[{"bbox": [85, 153, 324, 186], "category": "Section-header", "text": "# 2 RATIONALE"}, {"bbox": [85, 219, 236, 247], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.1 Context"}, {"bbox": [96, 265, 1135, 452], "category": "Text", "text": "After a tense post-electoral period, Uganda has returned to relative calm, but underlying challenges remain. Uganda is facing a high population growth, insufficient investments in social sectors, high unemployment and pressure on natural resources. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated socio-economic problems, increasing poverty and inequalities. The lack of prospects for youth is a key driver for conflict. There is shrinking space for civil society organisations (CSOs), human rights defenders and environmental activists. Several serious incidents in 2021 and 2022, including cases of unlawful detention and torture by security forces, have attracted significant attention internationally."}, {"bbox": [96, 462, 1135, 650], "category": "Text", "text": "While the economic situation is improving, a stop-start recovery is expected. Government's fiscal space has narrowed and the growth forecast for the financial year 2022/2023 was revised from 4.2% to 3.8%. Public debt saw a sharp rise, leading to a shift from low to moderate risk of debt distress. A key focus of the IMF programme is the budget composition, as social spending remains below the regional averages. Uganda was ranked 126th out of 160 countries on the UNDP's Gender Inequality Index for 2017. Its rank on the 2018 World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) of 43rd among 149 countries moved up two positions higher from its 2017 position of 45th out of 144 countries⁵."}, {"bbox": [96, 660, 1135, 848], "category": "Text", "text": "This Action constitutes a concrete application of the Global Gateway. It should contribute to the implementation of the Uganda-EU Roadmap to Improved Investment Climate published in October 2019. Finally, it will contribute to the enforcement of the EU-EAC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), if ratified as well as contribute to supporting a 'Sustainable Business for East Africa'. The SPS component is aligned with the EU's Farm to Fork policy, the EU Green Deals and the Circular Economy Action Plan to strengthen the standards for the packaging of imported products. The BHR component is aligned with priority area 3.5 of the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024, which foresees a range of actions to implement the UN Guiding Principles on BHR."}, {"bbox": [96, 871, 1135, 1111], "category": "Text", "text": "Overall, this Action falls under the umbrella of the **Sustainable Business for Uganda Team Europe Initiative** that provides a framework for strategic EU interventions implemented by EU Member States agencies, finance institutions and other partners in five key areas: i) Access to Finance; ii) Skills and decent jobs; iii) Governance and corruption; iv) Trade and SPS; and v) Productive infrastructures. The initiative aims to identify and overcome obstacles to investments and private sector development, facilitate concrete technical cooperation between Ugandan and European private sector and create, in practice and in the field, a partnership maximizing potential for trade and strategic economic cooperation. This Action focuses on three out of five of the SB4U TEI pillars and will be complemented by complementary actions to ensure that the pillars are covered under the Multiannual Indicative Programme 2021 – 2027."}, {"bbox": [96, 1121, 1135, 1389], "category": "Text", "text": "The **BHR component** will allow Team Europe to play a leading role in taking forward the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles and the National Action Plan on BHR. In view of the upcoming EU Directive on Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence, our engagement with European businesses based in Uganda is timely and potentially of great benefit to these companies and local communities. In a Team Europe effort and close partnership with several EU MS (e.g. BE, DE and IE), the **Skilling and job creation component** will support a number of key policies such as the 2019 TVET policy and the country's upcoming revision of the Skilling Uganda Strategy and the **EU Global Gateway**, and will allow the EU to engage with the Ministries of Education and Sports, Labour, Finance, Planning and Economic Development. In addition, this component will allow the EU to engage strategically with the Uganda and European private sectors through key partnerships in the so-called 21st Century green sectors."}, {"bbox": [96, 1399, 1135, 1507], "category": "Text", "text": "This TSD will be in accordance with the Trade Policy Review Communication of February 2021 which consolidated sustainability as one of the core objectives of trade policy and that trade agreements were an important instrument in that respect, as well as the TSD Communication of June 2022 which further developed this. Whereas the prevalence of the EU cooperative approach in implementing TSD chapters will remain, with country-specific"}, {"bbox": [85, 1596, 1143, 1647], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁵ Country Gender Profile, Uganda, IsDB, 2019, https://www.isdb.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/2020-09/Uganda%20Gender.pdf"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1680, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 32"}]