Download Report

Author
BONNY ODUR LURU
Project Name
Organization
AGENCY FOR SUSTAINABLE RURAL TRANSFORMATION(AFSRT )
Country of
implementation
UGANDA
Funder of the Project
Netherlands Development Organization (SNV)
Period covered
1st September 2014 up to 31st December 2014
1
BACKGROUND.
Over 70% of Uganda’s population is below the age of 30. Youth unemployment rate in Uganda
is over 70%, one of the highest in Africa. The unemployment problem in northern Uganda is due
to limited skills of out of school youth, limited market orientation of youth skilling programs and
untapped business opportunities. Whereas the youth are innovative and interested to
contribute to their own employability, they require an enabling environment and market-led
skills development in order to unlock their potential and respond to the emerging market
opportunities.
Agency For Sustainable Rural Transformation (AFSRT) is a local non-governmental organization
based in Lira was contracted by the SNV to implement the Opportunity for Youth Employment
project pilot project which was implemented in the 8 districts in the Lango sub region. AFSRT
was expected to organize the two main event, The Youth Advocacy Plat form for the youths in
the Lango sub region (Lango Youth Advocacy Plat Form) and The Youth Business Forum where
the youth business in the Lango sub region were profiled for to show case their business
innovation. The two events were expected to be organized in partnership with the NGOs
implementing the youth programs in the Lango sub region. AFSRT mobilized the NGOs
implementing youth programs in the region, media houses, banks and the district leaders,
private companies and public institutions in Lango and formed the organizing committee as
AFSRT and SNV took lead in the organizing of the events.
In course of implementing this project the following activities were conducted both by the
AFSRT and the organizing committee especially during the organization of the youth advocacy
plat form and the Youth business plat form:
STAKEHOLDER MAPPING:
Since the youth advocacy plat form and the youth business forum was supposed to be
organized in partnership with the organizations implementing youth programs in the Lango sub
region, it was prudent that a stake holders mapping be done to identify the actors
implementing youth programs in Lango sub region. AFSRT with the help of the Community
Development Officers of the district in Lango identified the actors engaged in the youth
programs and mapped them. The mapping specified the organization, their legality, operational
areas, programs engaged in and donor target beneficiaries among others. The lists of the actors
and the outcome of the mapping of the actors were then used in identifying actors who needed
to be contacted for the buy in meeting.
BUY IN MEETINGS:
AFSRT carried out buy-in meetings in all the 8 districts of Lango to ensure participation of
different stake holders like NGOs, private companies, media houses, public institutions of
learning, banks and youth employers among others. This by in meeting was meant to explain
the concept to the actors but also not only to secure their participation but to seek their
approval of the formation of the Lango Youth Plat Form and the Lango Youth Business Forum.
The buy in meeting was also meant to help the relevant offices which the organizers needed
their approval to hold the event a ware thus guaranteeing their support and also to equip them
with facts about the event in order for them to explain to the community why such event was
being organized. The meeting was held on one on one basis with PLAN Uganda, VSO, CCYA,
AYINET, Community Connector, NU-HITES and at district levels;Amolatar, Alebtong and Dokolo.
The media houses engaged were; Radio Wa, Unity FM, Voice of Lango, Rhino FM and the key
district official brought on board to aid in the process was the Senior Community Development
Officers. The success of the buy in meeting was supposed to be translated into support and
commitment of the actors in organizing the event and approval of the state organ’s
participation in the process and during the event which was all achieved after the buy in
meeting.
One of the meetings with stakeholders AYINET, PLAN,CCYA,VSO at AFSRT offices
YOUTH PROFILING:
AFSRT with the help of its committed staff carried out mapping of various businesses and youth
innovations of the active youth in the different locations of the 8 districts in Lango region. This
was done through meetings organized at District level to identify the youth innovations, field
visits, and peer referral. Through this process the youth business and innovations were
identified and compiled by the AFSRT. During the profiling it was realized that most youth
business are dominated by male youths and are mainly located around town outskirts, trading
centers or major roads. The profiling indicated that most of the youth are engaged in
agriculture related trade, mechanical work like motor bike repair, service industry like
(motorcyclists) boda boda, food and drinks and skill work. The youth business profile collected a
lot of information on individual youth businesses business, location, activities of the business,
annual revenue and the people being recruited among others. See annex for details of the
youth business profile.
