Uganda Partners Win Right Livelihood Award

We are pleased to announce that ELAW partners at the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) were awarded a 2022 Right Livelihood Award for “tireless efforts to protect the rights of local communities from environmentally damaging projects linked to the exploitation of oil and gas.”

Dickens Kamugisha, AFIEGO Executive Director, and Diana Nabiruma, AFIEGO Senior Communications Officer, were in Stockholm, Sweden, last week to receive the award.

Watch the inspiring ceremony here.

Right Livelihood says AFIEGO “has been at the forefront of efforts to stop the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which would transport Uganda’s crude oil to a port in Tanzania. The planned 1,400-kilometre pipeline would cut through 178 Ugandan and 231 Tanzanian villages, causing mass displacement, environmental harm and further exacerbating the climate crisis.”

The EACOP and the associated Tilenga and Kingfisher oil development projects near and within Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park are projected to produce over 104 million metric tons of carbon per year for the next 25 to 40 years. “If this exploitation is permitted, the national and global climate will suffer,” says Dickens, who is working with more than 35 community service organizations and private sector groups to promote green economic activities in clean energy, tourism, and agriculture.

ELAW is collaborating with AFIEGO on the oil pipeline case at the East African Court of Justice and also working to protect Bugoma Forest from plans by Hoima Sugar Ltd. to destroy more than 41,000 hectares of this central forest reserve. “Bugoma is a tropical forest and critical for climate protection,” says Dickens.

AFIEGO staff work under challenging conditions. They have been harassed, intimidated, and even arrested for their work. “ELAW is helping us address these threats as we seek to protect our civic space,” says Dickens.

Congratulations Dickens and everyone on the AFIEGO team for your good work!

For more information, see:

2022 Right Livelihood Award: AFIEGO

Jen Gleason
Law Program Director
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide