This first country programme evaluation for Uganda covers the cooperation and partnership between IFAD and the Government of Uganda over the period 1998-2011Overall, the portfolio performance is assessed as moderately satisfactory, but with challenges of sustainability and in the provision of rural finance, which is essential for promoting better incomes and food security. IFAD’s main contribution has been in developing the vegetable oil subsector where support has been based on an innovative public-private partnership and a value chain approach. The evaluation underlines that this is indeed a far-reaching achievement. During the first part of the period covered by the evaluation, IFAD contributed considerable staff and financial resources to developing policies and partnerships. In the latter part, it also invested much time in policy dialogue but without being able to effectively persuade the Government to accept its views. With transition to direct supervision and implementation support, which is an important change in IFAD’s operating model leading to better results, less staff time is available for non-lending activities (knowledge management, policy dialogue and partnerships.