Elke Verhaeghe Tine Leen
ID: UNCST-2026-R025001
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Due Diligence Mediation in Practice: Deforestation Due Diligence in the Ugandan Coffee Sector
REFNo: SS5753ES
This study focuses on the operationalisation of the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR) in the Ugandan coffee sector. The EUDR is the latest tool in the EUâs toolbox to combat global deforestation, particularly imported deforestation. The EUDR establishes âdue diligenceâ obligations for EU importers and traders, who are asked to prove that their goods are not linked to deforestation, forest degradation or illegal land use in the country of origin. Specifically, the EUDR applies to products from seven commodity groups identified as high-risk for deforestation, including beef, palm oil, soy, wood, cocoa, coffee and rubber (EURD, art. 2-3). The EUDR requires operators to conduct a risk-assessment on their productsâ connection to deforestation or forest degradation (EUDR, arts. 8, 10) and to assume responsibility for them in a due diligence statement (EUDR, art. 4). To prove their products do not exhibit ânon-negligible riskâ of deforestation, they need to provide the relevant authorities sufficient documentation to back their claims, including data on the geo-location of the agricultural or forest land of origin in the form of GPS coordinates or polygons (EUDR, art. 9).
Although the EUDR formally applies only to operators and traders placing products on the EU market, its effects extend far beyond EU borders. In practice, due diligence responsibilities are frequently passed up the supply chain, with significant implications for producers, traders and exporters in producer countries. As a result, questions of distributive justice and equity in EUDR operationalisation and implementation have become the subject of lively debate in the academic literature (Mcdermott et al., 2025; Verhaeghe & Ramcilovic-Suominen, 2024; Zhunusova et al., 2022). While some scholars argue that the EUDR could create opportunities for smallholders, for instance by shortening supply chains and strengthening producersâ bargaining positions (Blot & Hiller, 2022), the dominant concern remains that the regulationâs new due diligence requirements and associated transaction costs will impose additional burdens on smallholder producers and traders (Dupont, 2025) and potentially exclude them from global supply chains on which they depend (Naranjo et al., 2023; Zhunusova et al., 2022).
This study assesses activities and resources which aim to facilitate smallholder compliance with the EUDR and mitigate the EUDRâs most adverse socio-economic consequences, such as trainings, capacity building, technical support, open source technologies, and the establishment of a national digital infrastructure (Gallemore et al., 2022; Grabs et al., 2021). Focussing on the inclusion in deforestation-free value chains of smallholder farmers, micro- and smallholder traders and processors and coffee cooperatives, this study aims to understand from a bottom-up perspective how EUDR compliance is organised, mediated and experienced by upstream actors in the Ugandan coffee supply chain.
The specific study research objectives are three-fold:
OBJECTIVE 1: to understand how EUDR intermediary activities reach upstream coffee supply chain actors in Greater Masaka across different organisational and relational contexts. EUDR intermediary activities include horizontal measures, such as broad sensitisation campaigns and farmer registration initiatives intended to cover all value chain actors, and targeted measures, which are more selective and include buyer-specific registration schemes and private or donor-led traceability systems and traceability pilot projects (e.g. GIZ-supported EUDR Task Force prototype projects). Targeted activities typically focus on organised or affiliated actors, such as cooperative members or contract-linked farmers, and operate alongside more universal government- and donor-funded efforts. The study assesses whether EUDR intermediary activities reach actors evenly or unevenly across the value chain, and how different implementation modalities shape inclusion, exclusion, and disparities in compliance capacity among upstream coffee actors.
