Outcome UGA_O_2

Advancing partnerships and resourcing

The Country office revised the Resource Mobilization Strategy. While some challenges are contextual, the strategy includes a deeper analysis around the challenges of uneven growth across thematic areas and documents best practices in certain thematic areas that should be considered going forward.? The Country Office continued to actively engage with donors – from traditional, non-traditional and private sector based on lessons learnt in the previous years. With these engagements, there are patterns where progress is being made and where the office needs to rethink being elaborated in the revised RM strategy.?? One of the challenges to the successes, is that funding is not readily flexible and there is a need to rethink a sustainability approach to other areas of work. At the CO level, there is repeated feedback from donors that their funding is for thematic areas, and they expect core funding to UN agencies to address cross-cutting capacities and mandates. Another increasing challenge is the trend of matching funding. The requirement to show agency contributions or even match 50/50 the funding for some calls/donors excludes our ability to apply.?? Within the UNCT however, there have been discussions on developing a joint high-level brief for donors on UN costs and efficiency measures. There have also been initial discussions with some agencies at the technical level on developing a joint proposal on funding UN coordination and normative in development and humanitarian work. Updates on different engagements/leads: Japan: The Country Office successfully secured multi-year funding in 2024 via the MUSHO Grant - USD 3.6 million for 2.5 years (August 2024-February 2027). This agreement was signed in August 2024 and the Inception phase is now underway. The focus of the programme is implementing UNCSR 1325 in the humanitarian response, with also a focus on economic empowerment. The CO has developed a joint-JSB proposal with the ESA Regional Office and Somalia Country Office. The amount for Uganda is USD 1 million, to be implemented in 2025 if successful. Sweden: Sweden has funded the UN Women Country Office Strategic Notes for multiple years including the SN 2022-2025 – in addition to funding the work on EVAW through the UN Joint Programme on Gender Based Violence (JP-GBV) Sweden government is likely moving towards “soft earmarking” rather than the current flexible funding approach.With this therefore, UN Women will have to undergo a partner appraisal for the new Strategy through an open call for proposals. The Office has had numerous engagements with the Embassy of Sweden. The consistent message from Sweden is that they are waiting for approval of the Embassy’s County Strategy. This has affected multiple Agencies that had flexible funding from Sweden including UN Women and UNICEF. Austria: A second phase of the Access to Justice Programme is being finalized with Austria for USD 3.88 million.Austria has shared the draft agreement, and the start date is now 1st December 2024. Under the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), Austria has funded the current cohort of CSO grants for EUR 2 million (USD 2.062). Grantees have now been onboarded, and the programme will end in May 2026. UN Women has previously submitted a proposal for Gender Statistics; however, this was unsuccessful. Norway: The Norwegian Embassy has closed in Kampala as of July 2024. The CO has ongoing programmes with Norway under LEAP (USD 5.7 million, until December 2025) and WPS (USD 5 million, until August 2026).The agreements have been taken over by NORAD managed from Oslo, and the diplomatic oversight of Uganda has moved to the Norwegian Embassy in Tanzania. The CO has engaged with both as part of the handover, and recently also hosted a joint field mission with a representative from Norad in early November 2024 to see the work of the LEAP and WPS projects. The indication from Norad Oslo is that they are happy with UN Women’s results and have expressed initial consideration for funding the Strategic Note in the future. EU (+ Netherlands): Spotlight/Gender for Development (G4DU) – second phase has now begun with the first tranche of financing of USD 1.5 million received.The Netherlands has now come in with additional financing to top up G4DU as part of Team Europe Approach – adding USD 1,593,729 million to UN Women’s original allocation.The total funding for UN Women from G4DU is now USD 6.5 million until August 2026 for EU, and an extension until August 2027 for Dutch funding.The CO has tried several engagements with ECHO, however, now will join with UNHCR. KOICA: The CO received a Korean UNV to the WPS/HA team in April 2024 for an initial period of one year. The role is focused on WPS and DRR. This has assisted in expanding discussions with KOICA and several Korean NGOs, which is a pre-requisite for KOICA funding.The CO has now submitted a joint proposal with UNDP for a four-year programme (2026-2029) focusing on strengthening socioeconomic recovery and resilience of host communities and refugees in Uganda. This builds upon UNDP’s first phase KOICA-funded programme. The initial concept has been cleared by KOICA and a feasibility mission involving Korean Specialists (the next step in the proposal process) was conducted in December. The proposal is for USD10m, of which an anticipated USD3.7m would come to UN Women, if successful. China: Following the recent visit of the Regional Director and Country Representative, to the Chinese Ambassador in Uganda, the Ambassador requested the team to present concept notes in line with the commitments in the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). UGCO has drafted three detailed concepts which were subsequently submitted to the Chinese Ambassador. These concepts aim to integrate gender-focused initiatives within the broader framework of FOCAC, ensuring that gender equality remains central to collaborative efforts between China and African nations. This submission underscores UN Women’s commitment to fostering strong partnerships that advance the rights and empowerment of women, particularly in the context of international cooperation and development. Ireland: The CO had several engagements with Ireland. Ireland had been part of the donors who had expressed that they wanted to see more strategic engagement from the UN system.Following the most recent bilateral with the Ambassador, the discussion focused on the projectized nature of funding to the UN and the challenges that presented. Based on his areas of expressed interest, the CO submitted a letter requesting funding for non-project specific staff in the Office of Prime Minister on SDGs and humanitarian coordination for support of around USD 220,000.?The CO also requested an engagement at the technical level, and it is the interagency proposal on coordination and normative which could be of interest to Ireland longer term, given that the Ambassador also mentioned the RCO.??Thematically, Ireland will receive an additional Diplomat for resilience would arrive in September. The Ambassador said this portfolio is new, and there is opportunity for UN Women to present some ideas to this Specialist when they arrive. US/USAID: Ongoing discussions have been happening with USAID at both senior and technical level. Following several rounds of discussions, the agencies are now moving towards drafting a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will cover coordination across all areas of UN Women’s mandate that align to USAID’s priorities. Finland: Finland does not have a physical presence in Uganda; however, the Embassy in Kenya oversees Uganda. The CO has previously received several Youth IUNVs from Finland, with the most recent two ending their tenures earlier in 2024. The CO has engaged virtually with the Head of Cooperation and expressed interest in receiving future IUNVs. On programming, the Embassy advised that their bilateral programming is scaling down.