GENERATING THE YOUTH ADVOCACY ISSUES:
The youth advocacy issues for the platform were generated from all over the 8 districts which
involved participation from key district youth leaders and chairpersons, the youths in the local
community as well as youths engaged business. In Amolatar, Alebtong, kole, Lira, Oyam districts
the meeting that was conducted by AFSRT staff attracted between 50 to 80 youths, and
Amolatar district over 150 youths from different sub-counties attended meeting organized by
AFSRT to generate advocacy issues for discussion during the youth advocacy day. The youth in
all this districts had cross cutting concerns in regards to youth employment citing government
neglect ,lack of capital need for easy accessible market for their agricultural products,
inadequate skills among others were issues raised. The issues raised guided the organizing
committee in identifying the topic for advocacy day and guest speakers who should handle the
topic.
PREPARATORY MEETINGS:
After the mapping and buy-in meetings with the different youth actors and the district officials,
the AFSRT team scheduled beginning from the month of October 2014 that every Wednesday
of the week from 2:30PM to be used for meetings at AFSRT offices to discuss the organization
and planning of the two youth events. The meeting attacked NGOs, media houses, district
representatives of district officials in Lango, OYE staffs, SNV and PALM Consult forming a team
of actors engaged in the organization. From this an organizing committee was set in place with
sub committees to steer in the organizing of the event as AFSRT chairs the organization
deputizes by VOS. Meetings were held every Wednesday in the months of October to
November 2014 as special and sub-committee meeting continued to be held as and when
necessary to help in effective organization of the events. Out of the many actors contacted and
expected to be in the organization;CCYA,VSO,AYINET,AFSRT,MEDIA HOUSES AND
GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES led to the success of the events.
ADVOCACY FORUM:
The Lango Advocacy forum was held on the 20th November 2014 at Lira hotel, it was attended
by 230 youth in the Lango sub region much as it was planned for 120 participants. Technical
people were invited to make presentation and discussion as well as giving inspirational talk to
the youth. The topic which were handled during the meeting were: Youth and Agriculture
presented by Professor Jackob Geoffrey Agea of Makerere which was discussed by Mr.Doi Fred
the farm manager in Ngetta ZARDI and Youth and Skills presented by Mr. Laury Lawrence Ocen
a PhD student at Makerere University and his presentation was discussed by Dr. Agnes Atim
Apea the executive director of Hope Initiative in Amolatar. It was also deemed necessary that a
motivational speaker speaks to motivate the youths into applying what had been learnt during
the sessions. As earlier on mentioned, the expected number of the participants double during
the advocacy, this clearly affirmed the youth desire to have the Lango youth plat form formed
where youth issues are discussed with practical solutions presented to the youth to learn from.
It also still pointed the need for youths to participate in such discussion to help the youths
identify their potentials. The advocacy day was mainly attended by the youths engaged in
business, youth leaders, NGOs, private sector actors, government officials, youth employers
and the youth skill service providers.
The details of the activities covered during the advocacy day were as follows:
Official opening remark SNV by Mike Opio –Agriculture Sector leader SNV Uganda Program.
He gave the back ground of the youth employment in Uganda and noted that the youth
employment is an economic agenda that political or social as people think. He challenged the
people who have money to intervene in ventures that creates jobs to the youth and at the
same time advised the youth to embrace the culture of work. The SNV agriculture sector leader
noted that the employment challenges in Uganda can be address by improving on the saving
culture, teaching the children the culture of work right from family level and investing
Below are the three fundamental areas which can address youth which Mike Opio highlighted
in his remarks:
Savings culture
 There is no mentality to save money; children are not raised that way. But savings,
instead of spending, are crucial for investments. He compared the savings culture of
Ugandans with that of Indians, who do know how to save. You don’t grow from
borrowing and spending he noted.
Culture of work
 He asserted that often, in most developed countries students and secondary school kids
do jobs in the weekend, and part-time in the evenings. While in Uganda, students only
start thinking of work after their schooling is finished. So they have to be trained to start
working early forexample by volunteering, instead of looking for paid work from the
start. But he however, noted that these opportunities also need to be created.
Investment culture –
 The youth need to build an economic network which is vibrant network as young
people. The network will give them a voice such as advocacy forum. It can create for the
youth recommendations, and they can sell their ideas. Noting that Jobs come along
networks, it creates opportunity for job linkages. Also, when you are annoyed, you
should take a positive action.
 He concluded the most important issue is for the youth and the public at large to change
the perspectives of looking at things.
Official opening remark by Lira DLG, district youth counsellor
The office of the LCV Lira district local government did the official opening led by the secretary
for youth Mr. Ojuka Hamson who thank the AFSRT and SNV for organising the Lango Youth Plat
form which he said is one of the meeting they as the districts in Lango had failed to organize. He
noted that the challenge with most of the youths do have wrong attitude to work where he
advised the youths to embrace work without segregating or selecting it.
Remarks from Ashraf Chemonges ‘Lira District Police Commander.
