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THE STATE OF THE
YOUTH REPORT
| 1
Assessing Government
Investment in Young People
August, 2O19
THE
STATE
OF THE
YOUTH
REPORT
Assessing Government
Investment in Young People
THE STATE OF THE
YOUTH REPORT
Published by CEPA
P. O. Box 23276, Kampala
Email: info@cepa.or.ug
Website: http://www.cepa.or.ug
Citation:
E. Kwesiga, R. Wamajji, P. Mubangizi and G. Mwesigye (2019). State of the
Youth Report in Uganda: Assessing Government’s investment in young peo-
ple. Centre for Policy Analysis, Kampala.
Authors:
Eshban Kwesiga
Head of Programs & Analyst at CEPA
ekwesiga@cepa.or.ug
Reagan Wamajji
Programs Associate & Analyst at CEPA
rwamajji@cepa.or.ug
Godfrey Mwesigye
Programs Associate & Researcher at CEPA
gmwesigye@cepa.or.ug
Prosper Mubangizi
Policy Analyst/ Youth Inclusion & Governance Expert
prosperm@cepa.or.ug
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise
without the prior written permission of the publisher. The reproduction or use of this publication
for academic or charitable purpose or for purposes of informing public policy is excluded from
these reservations.
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Assessing Government
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ACRONYMS 4
Acknowledgements 5
Executive Summary 6
1.0 BACKGROUND 7
1.2 METHODOLOGY. 8
1.2.2 CONTENT SCOPE. 8
2.0 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS 9
2.1 STATE OF THE YOUTH POPULATION DYNAMICS IN EAST AFRICA. 9
3.0 STATE OF THE YOUTH IN UGANDA. 11
3.1 JOBS! JOBS! JOBS 11
3.2 YOUTH IN AGRICULTURE 17
4.0 HEALTH CARE FOR ALL 20
5.0 YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN DECISION MAKING. 25
6.0 EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES. 29
7.0 CREATIVE ARTS 33
8.0 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARIZED. 35
CONCLUSION 36
REFERENCES 38
CONTENTS
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ACRONYMS
BFP			 Budget Framework Paper
FY			Financial Year
EAC 	 East African Community
MDA			Ministries, Departments Agencies
MoEMD		 Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development
MoES			 Ministry of Education and Sports
MPS			 Ministerial Policy Statement
MoGLSD		 Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development
MPS			 Ministerial Policy Statement
NRM 			 National Resistance Movement
NYM			National Youth Manifesto
SMEs			 Small and Medium Enterprises
TNYM			 Technical National Youth Manifesto
UPFYA	 	 Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs
YLP			 Youth Livelihood Programme
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Acknowledgements
This research report on the state of youth in Uganda is published by Center for Policy Analysis
(CEPA) a public policy research think-tank in constant search of new solutions to global challenges.
The research team comprised of experts in public policy, governance and parliamentary democracy
with a focus on youth inclusion for sustainable development. We are grateful to the authors of
report; Eshban Kwesiga, Reagan Wamajji, Prosper Mubangizi and Geofrey Mwesigye for the effort
they put into compiling this report.
We acknowledge the great work by the research assistants in conducting the survey across all
regions of the country. The team was comprised of: Ms. Kibirigi Rachel, Ms. Matovu Shamira,
Mr. Chemonges Timothy, Mr. Kinani Allan Ms. Mutesi Allen, Ms. Mbanza Pauline, Mr. Mudingotto
Ladslaus and Ms. Nalubega Suzan.
We acknowledge the strategic inputs from Mr. Atukwase Primus Bahiigi the Manager Global
platforms at Action Aid-Uganda and Rachel Proefke from Restless Development Uganda.
We acknowledge the input and support of the various partners. This report is produced with support
from Restless Development, Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) Uganda, Action Aid
Uganda (AAU) and Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs (UPFYA).
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Executive Summary
Uganda is having a youthful population whose potential must be tapped into in the journey to
middle income status by 2020 and an upper middle-income nation by 2040 with an average GDP
per capita of US $ 9500. To achieve this demographic dividend, clearly targeted and tailor-made
interventions and efforts should be invested into bringing up a crop of young Ugandans ready to
lead an upper middle-income Uganda into a first world country. These investments are in areas of
education, skills development, health care access, sustainable use of nature and the environment,
environmental stewardship, diversification of the economy and good governance.
The State of the Youth Report is an annual evaluation of government’s investment in its young
people based on the demands made in the 2016-2021 National Youth Manifesto. The assessment
is based on five thematic areas which are jobs, education, health care, participation in decision
making, sports and creative arts. The findings in this report are generated after a nationwide
study involving youth selected solely on the basis of their age not political affiliation or social and
economic status.
The assessment gathered from the youth across the country and the analysis of government
policies and legislative action that health care is the demand that government has invested in
the most while the sports sector and creative arts are least invested in. Youth participation was
discussed mainly in the perspective of tokenism and political gerrymandering and 70% of the study
participants expressed a lack of confidence in the National Youth Councilors to effectively represent
their voices. Concerning the education sector, government was lauded for its efforts to increase
education access through USE and UPE. However, the education system was queried on grounds
that it is more theoretical that practical and that it is not sufficient enough to churn out a graduate
that can effectively negotiate the labour market terrain.
The report recommends that policies and laws that have already been passed, the implementing
modalities should be improved upon and strengthened. For other demands that have not been
fulfilled, the report recommends that effort to do so be expedited. It is also recommended that
Uganda undertake a deliberate investment strategy into its young people most especially as far as
jobs and employment are concerned. A robust School to Work Transition mechanism is needed if
Uganda is to stop this jobless growth that has been blossoming for the last 20 years. The report
recommends more investments in the ICT sector, which is very attractive to young people and has
the potential to attract increased investments from the private sector, thus further creating more
jobs.
Prioritizing the investment for the youth largely requires increasing funding in the above sectors
with a special focus on youth programs. We observe that generalization of some government
programs with no special attention to young people makes them a marginalized group.
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1.0
BACKGROUND
The definition of youth is a very subjective
undertaking characterized by varied responses
and outcomes in definition based on the various
context specific undertones. The United Nations
working documents define youth as a person
aged between 15 and 24 while a young person
is someone between 15 and 35 according to the
African Union. In Uganda, youth are categorized
as persons aged 18 to 35 years according to the
1995 Constitution while the National Youth policy
puts the cap to being a youth at 30 years of age.
This report takes cognizance of the fact that
some if not most of the young people remain in
education system way beyond the age of 24 and
hence will take the legal definition of who a youth
is and that is between 18 and 35years of age.
This definition allows the opportunity to capture
more information on the living experiences of
young people in Uganda.
The Annual State of the Youth report builds
on the current and former global, continental,
regional and national development blueprints,
namely, the post 2015 Development Agenda
(the Sustainable Development Goals), the
African Union Agenda 2063, the East African
Community Vision 2050 and the Uganda Vision
2040 as well as the 2016/2021. The National
Youth Manifesto builds on the interlinkages
between these developments agendas
1.1 About the State of Youth Report
In the run up to the 2016 general elections the
Youth Coalition on Electoral Democracy (YCED)
through a highly consultative process developed
the National Youth Manifesto 2016-2021 that
sedemands to be addressed by the government.
The demands are under five thematic areas:
Jobs, Education, Health, Youth Participation and
Sports and Creative Arts and they espouse the
aspirations of young people in the country and
call for government action on the same.
The government committed to fulfill the
demands of the young people as embedded
in the National Youth Manifesto 2016-2021
(NYM). The NYM also has a set Monitoring and
Evaluation framework; the Technical National
Youth Manifesto (NTYM) that provides a basis
for tracking performance and the overall impact
made in the target population by interventions
of government.
The 2019 State of the Youth Report therefore
reviewed the level at which the government
has been able to fulfil its commitments between
2016 and 2019. The report most specifically,
underscores the policy and legislative
frameworks based on the demands in the
2016-2021 National Youth Manifesto, the key
indicators and expected progress indicated in
the National Technical Youth Manifesto as of July
2019.
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1.2 METHODOLOGY
1.2.1 Data collection methods
a) Document review
The report examined the ministerial policy
statements,budget speeches, State of the
Nation Address and other budget documents
presented by the different Ministries to
Parliament. The policy statements set out the
performance and plans of spending agencies,
linking them with the policy objectives.
Summarizing past performances of the sector
and the plans for the future expenditure
and activities as well as anticipated sectoral
challenges and strategies. The study reviewed
the aforementioned documents for the period
between the years 2016 to 2019. These were
assessed against the technical youth manifesto
indicators and commitments of government.
● Review of existing policies on private sector
growth and investment
These policies, including among others
government taxation and investment policies,
will provide insights on private sector
performance in each of the five thematic areas
and how this contributes to youth development.
b)	 Survey method
A nationwide survey was conducted among the
youth across all regions in Uganda; Central,
Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern
Uganda. The respondents were randomly
selected from the mentioned regions and were
interviewed using a researcher administered
questionnaire.
c) Key Informant Interviews
Key informants were interviewed to buttress the
desk reviewed literature. These included young
people across the country, policy analysts and
makers in the public sector and key players
from the key private sector institutions. Key
informant interviews were conducted. These will
included policy analysts and technical staff from
the Ministries of Education and Sports, Health,
Education,Agriculture, political parties (NRM
and FDC), National Youth Council leadership,
civil society, and private sector actors.
1.2.2 Content Scope
This report focuses on the five thematic
areas as per the National Youth Manifesto,
measured against the expected progress as of
July 2019 which includes, Jobs, Healthcare for
all, Education for opportunities, Sports and C
reative arts; and Youth participation in decision
making.
The government committed
to fulfill the demands of the
young people as embedded
in the NationalYouth
Manifesto 2016-2021
(NYM).
“
“
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2.0
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
According to 2019 estimates, Uganda’s
population is at 44 million with a 3.3% growth
rate per annum1
and more than 78% of
Ugandans are young people aged 30 or below. It
can only be guaranteed that the number of
youths will keep increasing. How the government
harnesses the capabilities of today’s youth and
generates opportunities for future youth will be
key for Uganda’s ability to tap into a potential
demographic dividend.
2.1 STATE OF THE YOUTH POPULATION
DYNAMICS IN EAST AFRICA.
The East African Countries are experiencing
what can be termed as a youth bulge.2
1	 http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/ugan-
da-population/
2	 A youth bulge is a temporary demographic phenomenon
which occurs when child mortality declines and fertility falls rapidly so
that the previous cohort of births is larger than subsequent cohorts. As
the large cohorts of births move into the working ages (15-64 years),
Research has indicated that all the countries
in the region, as indeed is the case for most
African countries, will experience a significant
increase in the total population for the next
30-50 years, irrespective of what population
and social development policies the countries
adopt.3
This is being attributed to the decades of
high fertility that have created a high population
momentum, implying that even if total fertility
reached replacement level which demographic
and population experts put at a global ceiling of
2.1 children per woman in the next few years,
there will still be large numbers of women
added to the pool of reproductive women every
year. Hence, the issue of having a youthful
population is not just an issue of the present
but also a future case scenario that we must
begin preparing for if a demographic dividend is
to be utilized.
However, the policy direction that we adopt
today can influence the pace of growth and the
level at which the population will be stable.
It is anticipated that the youth population by
2065 will be 7.2 million in Rwanda, 30 million
in Kenya, 48 million in Tanzania, and 42 million
in Uganda.4
The consequences of the growth in
population size and high dependency ratio will
be increased pressure on basic social services
like education, health care, housing and
infrastructure.
The increasing youth population will also put
pressure on land, water, and other natural
resources and this could contribute to food
insecurity and resource-based conflicts not
forgetting the environmental consequences
that are associated with an increasing but
uncoordinated and unplanned for youth sector.
we get a bulge in the population pyramid
3	 UKAID, EARF & AFIDEP (2018). An Analysis of the East
African Regional Youth Demographics.
4	 UN Population Division. World Urbanization Prospects:
The 2014 Revision, CD-ROM Edition. In: United Nations Department of
Economic and Social Affairs PD, ed; 2014.
Pledges of the NRM to the youth
in the 2016-2021 manifesto.
•	 Invest in training the youth to
acquire skills required in the job
market.
•	 Deliberate effort will be made to
create an environment that offers
opportunities to create jobs for the
youth.
•	 Continue to fund the youth who are
not in formal employment to enable
them create jobs for themselves and
also employ others.
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In Uganda, for instance, the secondary school
going population will increase from 5.8 to 16.2
million meaning that there will be increased
pressure and demand for more education
services like schools and teachers.
Investments in areas that are crucial to reaping
a demographic dividend and helping the nations
utilize the advantage of a youthful population
are, if not lacking, not well structured and
implemented. Sectors like a robust education
system that imparts skills for employment,
job creation and entrepreneurship, transition
mechanisms from school to the labour
market, health services like SRHR and basic
healthcare access, housing and a well structure
urban infrastructure system, transport and
communication among others are very much
missing.
Because of this, it is highly feared that like
South Africa and Tunisia, the EAC countries will
not be able to profit from the demographic
dividend.5
Reaping a demographic dividend warrants that
structures are put in place for a healthy, creative,
innovative and productive youthful population.
It has been posited that the Asian Tigers and
Ireland benefited from the demographic
dividend by about 25% to 33% for them to be
the global rising powers that they are today.
Source: Authors’ calculations based on DFID,
EARF and AFIDEP Analysis of EAC Youth
Demographics.
