Situation analysis
Despite the nationwide challenge to create adequate and sustainable employment opportunities for 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 the Democratic Republic of Congo. The GLY project will support young people (both refugees and locals) in both districts through interventions targeted at increasing their employment and small business opportunities while also equipping targeted civil society organizations with the capacity to support these activities and support youth agencies.
The project will also pursue the goals of democratic 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.
PROJECT DURATION 2020-2023
DONOR: European Union
TARGET GROUP:
Unskilled out of school youth, (2,400 young women and 1,600 young men) between 18-35 years of age; Youth Organizations, Adjumani and Arua District Farmer Association (DFAs) affiliates to UNFFE;
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA: Uganda
Arua and Adjumani districts
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 the government and financial service providers from the private sector.
Youth capacity to engage in youth inclusive policies at local and national levels is enhanced.
Existing and newly established district youth agencies are strengthened in sustainable business operation, financial viability, good governance and democracy related to the promotion of youth leadership and employment especially young women.
Agroforestry, Sustainable Land Management and Landscape Restoration
Agroforestry and sustainable agriculture practices will be developed and adapted 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 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. This project will use the value chain development approach to enable youth to realise 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.
CSOs capacity strengthening for a bottom-up accountability mechanism
Vi Agroforestry focuses on strengthening the 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 an organizational capacity assessment for the mapped out CSOs and then building their capacities to ensure that they can identify and act/facilitate the promotion of youth employment and agency. Capacity strengthening will entail a mix of methods including training leadership and management, a review of governance documents.
Our approach
The project will focus 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 organisations will be ensured through livelihood improvement of their membership. This will be 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 will involve skills development as well as linkages to business development services including financial services.
The project will support local youth organisations capacities 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 will entail guiding households’ participation in joint decisions at househo
ld level, strengthening the capacity of farmer organisations to support young women and men’s participation in advocating for and upholding commitments on their socio-economic rights at the community level such as devolved units of government including planning and budgeting processes, and equipping youth to take up the leadership roles.
Human Rights-Based Approach
Vi Agroforestry actions are guided by the principle that embraces meaningful participation and involvement of local communities in the planning and decision-making processes. The methods to the applied to the proposed action take a participatory approach to include young women and men and have 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 in 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.
Vi Agroforestry
Vi Agroforestry is a Swedish development organisation, fighting poverty and climate change together with smallholder farmer families and farmers’ organisations in East Africa. Vi Agroforestry work focuses on sustainable agriculture and agroforestry – growing trees alongside crops and livestock. Since its inception in 1983, the organisation has helped plant over 100 million trees and improved the livelihoods of over 1,8 million people.
Uganda National Farmers’ Federation (UNFFE)
The Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFE) is the largest non-governmental farmers’ organisation in Uganda. It was founded by farmers from all over Uganda in 1992 to mobilize the farming community and voices under one independent umbrella organisation. UNFFEs vision is to empower farmers through strong farmers’ organisations.
European Union
This project is funded by the EU. This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of implementing partners and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
This project is funded by the European Union
