It is within this context that the WeWork – Green and Decent Jobs for Youth project was designed. Co-funded by the European Union and the Government of Belgium through Enabel, the project positions horticulture not only as a production system, but also as a pathway for decent employment, enterprise development, and climate-resilient growth.
The WeWork – Green and Decent Jobs for Youth project aims to harness the productivity of youth, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, and private sector actors within Uganda’s horticulture sector to create green and decent employment opportunities, targeting 1,800 youth, with a strong focus on women. Implemented across Kampala Metropolitan, Busoga including Jinja City, Jinja and Kamuli, the Albertine region including Hoima City and Kikuube, and the Rwenzori region including Kabarole, Kyenjojo, Kamwenge, Kasese and Kyegegwa, the project focuses on strengthening key horticulture value chains such as tomatoes, onions, watermelon and chilli.
The project began with a comprehensive Market Systems Assessment, grounded in the Inclusive Systems Development (ISD) approach, to understand the underlying constraints affecting youth participation in the horticulture sector. This involved engaging directly with current and potential market actors, including young farmers, private sector players, and service providers, to analyse how the system functions and where it fails.
Instead of delivering isolated solutions, the project was structured to strengthen interconnected systems including input supply, skills development, market access, and business services, ensuring that solutions addressed root causes and created sustainable opportunities for youth within functioning market systems.
Central to the project was the deliberate onboarding of private sector partners capable of driving change at scale. Through a structured partnership model, Swisscontact collaborated with actors to co-develop and test commercially viable solutions that address key constraints in the horticulture sector.
Cognisant of testing novel business cases, a range of actors with different sets of business models and undertakings have been engaged. These partnerships are designed not as delivery channels, but as market drivers, where incentives are aligned to ensure that business growth and youth inclusion reinforce each other. By de-risking initial investments and co-creating business models, the project enables private sector actors to expand into underserved markets while creating employment opportunities for youth.
These partnerships are designed not as delivery channels, but as market drivers, where incentives are aligned to ensure that business growth and youth inclusion reinforce each other. By de-risking initial investments and co-creating business models, the project enables private sector actors to expand into underserved markets while creating employment opportunities for young people.
As implementation progresses, the project continues to prioritise transparency, continuous learning, and strong partnership engagement. This was recently demonstrated through two high-level field visits from the European Union and the Belgium government to project sites.
The first visit hosted representatives from the European Union delegation, including Karolina Andrzejewska, Team Leader for Governance and Social Inclusion; Juliette Rubenstein, Programme Manager at the European Commission; and Thomas Kamusiime, Programme Officer. They engaged with project activities and gained firsthand insights into implementation progress in Jinja District through interactions with our key private sector partner, Trafford Export Commodities.
This was followed by a visit by Griet Seurs, Deputy Director-General at the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD), Belgium; Thomas De Vos, Cooperation Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Belgium; Evert Saver, Deputy Attaché for Development Cooperation and Trade Advisor at the Embassy of Belgium in Uganda; Valentina Moltisanti, Agribusiness and Green Agriculture Expert at Enabel; and the host team from Amfri Farms, led by Nazim Shivji, Managing Director of Amfri Farms Limited.
These visits provided an opportunity for partners to engage directly with youth, private sector actors, and local stakeholders, offering firsthand insight into how market-based interventions are translating into tangible outcomes on the ground. They underscored the importance of collaboration in driving systemic change and reaffirmed the critical role partnerships play in delivering sustainable impact.
Such engagements are critical, not only for visibility, but for ensuring that project interventions remain aligned with both local realities and broader development objectives, reinforcing accountability and shared ownership of results.
The project’s focus now continues towards deepening implementation and strengthening sustainability. The emphasis is on ensuring that the models being implemented are commercially viable, incentivising sustained private sector engagement while delivering tangible and reliable returns for youth.
Ultimately, the vision is to transition from project-driven interventions to self-sustaining systems, where youth employment and enterprise development are continuously generated by the market itself.
The WeWork – Green and Decent Jobs for Youth project is co-funded by the European Union and the Government of Belgium through Enabel.