Climate-smart Jobs

The project

Uganda is one of the most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change. Climate change is certain to intensify in the years to come and will have a severe impact on smallholder farmers in Uganda.

Climate-Smart Jobs, funded by the UK’s International Climate Fund, will seek out innovative, technology-based solutions to issues for agriculture in northern Uganda and scale them in the most efficient ways possible. To accelerate the economic transformation, the project aims to increase farmers’ agricultural productivity, to promote commercialisation of farming and to improve net trade in agro-processing products. It will stimulate demand for non-agricultural products and induce off-farm wages jobs for young women and men 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 and extreme climatic events.  

Market systems development and Uganda Climate Innovation Fund

A key priority for the project will be to help Ugandans adapt in order mitigate the impact of climate change; the jobs created must be resilient to changing climatic conditions. Under climate change conditions, the Ugandan agricultural sector’s exposure to pests, disease, rains, floods and droughts are projected to increase in incidence and severity. Thus, without adaptation, climate change will make economic transformation for Ugandan almost impossible. The project will also promote sustainable land management practises along with targeting climate adaptation and improved income.  

The focus will be on the following components:

1. Improve soil and water management at the farm level for new and existing crops
2. Unlock delivery models for farmer services such as inputs, insurance, and climate information
3. More efficient and green handling services for the post-harvest activities
4. Link smallholders into regional and international markets in green, or added-value supply chains
5. To bundle products and services to more farmers, there will be an expansion of the Commercial Agent model, which is a private-sector led approach with ‘intermediaries’ or commercial/village agents aggregating demand for a functioning supply chain.

By engaging cooperatives, smallholder-led organisations as well as businesses and suppliers, the project will reach smallholder farming households in Northern Uganda and improve their market access. The aim is to incentivise and facilitate the Ugandan private sector to adopt innovations such as new products, services, production methods or business models which bring about a better functioning of the markets in which smallholders produce and sell agricultural products. This allows smallholders to achieve a higher and more sustainable income, enabling transformational change in the agricultural sector. Another aspect is to promote sustainable land management to adapt to and mitigate climate change.

Project Goals

• Promote the growth of climate-smart agribusinesses in order for them to create jobs. This involves providing businesses with financial and technical support to enable them to expand into large commercial operations able to better access finance, be more resilient to climate change and increase incomes to households.
• Support climate-smart land management and services. This involves protecting fragile biodiversity that surround agribusinesses and building landscape resilience to climate shocks.
• Provide technical assistance to businesses to enable them to tackle the barriers they encounter in trade and investment.