5	 World Economic Forum, African Development Bank, World
Bank. The Africa Competitiveness Report 2017: Addressing Africa’s
Demographic Dividend. Geneva, Switzerland 2017
Based on the above illustration, if the level of
investment in young people remains “business
as usual” by 2050, the GDP per capita will be
$927, $896, $2264, $2063 for Uganda, Kenya,
Rwanda and Tanzania respectively. If these
Governments undertake a robust investment
in critical areas affecting the young generation
(health care, education and skill development,
governance, environmental sustainability,
It is anticipated that
the youth population
by 2065 will
be 7.2 million
in Rwanda, 30
million in Kenya,
48 million in
Tanzania, and
42 million in
Uganda.
“
“
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among others), the GDP per capita will increase
to $3483, $4595, $3457, $3878 for the
respective countries.
The African Union, through various policy
blueprints like the Agenda 2063, has
established a desired roadmap for harnessing
the demographic dividend6
and this road map
has been clear on the need to harness the
demographic dividend and has consequently
identified four pillars which are important in
this endeavour and these are: employment
and entrepreneurship; education and skills
development; health and wellbeing; and rights,
governance, and youth empowerment.
6	 African Development Bank. African Economic Outlook
2018; 2018.
3.0
STATE OF THE YOUTH IN
UGANDA
3.1 JOBS! JOBS! JOBS
Situational Analysis of the current
state of employment
It should be noted that the creation of jobs to
meet the demands of large youth populations
requires both local and foreign domestic invest-
ment, enabling environments for entrepreneur-
ship and good governance and accountability.
Governance and accountability are particularly
important in ensuring that youth have equita-
ble access to the available jobs, particularly in
the formal sector.
The biggest challenge young people face in
acquiring employment is lack of experience.
Most of the jobs on the market require
candidates to have acquired some minimum
Graph showing GDP per capita growth of EAC Countries by 2050 if they invested in youth vs if
the current status remained.
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level of experience which is estimated at 2 years yet most of the youth do not have such experience
after school. This was confirmed by the results from our survey where the majority (43.2%) indicated
it as a problem limiting them from acquiring jobs and next to it was lack of appropriate skills at 38.1%
as indicated in the figure below.
Figure: What is the biggest challenge young people face in search for employment
Source: Survey results 2019
To many young people, unemployment is the
most imminent problem they face as it affects
their socio-economic wellbeing and quality
of life. The 2016/17 Uganda National
Household Survey by the Uganda Bureau of
Statistics estimates the unemployment rate at
9% (those actively looking for employment but
had not found any) but the World Bank places
it at over 80%.
The results from our survey indicated that the
majority of young people (50.6%) expect the
government to support them to acquire jobs
and 24.2% indicated that the private sector is
best placed to provide employment as indicated
in the figure below. This is representative
of the high expectations young people have
of the government to provide economic
opportunities for them. As such, government
should involve itself as an active player in state
Figure3: Who is best placed to support young
people to get jobs?
Source: Survey results 2019
run manufacturing similar to countries such
as China, Brazil and India whose ownership
of state run companies is over 50% through
Public Private Partnerships.
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There are sex differences in employment
with males to be more likely to acquire
employ ment than females with
13% of female youth were unemployed
compared to 6% male counterparts who
had no jobs.
Urban unemployed youths were at 14
% while about 6% of rural areas are
unemployed. Kampala also exhibited the
highest unemployment rates (21%) while
West Nile sub region had the least (3%)7
.
Despite a seemingly low unemployment
rate, most of Uganda’s work opportunities
are largely informal at 7.7 million,
precarious, and poorly remunerated.
Underemployment among young people
also has far reaching consequences on
their socio-economic wellbeing but has not
captured the attention of various relevant
stakeholders.
7	 Uganda Household Survey, 2017
Government commitment to youth
employment.
Encourage the youth to undertake integrated patrio-
tism, skilling and elementary military science training
in order to re-orient mind-sets, attitudes and percep-
tions of the youth towards vocational skills, hard work
and national values. This will improve the country’s la-
bour productivity and also make it more competitive
within the region.
Organise a crash vocational training programme for
over 50,000 unemployed graduates in humanities and
social sciences to enhance their employability skills.
Support youth who come up with innovations, espe-
cially in software applications, to commercialize their
products.
The ongoing skilling programmes in the country will be
stepped up to enhance capacity of school leavers for
self-employment and employability
In addition to these initiatives, unemployed graduates
will be re-skilled in vocational disciplines to enhance
their employability and capacity for self-employment.
Enhance the capacity of implementing agencies such
as the Business,Technical and Vocational Education
and Training (BTVET), the Directorate of Industrial
Training (DIT), the Technical and Industrial Education
and Training (TIET) with a view to produce graduates
with skills that are relevant to the country’s current
needs.
Empower disadvantaged groups of society like rural
women, youth and the disabled by giving them equal
opportunity to skilling and employment.
-We will continue to protect our children from all forms
of child labour, including combating all forms of human
trafficking.
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Uganda has experienced a tremendous growth
trajectory, averaging at 6.5% over the last 30
years.8
However, this growth has not brought
with it increased employment opportunities and
has been termed by many as “jobless” growth. A
1% growth in GDP in Uganda, creates only 400
jobs as opposed to the 10,000 expected to be
created9
. There must be an employment demand
to rival the supply of labour, to create an optimal
employment level. The already fragile situation
is fueled by the rapid population growth of
3.3 percent which has led to a 78 % population
under 30 years.
The 2016-2021 National Youth Manifesto
calls for holistic interventions to improve the
employment environment in Uganda through
an enabling legal and policy environment to
facilitate job creation, skills development and
enterprise opportunities for young Ugandans.
The demands encompass the needs of all youth
despite ability, age, ethnicity, and gender and
are meant to be achieved over the 5 year period
from 2016 to 2021.
In this report, the various demands on jobs and
employment are grouped into distinct but broad
categories; skills development, infrastructure for
job creation and opportunities and enterprise.
i) Skills Development.
The capacity of Uganda’s human resource has
always been cast in serious doubt. An analysis
of value added per worker shows that compared
to most East African Countries, Uganda’s labour
force performs comparatively lower in labour
productivity10
.
8	 Budget speech for fiscal year 2018/19 by the Hon. Matia
Kasaija, Minister of MoFPED
9	 Yusuf Kiranda, Max Walter, Michael Mugisha (2017), REAL-
ITY CHECK: Employment, Entrepreneurship and Education in Uganda
10	 MoGLSD. Social Sector Development Plan
Among the demands made in the NYM was to
warrant government to institute measures to
require employers, particularly foreign investors
to: target at least 40% local youth in recruitment
and to procure from the area within which
they operate. In addition to regulations, this
report suggests that a one year tax break
should be offered to young people under the
age of 35 years as first time business owners
who have not been directors in any companies
before, as long as the company employs three
people, including two directors as required by
law and one extra employee.
The government passed the Buy Uganda Build
Uganda (BUBU) policy, with the intent to
increase consumption of local products and
increasing demand of the locally established
firms in domestic trade. However, the lack of
implementing modalities, coupled with lack
of sanctions for non-observance of the policy
especially for government institutions means it
having little or no impact at all.
