United Nations
Development Programme

Plot 15B Clement Hill Road

P.O Box 7184

Kampala, Uganda

Tel: (256) 414-233440/1/2/5

Fax: (256) 414-344801

Email: registry.ug@undp.org

IFAD is the International Fund for Agricultural Development, a specialized agency of the United Nations, established as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference to ‘finance agricultural development projects primarily for food production in the developing countries’. IFAD is dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries. Indeed, 75% of the world's poorest people - 800 million women, children and men - live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihoods.
 
In Uganda, more than 85% of the population lives in rural areas. More than two thirds of the country’s poor people are smallholder farmers. Although efforts have been made to reduce rural poverty, urban areas have experienced a significantly greater reduction in poverty than the countryside.
 
IFAD’s strategy in Uganda
 
IFAD’s investments in Uganda have focused on two main areas:

• improving the production of traditional export crops (notably coffee and cotton) and import-substituting commodities (cereals/grains and oilseed crops)
• supporting the emergence of producer and community associations, with particular attention to women’s groups

This dual approach has enabled farmers, rural communities and women to increase the quantity and quality of their produce. It has also helped encourage farmers to shift away from subsistence production.

To respond to the government’s Plan for Modernization of Agriculture, IFAD recently revised its Country Strategic Opportunities Paper (COSOP). The COSOP has identified the following major areas of opportunity for IFAD in the country:

• promoting strong civil society organizations and community based development
• building the capacity of decentralized systems to identify and respond to constraints on rural poverty reduction
• increasing the access of smallholder farmers to capital and technology
• mainstreaming gender issues and HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation practices into rural development activities
• improving the capacity of households and communities to increase their integration into markets