holistic response to climate change, considering both short-term and long-term goals and leading to greater synergies, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. Climate policy integration refers to incorporating climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives into all policy sectors, including non-environmental sectors, at all stages of policy-making. This study aims to assess climate change integration in national and subnational policies in Tanzania and Uganda and evaluate the degree of climate finance integration into government budget cycles. We conducted a content analysis of 157 policy documents in Tanzania and Uganda to evaluate climate change integration across governance levels. The selected documents focused on agriculture, natural resources, including land, water, and forestry, and climate change development and action plans. The assessment of climate change integration utilized two frameworks: Gumucio and Tafur-Rueda (2015) and Mickwitz et al. (2009), to analyze the degree of integration based on varying but complementary variables. We adjusted both frameworks to assess the extent to which existing policies integrate climate change concerns. The analysis results indicate that although Tanzania and Uganda have made progress in integrating climate change concerns into national and subnational policies, more work remains, including developing effective climate budgeting. Regarding climate budgeting integration, we found a lack of clarity and coherence in integrating climate budgeting into government budget cycles in both countries. Climate budgeting varies inconsistently across administrative levels, with intermittent budget allocations. The alignment between national and subnational climate change policies, budget allocation, and execution also varies. Based on these findings, we recommend further research on effective approaches for developing and implementing transparent, accountable, and effective climate budgeting.