Advancing partnerships and resourcing

In 2025, the Country Office implemented programmes through 25 responsible partners—19 civil society and women’s rights organizations and 6 government ministries, departments and agencies. These partnerships were instrumental in advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women, ensuring strengthened access to justice, essential services, leadership opportunities, and productive resources for women and girls across diverse contexts. As part of efforts to broaden the resource base, the Country Office intensified its resource-mobilization outreach with both traditional and non-traditional partners. A total of 12 engagements were held with the private sector, resulting in the submission of several concept notes, while 13 additional concept notes were submitted to traditional donors, including the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the Government of China, and the Government of Sweden. Under the Women Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), UN Women organized a joint monitoring visit for National Steering Committee members, engaging key partners such as the Austrian Development Agency, UNHCR, the European Union, and the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office. This visit served to demonstrate tangible results, reinforce accountability, and deepen collaboration with strategic stakeholders.

Advancing partnerships and resourcing

UN Women Uganda received USD 11,764,255 from public partners and USD 250,192 from the private sector. UN Women Uganda developed 4 partnerships to support UN-Women’s mission including in promoting Responsible Business Practices and Influencing and/or Knowledge sharing. Two partnerships signed with the East Africa Business Council (EABC) and the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda (PSFU) were primarily for promoting ethical business practices. The other two with partnerships, with Uganda Bureau of Statistics and Economic Policy Research Centre were for influencing/knowledge sharing.