In February 2017 Parliament granted Hon.
Patrick Nsamba leave to introduce the Local
Content Bill 2017 as a private members bill,
however, the lack of political will from the
government for both the BUBU policy and the
bill has slowed the progress thereof.
Other policies such as the PPDA Act Section
2(e) provides for preference of domestically
manufactured goods and Ugandan contractors
and consultants, in order to promote their
development, by giving them a competitive
advantage when competing for public
procurement contracts, to foreign manufactured
goods, foreign contractors or foreign consultants.
The PPDA guidelines on reservation schemes to
promote local content in public procurement are
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also being implemented. PPDA maintains that
number of contracts awarded to local producers
is very high at 99% because of the small nature
of procurements made in the financial year.11
The Nakawa Centre is one of the five hubs
that the government intends to construct
countrywide to facilitate the development of ICT
in the country. Steps must be taken to ensure
these are accessible to all youth and ensure
they are geared to the NDP II growth areas.
The National Development Plan, 2016-2020,
the government seeks to also put regional hubs
in Mbarara, Mbale, Gulu, and Arua.
In order to facilitate a proper school to work
transition, the youth called for efforts to fast-
track the establishment of National Youth
Service and Internship Schemes by all sectors
including Government. After a delay to fast track
this demand, the Uganda Parliamentary Forum
on Youth Affairs supported the development of
a private members bill, the National Graduate
Service Scheme Bill 2018, was moved by Hon.
Waira Majegere. The Bill which is currently
under consideration by the Parliamentary
committee on Gender, Labour, and Social
Development, seeks to provide a long-term
and effective means of developing Ugandan
society whilst simultaneously developing the
abilities of young people through service and
learning. Moving forward, further consultations
and policy development process on this policy
should endear the private sector, which is a
major contributor to youth employment and
development.
11 	 Report the performance of the public procurement system
for FY 2016/17
ii) Requisite Infrastructure for Job
Creation.
The NYM further realizes the need to
‘Strengthen implementation and
monitoring of legislation that requires
all foreign contractors to develop and
implement a technology transfer plan’.
The oil sector has attempted to streamline
the transfer of technology to locals through
legislation1213
. Licensees are required to submit
to the government a report on procurements
(utilization of Ugandan goods and services) and
training and employment of Ugandans within 60
days and 30 days,
Case study: Guiding policies on local
content in the oil and gas sector
The National oil and Gas policy and subsequent
regulations; the Petroleum (Exploration,
Development and Production) (National Content)
Regulations, Statutory Instrument (S.I.) 44 of
2016 and the Petroleum (Refining, Conversion,
Transmission and Midstream Storage) (National
Content) Regulations, (S.I.) 34 of 2016 provide
legal and policy frameworks that safeguard
Ugandans participation in the oil and gas sector.
The regulations require any licensee, contractor
and sub-contractor to give priority to goods and
services that are produced and available in Uganda
and which are rendered by Ugandan citizens
and companies in their petroleum activities. The
provisions also warrant the training and transfer of
knowledge/technology to indigenous Ugandans and
ring fence, some goods and services for example
security, foods and beverages, hotel accommodation
for supply by Ugandan citizens and companies.
respectively, after the end of each calendar year.
12	 Petroleum Act sec 125 4(b)
13	 Article 21.1 of the Production Sharing Agreements
(PSAs)
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Another NYM demand on the labour
infrastructure was to ‘Institute labour export
regulations and policies to eliminate human
trafficking and improve working conditions
of youth in the Diaspora’. It should be noted
that the Government of Uganda has a Labour
Externalization programme as strategic initiative
intended to facilitate recruitment of Ugandan
migrant workers to decent employment
opportunities and promote the protection of their
rights and welfare in destination countries. The
programme is implemented under the Ministry
of Gender, Labour and Social Development
(MoGLSD) and is responsible for licensing and
regulating private recruitment companies/
agencies; and signing bilateral agreements on
behalf of Uganda with countries interested in
importing labour from Uganda14
.
Between the FY 2014/15 to FY 2016/17,
facilitated recruitment of an estimated 70,000
Ugandan migrant workers to jobs in UAE, Saudi
Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Iraq,
Somalia, Afghanistan and Mali. The Ministry
has concluded bilateral agreements between
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Hashmite
Kingdom of Jordan and are still negotiating with
Qatar, UAE and Oman15
. However, given the
lucrative nature of the labour export business, it
has been bedeviled by human rights abuses
of the migrant workers and human trafficking.
There was an outcry for a regulatory framework
to the labour export industry.
14	 Prosper Mubangizi (2019). The Externalization of Labour
Bill: Why Uganda Needs to Embrace but regulate the labour export
industry. Accessed from http://cepa.or.ug/8328/the-externalization-
of-labour-bill-why-uganda-needs-to-embrace-but-regulate-the-la-
bour-export-industry/
15	 Press briefing Janat Mukwaya press briefing on the death
of Ugandans in the UAE, 20th
October 2018
•	 Almost 30% of the Young Ugandans (18-
34) are actually engaged in the early stages
of setting up and running a business.
•	 Uganda’s young people are under-educat-
ed and ill equipped to manage commercial
enterprises beyond the one person start-up
phase
•	 Well over two thirds of young Ugandans
(18 – 34) survive on less than USD 800 per
year
•	 Only 6% of young entrepreneurs cite finan-
cial institutions as the source of their cap-
ital; other sources are family, friends and
personal resources.
•	 89% of young entrepreneurs had not
received support from any policies or
schemes to help them in businesses
•	 1.8 Million Ugandan Youth are running busi-
nesses informally
•	 Over 80% of them admit that their product
lines have not changed over time indicating
little or no growth
•	 Uganda’s business discontinuation rates
are at 26% and among the highest in the
world, with many of these businesses un-
able to see their first birthday.
ii) Enterprise and Youth Start Ups.
Uganda is ranked as one of the World’s most
entrepreneurial countries with 28% of its adult
population co-own a new business according
to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).
However, there are a lot of disturbing statistics
as indicated in the table 6.
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II, Vision 2040 and the NRM manifesto have
very decisive focus on youth livelihoods and
employment. The Vision 2040 predicts improve-
ments in employment levels and labour market
conditions through a mix of measures that in-
clude: implementation of the National Employ-
ment Policy as well as other laws, policies and
guidelines on labour productivity and employ-
ment; strengthening of labour market infor-
mation systems; establishment of a minimum
wage; provision of non-formal skills develop-
ment targeted at women and youth; and en-
hancement of opportunities for medium-sized
businesses through improved access to finance,
entrepreneurship training and promotion of val-
ue chains. NDP II includes proposed major in-
vestment in transport, energy, ICT and water
infrastructure.
3.2 YOUTH IN AGRICULTURE
Uganda has about 5.5 million hectares of arable
land that is suitable for agricultural purposes.
The country also boosts of 49% of arable land
as regards the East African regional land mass.
