Green livelihoods Youth (GLY) Project
Despite the nationwide challenge to create adequate and sustainable employment opportunities to the young and more so rapidly growing population, youth unemployment in Adjumani and Arua districts has been further aggravated by the influx of refugees and asylum seekers, majorly from the neighbouring countries of South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo. The project is supporting young people (both refugees and locals) in both districts through interventions targeted at increase their employment and small business opportunities. The project is also equipping targeted civil society organizations with capacity to support these activities and support youth agency. The project has particular goals of building strong democratic systems, good governance and gender equality through supporting self-sustaining social structures capable of enabling the youth to claim and access their rights and integrate into the mainstream economy.
Specific objectives
- To increase farm and off-farm green employment options for economic empowerment of female and male youths through sustainable apiculture, solar energy businesses and access to affordable financial services
- To strengthen capacity of youth organizations to influence decision-making processes at local and national levels through the adoption of progressive governance systems
Key results
- Youths’ capacity in business improved (including sustainable solar, apiculture, and marketing)
- District Farmers’ Associations and youth led business initiatives with improved access to business development services provided by government and financial service providers from private sector.
- Youth capacity to engage in youth inclusive policies at local and national levels enhanced.
- Existing and newly established district youth agencies are strengthened in sustainable business operation, financial viability, good governance and democracy related to promotion of youth leadership and employment especially young women.
Our approach
The project is focusing its efforts on enhancing economic opportunities for young women and men to earn an income and accumulate economic assets. This action is also structured with the understanding that sustainability of the services delivered by Adjumani and Arua District Farmer Associations and youth organizations will be ensured through livelihood improvement of their membership. This is being undertaken by identifying the constraints preventing the realization of their economic rights and supporting them to develop and implement strategies aimed at improving their livelihoods on a sustainable basis hence strengthening young people’s agency. This involves skills development as well as linkages to business development services including financial services.
The project is supporting local youth organizations capacities in order to strengthen young women and men participation in decision-making and to be able to lend their voices in addressing social and economic challenges that they face. To achieve this, focused interventions aimed at ensuring young women, and men’s interests, are increasingly and effectively represented and visible through leadership at all levels of decision-making from household to community levels. This entails guiding households’ participation in joint decisions at household level, strengthening the capacity of farmer organizations to support young women and men’s participation in advocating for and upholding commitments on their socio-economic rights at community level such as devolved units of government including planning and budgeting processes, and equipping youth to take up leadership roles
Human Rights-Based Approach
Vi Agroforestry actions are guided by the principle that embrace meaningful participation and involvement of local communities in the planning and decision-making processes. The methods to be applied on the proposed action take a participatory approach to include young women and men and having their voices heard. The action is guided by Vi Agroforestry’s application of a Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) in all its interventions. HRBA ensure that no one is left behind in a development process, the core of this approach is embedded on the principles of participation, links to human rights, accountability, non-discrimination, empowerment and transparency. The approach will be applied in the engagement with different actors (both state and non-state actors) in the action.
Agroforestry, Sustainable Land Management and Landscape Restoration
Agroforestry and sustainable agriculture practices will be developed and adopted to the local ecological conditions. Apiculture and solar energy projects will be promoted in this action as part of a sustainable land use practice. Vi Agroforestry will enrich this project with its wealth of experience in promoting in the apiculture and solar energy installation and management. This will involve supporting mechanisms of increased production, sustainable linkages with markets, partnerships with support institutions, well managed beekeeping infrastructures. The youth will be supported to come up with viable enterprises in beekeeping (modern bee farming techniques, wax processing techniques, exchange visits, participation in trade fairs, innovative value-added products, market access through information and facilitation).
Value chain and financial services
The project will promote value chain development to enhance the economic empowerment of young women and men to enable them to play an imperative role in the competitive honey value chain. ‑is project will use the value chain development approach to enable youth to realize higher economic growth through their engagement at different stages of honey production and marketing as well as adopting solar energy technologies. The action will also promote Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) methodology to provide easy access to credit facilities at reasonable rates to young women and men.
Civil Society Organizations capacity strengthening for bottom up accountability mechanism
Vi Agroforestry focuses on strengthening capacities of local CSOs to be able to identify their rights and engage duty bearers to hold them into account based on their rights or existing development plans. The action will employ this method by undertaking organizational capacity assessment for the mapped out CSOs and then building their capacities to ensure that they are able to identify and act / facilitate promotion of youth employment and agency. Capacity strengthening will entail a mix of methods including training leadership and management, review of governance documents.
