The Climate Smart Jobs programme will support large-scale job creation for Uganda’s growing population. In recent years, insufficient economic growth has meant a rising proportion of the working age population are not working, and hourly earnings have been falling. This means providing jobs and improving incomes is a high priority for the British High Commission in Kampala.

The programme will target the agri-business sector, since the British High Commission believes that improving productivity and/or incomes in agriculture is the most promising prospect for delivering inclusive and equitable economic growth and job opportunities. Three-quarters of the Ugandan population derive their income from agriculture, and agrobusinesses contribute 60% of total output in the Ugandan manufacturing sector.

At Impact level, the British High Commission’s vision is that the Climate Smart Jobs programme will seek out innovative, technology-based solutions to issues for agriculture in Northern Uganda and scale them in the most efficient ways possible. Higher agricultural productivity, commercialization of farming and improved net trade in agro-processing products will then accelerate the process of economic transformation in Uganda.  It will release young men and women for wages employment into towns, stimulating demand for non-agricultural products and inducing off-farm wages jobs in services. Uganda would be set on a green growth trajectory where businesses, jobs and Gross domestic product (GDP) are no longer held back by unsustainable land management practices, slow-onset change and extreme climatic events.

The CSJ programme is funded by the UK’s International Climate Fund. A key priority for CSJ will be to help Ugandans adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change, and jobs created must be resilient to changing climatic conditions. The Ugandan population’s dependence on agriculture, combined with changing climate patterns and unsustainable land management, contributes to Uganda’s position as the 12th most vulnerable to climate change globally. The Ugandan agriculture sector’s exposure to pests, diseases, rains, floods and drought spells is projected to increase in incidence and severity under climate change, and thus without adaptation climate change will make economic transformation for Uganda near impossible.

Uganda’s prospects for economic growth and poverty reduction are also closely dependent on sustainable management of its natural capital base. Environmental degradation is a significant problem, leading to a loss of 27% up to agricultural GDP.  The programme will thus promote sustainable land management practices alongside targeting climate adaption and improved incomes.

The Climate Smart Jobs programme will build on the UK-funded Northern Uganda - Transforming the Economy through Climate Smart Agriculture (NU-TEC) programme. The NU-TEC programme:

• directly financed ~£19 million (UGX 88 billion) of investment into Ugandan agri-businesses, and unlocked a further ~£103 million (UGX 484 billion) of investment by Ugandan companies
• supported Ugandan agri-businesses to generate an additional ~£115 million (UGX 541 billion) of sales
• enabled ~170,00 households in Northern Uganda to increase their income by at least 15%, benefitting around 900,000 individuals
• enabled ~2.2 million individuals to better adapt to the effects of climate change through diversified income sources and enhanced access to climate information, markets, inputs or finance.

Market Systems Development:

Palladium, together with partners, Swisscontact, CABI, and Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited, is implementing the Market Systems Development component of the Programme. It will be implemented and delivered through a market systems development approach that involves partnerships with the private sector. The objective is to support large-scale on-farm and off-farm job creation in the agri-business sector, aiming to improve productivity and/or incomes in agriculture. The component is focusing on innovative sustainable solutions for smallholder farmers especially women, refugees, and host communities to address the impacts of climate change and contribute to incomes and jobs.

This component consists of three sub-components:

Component 1A, which is a market systems development intervention, seeks to enhance climate resilience for over 130,000 Ugandan households via climate-smart agriculture. The sub-component aims to fortify communities against the impacts of climate change, fostering sustainable practices within the agricultural sector.

Component 1B, will run the "Uganda Climate Innovation Fund," aimed at fostering impactful change in Uganda’s climate resilience. This challenge fund will target innovative solutions, anticipated to revolutionalise the agricultural sector, thereby enhancing the nation's adaptability and mitigation strategies against climate change.

Component 1C empowers the private sector working in Northern Uganda to lead in land management through technical support, startup grants, and innovative practices, ensuring sustainable preservation and optimising ecosystem, while incentivising private sector engagement/investment in public goods and common pool resources. 

SME Facility

Aceli Africa bridges the mismatch between the risk-return expectations of 30+ financial institutions in East Africa and the demand for capital among agricultural small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through financial incentives and technical assistance. Building the market for agricultural SME finance in Africa contributes to improved livelihoods for farmers and workers practicing circular and regenerative agriculture, promoting gender and youth inclusion, and supporting food security and nutrition on the continent.

Transitional Climate Finance Unit

Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), as advisors have been tasked with facilitating the successful establishment of a Climate Finance Unit (CFU) within MoFPED. The CFU will lead in Uganda's transformational change in access to climate finance, with a new, programmatic approach at country level, based on Uganda’s national climate action plans and priorities and supported by coherent, programmatic finance from multilateral and bilateral partners as is also the aim of the COP 26 “Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance” (TACF or Taskforce) in which Uganda is one of the pioneer country trials. The CFU in Uganda will lead the TACF and will report on its progress to the relevant stakeholders. The advisory services are funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Uganda and the Taskforce.