The DPC noted that anyone can do any job as long as it is legally accepted by the laws of
Uganda and advised the youths to engage in something at least to earn a living. “I am the
youngest DPC and I started being DPC when I was below 30 years and I am proud to serve my
country” the DPC challenged the youth and advice the youth to engaged in legally accepted
work to earn a living to avoid being brought to police for engaging in criminal acts.
After the opening remarks by the SNV, LCV representative and the DPC Lira the presentations
session started with guest speakers handling the presentation and the discussion as all the
invited guest speakers for the event turned up for the advocacy day. The topic were handled as
detailed below:
Youth & Agriculture presented by Professor Jacob Godfrey Agea, in department of agriculture
extension & Innovation studies at Makerere University.
Professor Jacob Agea indicated that youth between age 18-30 is 21% of the population which is
close to 7million and about 64% are unemployed. He also cited that majorly in rural areas 90%
of the youth is employed in Agriculture. therefore he echoed on specific enterprises that attract
youth such as farming business with short gestation i.e. bring quick money with minimal labor
intensity and assured markets for example apiculture, rabbit rearing, piggery, horticulture
unlike those that take long time which is rejected by the youth because of attitude and risk
assessment since it’s difficult to start an investment. He discussed possible challenges that the
youth indirectly face that has led to less or no activity by the both the urban and rural youth. He
noted the following as in regards to the youth employment challenges in Uganda.
 He noted that Unemployment is especially under higher income families since they can
afford to be unemployed while benefiting from family support whereas Youth from
lower income families are often rural youth and are forced to take up any income
opportunity. But these are more often informal and casual contracts, where they earn
less, work more, and have a weaker social dialogue (social network and capital).
 Also specific challenges that the youth face in the agriculture sector is
underemployment during slack seasons when there is low or no agriculture activities.
This encourages youth to migrate from the country side leading to rural exodus pushed
by low infrastructure, service provision and social facilities.
 A lack of respect to agriculture, and a lack of role models
 He also cited the role of the media in promoting a western & urban lifestyle that are
demonizing agriculture thus negatively shaping youth’s aspirations related to
agriculture.
He cited the following as a constrains to youth employments in Uganda:
 Ignorance in policy dialogues:
 Challenges specific for access to land:
 Challenge: access to markets
 Challenge: access to rural finance
 Challenge: Capacity development
 Challenge: Attitudes
 Recommendations:
Formulation of this kind of platform and Strong youth organizations to increase
bargaining power of the youth groups to access the financial facilities is imperative.
Set up agribusiness centers with storage & processing facilities for training and capacity
building
Formulate and Organize young farmers’ trade fairs that will enable the youth to
showcase their activities and sell their products and create awareness of their presence
in the markets.
New Information Communication Technologies to facilitate marketing and trading
because youth are interested and pick up new technologies more easily than the elder
people.
Fredrick Doi – NARO, ZARDI, UOSPA.
His discussion focused on what Professor Agea presented but sighting more of the practical
solutions and recommendations in helping the youth understand Professor Agea’s
presentation. Fred Doi shared a lot of practical solutions especially relating to how it helped him
when he was a youth to make more money. This attracted a lot of questions as the youths were
interested in applying what he had discussed. The youth also requested that the speakers on
the topic youth and Agriculture could be given time to go and hold a radio talk show so that
more youth are empowered to exploit their potentials. Key recommendations from Doi Fred:
 He dismissed loan as a source of capital and recommended that the use of savings is
better. You can start with something small like chicken, they turn into goats, and to
cows; then you start expanding. If one has a saving culture, then you have business.
 Ignorance from businesses: youths need to update themselves with new agriculture
information so that they can respond to challenges as they come. You can seek
information at Ngetta and at the district agriculture offices because the information is
available and also consulting with from your fellow farmers!
 Market failures in order to capture market, it is important for farmers to be in
organizations because if you are in organizations you have bigger voices.
Youth and Skills Presented by Mr. Laury Lawrence Ocen PhD Student at Makerere
Mr. Ocen Laury noted in his opening remark during his presentation that the biggest
development challenge in Uganda today is not infrastructure or a lack of capital, but it is rooted
in the quality of the f human capital. “If you believe that we are the capital, than the quality of
the capital is wanting. It is a lack of skills. The skill aspect in human resources is lacking” he said.
He quoted Adam Smith who said in savage nations, everyone is involved in production, but it is
not even enough to sustain themselves, and soils are depleted. While in civilized nations, only
half of the people are involved in production but what they produce is enough to sustain
everybody for the whole year: why? He asked because they have skills and knowledge.
