A Review of Sustainable Trade Practices and Employment in Uganda

The intersection of sustainable trade governance and labour-market outcomes has become a central concern for low-income, agriculture-dependent economies, yet the evidence base linking specific sustainable trade practices to employment changes in Uganda remains fragmented. This narrative review synthesises the available literature across five dimensions: voluntary sustainability certification schemes, environmental provisions in trade agreements, gender-differentiated employment outcomes, Aid for Trade and green trade facilitation, and skills development for sustainable production. Drawing on household-survey-based empirical studies, computable general equilibrium simulations, systematic reviews, and programme evaluations, the review finds that the employment benefits of sustainable trade practices in Uganda are modest, conditional, and unevenly distributed. Certification schemes are associated with farm-gate price premiums and cooperative participation gains but have not consistently translated into sustained improvements in employment quality or quantity. Environmental provisions in the EU–Uganda Economic Partnership Agreement and regional trade frameworks have generated limited direct employment effects, concentrated among larger formal-sector firms. Gender-differentiated outcomes reveal persistent gaps in women’s control over income and occupational mobility despite expanded cooperative membership. Aid for Trade flows are positively associated with export growth, but the employment elasticity of that growth remains low, and the emerging green trade facilitation agenda is insufficiently targeted toward labour-intensive sectors. The skills-development system is poorly aligned with the competencies required for sustainable export production, creating a low-equilibrium trap. The review identifies three systemic research gaps — weak causal identification, limited longitudinal tracking, and under-studied informal-sector transitions — and concludes with policy recommendations organised around the five dimensions of the SPGFS framework.