Programs

1. Access To Justice, Human Rights, Gender And Social Inclusion

AgroRef emphasizes the vital role of human rights, justice and equity in strengthening and delivering effective small-holder farmers’ benefits and cooperatives relevance in national transformation.  Through this thematic area, AgroRef is interested in improving the quality of access to justice for small-holder farmers in Uganda. AgroRef’s plan to put in place a legal aid clinic that will provide, support and to follow up on cases especially human rights violations and abuses, land injustices and discrimination in the agriculture and cooperatives sector. For greater impact and outreach, mobile legal aid  and awareness sessions will be conducted at regional/district levels and/or in partnership with other farmer organisations, and government MDA’s mandated to support farmers and provide justice. This will also enable for a stronger level of involvement of farmer groups, communities and leaders.

AgroRef Uganda will supplement its efforts by identify and building the capacity of paralegals and other resource persons identified by the respective farmer organization, target groups and networks to be able to work within their communities to increase access to Justice.

The organisation also plans to partner with mainstream human rights organisations and legal aid service providers to expand legal aid for the small-holder farmers, women, youth, PWDs and other marginalized persons deriving livelihood from agriculture and provide mentorship to paralegals.  It will also works with informal justice systems and traditional cultural structures to address injustices through mediation.

Inequality is seen as a powerful barrier to agriculture action because it reinforces vulnerability to agriculture and cooperatives impacts and prohibits participation in making changes through aggregated success. Addressing limitations and inadequate power dynamics can women, youth, PWDs and typically marginalized and vulnerable groups to embrace transformative agricultural and cooperatives results, embrace adaptation measures and strengthen their flexibility.

As both the Ugandan community and global communities have become more aware of the “gender gap” in the agriculture and cooperatives sectors and the importance of the role of women and marginalized groups in agriculture transformation, obligations to integrate Human Rights,  gender and social inclusion in agriculture and cooperatives change policies have increased. Uganda’s 1995 constitution as amended emphasizes human rights as a cornerstone for national transformation.

Uganda has made tremendous steps in streamlining human rights in all national development priorities including in the agriculture and cooperatives subsectors, however, the planning process around NDCs and NAPs do not always capture the specific needs and barriers experienced by women and marginalized groups in the agriculture sectors. AgroRef will increasingly focus on promoting and contribute to addressing gender equality, women’s empowerment, and social equity in policies.

  • Human Rights, Gender and social inclusion are mainstreamed throughout the work of all programme areas of AgroRef.
  • Integrating Human Rights, gender and social analysis as well as gender-responsive, inclusive consultative approaches into agriculture and cooperatives assessments
  • Integrating gender-responsive and socially inclusive priorities into plans and budgets
  • Supporting the equitable allocation of resources and the design of Human Rights, gender-responsive projects
  • The programme’s approach is closely linked to the Uganda’s National Cooperatives Policy, the National Gender Policy, the National Youth Policy and the PWDs Policy, National Development Policy (NDPIII) and the Vision 2040

2. Capacity Building, Transformative Agriculture And Cooperatives Systems Change

Uganda’s national priority has been transforming Uganda’s economy through agricultural industrialization underscoring the central role of agriculture in national development. Transformational adaptation refers to a change in the fundamental attributes of a socio-economic system in anticipation of agriculture and cooperatives change and its impacts. Adaptation interventions can be qualified as transformational when they include:

  1. System-wide change or changes across more than one system.
  2. Focus on the current and medium (future) change.
  3. Involve direct questioning of the effectiveness of existing systems, social injustices, and power imbalances.

The term transformational implies a process of enabling a major shift from one state to another. Within the context of agriculture and cooperatives, transformative change can be understood as a systemic change self-sufficient, resilient and Agribusiness led Uganda’s societies. There is a need to address climate change, sustainable development challenges, and cooperatives and agricultural transformation in a holistic and coordinated way.

The transformation of agriculture and food systems can succeed if it harnesses cooperation, innovation, technology, and digital solutions. AgroRef outlines agriculture-resilient pathways as development trajectories that combine investments in promoting the goal of sustainable development. Deep societal transformations are needed to drastically improve cooperatives and agricultural systems intended to achieve desirable and liveable futures and well-being for all.

