Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFE) is a home to over 500.000 farmers across Uganda. These farmers are mainly rural; Mainly depend on Agro economy; Populations shouldering burden and impact of HIV/AIDS; Inadequate health system and limited access and Food insecure communities. With a total of 25.8 million People Living with HIV and AIDS by the end of 2005, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the home of more than 64 % of the total number of people living with HIV and AIDS world wide (40.3 million). Uganda is amongst the most affected countries. Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFE) recognizes the impact of HIV and AIDS in reversing development gains of the work that we do. The Federation further recognizes that our development interventions if not well-planned can predispose people we serve (farmers) to HIV infection and also increase their vulnerability to impact of AIDS. UNFFE believes that HIV/AIDS epidemic is a serious threat to agricultural development and Uganda’s countryside and contributes to hunger and poverty. The HIV/AIDS virus infects mainly the most productive section of the farming population in Uganda; that is people between 15 and 50 years old. Therefore, AIDS reduces formal and informal sector productivity. It undermines family stability and security and erodes savings and investment at all levels as less land is being cultivated and farmers being forced to sell land and livestock in order to be able to pay for medical and funeral costs. This is why, Uganda National Farmers Federation is proposing to conduct training for its staff to be able to appreciate and handle issues of HIV/AIDS at the workplace and also mainstream HIV/AIDS in planning UNFFE and its member activities. UNFFE will also conduct a baseline survey in order to understand impacts, challenges and opportunities of UNFFE prior HIV/AIDS interventions and also find out the real impact of HIV/AIDS amongst its constituents (farmers) in Uganda. The results of the baseline will be used to direct UNFFE response in mitigating the impacts of HIV/AIDS amongst farmers, and also form a basis for policy advocacy with a view of fronting farmers issues in regard to HIV/AIDS at the level of national HIV/AIDS policy planning and National response.

The mandate and main objectives of the Federation are: To lobby and advocate for farmers friendly agricultural policies. To unite farmers organization and agro-based industries/service organizations under one umbrella organization as a common front for the promotion, coordination and safe guarding of their activities and interests. To improve farmers incomes and welfare through increasing the quality and quantity of their produce on a sustainable basis. Some achievements of UNFFE are: Strengthened relationships with member organizations and increased recognition and support by civic and political leadership at local council level. Regular publication of the Farmers Voice Newspaper to education and inform the farmers, policy makers and the general public. Increase in the number of member organizations with agricultural extension structures which enhanced service delivery. The demanded support for 2005-2006 from Agriterra is ? 189.560. The total budget of the programme is: Project: euro 1.083.531 of which 140.605 to be financed by Agriterra Agripool: euro 17.208 Advising staff: euro 10.198 Advising CTA : euro 3.500 Project service :euro 18.049 Total: euro 1.132.486 of which 189.560 to be financed by Agriterra For details of the budget, consult the \"Logframe\" 05ua-3859.

UNFFE is the national umbrella farmers´ organisation of Uganda. Strong points of UNFFE are: lobbying activities the national agricultural trade show and the training and extension activities at the district level. UNFFE is developing strategies to strengthen financial sustainability for itself and for its members. UNFFE also aims at strengthening ties between itself and its member organisations at the district level (DFA´s). It has submitted a projected income and expenditure statement 2004 to Agriterra with the request for budgetary support. On a total budget of Euro 276.718 UNFFE asks a net contribution of Agriterra of Euro 82.880 (including missions and overhead Euro 103.843)

HORTEXA, the Horticultural Exporters´Organisation, is a member association of UNFFE. Hortexa, on the advice of CBI (The Dutch Centre for the Promotion of Imports) has been advised to formulate a business plan for Farmex, the company of HORTEXA. Aspects include the restructuring of Hortexa, the Hortexa resource centre, training needs of Hortexa, infrastructure development needs and the set-up of a traceability system. The proposed consultant is the Ssemwanga Centre in Kampale, recommended by CBI consultants.

One of UNFFE´s main functions as Farmers´ Organisation is to lobby government and to advocate for agricultural policies to the benefit of its members and in particular small holder farmers, who form the majority of UNFFE´s membership. The aim is to improve the farmer´s welfare and income through an increase of the quality and quantity of their production and through an efficient and remunerative marketing of that produce. The L&A activities in this project will focus primarily on trade related issues. In order to achieve this, the UNFFE lobby capacity needs to be strengthened. UNNFE has a decentralised structure with attracted membership in all districts of Uganda. It is important that policy positions are serving the interest of the farmers and it is therefore necessary to ensure a participatory formulation with and an understanding by the grassroots level of the lobby positions taken. This project will therefore focus on the development of internal organisational structures, systems and procedures that will allow for smooth formulation and mandating of lobbying positions. This pilot is to be done involving 2 district level Farmers´ Associations, IDFA (Iganga) and Mbadifa (Mbarara). In a first phase a basic training will be given to key personnel within UNFFE national and district level structures. After this, a workshop will be held in year 1 for the development of systems and procedures that allow participatory formulation of L&A positions in interaction between the National and the District level of UNFFE. The set-up also needs to facilitate good collaboration between the L&A department and other Departments within the UNFFE structure. During the first year the system will be implemented for the development of lobby positions (with smooth interaction between UNFFE head office and the district branches MBADIFA and IDFA) and the presentation thereof on relevant forums. In the beginning of year 2 a second workshop will be held for the evaluation and adjustment of the systems and procedures based on the implementation experience during the first year. A second year of implementation will follow after which a final workshop will be held at the end of this second year for a final evaluation and further adjustment. All training and workshop facilitation will preferably be done by BBO, in the framework of the Consortium activities.

UNFFE, the Uganda National Farmers´Federation, has conducted strategic planning workshops in juin 2002. The Director of LTO Commerce and the liaison officer of Agriterra have attended these workshops. The Board of UNFFE has officially requested Agriterra to support UNFFE in 2003 as to specific priority areas identified during the workshops. Moreover, UFAL, the commercial wing of UNFFE, has sollicited budgetary support as well as a technical partnership with LTO Commerce