National REDD+ Strategy/Action Plan
The development of the REDD+ Strategy in Uganda commenced in 2015 with the undertaking of a number of gap studies which will feed into to the larger development process to be undertaken in 2016. The development of the National Strategy will also be supported through funding from the FCPF.

National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS)
In 2015, Uganda’s progressed on its NFMS in a number of key areas, these include:

• Monitoring function: Capacity building exercises for forest inventory and mapping experts was conducted and will continue to be implemented in 2016.
• Satellite Land monitoring system: Key data sets (1990, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015) are nearly complete, pending the completion of the accuracy assessment to be conducted in 2016. A plan for future continuous assessment is in place and capacity building of the key officers within relevant institutions has been initiated and will extend to 2016.
• National Forestry inventory: Tools and equipment to strengthen the capacity of National Forestry Authority (NFA) staff in the conduction of field inventory have been procured and delivered. Training on the use of automated (mobile) system has been delivered and the new system (Open Foris) for data collection deployed.

Forest Reference Emission Level / Forest Reference Level (FREL/FRL)
Development of the FREL/FRL is mainly supported through the FCPF-WB and the ADC, with a support on capacity building provided through the NP. As of December 2015, a forest definition was finalized and technically endorsed by the methodological task-force (TF) and National Technical Committee (NTC). Its submission for final endorsement to the National Climate Change Advisory Committee (NCCAC) is planned by March 2016. Additional achievements include 1) Time-series data set for the years 1990, 2005, 2010 and 2015 are available and 80% of year 2000 is complete; 2) emission factors (EF) have also been estimated for 3 out of 4 identified forest strata; 3) Forest Inventory is on-going in order to fine-tune the identified EF and calculate/estimate the missing one; and
4) An agreement on a national scale for the FREL/FRL has been reached by the Task Force and NTC and is ready for submission to NCCAC. Lastly, a stakeholder meeting aimed at agreeing on appropriate methodology for the Ugandan reference level is planned to be conducted in April 2016.

Safeguards and Safeguards Information System (SIS)
Development of the SIS is mainly supported by funds through the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and requires consolidation and finalization. Targeted support from UN-REDD included in-kind support towards the development of a country approach to safeguards, on: (a) preparing well-thought out terms of reference including setting out good criteria for evaluating technical bids; (b looking at the deliverables of service providers (contractors and consultants) with a view to ensuring that the country can get the best of them; (c) Direct facilitation of some critical process elements; that is, to support national implementing actors with expertise; and (d) Making available global tools and expertise to support national planning. In 2015, a detailed background document and provisional roadmap to inform the designing of a national and sub-national safeguards system for Uganda’s National REDD+ Programme was produced, and included an approach for identifying and mapping prioritized biodiversity and ecosystem-based multiple benefits of REDD+.