[{"bbox": [96, 153, 1135, 367], "category": "Text", "text": "stream that tourism generates (i.e. own a part of the asset), protected lands where tourism could play a role in ensuring their long-term viability (i.e. critical Central Forest Reserves) and conservancies. In many of these landscapes, there is a critical need for tourism planning to ensure tourism development occurs in a sustainable way and brings benefits to communities. Furthermore, current access to tourism markets is limited and promotion efforts need to focus on niche markets of more sustainable and locally impactful tourism. A targeted marketing campaign is needed which would help position Uganda as a sustainable tourism destination, help to engage businesses and build the capacity of all involved in messaging and marketing sustainability in their tourism promotion efforts long-term."}, {"bbox": [96, 388, 1135, 602], "category": "Text", "text": "Second, there is a critical need to ensure that tourism contributes effectively to local community development. Communities need to be more involved in tourism planning and governance in their regions, and the capacity of communities established to own part of the tourism value chain and benefit from a share in tourism revenues beyond simple employment needs to be enhanced. In practice, this means raising the awareness of tourism value chain actors of the importance and opportunities for local procurement of goods and services and local recruitment, as well as building the capacity of local SMEs and the workforce to supply goods, services and labour in line with the needs of the market. In turn, for these efforts to be sustainable, the capacity of local business support service providers and training institutions also needs to be strengthened."}, {"bbox": [96, 623, 1135, 706], "category": "Text", "text": "Third, there is a pressing need to improve access to finance for MSMEs and communities engaged in the tourism value chain through an improved business enabling environment and the provision of tailored financial products delivered through innovative digital channels."}, {"bbox": [96, 726, 1135, 782], "category": "Text", "text": "The Overall Objective of this action is to contribute to the growth of the nature-based tourism sector in Uganda in an inclusive and sustainable manner, in line with the Forest Partnership principles."}, {"bbox": [96, 792, 622, 821], "category": "Text", "text": "The Specific Objectives (Outcomes) of this action are to:"}, {"bbox": [96, 830, 879, 858], "category": "List-item", "text": "1. Increase Uganda's visibility and attractiveness as a sustainable travel destination."}, {"bbox": [96, 858, 1135, 910], "category": "List-item", "text": "2. Increase local communities' participation and reaped benefits from tourism in natural landscapes and their conservation."}, {"bbox": [96, 910, 1135, 963], "category": "List-item", "text": "3. Improve the business environment and support the companies active in the tourism value chain and the local communities."}, {"bbox": [96, 976, 1135, 1059], "category": "Text", "text": "The Action builds on initiatives taken by the EU Member States in the development of the tourism value chain, following a Team Europe Approach. It will contribute to the fulfilment of the EU Gender Action Plan 2021-2025 GAP III⁴ and the EU Strategy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities⁵."}, {"bbox": [86, 1083, 508, 1115], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 1.3 Zone benefitting from the Action"}, {"bbox": [86, 1131, 867, 1160], "category": "Text", "text": "Action shall be carried out in Uganda which is included in the list of ODA recipients."}, {"bbox": [86, 1188, 326, 1223], "category": "Section-header", "text": "# 2 RATIONALE"}, {"bbox": [86, 1254, 236, 1283], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.1 Context"}, {"bbox": [96, 1300, 1135, 1436], "category": "Text", "text": "While Uganda's economy has grown significantly over recent years, a significant proportion of the country's population are not benefiting optimally from this growth. The vast majority of Uganda's labour force remains employed in low productivity activities, such as subsistence agriculture. The challenge for Ugandan policy makers is therefore to manage the labour force's transition from a predominant involvement in low productivity subsistence agriculture to increased involvement in higher productivity sectors including manufacturing and services."}, {"bbox": [96, 1445, 1135, 1501], "category": "Text", "text": "Uganda has a progressive legal and policy framework to support gender equality and women's empowerment (GEWE). The Constitution prohibits all forms of discrimination against women and provides for the protection"}, {"bbox": [86, 1548, 1144, 1621], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁴ The Gender Action Plan III is a Joint communication by the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy which was welcomed through EU Presidency Conclusions of 16 December 2020 endorsed by 24 Member States."}, {"bbox": [86, 1621, 858, 1647], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁵ https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8376&furtherPubs=yes"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1145, 1707], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 4 of 26"}]