Productivity and growth in the agriculture sector have remained low despite efforts at modernization and commercialization.   The country’s exports remain dominated by primary products.    This is an issue of major policy concern given the price volatility of primary products at international markets and low and unstable production levels at national level. Uganda is now faced with the challenge of how to stimulate higher productivity and growth in the agriculture Sector.

 

The Government of Uganda is in the process of designing a National Development Plan (NDP) which aims at promoting growth, employment and prosperity. The NDP’s strategy prioritizes promotion of Uganda’s competitiveness by raising productivity, especially of the critical growth sectors and increasing investments in education to address skills gaps. It will also continue to seek for opportunities to expand trade regionally and globally.

 

 The UN system proposes a joint programme using a value chain approach to support of the Government of Uganda’s efforts to promote growth, employment and prosperity through the strengthening of value chains in agriculture and related sub-sectors, given that the majority if the poor in Uganda are active in the agriculture sector.

 

The joint programme will contribute to UNDAF outcome 2 and will support the priorities of the NDP which include i) enhancing production and productivity; ii ) Improving access to and sustainability of markets. The UN agencies participating in this joint programme are ILO, WFP, FAO, UNIDO, UNIFEM, and UNCDF.

 

Given that this is a new initiative and that the agency staff have various levels of comprehension of the value chain methodology, there is need for a training to get a common understanding of how the value chain concept can be applied and how each agency will play a role in the achievement of the overall programme objectives.