He highlighted the available skills set and how the youth can develop them to improve it as a
way of improving the quality of their skills.
Dr. Agnes Atim Apea PhD – discussant of youth and Skills .
She noted that everyone is talented, skilled and bright! “So what skill do you think you have?
Believe in yourself, and believe you can make it” She encouraged the youth by giving her life
back ground and told the youth to identify their talents and have high self-esteem and they will
make it. She noted that wealth is not in presenting papers since she has moved around the
world but discovered that wealth is in farming that is why she is a farmer and more known in
Lango by nick name “Mama Rice”. Apea encouraged the girls to work hard and be positive
about life and they will succeed. She gave the following recommendations:
 She said that in order to achieve, the youth should be positive, ambitious work very hard
to leave a legacy and also participate on issues around them.
 The Young people should be agents of change in this region and also explained that
knowledge is not only about going to school.
 Appreciate Uganda’s education system, it is one of the best in the region therefore we
cannot only blame the government. We should take the responsibility to make your
government better and support them but also the government should do their part.
Concluding remarks Hilda, SNV
Conclusion remarks were she suggested need innovative ways of how to get information down
to the youth and also need to enhance opportunities for internships, volunteering etc.
Also she noted the need Support youth in writing application letters and CVs via a youth
training centres since this would enable them compete with other youth in the urban settings in
job applications
Concluding remarks Chairperson Organising Committee Nick Obot
He thanked the guest speakers to their love and commitment for the youth issues by accepting
to spare their time to come and appreciated all the people in the organising team for the job
well done and the security for granting permission to the organizers to hold the advocacy
meeting.
THE LANGO YOUTH BUSINESS FORUM/EXHIBITION OF YOUTHS BUSINESS.
The exhibition platform which was day two event, took place on 21 st November 2014 in at lira
Hotel grounds. This day attracted over 60 youth from the 8 different districts of the Lango
region whereby the youth showcased their business and it created awareness and learning to
the youth who were not yet actively engage in business activities. The business forum also
attracted over 300 youth both men and women who inspected the various stalls and interacted,
shared business ideas with exhibitors. The other stake holders like VSO, plan Uganda and CCYA
also provided their youth groups who showcased beautiful art works whereas VSO had a group
that presented a Lango cultural dance to the guest that were present
This day was graced by the Guest of honor the minister of Northern Uganda Rebecca Otengo,
she however in her speech applauded SNV and AFSRT for coming up with the idea of Lango
youth advocacy forum and business platforms, this being a creative initiative and the first of its
kind in the region, the minister pledged to always support this forums so as to lift up the youth
whose employability is narrowing day by day.
The honorable minister Rebecca Amuge Otengo inspected all the one of the sixty stalls during
the youths business exhibitions at Lira hotel.
Sixty youths from the Lango sub region were selected to show case their business innovation,
among the youth selected are youths supported by NGOs and the one who started on their own
as did not receive any support from any development actor. During the business exhibitions the
youth were able to learn from their fellow youths and make business networking. Whereas for
the development actors the youth business exhibitions made the development actors and the
government to realize which youth business is preferred for the youth. The business exibutions
was what the guest of honor applauded so much and said it would make them as government
to identify the youths who need support and the areas relevant to be promoted in the youths
programs.




Key success
The positive response by both the district officials and the youth actors that are
carrying out different youth activities enabled us to plan, coordinate and organize
the Lango forums successfully.
The topics presented on the Advocacy day created more light and awareness to the
youths since they learnt, interacted and freely participated in the discussions , this
left many youth wishing for more programs such as OYE to continue mentoring them
The overwhelming number that doubled the initial 100 youth that was invited to
attend the advocacy meeting, this clearly enabled us to understand that the youth
are really interested in the youth program
Mobilization of 60 youth exhibitors from all over the region to showcase their
business and innovations was a great success to all the stake holders , district
officials, SNV and AFSRT that organized the two platforms
Recommendations
 Opportunity for youth Employment being a pilot project has enabled the youth to
understand their potential and capability during the two successful events that was
organized by SNV and AFSRT.
 The project should consider developing youth mentoring and training programs in all
the 8 districts of Lango region because it has created positive impact on the mindset
and attitude of the youth.
 Follow-up and monitoring of the key active youth businesses and innovations and
provide more training and workshops to enable the youth be exposed a greater
levels.
 The program should be facilitated at the district level so as to increase on the
number of youth participation.
ANNEXES:
-ADVOCACY ATTENDANCE LIST
-BUSINESS FORUM ATTENDANCE LIST
-EXHIBITORS LIST
-MAPPED YOUTH BUSINESS DATABASE
-EVALUATION FOR ADVOCAY DAY.