FAO and Government of Uganda launch Occupational Health and Safety Standard Operating Guidelines

As every year on 28 April, Uganda joins the rest of the world to mark World Day for Safety and Health at Work. This year’s commemoration was held on Wednesday 28 April 2021 at the Uganda Media Center, where the Government of Uganda, FAO and other key actors reaffirmed their commitment to improving health and safety of workers and actors in the agriculture sector.

The World Day for Safety and Health at Work is a global commemoration to raise awareness on emerging trends in the field of occupational safety and health and on the magnitude of work-related injuries, diseases and fatalities worldwide. The theme for 2021 was Anticipate, prepare and respond to crisis – Invest now in resilient OSH systems. It provided an opportunity to raise awareness and stimulate dialogue on the importance of creating and investing in resilient occupational health and safety (OSH) systems, drawing on both regional and country examples in mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 at the workplace.

According to the International Labour Organization, every day, people die because of occupational accidents or work-related diseases and more than 2.78 million deaths occur per year globally. Additionally, there are some 374 million non-fatal work-related injuries annually, resulting in more than four days of absence from work. The human cost of this daily adversity is vast and the economic burden of poor occupational safety and health practices is estimated at 3.94 percent of annual global Gross Domestic Product.

During the commemoration event, the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, launched the following OSH Guidelines*:

1)   The Standard Operating Procedures for Prevention and Control of COVID-19 in the Agricultural Sector (developed with support from FAO)

2)   Occupational Safety and Health Guidelines for Office Work Environment

3)   Compressed Gas Cylinder Safety Guidelines at Workplaces

Speaking at the commemoration event, Honourable Florence Nakiwala, State Minister for Youth and Children Affairs, noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had profound impacts on the world of work; from risk of transmission of the virus at the workplace to widespread job losses in key sectors.

“This year’s commemoration is a timely reminder to workers and employees, policy makers and OSH practitioners about the potential risks and the measures that need to put in place at workplaces”, she said.

She called on employers to promote safe and healthy workplaces by “ensuring risk-free environments, providing personal protective equipment, establishing measures to deal with emergencies and accidents at work, training and informing workers on OSH, including prevention of the spread of COVID-19”. Honourable Nakiwala emphasized the need for workers to comply with OSH instructions and to report any hazardous situations, including accidents and injuries at their work places.

Antonio Querido, FAO Representative in Uganda, revealed that, even though agriculture employs about seven out of every ten working Ugandans, stakeholders and workers in the agriculture sector - which is mostly informal in nature, continue to operate in poor working and hazardous conditions, arising from the use of unsophisticated machinery and intensive use of chemicals and pesticides.

“Employees and employers in the agriculture sector experience risks of contracting COVID-19 due to lack of basic understanding of the minimum Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) measures to follow while working along different elements of the agricultural value chain”, said Querido. This situation, he said, presents additional risks and vulnerability to agriculture sector stakeholders.

“If utilized appropriately, the guidelines will facilitate a health and safe working environment for agriculture sector stakeholders”, he said. 

Querido emphasized the need to “popularize the guidelines at national and district levels and to support access to finance to increase the resilience of agriculture value chains actors whose agriculture businesses were affected by the pandemic”. He reiterated FAO’s commitment to supporting Uganda’s efforts to make the agriculture sector safer for the working population, even during COVID-19 pandemic.

The commemoration event and the launch of the SOPs were attended also by Consolata Acayo, Assistant Commissioner for Communication at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), Douglas Opio, Executive Director, Federation of Uganda Employers, Honourable Sam Lyomoki, Workers’ Representative in Parliament, and officials from Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development and FAO’s ICA project Uganda National Coordinator, Edward Tanyima. 

FAO’s response to Covid-19 to enhance decent jobs in Uganda

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced employers, workers and the general population to address major challenges in relation to the virus and the many effects it has had on the world of work. FAO therefore supported the Government of Uganda to develop the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the prevention and control of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases in the agricultural sector. The SOPs were developed through the Integrated Country Approach (ICA) for boosting decent jobs for youth in the agri-food system programme. The ICA Programme leverages a set of FAO's core functions, namely: policy and strategy advice, technical support and capacity development, knowledge generation, partnerships, as well as advocacy and communication to strengthen the capacities of national institutions responsible for agriculture and labour, to promote decent rural jobs, including through private-public partnerships and multi-stakeholder mechanisms.

Through the ICA Programme, FAO has supported several interventions to respond to  COVID-19, as highlighted below:

1. Collaborated with youth-based organization to conduct an online dialogue on the effects of COVID-19 among most vulnerable groups, including farmers and youth
2. Organized national level e-dialogues on increasing resilience of agriculture value chains actors during the pandemic
3. Launched sensitizations campaign to promote wearing face masks and protecting rural workers. Face masks were distributed to youth organizations in selected districts, helping to amplify the Government’s mask distribution efforts.
4. Enhanced access to finance for young people involved in agribusiness by making them aware of available public and private funding opportunities, and facilitating meetings with financial institutions.
5. Contributed to the agriculture, food security and nutrition assessment as part of UN in Uganda’s study on the Social Economic Impact Analysis of COVID-19

*Links to the SoPs documents will be provided as soon as they are available