The sector employs about 65% of Uganda’s
working population with youth comprising of
63%16
. Labour underutilization is rampant in the
informal sector, in which agriculture constitutes
most of the informal jobs. In the 2015 School
to Work Transition Survey by UBOS, 57.2% of
them were engaged in the agricultural sector. It
is estimated that about 71% of young men and
women working in this sector are ‘vulnerable’.
They are unpaid family helpers with inadequate
earnings, working under difficult conditions that
undermine workers’ fundamental rights. The
contribution of agriculture to GDP at current
market prices is 23.5%17
despite employing quite
a number of people; this may be attributed to
16	 National Strategy for youth employment in Agriculture,
2017
17	 UBOS Statistical abstract 2017
The Externalization of Labour Bill and The Anti-
Slavery Bill are before the floor of parliament
seeking to buttress the existing efforts to
regulate the industry.
The statistics in the table indicate a need for a
policy shift to support Start Up Entrepreneurs.
It was proposed that government Instigate
measures to support youth business start-
ups and to nurture new businesses.
One the flash ship government initiatives in this
regard has been the Youth Livelihood Program
(YLP). The program has registered moderate
performance to date as indicated by the Ministry
of Gender Labour and Social development.
According to the YLP Success Stories statistics,
200,000 direct and 500,000 indirect jobs had
been created as of May 2019 while a total of
19,305 youth projects in groups have been
financed, with 232,325 youth benefiting, of
whom 46% are female. The projects financed
are in various sectors, including Agriculture
(35%), Trade (29%), Services (19%) and
Industry (5%) among others. Various vulnerable
categories of youth have been reached including
school dropouts (34.6%), single-parent youth
(11.8percent), and youth with disabilities
(2.8%), among others.
There has also been a legislative effort to amend
the Uganda Development Bank Act to cater for
special funding for youth enterprises. On March
29th
Parliament granted Hon. Mwine Mpaka
(Western Youth MP) leave to introduce a Private
member’s bill entitled the Uganda Development
Bank (Amendment) Bill, 2018. The bill seeks to
streamline development financing for the youth.
Policy response.
Several planning frameworks such as the NDP
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the 6 million households engaged in subsistence
agriculture.
Most young people lack the prerequisites to
accessing formal banking services in Uganda.
Access to financing for agriculture is the greatest
challenge the youth involved in agriculture
face. From our survey results, 79.6% of the
youth do not have access to affordable credit
for agriculture. Among the factors that hinder
young people from accessing credit, lack of
information about the existing affordable loans
stood at 32.5%. This was followed by lack of
collateral security with a representation of
33.8%.
Though more than two-thirds of
young Africans who live in rural
areas work in the agriculture
sector, it is the least productive
sector in African economies.
Investments in the agriculture
sector provide perhaps the
best opportunity for Africa
to harness the demographic
dividend
Figure 4: Why do young people have no access to
financing for agriculture?
Source: Survey results 2019
The Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry
and Fisheries (MAAIF) through the National
Agricultural Policy, 2013 and the Agriculture
Sector Strategic Plan (ASSP 2015-2020) aim
to attract, retain and support youth and their
employment in the various aspects of the
agriculture value chain. The government has
set up a UGX 52.9 billion National Strategy
for youth employment in Agriculture over the
next five years. The strategy whose vision is
to “economically empower youth from gainful
employment in agriculture.” will emphasize
strengthening the enabling environment, youth
oriented agricultural extension, youth education,
youth entrepreneurship, addressing risks and
uncertainties and M&E and Inflation.
In our survey, 61.9% of participants revealed that
the government has fairly supported the youth
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involved agriculture as indicated in the figure
below. Surprisingly, it was also established that
65.8% of the youth who participated in the
survey did not know any young person who
had received direct support for agriculture from
government.
Figure 5: Has Government been supportive to
the youth in agriculture?
Source: Survey results 2019
The government of Uganda should adhere to
the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
promotion of cooperatives recommendation,
2002 (No. 193) that states that national poli-
cies should “seek to improve national statistics
on cooperatives with a view to the formulation
and implementation of development policies.”
The Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives
registered more than 16,500 cooperative societies
as at July 2015 while the cooperative societies Bill,
2016 estimates that there are 12,615 registered
cooperatives in Uganda. Cooperatives, because of
their nature to avail affordable credit services to
their members, are believed to be a niche for people
who have difficulty in accessing loans from financial
institutions such as banks, SACCOs and others of the
sort. Young people have not amassed enough assets
to present as collateral security to banks and this
makes cooperatives become the best alternatives for
their financial sourcing, however, the government
has not made the cooperative model its priority. Case
study 3: Interventions on agricultural financing
Bank of Uganda in partnership with Commercial
Banks, through the Agricultural Credit Facility,
offered at maximum rate of 10percent per annum is
available for use. The facility is intended to provide
medium and long term loans to projects engaged in
agriculture and agro-processing on more favorable
terms than are usually available from the PFIs. The
scheme is administered by the Bank of Uganda
(BoU), with provision for a maximum grace period
of 3 years and the interest rate to the final borrower
being a maximum of 10percent per annum. Uganda
Development Bank Ltd (UDBL), Micro Deposit
Taking Institutions (MDIs) and Credit Institutions
all referred to as Participating Financial institutions
(PFIs). President Museveni, in his state of the Nation
address of 2018 asserted that the loan facilities will
benefit those participating in commercial agriculture.
Private financial institutions like centenary Bank,
Equity bank, FINCA, Finance trust bank etc. provide
which provide finance across the value chain.
However, according to the Value for Money report by
the OAG, the scheme was not adequately marketed
the scheme leading to low absorption of funds
which ultimately hampering the ACF’s objective of
supporting agricultural expansion and modernization.
Government committed in the 2011-
2020 BTVET Strategic Plan to;
Expand and improve agriculture training
Establish, improve and expand facilities for
agriculture BTVET
Strengthen linkages of BTVET institutions
with research institutions, industry and
farmers Strengthen competency-based
training (CBET) in agriculture
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4.0 HEALTH CARE
FOR ALL
Context.
In pursuit of Uganda Vision 2040, the health
sector aims at producing a healthy and produc-
tive population that effectively contributes to
socio-economic growth. Despite the improve-
ments in the health of Uganda’s population over
the years, the country is still far from the goal of
health for all18. One of the biggest drawbacks
has been the high fertility estimated at 5.6 per
one woman that the country has been experi-
encing which is also compounded by other poor
health indicators such as maternal mortality ra-
tio, and infant and child mortality rates. In ad-
dition, under-nutrition among children below 5
years and women of reproductive age has re-
mained high19
.
Over the years, the health sector budget has
been increasing over the years from UGX 1,190
billion to UGX 2,300 billion in 2018/19, as a per-
centage of the overall budget, the health sector
allocation has never risen above the 15% re-
quirement of the Abuja declaration. Health care
financing is also largely funded by individual
households (43%), donors at (34%) while the
government contributes 23%. The health sec-
tor is also marred by issues of human resource
crises, lack of equipment, poor working condi-
tions, and lack of political will. Therefore, albeit
the fact that the quality of life has improved in
Uganda in the recent years post 1986, the is-
sues that affect the health of the young people
still abound.
