The Agribusiness and Economic Development Project aims to empower households especially youth, women and farmers to increase income, reduce malnutrition and poverty through improved money management practices, enhanced entrepreneurial skills, establish and strengthen income generating activities and improve household knowledge and skills on nutritious diets and food choices.

Agribusiness volunteers support households to achieve economic security. In the communities where volunteers work, household members often lack the skills to pursue available employment opportunities, the capacity to create their own employment and economic opportunities and the critical money management skills needed to manage household income and expenses. The Peace Corps Uganda Agribusiness project will strengthen the skills and capacity individuals need to contribute to the economic security and upward economic mobility of their households.

The project in collaboration with the Feed the Future helps people feed themselves by creating new economic opportunities to achieve improved security through the following objectives:

1. Increase the capacity of women, youth and farmers (as individuals or groups) to apply improved money management practices
2. Develop the entrepreneurial potential of women, youth (aged 15-29), in and out of school and farmers' groups.
3. Increase capacity of women, youth and farmers (as individuals or groups) to implement income generating activities (IGAs).
4. Increase households' adoption of nutritious diets and food choices.

The Uganda Primary Literacy Project in partnership with the Uganda Ministry of Education Science Technology and Sports works towards sustainable development to ensure inclusive and quality education for all. The project's three goals are to improve teaching; increase pupils’ success; and improve the school community. Volunteers are either placed as Teacher Trainers at primary teacher’s colleges or as Literacy Specialists in primary schools.

In its six years, the Project has trained over 30,000 pre-service and in-service teachers in various districts across Uganda and improved the reading skills of over 14,000 pupils. Volunteers have either created or helped develop libraries, ICT labs, and resource rooms equipped with over 80,000 books and computer equipment funded through Peace Corps grants and donations made by different organizations creating increased access to resources for almost 41,000 learners and school community members.

The Health project focuses on three goals: HIV/AIDS mitigation, with a focus on prevention, care, and support for people living with and affected by HIV; improvement of maternal and child health services and promotion; malaria prevention; and water, sanitation, and hygiene promotion at the community level. Community Health Volunteers are fully funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and work to implement many PEPFAR core programs.

Additionally, Peace Corps partners with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to align Volunteer activities in support of the Saving Mothers Giving Life initiative in Uganda. In 2015, 10,901 priority populations were reached with HIV prevention interventions, and 1168 orphans and vulnerable children were served.

The HIV/AIDS Program in Peace Corps Uganda is implemented through an HIV/AIDS Committee, which is chaired by a Volunteer and supervised by the PEPFAR Coordinator. The core activity of this committee involve planning and designing training programs in areas such as HIV/AIDS basics, transmission, major drivers and prevention strategies. As part of HIV/AIDS care and support, Peace Corps, through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also provides small grants to support Volunteer projects that address economic needs of orphans and vulnerable children. Starting January 2016, Peace Corps enrolled district based HIV/AIDS trainings in 5 district reaching nearly 120 people.

Malaria is implemented through the Malaria Think Tank and comprises of up to 6 members and chaired by a Peace Corps Volunteer. Their activities involve mobilizing Peace Corps Volunteers to implement malaria projects which include activities such as; Malaria bed net repair, distribution of bed nets and health education on malaria prevention. These activities are mainly and widely implemented across the three sectors during World Malaria Month. The Peace Corps Volunteers in the committee also support partnership and networking with different organizations including Presidents's Malaria Initiative in order to maximize impact at community level.

Read here some of the latest capacity building activities Peace Corps Volunteers have implemented in their communities.