The AgroRef Programme aspires to contribute to:

  • The medium- to long-term goal of supporting transformative Cooperatives and Agriculture actions in the land use and agriculture sectors that improve shared action and benefits.
  • Strengthen risk reduction strategies, resilience, and adaptive capacity in farmer organisations, and agriculture cooperatives

Through its training, capacity development and community engagement, AgroRef Uganda strives to empower farmers, farmer organisations, cooperatives with skills and knowledge on different aspects including; accountability and transparent systems strengthening, personal and digital security training, Human Rights Based Approach and civic awareness, fundraising and resources mobilization, international, regional and national agriculture and cooperatives promotion mechanisms, research, monitoring and documentation among others through capacity building training workshops and community sensitization forums.

Organizations need organizational capacity for long-term success as it helps them identify strengths and weaknesses, increase efficiency, and better serve their members.

AgroRef will focus on the intangible aspects such as leadership capabilities; strategic planning; human resource development; marketing strategy; Business Development Services, member satisfaction practices; risk management approaches; communication and collaboration within the organization; knowledge transfer principles; compliance with rules and regulations; information management approaches; data analysis methods; adaptability to changing conditions; and the ability to identify new opportunities.

The trainings are organized in partnership with focal point persons in different districts who identify capacity needs and also mobilize participants that need capacity building.

The selected beneficiaries are mostly small-holder farmer organizations, Cooperatives, members of cooperatives, women, youth, PWDs, District commercial officers, District Agriculture Officers, District Community Development Officers etc.

The capacity building programs have greatly improved the standards and understanding of cooperatives principles, Human rights based approach, agribusiness approaches and the legal framework and mechanism at the national, regional and international levels.

These trainings also provide farmers and cooperators with an opportunity to share best experiences, challenges and identify home grown solutions thus improving coordination and strong networks among themselves.

3. Research And Development Plus Learning

Research is a key component of AgroRef Uganda. The thematic objective is to enhance capacity building, research, advocacy and networking intended for a just and fair legal and policy environment that promote agriculture, cooperatives development, rural transformation, equality and non-discrimination. The goal is to achieve systemic changes towards the realization of the rights of small holder farmers, members of cooperatives informed by evidence-based advocacy and development.

AgroRef is a key leader in the generation of cutting edge research on various dimensions of agriculture, small-holder farmers, cooperatives and public policy in Uganda and beyond. Our ground breaking research areas include: legal analysis of laws, policies and bills, baselines on new areas of interest for AgroRef, impact of laws on specific target groups, underlying determinants of agriculture and cooperatives transformation, human rights violations of farmers, land related issues among others.

Through the thematic area, AgroRef works to contribute towards enhancing an enabling legal and policy environment for small-holder farmers, cooperators for agricultural transformation. This is done through legal analysis to interrogate bills, laws, policies, budgets and regulatory frameworks to inform our advocacy and engagement. AgroRef also uses national, regional and international mechanisms in order to secure greater rights small holder farmers/ workers; women, girls PWDs and poor men/women/elderly for land and property rights.

It involves monitoring, analyzing and documenting the situation/environment in which farmers operate in Uganda. Since its inception AgroRef has been undertaking studies on the situation of small-holder farmers, cooperatives and agriculture in Uganda; analyzing their working environment, challenges, threats, opportunities and strategies.

Research is carried out all year round since issues keep emerging that affect the environment in which farmers and cooperators operate

Through research, AgroRef has produced reports, publications that have increased the body of knowledge and promoted effective advocacy for improved operating environment of farmers in Uganda.

4. Advocacy and Networking

AgroRef recognizes the importance of advocacy in promoting and strengthening the role of agriculture, small holder farmers, and cooperatives in national development. Over the years, the organization has grown through a focus on its mandate of contributing to a conducive environment for the promotion of small-holder farmers in particular and agriculture and cooperatives in general in Uganda. At the core of AgroRef’s advocacy initiatives is the need to ensure views and voices of farmers and cooperators are heard by policy and decision makers at national, regional and local levels and strategic, deliberate, intentional and broad-based action is taken by government, local leaders and other responsible stakeholders. 

AgroRef’s advocacy and networking efforts to support agriculture and cooperatives shall therefore be geographically limitless as synergies shall be derived across the regions to create sustainable impact in creating the envisioned flourish farmer and food security for all.

Networks and platforms are created through media engagement and participation by farmers and strategic stakeholders, regional dialogue meetings to discuss pertinent issues affecting agriculture and their work.