The overall goal is to empower underemployed youth, particularly young women, to build sustainable businesses, while strengthening youth-led organisations to advocate for policies that enhance youth economic participation and influence local government policy implementation for increased support in sectors impacting youth.
Directly involved are 1,300 persons (725 women) composed of underemployed out-of-school youths (including youth with disabilities and/or living with HIV/AIDS) who will be organised in Youth Business and Advocacy Groups (YBAGs); district and sub county local government officials; 25 private sector actors from finance, Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions’ staffs; and 15 AFARD staff members. Further, 7,400 (60% females) persons are indirectly involved (youth family members, youth wage earners together with their family members). 50% of the participants each will be drawn from Pakwach and Zombo districts in West Nile, Uganda.
Due to limited education, skills, opportunities, and a surplus of labor, many youths in Uganda and especially in the West Nile Region have turned to self-employment in microenterprises as a way to cope with the shortage of jobs. These informal microenterprises offer limited opportunities for growth, making it challenging for youths to achieve economic stability and lead active, dignified lives. This situation has led to a social category of “under-employed youth in vulnerable enterprises (UYiVE)” in Pakwach and Zombo district. The main challenges are intertwined and include limited access to business development services, limited youth participation in policy-making and limited institutional capacity and frameworks for advocacy.
The local Ugandan organisation has set itself the goal of developing the West Nile Province in northern Uganda. AFARD has grown steadily over since 2014 and today implements numerous projects in the areas of smallholder agriculture, local value chains and vocational training.