Position Summary: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks a Ugandan partner to jointly undertake specific activities, with the goal of strengthening policy capacity and providing analytical assistance to decision-makers, helping them identify effective policy options, assess the associated costs and benefits, and navigate trade-offs among competing priorities.
BACKGROUND:
Uganda is one of the countries in Africa whose food system is threatened from severe climate-related risks. The country frequently suffers from erratic rainfall, droughts, and floods that significantly impact agricultural productivity and food security. Consequently, climate resilience and environmental sustainability measures, including sustainable management of natural resources, climate-smart energy solutions, and disaster risk management, have emerged as key national priorities. These priorities are explicitly captured in both the countryโs overarching development plans as well as its nationally determined contribution policies.
Ugandaโs recently finalized fourth comprehensive National Development Plan (NDP IV: 2025/26โ2029/30) places substantial emphasis on addressing food systems and food security through sustainable agro-industrialization, improving agricultural productivity and value addition, enhancing market linkages, promoting specialized extension services, and supporting climate-resilient farming practices, including expanded irrigation to mitigate reliance on rain-fed agriculture.
Uganda has also successfully launched and implemented two successive Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). In 2015, Uganda submitted an Intended NDC that later became its first NDC following the entry into force of the Paris agreement at the end of 2016. Five years later, it launched its updated NDC with a time frame of 2020 to 2030 and defined sectoral mitigation and adaptation targets for 2025 and 2030. The NDC II prioritized adaptation and increasing resilience in communities and ecosystems, while maintaining a collective mitigation target of 24.7% GHG emission reduction by 2030 compared to a business-as-usual scenario.
PURPOSE:
NDCs are submitted every five years as mandated by the Paris Agreement. To that end, Ugandan authorities have begun that process, with initial preparations underway to commission the stock taking of the NDC II in order to track its implementation progress. Moreover, having finalized the NDP IV in December 2024, various governmental institutions have also begun the process of preparing implementation action plans for each of the 18 programs that anchor the five-year development plan.
To support these efforts, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks a Ugandan partner to jointly undertake specific activities, with the goal of strengthening policy capacity and providing analytical assistance to decision-makers, helping them identify effective policy options, assess the associated costs and benefits, and navigate trade-offs among competing priorities.
The key objectives of the joint 2025 activity partnership are to:
Assess implementation progress and effectiveness of Ugandaโs current NDC (NDC II) to identify gaps and inform future commitments.Provide analytical inputs and recommendations to inform the update of Ugandaโs NDC, ensuring alignment with the national development framework (NDP IV).Strengthen national capacity, including localizing modeling capabilities through training and joint analyses linked directly to work activities. Identify climate-responsive investment priorities, assess their economy-wide impacts, and provide strategic guidance to navigate policy trade-offs.Provide analytical support to ministries on select areas of governmental priorities, e.g., key food value chains and market integration, to identify investment needs, risks, and opportunities for enhanced sustainability and equity.Deliverables:
a) Provide modeling inputs & analysis support such as the design of policy experiments and some data disaggregation.
b) Support and engage the National Planning Commission (NPC), Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Finance to:
ยท Identify key investment priorities, aligned with the NDCs; the NDP IV; and the governmentโs strategic priority sectors (Agriculture, Tourism, Mining and Services).
ยท Support development of clear policy roadmap indicating optimal paths to achieving sustainable food-security without compromising NDC commitments, taking into account poverty and inequality.
c) Arrange modeling training including logistics and coordinate with government partners to identify potential participants.
Required qualifications:
Proven experience in conducting similar assignments
Financial capacity, including documented ability to manage and report expenditures
Ability to complete the assignment within the specified timeline.
Duration:
The assignment is expected to be completed within three months (from preparation to final reporting).
Application documents:
Interested applicants should submit the following documents in English:
A cover letter
Technical proposal, including a detailed budget CV of team lead
Contract end date: December 31, 2025