Social protection continues to gain increased attention in Uganda's national development discourse and beyond, because of its ability to mitigate risk and vulnerability perpetuated by poverty. Despite this impetus, less research has been undertaken to expanding social protection to children living on the streets. Yet, Uganda's increase in urbanization has been associated with the high influx of children living on the streets in some major towns, especially Kampala. Therefore, this study sought to examine social protection mechanisms for children living on the streets of Uganda, a case study of Kampala. This qualitative study was conducted using content analysis and in-depth interviews with both key informants and children living on the streets. The study found that in-kind social protection services existed but hardly accessed. In some cases, these services were accessed through third parties. The government outlawed provision of services to the children while on the streets as a deterrent, but counterproductive measure, to minimize their influx into Kampala city. However, there was in-kind social protection support for children withdrawn from the streets, under rehabilitation, characterized by severe government underfunding, donor driven, and charity, not human rights based. The study contends that a change in national investment priorities, to include social protection of children living on the streets, can transform the lives of children living on the streets and their communities.

The changing climate has negatively impacted food systems by affecting rainfall patterns and leading to drought, flooding, and higher temperatures which reduce food production. This study examined the ability of communities to cope with food insecurity due to the changing climate in the Serere and Buyende districts, which are two different agro-ecological zones of Uganda. We administered 806 questionnaires to households, a sample size which was determined using Yamane’s formula, with the snowball sampling method used to select the households. The questionnaire sought information, including that regarding the respondents’ resources, the effects of climate change on households, and the coping mechanisms employed to reduce the impact of climate change on food security. The data collected was coded and analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). Agriculture was found to be the main source of income for 42.4% of male adults and 41.2% of female adults in Serere. In Buyende, 39.9% of males and 33.7% of females rely on selling animal, poultry, and food crops. Aggregate results further showed that 58.3% of females and 42.2% of the males from both districts had suffered from the impacts of climate change, and that the effects were more evident between March and May, when communities experienced crop failure. The study further found that the percentage of households who had three meals a day was reduced from 59.7% to 43.6%, while the number of households with no major meals a day increased from 1.3% to 1.6%. We also found that 34.3% of households reported buying food during periods of crop failure or food scarcity. Moreover, despite reporting an understanding of several coping mechanisms, many households were limited in their ability to implement the coping mechanisms by their low incomes. This reinforced their reliance on affordable mechanisms, such as growing drought-resistant crops (32.7%), rearing drought-resistant livestock breeds (26.1%), and reducing the number of meals a day (14.5%), which are mechanisms that are insufficient for solving all the climate-related food insecurity challenges. We recommend that the government intervenes by revising policies which help farmers cope with the negative effects of climate change, promoting the sensitization of farmers to employing the coping mechanisms, and subsidizing agricultural inputs, such as resistant varieties of crops, for all to afford.