The two-year, US$ 550,593 project: “Generating increased pricing and new markets for the women engaged in the shea butter value chains of South Sudan and Uganda” is funded by Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) and is aiming at changing the lives of 7,400 women producers and processors in the East African shea butter value chain.

The project is implemented through the local UWEAL chapter in Uganda and the South Sudan Women Entrepreneurs Association (SSWEA) in South Sudan.

Making Trade Work for Women in Sub-Saharan Africa – Lesotho, Uganda, Madagascar, Ethiopia (LUME)” is a 5 year (CAD 2,105,263) project (CAD 2 million funded by Global Affairs Canada) which will enhance economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs in four sub-Saharan Least Developed Countries (LDCs)- Lesotho, Uganda, Madagascar, and Ethiopia - by providing training and technical assistance targeted towards increase of exports of specialty apparel, textile, fashion accessories and home décor products to Canada and other foreign markets.

The project will enable gender equitable and sustainable Trade Support Institution (TSIs) in the target countries to provide gender responsive market access services and ensure women owned/led Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are accessing those services and implementing export plans for Canadian and other foreign markets.

This is three-year project, USD 500,000 funded by Trade Mark East Africa with support from Global Affairs Canada. UWEAL will host the Ugandan component of the regional information platform for women traders in East Africa. This is aimed at providing greater access to markets and information on other trade support services. This will contribute towards the greater inclusion of women in trade, as one of the pathways to increased business competitiveness and increased trade in the East Africa Community (EAC).

The web and mobile based platform will facilitate access to update and real time information for women traders. By adopting mobile-based technologies that are basic, simple, and easy to use, the platform will be useable even in areas of high illiteracy levels – with the basic requirement being ability to use a mobile phone. The development of the platform was informed by information needs assessment of women traders across the East African region.

UWEAL is part of the consortium, led by the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) and implementing a Promoting Supplementary Feeding (Supple-F) project. The Suppl-F project is component of a broader program known as “Developing a market oriented and environmentally sustainable Beef meat industry in Uganda (MOBIP)”. The program is a European Union grant (under the 11th EDF) extended to the Government of Uganda to develop the beef value chain.

The project has been rolled out in 10 selected districts of Nakaseke, Lyantonde, Nakasongola, Kiruhura, Isingiro, Mubende, Kyankwanzi, Kiryandongo, Kibaale and Masindi. This project was funded by European union; 2.8 billion Uganda shillings fro the period of two year with six month no cost Extension.

Public procurement is increasingly being recognized as a vehicle to help government achieve social goals and sustainable development. The government of Uganda spends approximately 60% of its budget on procurement and the fact that they are the largest buyers in the economy, public procurement offers a unique, financially sustainable avenue to empower women and reduce poverty.

Studies show that women-owned businesses that are able to successfully obtain government contracts usually grow, and in return, contribute to increased GDP growth and an improved labour force participation. In Uganda, 44% of the businesses are owned by women and it is estimated that women entrepreneurs supply only 1% of the market due to the various barriers.

It’s from this background that UN Women partnered with Uganda Women Association Limited (UWEAL) and The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) to build the capacity of Women entrepreneurs in Uganda, in the bid to enhance women participation in public procurement. The 3year project has so enabled UWEAL to reach out to the chapters and empower women at the grass.

UWEAL is a project-implementing partner for the ILO-PROSPECTS programme with a mandate to mobilize refugee women entrepreneurs and their host community members to extend business development services to the refugee settlements. The partnership will provide PROSPECTS’ target beneficiaries with a wide range of services offered by UWEAL such as; training, networking, advocacy, voice and representation.

The PROSPECTS Partnership is targeting two districts representing different socio-economic contexts: Nakivale refugee settlement (Isingiro district in the South) a 60-year old refugee hosting area with the most diverse refugee population (ethnicities and nationalities) and Rhino Camp settlement (Arua district in the North) hosts South Sudanese refugees and is close to theborders of South Sudan and the DRC. Each of the two locations are expected to deliver different learning outcomes given their unique contexts.

UWEAL is mobilizing refugee and host community women entrepreneurs within the membership to take full advantage of the support under the partnership, but also recruit more members within the host counties to ensure they benefit from UWEAL’s mandate of building strong women owned enterprises, networking and marketing linkages for Businesswomen, advocate for policies that create an enabling environment for women to compete favourably in business.