Swisscontact’s EcoProsperity Project is stepping into this gap, not with handouts, but with partnerships. By linking agriculture to enterprise, it seeks to show that farming is not only about survival, but about innovation and income. The idea is simple: if young people have the skills, information, and right networks, they can turn their land, their harvests, and their ideas into resilient micro-businesses.
The project is working with local partners to reach 12,000 unemployed and underemployed youth across Western and Eastern Uganda, 70% of them women. The focus is on regenerative agriculture, climate-smart technologies, and entrepreneurship skills. But more than training, the aim is to create pathways - from idea to income, from kitchen table to marketplace.
A local incubation model developed with the Agro-Tourism Association (ATA) is already showing what is possible. Over 400 start-ups have been incubated so far, most led by women and youth. They range from food processing to herbal medicine, nursery bed operations to vocational services. The businesses are small, fragile even, but they carry within them the seed of change.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing the closure of the restaurant where 27-year-old Kekimuri Rosemary worked, she returned to her hometown of Kyenjojo with little hope for the future. To get by, she began baking snacks. At first, it was survival. No brand, no plan, just the day’s hustle.
In 2024, Rosemary joined the ATA hub. Training in business planning and branding helped her see her work differently. She began calling her venture RK Cupcakery, packaging her products better, and approaching schools as regular clients. Today, she makes around UGX 1,000,000 (approx. USD 260) a month - modest, but steady. More importantly, she says, she has regained her confidence.
For Baseka Simon Peter (28), the pandemic also meant job loss. A chef by training, he turned to what he knew: nutrition. Using his father’s recipes, he began grinding ground nuts and fish into blends - first with a mortar and pestle, later with better tools.
With support from the ATA hub, Simon formalised his enterprise as the Kyegegwa Indigenous Cottage Agro-Processing Unit (KICAPU). His product list has grown to nine items, from nutritious fish powders to sesame pastes. His monthly sales are similar to Rosemary’s, enough to keep the business afloat and to start employing others.
EcoProsperity is still in its early days. What we see in Rosemary’s confectionary and Simon’s nutrition blends are not finished successes, but early shoots. The next steps are crucial: connecting these small enterprises to financial institutions and strengthening links to agricultural value chains. The momentum in these districts is fragile but real. If nurtured well, it can light the way for rural enterprise across Uganda not through quick fixes, but through steady building, one micro-business at a time.
This project is financed by Linsi Foundation, Happel Foundation and Canton Aargau, Canton of Basel-Landschaft, among other donors. It is part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, which is co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).