The demands made in the NYM are categorized
18	 NDP II
19	 ibid
into those to do with; access, information, legis-
lative and policy environment and SRHR.
(i)ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE.
The youth in 2016 made demands as regards
increased availability, access to and uptake
of quality and affordable health care
services for young people. The Government
of Uganda embarked on implementing the
Uganda Health System Strengthening Project;
a government initiative set out to assist the
country achieve the Uganda National Minimum
Health Care Package (UNMHCP). The focus was
put on maternal health, new born care and family
planning. In addition to providing cost effective
interventions identified to respond to the most
important causes of disease burden, the project
is also intended to contribute to improving
human resources for health; physical health
infrastructure; and management, leadership
and accountability for health service delivery.
Despite the progress under the project, success
has been marred by the failure to renovate all
intended hospitals, failure or government to
provide counterpart funding, impairment of
funds from the exchange rate, delay to replace
There are great challenges when it comes
to accessing health care services. The Na-
tional household survey of 2016/17 noted
that a higher percentage of the population
(48%) visited private hospital/clinic when
ill than government health facilities (34%).
In addition, 86 percent of the population
accessed healthcare within a 5km radi-
us. Health insurance coverage is still low
with only 5 percent of the population hav-
ing health insurance. Average household
expenditure on healthcare in real terms
reduced from shs.27,600 in 2012/13 to
shs.22,800 in 2016/17.
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rejected equipment etc20
. The challenges by the
project have an impact on the access to health
care.
This notwithstanding, deficits in the health care
system included that affected access of several
persons included unavailability of medicines/
supplies (23%), long waiting time (13%), long
distance (12%), and limited range of services
(14%) and under staffing (10%) ranked
highly among concerns of the communities in
public facilities. Whereas, in private facilities, it
was found that services being expensive (39%)
ranked top followed by limited range of services
(23%) and long distance (9%)21
.
To improve access to health care, National
Youth Manifesto made a demand requiring
government to “expedite the passing of the
National Health Insurance Bill which will
provide universal and affordable health
care for all”. Up to now, Uganda is the only
country in East Africa that has not yet started
the implementation of the National Health In-
surance (NHIS). Countries like Tanzania, Kenya
and Rwanda have already benefited from the
introduction of the NHIS where they have
significantly reversed their maternal, newborn
and HIV/AIDS indices by covering the poor
and most vulnerable groups such as women
and youth living in rural and peri-urban setting
in their countries. The National Health Insur-
ance Bill, has been on the proposed healthcare
reform agenda for the last three years but has
been approved by Cabinet but not yet tabled
before Parliament.
The level of out of pocket expenditure, as per-
20	 Report of the auditor general on financial statements of
UHSSP IDA credit agreement NO.4742-UG
21	 National household survey 2016/17
centage of the total health expenditures, has
been steadily growing in the past years to 41%
in Uganda, showing a huge burden of access
to quality health care on most of the youth and
their already poor and marginalized house-
holds. The high out-of pocket expenditure on
health care negatively impacts on personal
incomes and affects youth demand for, and ac-
cess to healthcare. This consequently increases
impoverishments, especially of youth in the
lower income quintiles.
Youth with disabilities face multidimensional
exclusion (exclusion across more than one
domain or dimension of disadvantage mainly
on the basis of disability and poverty due to
their youthfulness), resulting in severe negative
consequences for quality of life, well-being
and future life chances. These barriers exist
in access to social services (education, health,
social protection, etc.), economic opportunities,
as well as political participation22
. Unfortunately,
the vast majority of HIV/AIDS and other sexual
reproductive programs lack the training,
resources and the commitment necessary to
accommodate the needs of PWDs. Due in part
to the widespread misconception that PWDs are
sexual, many are deprived of formal (at school)
and informal (at home) education on sexual
reproductive health. This educational gap leaves
PWDs in a vulnerable position, and can result
in an inability to negotiate safer sex. Greater
incidences of sexual violence and victimization
against PWDs also place them at higher
risk of HIV infection. The national disability-
inclusive planning guidelines for Uganda lay out
progressive potential interventions under the
health sector cluster 6.
22	 UN CPRD
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ii)INFORMATION.
In the 2016/21 NYM, the government was
tasked to undertake interventions that
“Provide accurate and comprehensive
health information to the youth through
the most convenient, affordable, and
effective method; including support to
ensure language and formal education
levels are not barriers to access to
information especially for young people
with disabilities”.
The results from the survey revealed that
the biggest challenge that the youth face in
accessing sexual reproductive health services is
social stigma on information about reproductive
health services (45.6%) and lack of information
about the services was presented as another
outstanding impediment (32.3%). These are
illustrated in the figure below.
Figure: Challenges facing young people in
accessing reproductive health services
Source: Survey results 2019
(iii)Legislative and Policy
Environment.
The NYM was clear on the need to have a
robust legislative and policy environment in
order to create a very healthy generation of
young people. The NYM demanded government
to ‘Eliminate harmful traditional practices
such as Female Genital Mutilation and child
marriages’.
Uganda boasts of a robust legal and policy
framework against FGM and great strides
have been made on tackling Female Genital
Mutilation23
. The Ministry of Gender, Labour and
Social Development is implementing the National
Policy and Action Plan to eliminate Gender Based
Violence (GBV) and Female Genital Mutilation
(FGM). Efforts through raising awareness,
enforcing the law as well as providing support
to communities to abandon FGM has been done
with support from UNFPA. The Ministry also has
joint programs to end child marriages and FGM.
However, the budgetary allocation for the last
three years has been a meagre UGX .5M and
UGX 155M respectively, per year.
23	 Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (2017)
16 Days of Activism Campaign Against Gender Based Violence. Avail-
able at http://www.faweuganda.org/index.php/cedaw-project/367-
16-days-of-activism-campaign-against-gender-based-violence.
NYM Demand: Strengthen multi-sectoral part-
nerships between the health sector and other
like-minded sectors to ensure coordinated
access to health information and services for
youth.
The Ministry of Health in its MPS for FY 2018/2019 include strength-
ening inter-sectoral collaboration to address determinants for
health, e.g. safe water, education, and housing among others. This
will especially key in areas of adolescent reproductive health rights
and education as well as fighting gender-based violence and prac-
tices such as female genital mutilation that have severe health indi-
cations for young people affected. UGX 16.926 billion shillings was
earmarked to increase collaboration the East African Laboratory
Network1
.
