Youth & Employment: SLN 3 in Uganda
One of the key challenges of the future for Uganda’s youth is youth unemployment. Reversing this trend is a major challenge for any developing country, more so for Uganda which has an upright population pyramid with a high dependency ratio. According to the state of Uganda population report 2006, over the past two decades, youth have continued to form a broad base of the population. In 2003 World Bank statistics where showing that Uganda’s overall unemployment rate stood at 3.2 percent, whilst that of youth (15-24) stood at a whopping 22.3 percent.
During this third session of the Sharing and Learning Network (SLN) we have been able to discuss this topic at length with youth activists from CSOs and Donor agencies who have a diverse knowledge and experience in working with youth, particularly in creating entrepreneurship opportunities.
After this session I wish to note that I have personally come to understand that investing in young people is not only a social obligation, but makes economic sense. Young people’s involvement in planning and in all processes of policy formulation is therefore paramount.
Unlike other sessions, we did not only structure questions around the theme for the group to follow, but allowed the participants to generate their own questions for the working groups. This was intended to enable the audience to discuss the key issues for them in relation to engaging youth in improving employment policies and practices.
The questions generated were:. 1) “How should the young people be involved in policy formulation and implementation”; 2) “What are the gaps and issues in Uganda’s draft employment policy’; and 3) To identify initiatives that engage youth in improving their employment opportunities (for both mini discussion groups).
We where also informed by one of the participants that in 2005 Uganda became a lead country of the ILO/UN/World Bank Youth Employment Network, which has contributed towards the development of the National Action Plan for Youth Employment. A comprehensive draft National Employment Policy is currently before the cabinet waiting to be adopted. With ILO support Uganda is pursuing an integrated policy on youth employment which addresses three key priority areas: poverty reduction, elimination of child labour and mitigating the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS at the work place.
Please click here to see the report on Draft SLN 3 Report Ug 14-10-09.
Sammy Kavuma, Youth Participation Officer
Though there is need to pressurize the Government for better laws and policies. Its harmonization is a key aspect to change this trend Also full participation of youth in development of these policies and programmes as this will lead to sustainable development.
Kyeyune Geoffrey Steven-RYDA
October 20, 2009