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Open file 05

A Tax That Works on Sugary Drinks

The current levy is too low to change what anyone drinks. We are making the case for a rate and structure that would.

Goal. Fiscal policy

What success looks like

A sugar content based levy set at a rate high enough to change consumption, with revenue directed to health services.

Running since

2025

Working with

With health economists and consumer groups

Stage 2 of 4 Coalition assembled
Modelling Coalition Submission Enacted
The timeline

Where it started, and where we are now.

2025

Fiscal modelling completed

Modelling of consumption and revenue effects at several rate and structure options.

Ongoing

Coalition assembled

Health economists, consumer organisations and clinicians aligned behind a single proposal.

We are here
Pending

Budget submission

Formal submission to the Ministry of Finance ahead of a budget cycle.

Pending

Rate adopted

Adoption in the Finance Act.

Uganda taxes sugar sweetened beverages, but the rate is low enough that it changes government revenue more than it changes what people drink.

The evidence from countries that set the rate high enough is consistent: consumption falls, reformulation follows, and the revenue can be earmarked for the health services that treat the resulting disease. The design detail matters more than the headline. A tax on volume behaves differently from a tax on sugar content.

We are building the fiscal and legal case for a rate and a structure that would actually shift behaviour.

Also open

Other files on the table.

All open files
File 01 · Since 2023 Goal. Regulation

Front of Pack Warning Labels

Getting a plain warning onto the front of every ultra processed pack sold in Uganda, so a shopper knows what is inside before it reaches the pot.

Stage 4 of 5 Nutrient Profile Model signed
Evidence Coalition Draft regs NPM signed Gazetted
With the Uganda National CSO Coalition and GHAI Follow this file
File 02 · Since 2022 Goal. Law

The EAC Agroecology Bill

The first law of its kind in East Africa. It would protect indigenous seed, curb agrochemicals and make agroecology the region's default rather than its exception.

Stage 3 of 5 Tabled before the EALA ATNR Committee
Consultations Bill drafted EALA committee Plenary Assent
With AFSA and regional civil society Follow this file
The brief

One email a month.
No noise, just the files.

What moved, what stalled, and what you can do about it. Written for people who care about food justice but don't have time to read a bill.

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