The country programme was foreseen to have two thematic programmes, namely the Uganda Programme for Governance, Rights, Accountability and Democracy (UPGRADE) and the Uganda Programme for Sustainable and Inclusive Development of the Economy (UPSIDE).
The thematic objective of UPGRADE is "to enhance accountability, stability, deepened democracy and respect for human rights in Uganda". It was envisaged that the objective will be realised through four separate, but mutually reinforcing development engagements, namely:
- The Democratic Governance Facility (DGF), a multi donor facility which primarily supports civil society within democracy, accountability and human rights.
- The Inspectorate of Government (IG) - the national ombudsman institution and national anti-corruption body has a dual mandate to investigate and prosecute corruption and administrative malpractices.
- The Ministry of Finance's public Financial Management Programme (FINMAP) which is a joint Government and DP supported reform programme.
- The Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) which is a relatively small but strategically important and well-placed partner in Northern Uganda.
The thematic objective of UPSIDE is "to contribute to sustainable and inclusive economic growth". It was envisaged that the objective would be realised through three separate, but mutually reinforcing development engagements with three corresponding development outcomes, namely:
- The North Uganda Resilience Initiative (NURI) which supports local economic development and resilience in Northern Uganda, including for refugees and refugee-hosting communities aiming at enhanced production and marketing, better infrastructure, and climate change adaption for small-scale farmers.
- The Agricultural Business Initiative (aBi) which acts as a vehicle for channelling financial and technical support to beneficiaries and partners for private sector agribusiness development.
- The Trade Mark East Africa Uganda (TMEA-U) which supports business environment reform by focusing on increasing trade through better market access and enhanced enabling environment and improved competitiveness.

The overall purpose of the appraisal was to provide strategic and technical quality assurance of the country programme design and documentation before submission to the grant authorities for approval as per Danida guidelines for country programmes. The appraisal assessed to which extent the country programme fulfils the strategic direction and objectives of the country policy paper, including taking on-board the comments from the Council for Development Policy. It assessed the rationale provided for the design of the country programme, and whether the CP was technically sound, including from a management, monitoring and risk management point of view. The appraisal followed the Danida guidelines for Programmes and Projects, January 2017.

Services provided:
- Thorough assessments of the Country Programme, each of the thematic programmes and each of the development engagements.
- A Mission Preparation Note based on a desk review of all programme documentation.
- A mission to Uganda including discussions with the Embassy, representatives of GoU, the proposed partners of the programme and some development partners.
- A debriefing note, including a matrix of recommendations (at the end of the mission).
- A draft appraisal report.
- Final appraisal report.