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The NYM also envisaged a need to ‘Eliminate
laws and policies that contribute to gender-
based violence and inhibit access to sexual
and reproductive health services (such as
the criminalization of HIV exposure and
transmission)’. The Constitution of Uganda
guarantees equality as well as protection of
women and girls rights28
. However, outside the
protection guaranteed by the constitution and
subsequent laws, violence in all its forms –
psychological, physical and emotional continues
unabated. Several laws including the Anti
Phonography Act, the penal code enacted to
protect women are the very ones used against
women. New forms of violence have emerged
like ICT abated violence against women
that is not provided for in the current legal
framework. Laws on contentious issues like
marital rape continue to face backlash because
of perceptions wielded by highly patriarchal
societies in Uganda. The extent to which young
girls and women are affected by many of the
challenges faced by youth can be significantly
heightened by two factors a) gender biases and
discrimination faced in educational, cultural
and political contexts as well as in the labour
market, and (b) access to health services and
in the private sphere. Young women may face a
broader range of obstacles preventing them to
actively engage in the public sphere.
MGLSD partners with other government agencies
and CSOs to organize the 16 days of activism
against gender based violence annually. In
addition to the interventions by the MGLSD,
the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association
(UWOPA) requested the government to set
up specialized courts on gender based violence
28	 The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (1995) protects
women and their rights under Article 33 and specifically prohibits
under 33(6) ‘Laws, cultures, customs or traditions which are against
the dignity, welfare or interest of women or which undermine their
status . . .’ Further, Article 44 states that no person shall be subjected to
any form of ‘torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment’
It is important to note that enforcement remains
a challenge because the practice continues
in very remote rural areas where support for
the practice remains strong, and FGM has
increasingly been performed in secret.
More on having a robust legal and policy
environment for positive health outcomes,
the NYM demanded that “mechanisms to
reduce teenage pregnancies” be instituted.
In Uganda, one in every three girls is married
off before the age of 18 years whether through
formal or informal unions24
. More than a third
or 39 percent of women aged between 20 and
49 years give birth by age 18, and more than
half or 63% have had their first birth by age
20. In 2017, 30.7 % of the girls were already
pregnant. In rural areas, 24% give birth
earlier than girls from urban areas whose rate
is 21%. Teenage pregnancies are high in the
East Central, Eastern, and Karamoja regions
with 30% compared to other regions, with the
Southwest region having the lowest at 15%
and Central emerges with the second lowest at
19%.25
The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social
Development developed The National Strategy
on Child Marriage (NSCM&TP) 2014/2015
– 2019/2020 provides a holistic and
comprehensive policy framework to end child
marriage and other forms of violence against
girls including teenage pregnancy because of
child marriage26
. Rates of teenage pregnancy
had increased to 25% in 2016 compared to
24% in 2011 and this costs Uganda about UGX
18 Trillion per year.27
24	 The World Bank(2017). A Situation Analysis of Child Mar-
riages in Uganda
25	 UDHS 2017
26	 Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development
(2017). The National Strategy on Child Marriage.
27	 The World Bank(2017). A Situation Analysis of Child Mar-
riages in Uganda
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issues. The sexual offences bill, 2015 currently
in Parliament seeks to consolidate laws relating
to sexual offences and combat sexual violence.
The Uganda Police Crime report of 2017
indicated that domestic violence was the second
most committed crime in 2017. 29 The 2016 Uganda
Demographic Survey 2016 indicated that women in Uganda are more than twice
as likely to experience sexual violence as men. More than 1 in 5 women age 15-49
(22 percent) report that they have experienced sexual violence at some point in
time compared with fewer than 1 in 10 (8 percent) men.
(iv) SEXUAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
AND RIGHTS.
A debate on SRHR courts a lot of controversy
in Uganda. There has been long standing
contention and controversy surrounding the
teaching of sexuality education for adolescents
in schools. .
Only 5% of the health facilities in Uganda
provide30
youth-friendly health services. Other
issues related to access to health for young
include inadequate funding for youth-friendly
health services; low perception of risky sexual
behavior, abuse of alcohol, and drugs. The
absence of a National Health Insurance Scheme,
law or policy further impedes the ability of the
young people who are poverty stricken to access
health care and health services when they need.
In May 2018, the Ministry of Education and
Sports launched the National Sexuality
Education Framework which is Uganda’s first
ever guidelines on sexuality education which
seeks to create and
29	 Uganda Police Annual Crime Report 2017
30	 Rutgers Uganda https://www.rutgers.international/sites/
rutgersorg/files/PDF/Advocacy_Uganda_0.pdf
overarching national direction for response in
respect to sexuality education in the formal
setting of educating young people in Uganda.
The Ministry of Health has been working a
school health policy since 2015, and this policy
is currently reported to be in advanced stages.
The MGLSD initiated the drafting of guidelines for
Sexuality Education for out of School students in
2016 while the Ministry of Education and Sports
is responsible for developing the guidelines for
those in school.
It is important that these policies are
communicated to young people through
consumable material and through mediums
easily available to them. Mass sensitization
through old (radio, TV and newspapers) can
be complemented using new media like social
media to reach even the most vulnerable youth.
More on access to SRHR, the NYM demanded that
5% of the annual Ministry of Health budget
be allocated as a stand-alone allocation
for the establishment and sustenance of
youth corners in all public health facilities
at all levels. UGX 911.426 billion, 2.3 trillion
and 2.8trillion was allocated to the sector for
FY 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20. However,
there is no realignment for the establishment
and sustenance of youth corners in all public
health facilities at all levels.
Given that youth are more susceptible to drug
and substance abuse, the 2016-2021 NYM
demanded for efforts that “Support youth
involvement in efforts to prevent drug
and substance abuse”. According to the
World Health Organization report on Drug and
Substance Abuse, alcohol is the most abused
substance followed by sedatives, cannabis,
inhalants Opiates, synthetic narcotic analgesics
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and hallucinogens. Uganda’s average total per capita consumption of pure alcohol per year is about
9.8 litres. This is over and above the global and African region averages of 6.4 and 6 litres of pure
alcohol each year respectively for individuals aged 15 years and older31
Legislative response to drug and substance abuse.
Parliament enacted laws like Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic substances Act 2016, and the
Tobacco Control Act, but enforcement is lacking, robust enforcement of these laws is necessary.
In addition there is a need to introduce a national alcohol policy to regulate manufacture, avail-
ability, advertising, distribution and marketing of alcohol in Uganda and put restrictions on the
number of alcohol selling outlets per area and selling of sachet alcohol2
.
At a local level, some local governments have enacted ordinances to protect citizens against the
devastating effects of reckless and excessive alcohol consumption. Gulu, for instance, passed
the alcohol ordinance which it stipulates that those seeking to sell alcoholic drinks in the dis-
trict must ensure that their places are located more than half a kilometer from education in-
stitutions. The others are all packaging must be in breakable bottles as opposed to polythene
sachets, restricts the smallest quantity to 250 milliliters and establishes a district licensing
committee to review licenses of operators amongst others
31	 WHO, 2016
5.0
YOUTH PARTICIPATION
IN DECISION MAKING.
“Young people must think about whether
they are representatives of the youth to
the State or the representatives of the
State to the youth” EshbanKwesiga.
