Besides the focus on the two sectors, the Dutch Development Co-operation in Uganda is involved in a limited number of key areas with a broader impact and/or which strengthens the efforts in the two priority sectors. These areas are decentralisation, gender, human rights, and procurement (anti-corruption).

Decentralisation
The government of Uganda has carried through a far-reaching process of decentralisation. Decision making powers, staff, and resources were transferred from the different national ministries to local councils. Local politicians are now accountable to the people who elected them. The general feeling is that local service delivery has been improved under the new system.

The Netherlands' government started its support in 1992 in three districts in the West Nile-region, northern Uganda. This was before the local government act was enacted. Actual implementation was contracted to SNV. Modality of support changed in 2000 when it was decided to mainstream all district support into districts' own management. This was to be in line with the local government act that was enacted in 1997. Teamleaders became advisers assigned to the districts authorities and had no implementing responsibilities. Poverty Action Fund (PAF) modalities became operational but the embassy set modalities to ensure activities remained poverty focussed, gender sensitive and environmentally sustainable. Later in 2001, Local Government Development programme (LGDP) modality was adopted. The basic feature of LGDP is the unique link between the decentralisation of development budget, capacity building support and a clearly defined performance assessment system with strong in-built incentives for local governments. In order to enhance the performance of local governments in implementing their constitutional and legal mandates for decentralised service provision one of the pillars of LGDP is the incentive system. This incentive system rewards good performance and sanctions poor performance. Poor performing local governments are supported through the capacity building grants. LGDP is is based on the principles of participatory planning, involvement of all levels of LGs in the decision making and service provision, as well as the creation of ownership and sustainability of the investments. The Netherlands is contributing US $ 5 million per annum to this national programme. The embassy has continued to have direct contact with the nine districts of Arua, Adjumani, Moyo, Nebbi and Yumbe in the west nile region and four in the Lango Teso-region of Kaberamaido, Katakwi, Lira and Soroti. In addition, the Embassy supports the fiscal decentralisation strategy of the Ugandan government. This strategy aims at streamlining and simplifying all central government transfers to local governments, but also at improving the tax collection system.
Apart from the budget support, supplementary assistance is rendered to the nine districts through technical assistance programme to deepen participatory planning and to reinforce the poverty focus (including attention for gender and environmental issues), to enhance accountability and to foster dialogue with civil society and the private sector at local level. The National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) gets support from the Embassy to provide demand driven private sector lead advisory services to local communities to improve the agricultural output.

Gender
The empowerment of women is a pre-requisite to poverty reduction and sustainable development. It has been widely acknowledged that although Uganda has gender sensitive laws and policies, they have not been fully implemented. To support the efforts of the Ugandan government in this respect, the Embassy advises on the implementation of gender sensitive policies in the three priority sectors of the Netherlands government, namely education (improve quality by addressing gender concerns in education), local governance (establishing gender responsive local councils), and justice, law and order (ensuring gender sensitive laws) and strengthen the women's movement. The embassy disposes of a small support fund for gender equality and women's empowerment.

Human Rights
The Netherlands Embassy has commissioned the study "Beyond workshops, challenges and strategies in human rights interventions in Uganda". The study aims to encourage all human rights organisations to reflect on the rationale and effectiviness of their work. It seeks to be practical and realistic and therefore focuses on the strategies and skills relevant to human rights work.
The Netherlands Embassy engages more actively in support of and dialogues with local HR NGO's and the Uganda Human Rights Commission, especially with respect to torture, women's rights and the situation in the North.

Procurement
Public procurement is an area of government activity in which the risks of corruption are high, considering the value of goods and services procured (estimated at more than 800 million Euro), the strong interest of business and the authority given to government officials to award contracts.
The objective of the Netherlands Embassy is to contribute to a public procurement process that enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of government spending and limits corruption. The embassy is the lead donor in the procurement working group, monitoring progress of procurement reforms, bringing to attention irregularities in procurement processes, and giving financial support to the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assests Authority.