Uganda country strategic plan (2026-2030)

CSP approved by the EB November 2025 session.

Uganda’s Vision 2040 has the aim of transforming the country from a low-income, agrarian economy into a modern, prosperous society with upper-middle-income status. Prioritizing a competitive economy, advancing equality and promoting employment and inclusive growth, Vision 2040 aspires to elevate Uganda’s economy to one with a gross domestic product of USD 581 billion and a per capita income of USD 9,500 per year by 2040 – roughly ten times the current figures.

Despite significant development gains over recent decades, major challenges threaten the achievement of this ambition. Forty-two percent of Uganda’s 49.5 million people experience multidimensional poverty. With the population projected to double by 2050, the demand for services is outpacing supply: 1 million young people enter the labour market each year, intensifying the pressure for job creation and deepening vulnerabilities. The 2025 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis for Karamoja found that 45 percent of households faced acute food insecurity, putting them in phase 3 or worse. Uganda hosts 1.9 million refugees, the largest refugee population in sub-Saharan Africa, and new refugees continue to arrive as a result of protracted regional crises.

Ensuring access to safe, affordable and nutritious diets, resilient livelihoods, strengthened food systems and expanded safety nets is vital for advancing self-reliance and human capital development in Uganda. WFP will strategically layer, sequence and integrate its interventions, identifying synergies among sectors, systems, actors and territories, and concentrating efforts where the impact is likely to be greatest. Engaging diverse partners, communities, the private sector and international financial institutions through multisectoral approaches that address urgent needs while tackling the structural drivers of vulnerability, WFP will expand its enabling role, supporting the Government through innovative, risk-informed programming that complements national strategies.

Underpinned by systems thinking and informed by insights from the country strategic plan for 2018–2025, relevant evaluations and the United Nations sustainable development cooperation framework for 2026–2030, this five-year plan supports the ending of hunger, enhances global partnerships and leverages WFP’s comparative strengths to deliver three integrated outcomes:

➢ Outcome 1: Vulnerable refugees and crisis-affected people in Uganda have equitable access to safe, adequate and nutritious food in anticipation of, during, and in the aftermath of crises.

➢ Outcome 2: Refugees and Ugandans in targeted areas, especially women and young people, benefit from a strengthened food system and diversified livelihoods that enhance their resilience to withstand shocks, increase their consumption of healthy food and advance their self-reliance by 2030.

➢ Outcome 3: By 2030, government institutions and other stakeholders have improved capacity and systems for social protection, school meal programmes, nutrition and disaster risk management that enhance food security and enable human capital development throughout the life cycle.

WFP operates at the humanitarian–development–peace nexus, applying a people-centred approach that mainstreams nutrition, protection, equality, environmental sustainability and accountability into all its interventions. The country strategic plan prioritizes marginalized and at -risk people and communities, enabling sustainable, collective responses to food and nutrition insecurity, while accelerating progress towards government-led solutions.