MAFAP team meet with Ugandan partners for agriculture labour productivity study and commodity investment prioritization

The MAFAP team this week held a round of bilateral meetings at the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development (MGLSD), Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED) and at the National Planning Authority (NPA) on ongoing and future policy support initiatives. The team also delivered a training workshop to over 30 officials from government bodies on commodity prioritization modelling. 

Meeting with Aggrey David Kibenge Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development Aggrey David Kibenge and team, the MAFAP team led by Deputy Director of the FAO Agrifood Economics and Policy Division Marco V. Sánchez, and Economists Martín Cicowiez and Nana Nkuingoua, the two sides discussed the newest policy issue for the team to tackle in Uganda – an economic study on the current constraints facing agricultural labour productivity in Uganda. 

The study will look into the levels, trends and gaps in agricultural labour productivity in Uganda, and identify bottlenecks holding back labour productivity, and identify potential policy changes to reverse the trend. The study will be carried out by the MAFAP team, FAO Uganda and in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, Gender and Social Development, and is expected to be ready in March in 2024. As discussed during the meeting, the study is expected to inform the development of a new labour productivity policy in Uganda.

Additionally, a training session was led by the MAFAP team for 34 participants from  Uganda’s National Planning Authority, MAAIF and other government institutions on the results of the commodity prioritization analysis delivered by MAFAP; specifically, on how the results are interpreted in line with the modelling tool that helped generate them.

At the NPA, the team held a working meeting with the Prof. Pamela K. Mbabazi, Chairperson of the National Planning Authority of Uganda and her technical team. Discussions focused on how the MAFAP’s commodity prioritization analytics can be used to inform the selection of commodities for the agro-industrialization strategy, under the country’s wider development umbrella, the 4th National Development Plan (NDP IV). 

The team also held several meetings on current and future policy support from FAO’s MAFAP programme with partners including MAAIF’s Commissioner of Agricultural Policy and Planning Fred Mayanja, MoFPED’s Acting Commissioner of Economic Development Policy and Research Department Joseph Enyimu, MoFPED’s Acting Commissioner for Budget Policy and Evaluation Department John Muheirwoha, and MoFPED’s Head of Climate Finance Unit Danis Mugagga, as well as with the World Bank in Uganda’s Senior Economist, Rachel Subudde.

Uganda is one of eight main partner countries under the third phase (2022–2027) of the Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme. 

For more information contact MAFAP’s focal point in Uganda: [email protected]