Intergenerational leadership and the climate crisis

  

Born on 11th June 1994 from Kalisizo Hospital, Kyotera.

Antonio Kalyango did his PLE from St. Mary’s Kisunku Primary School. He then joined St. Andrews S.S Matale. And sat his Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education from Matale SS. In 2016, he joined the Uganda Institute of Business and Management Institute to pursue a Diploma in Journalism and Media studies. In the same year, he enrolled at Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) graduating with a bachelor's Degree in Local Governance and Human Rights in May 2021.

He worked with Vision Group as a Human Rights news reporter in Greater Masaka and also reported for Centenary Radio, a Masaka Catholic Diocesan-founded radio station.

He is a social democrat who subscribes to Democratic Party and is currently serving as Chairperson for Uganda Young Democrats for Kyotera District as well as district representative / Councillor for Lwankoni S/C to Kyotera District Council. 

He also serves as the Executive Director for Biodiversity Conservation Foundation 

We sat down with him to speak about Intergenerational leadership and climate activism.

 

Is leadership something you always were always a part of or was it an issue of circumstance?

My family has a strong leadership background. I can say maybe I inherited it. Though, my deep leadership enthusiasm and decision to join active leadership was instigated by the deteriorating state of human rights in Uganda and the desire to add voice to those advocating for changing the status quo. My leadership track record is traceable from primary to Secondary education levels, but I have been in active politics since 2011 – just before I made 18 years.

Is there a particular incident that triggered this?

I had a colleague at school who dropped out after losing both parents and went to Kampala to eke a living by vending. There was a scuffle in Kampala during 2011 campaigns between Col. Besigye's supporters and security operatives that left two people dead. He was one of the two.

I was seriously puzzled and thought perhaps if I add my voice, it will count.

And so far, do you feel you are making headway in seeing an end to many of the societal ills that prompted you to join active politics?

I can say that I feel I have contributed because politics involves a real commitment to a certain cause, a set of values, and it comes with a lot of risks yet it doesn’t pay.

I'm proud that I have recruited a lot of young people who have embraced values we cherish as Social Democrats.

Even amidst the shrinking civic space, political persecutions, and human rights violations, we should keep yearning to light the candle because the darkest point of the night marks the beginning of a new day.

What do you think is the missing link in having more youth actively involved in the politics of the day? Because quite frankly they are perhaps the most affected by the decisions politicians make?

: First, politics has been made so expensive yet most of the young citizens don't have reliable sources of livelihood. Also, the militarization of politics, which explains the increasing cases of gross human rights cases masterminded by security machinery purposely as an intimidation tool. Finally, there is no party with a clear strategy for recruitment, mentoring, and empowering of youths.

What I hear is that involvement in politics is an expensive venture for young people no matter the angle you look at it. As a young leader who interacts with several older politicians (these are many at the district level) do you think the Intergenerational environment supports young people to easily consider taking part in leadership?

In my view, this is to a lesser extent simply because the trend of moral degeneration has not even exonerated the political space including the older political players.

Currently, the main source of inspiration to young people are their fellow young players who are making wonders at advanced levels in political spaces here and across the globe.

It's quite unfortunate that even older politicians are compromised to neglect the common good yet they would serve a guardianship role among their fellow amateurs.

Finally, I think that political mentorship of young people can be suitably done internally in parties.

Let’s speak about an issue we are grappling with which in the long run will affect young people more than any other group - the climate crisis. As the founder of the Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, what’s your diagnosis of this predicament?

I wish every human could understand that climate crisis is a leading threat to our generation and those to come. And that we need to band together to combat it. Yet, this is a great enemy we're still undermining, unfortunately.

Climate crisis can be simplified as the harsh outcomes of distortion of God's order. We are witnessing disasters, global warming and desertification, unprecedented variations in precipitation levels among others which all impact our lives negatively - think of people dying of hunger, landslides.

What we're going through are products of our actions, and the best remedy is to review the models we're employing as we pursue development.

Africa is the most vulnerable part of the world when it comes to climate crisis yet it’s only responsible for 3% of global greenhouse emissions.

What we need to do as Uganda and Africa is to grow our resilience as well as developing of adaptation plans and ensure they are implemented. This is where our focus is as BCF "Building resilient communities against climate change". By starting with what we have, that is, conserving the existing ecosystems still with us as we boost them through the restoration of their depleted parts.

BCF launches Save Mujuzi Forest Reserve, the largest central forest reserve in Greater Masaka

I agree, Africa is very vulnerable in this sense. What then should African governments do to halt the catastrophic impacts this crisis has and will continue to cause?

They should build the resilience of the community to adapt to climate change trends.

We need to review the existing policies and legal frameworks to discover the gaps that should be fixed. For instance, the procedure of securing user permits and impact assessment reports for those working from wetlands according to the National Environment Act.

Empowering local communities near delicate ecosystems to venture into economic activities which are friendly like beekeeping from natural forests, fish farming from wetlands among others because most of the destruction is driven by efforts to earn a living.

Finally, Africa as a continent needs to adopt and implement a green revolution that will entail the restoration of depleted forest reserves and planting more trees.

 

At the Lake Victoria shoreline clean up in conjunction with Friday's for Future Organization