Boosting the Team Europe approach in support of better social inclusion in Uganda

With a median age of 16.9 years and an equal number of girls and boys, Uganda has a young, fast-growing population. The nation must invest in educating its children and address challenges related to gender, health, social protection and WASH to achieve its goal of becoming an upper-middle-income country by 2040.

In Uganda, most girls do not go to secondary school, and teenage pregnancy and marriage rates are high. Girls face interconnected barriers, from prevalent sexual and gender-based violence and inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in schools to limited sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services. Weak social protection nets make young women vulnerable to economic shocks; if they are forced out of school to support their families, they are constrained by scarce opportunities for skills development.

The Team Europe Initiative (TEI) for Social Inclusion in Uganda builds on Europe’s 50-year history of development cooperation in the East African nation. It coordinates existing initiatives of the European Union (EU) and its member states to address these complex issues and empower Ugandans, especially young girls, to drive national progress. It is founded on five pillars: broadening access to SRHR, intensifying the fight against sexual and gender-based violence, creating more pathways for education and upskilling among adolescent girls, increasing girls’ access to WASH and menstrual hygiene facilities, and enhancing social safety nets.

NIRAS provides technical assistance to strengthen coordination, joint dialogue, and joint communication among TEI members, including in their cooperation with the government, financial institutions, civil society, religious leaders, and the private sector. It also maps and monitors current initiatives contributing to the TEI, to improve decisions and shape future programming while unearthing stories of positive change from the communities.

Cooperation in action

A recent Team Europe visit to Terego  (population 320,000) and Yumbe (population 1.1 million) districts in northern Uganda illustrates both the TEI’s early impacts and challenges that remain. Agriculture drives the local economy, employing 80% of the population in Yumbe and 99% in Terego. Currently, refugees from South Sudan make up one-fifth of the area’s total population.

Multiple TEI-contributing programmes and projects show strong donor engagement in the West Nile region. In November 2025, delegates organised a three-day field mission to support monitoring and coordination and observe implementation in the field. The team met with local authorities and assessed achievements and gaps across an array of European-funded initiatives.

The visit painted a mixed picture. In Yumbe, the school dropout rate remains at 73%, while the teenage pregnancy rate exceeds 15% in both areas. Yet despite these challenges, experience from the field emphasised gradual improvements.

In Terego, a health officer credited Team Europe-funded peer education activities targeting both girls and boys for increasing uptake of reproductive health services, contributing to a slow decline in teenage pregnancy rates.  

District leaders also report improved coordination across projects. Girls who received financial literacy training were able to enrol in additional training and receive cash support through different Team Europe-funded programmes. Those who had children were supported through baby-safe spaces in participating schools, allowing them to continue their education.

One of the programmes highlighted during the visit was the EU and NL-funded Spotlight Initiative, whose main objective is to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and support survivors. In addition to these core actions, the programme also includes a complementary skilling component that encourages beneficiaries to enrol in training for non-traditional, high-demand occupations offered through Spotlight and other Team Europe initiatives.

One of those who took the opportunity is 22-year-old Shamim Acheng, now skilled in electrical installation and recognised as a role model in her community. “Spotlight has, literally, helped me get out of the dark and into the light,” Shamim says.

These stories show that barriers faced by Uganda’s young girls should not be addressed in isolation. For a country whose future depends on its young population, the TEI work shows how connected efforts can translate into lasting progress.