OBJECTIVE 2: to understand perceptions of upstream coffee supply chain actors about the EUDR and EUDR-related activities. Building on scoping discussions and existing reports that highlight distrust around farmer registration as a key challenge in EUDR intermediation in Central Uganda (Royalway Media, 2024; Wamala, 2025; personal communications March 2026), this study examines how trust in the EUDR and related mediation activities varies across levels of embeddedness in EUDR intermediation activities and across different organisational and relational contexts. Beyond trust as a functional concern, it also investigates broader normative perceptions, including perceived relevance of the EUDR, its contribution to sustainable coffee production, and views on responsibility and burden-sharing (Dupont & Pietrzak, 2025). In doing so, the study shifts from narrow implementation questions to bottom-up perspectives on sustainability regulation, contributing to a more decentralised and critically informed understanding of EUDR governance (Alcazar III et al., 2023; Reid & Ferrando, 2026).
OBJECTIVE 3: to understand remaining obstructions and challenges for EUDR-compliance of upstream coffee supply chain actors in practice. While prior work provides initial insights (Royalway Media, 2024), this research adds two contributions. First, it offers an independent assessment of the recently launched Task Force-led and donor-supported traceability prototyping initiatives. Second, by identifying constraints that recur across organisational, relational, and mediation contexts, the study seeks to surface structural limitations and biases in current EUDR implementation approaches. Through in-depth qualitative interviews, it examines how everyday practices and lived experiences shape, enable, or obstruct compliance in practice, thereby contributing to a grounded understanding of the EUDRâs socio-economic and environmental justice implications (McDermott et al., 2025; Verhaeghe & Ramcilovic-Suominen, 2024).
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Belgium |
2026-08-13 19:51:13 |
2029-08-13 |
Social Science and Humanities |
Non-Clinical Trial |
Non-degree Award |
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Eva Akurut
ID: UNCST-2021-R012648
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BARRIERS AND ENABLERS TO WOMEN'S ADVANCEMENT IN DATA SCIENCE AND BIOINFORMATICS IN UGANDA
REFNo: SS5742ES
Primary objective: To identify barriers and enablers affecting womenâs participation and advancement in emerging technology fields of Data Science and bioinformatics, with a focus on individual factors and socio-cultural, institutional, and training-related factors.
Secondary objectives:
â
SO1: To identify barriers and enablers at key career transition points (graduate training, early career, and leadership) and assess socio-ecological, institutional, and training-related influences on womenâs participation, retention, and progression in emerging technology fields of Data Science and bioinformatics.
â
SO2: To identify coping strategies, support mechanisms, and enabling factors â including the role of male allyship, mentorship, and gender attitudesâthat support womenâs advancement in emerging technology fields of Data Science and bioinformatics.
â
SO3: To generate context-specific, evidence-based policy and practice recommendations to foster equitable participation and advancement of Ugandan women in emerging technology fields of Data Science and bioinformatics.
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Uganda |
2026-08-13 19:48:22 |
2029-08-13 |
Social Science and Humanities |
Non-Clinical Trial |
Non-degree Award |
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MIRIAM KATUSIIME
ID: UNCST-2021-R013958
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AFRICAN YOUTH PATHWAYS TO RESILIENCE AND
SYSTEMS CHANGE (AYPReS) IN UGANDA
REFNo: SS5698ES
a) To analyse how youth voice and agency can either impede or accelerate their journey to
dignified and fulfilling work across sectors in Uganda, with particular attention to RDPs,
PWDs, rural young women, and youth in informality.
b) To analyse how perceptions of risk by individuals and group (including RDPs and PWDs, youth
in informality) across the 18 to 35 yearsâ age bracket and contexts determine their level of
preparedness to survive, cope, and thrive against socioeconomic, cultural, political, and
environmental threats.
c) To examine the obstacles faced by secondary youth in work (youth working in Mastercard
Foundation-supported enterprises) and how they can be supported to thrive.
d) To explore young peopleâs and other system stakeholdersâ perceptions of sustainability and
systems change, including their vision of a transformed system, and the type of system changes
needed to achieve dignified and fulfilling work.
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Uganda |
2026-08-13 19:46:44 |
2029-08-13 |
Social Science and Humanities |
Non-Clinical Trial |
Non-degree Award |
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