The Expanding Social Protection (ESP) Programme is a Government of Uganda Programme implemented under the Ministry of Gender, Labour & Social Development. Since 2006, the Ministry of Gender, Labour & Social Development has championed efforts to promote social protection in Uganda. These efforts culminated in the design of the Expanding Social Protection Programme (ESP) which was approved by the Cabinet in June 2010.

The five year programme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), Irish Aid and UNICEF with a budget of UGX 160 billion. The Government of Uganda starting from financial 2011/12 is making a financial contribution towards the grants, on top of the UGX6billion in kind contribution over 5 years. In the financial 2013/14 Government provided UGX 2billion for grants.