Socio-Economic Empowerment of Women through Agroforestry in Lira and Pader Districts: A Post-Conflict Region in Northern Uganda

The project focuses on socio-economic empowerment of women through agroforestry in Lira and Pader districts, post-conflict Northern Uganda. The increased dependence on natural resources as a primary source of livelihood has led to environmental degradation in Uganda. Environmental degradation adversely affects food security, income and livelihoods of local communities. Further, given that women are responsible for household food and fuel wood management, environmental degradation increases the burden imposed on them, and in the long run reinforces the gender disparities within the community. Agroforestry has been recommended as an environmentally friendly land management option for improving farm productivity, reducing extreme poverty and hunger along with promoting women empowerment. Recognizing its potential for enhancing human livelihood, the government of Uganda and the African Development Fund (ADF) financed the Farm Income Enhancement and Forest Conservation Project (FIEFOC) project, which promoted tree growing on agricultural landscapes. However, FIEFOC project has done very little to address the gender specific constraints that adversely affect women’s participation in agroforestry, including women’s limited access to natural resources, training, financial credit, as well as restricted decision making power.The project proposal aims to address the gender gap identified within the FIEFOC project. The main objective of the project is to enhance women’s participation in agroforestry by 20% in Lira and Pader districts, Northern Uganda, by 2018. The project will employ a number of interventions including gender analysis, provision of credit to women, community mobilization, awareness raising as well as participatory monitoring and evaluation to promote full participation of men as well as women in agroforestry. The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE). MWE will work with the District Forest Services (DFS) and the Local council leaders to ensure effective project execution. The proposed total budget for the entire implementation period (2014-2018) is US$ 2,288,870.