The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank approves Uganda’s Country Strategy Paper 2017-2021

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 12 July 2017 – The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has approved Uganda’s Country Strategy Paper (CSP) for 2017-2021, which focuses on infrastructure development for industrialization; skills and capacity development.

The CSP is expected to support the Government’s quest to transform Uganda into a prosperous and inclusive middle income economy as per its Vision 2040 and the National Development Plan 2 (NDP II). The CSP is articulated around the following two strategic pillars: (i) Infrastructure development for industrialization, and; (ii) Skills and capacity development.

The main objectives of Pillar 1 interventions are to reduce Uganda’s binding infrastructure bottlenecks and create a more enabling business climate by scaling-up selected investments and supportive non-lending activities to boost the country’s industrialization, employment and business creation activities in priority economic sectors.

The overarching objective of Pillar 2 is to contribute towards skilling the productive population, across all sectors of the society, with relevant job and business skills that will lead to increased employability and entrepreneurship and, hence, inclusive and green economic growth.

The CSP’s pillars are directly aligned with the core High-Five priorities and flagship programs of the Bank’s TYS (2013-2021), namely: Feed Africa – through interventions in boosting agricultural productivity and value chain activities; Light up and Power Africa; Integrate Africa – through the expansion of key transport corridor for boosting trade with regional and global markets; Industrialize Africa – through infrastructure investments to support transformation of Uganda’s agriculture into commercially viable agribusiness value-chains and boost industrial manufacturing value-addition; Improve peoples’ livelihoods – through providing essential infrastructure such as clean water and sanitation facilities, and boosting employment opportunities through skills and training activities.