The demands of the youth in the NYM are
grouped into participation, youth leadership and
mentorship and representation for purposes of
this study;
(i)Youth participation.
Effective youth participation is about creating
opportunities for the youth to be actively
involved in designing, shaping, and influencing
policy development and implementation
processes. Hence the NYM demanded of
the government to “ensure that youth
actively and meaningfully participate in
the development, implementation and
monitoring of government policies and
programs”. Government of Uganda, on its
part, has put in place legal and institutional
frameworks to ensure participation and
involvement of the youth in decision making and
national development.
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On a positive note, there have been recent
developments in the public policy arena, that is
shaping and cementing the role of young people
in influencing development outcomes. Currently,
Parliament is considering three critical bills, the
Externalization of Labor Bill 2018, the Graduate
Service Scheme Bill 2018, and the Anti-Slavery
Bill 2018. These bills have been sponsored and
supported by the Uganda Parliamentary Forum
on Youth Affairs. The significance of these
processes points to the shift in the realization
and recognition of the role of young people in
public policy and contributing to decision making
processes.
However, structural hindrances like the increase
in candidate nomination fees, monetization
of elections, political patronage and pervasive
corruption continue to hinder youth participation
in decision making. The youth have been kept
at the fringes of the decision making and have
not enjoyed full participation in their own gov­
er­nance, except by serving as a pud­dle from
which those who have benefited from political
benefaction find their conduit to sustain their
political dominance.32
32	 Mwesigye G (2019). Young Citizen’s Participation in Leadership Today: Where is the Youth Power.
The NYM also wanted to ‘Change the mandate
of National Youth Council to place it at the
center of addressing issues of youth. Female
youth should be empowered to take on
leadership as District Youth Chairpersons’.
Sec. 2 of the 1993 National Youth Council Act
(NYCA) as amended in 2010, prescribes the
objectives of the NYC, but does not clearly
show the various roles and responsibilities and
mandate of the NYC; or if shown, there has not
been efforts to popularize these roles through
empowering these structures. Sec. 11 of the
NYCA provides for about funding of the youth
councils, however funding for the council leaves
a lot to be desired. Given the broad mandate of
the youth councils, inadequate funding hinders
the effective execution of the council’s mandate.
In our survey, 60.1% of the respondents
acknowledged having knowledge about the
national youth council, but 77.9% had no
confidence in their councilors addressing
their issues.To increase youth participation
in decision making, the NYM demanded the
recruitment of ‘Youth Engagement Officers
http://parliamentwatch.ug/young-citizens-participation-in-leadership-today-where-is-the-youth-power/#.XUgii_IzbIV
LEGISLATION REMEDY PROVIDED
1995 Constitution Provides for representation of the youth in the national
parliament
NYC ACT CAP 319 Established the Youth Council structures from village
to national level to provide channels through which
youth engage in development process
1997 Local Government Act Provides for representation of the youth in all Local
Government Council structures.
Equally, Civil Society Organizations and other non-state actors provide alternative spaces for youth
participation. However, like many beneficiaries of affirmative action in Uganda’s political system,
youth’s meaningful participation is questionable.
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in Ministries, Departments and Agencies’.
Youth participation should be in terms of youth-
led development, which always acknowledges
the importance of local contexts and cultural
values and practices. This was to be realized
through the establishment of youth desks
in MDAs. However, there is no evidence on
the progress of this indicator. Positive strides
have been made in KCCA which has enrolled
youth community officers33
. The affairs of the
youth are mainly looked at by the Community
Development Officers and the Probation Social
Workers.
(ii)Representation.
There was a demand for government to
‘Establish a Multi-Sectoral Working Group
on youth development to represent youth
in the various government decision making
platforms and act as a link between
youth and government bodies’. It should
be appreciated that youth are represented on
various sector working groups in the country,
however, this demand pertains to an organized
youth led consultative process. The national
youth council should be empowered beyond a
political body to undertake this role. Capacities
on qualified human resources , research,
funding, etc. should be enhanced to promote
more meaningful participation of the councils.
UNSA plays a vital role in the socio-political
landscape in Uganda. It has the potential
to reinforce the roles of other youth led
organizations through the provision of strategic
direction.
33	 Reagan Wamajji (2017). First State of the Youth Report.
Hence, the NYM highlighted the need to
‘Reinvigorate the existing student’s
movement (UNSA) to enable the students
community meaningfully participate in
and influence decision making processes.
Strengthen the governance systems of
UNSA to ensure that it acts as a training
ground for leaders’. Synergies therefore
should be created with the various existing bodies
in order to promote unified youth movement.
Some of these bodies duplicate each other’s
work and stand to gain from working together.
Lower the age to contest for LCV seats and
harmonize with the age for contesting for
other political positions like MP.
Parliament of Uganda passed the Constitutional
Amendment Act 2017 in a bid to open political
spaces for the young and old people alike to
participate in politics. In the same spirit, the
Local Government Act must be amended to
allow youth below 35 years of age to contest for
the post of LC V chairperson.
(iii)Youth Leadership and Mentor-
ship.
The framers of Vision 2040, Uganda’s develop-
ment blueprint, acknowledge ideological dis-
orientation as one of the bottlenecks impeding
the nation’s transformation in the socio-eco-
nomic and political context. It is argued and
rightly so that countries which have attained
upper middle income status have had clear and
well defined national ideologies with the young
population being the root and stem of such
national ideologies.
THE STATE OF THE
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August, 2O19
Principle to guide a Youth Leadership and Mentorship Program.
Should build on what is working - avoid creating
parallel or new structures that are unlikely to be
sustained and focus on issues and reforms that
have real traction.
Be politically smart, locally-led: Invest in
ongoing political economy analysis and in
understanding institutions, rules of the game,
power dynamics, incentives and norms - not
just on organizations. This lens will be crit-
ical to achieving sustainable, locally-owned
results.
Aim at building networks and coalitions that
go beyond the ‘usual suspects’, and that bring
together diverse partners around issues and
reforms that have strong locally-driven support.
Be creative about how to foster and empower
emerging youth leaders – especially females
and other marginalized youth groups.
Leverage and collaborate with other government
and donor programs wherever possible.
Build in adaptability. Seize on unexpected
windows of opportunity and critical junctures
and be prepared to change quickly if needed.
Innovate and test viable pathways and incen-
tives for change. Build in rapid cycles of strate-
gy testing and feedback loops to evaluate and
adapt approaches and tactics to changes in the
context.
Recognize the heterogeneity of the youth
like intra youth differences based on disabil-
ity, gender and social background. All such
differences should be factored in for all-inclu-
sive mentorship
Theoretical Framework on how to increase youth participation and representation in
decision making spaces.
If the government, youth councils, civil society networks;
1.	 Strengthen their technical, institutional and organisational capacities to sustainably engage
youth in the development processes,
2.	 Work collaboratively to promote continuous civic engagement that reaches out to the youth
both in and out of school,
3.	 Promote transparent and accountable leadership informed by principles of social justice,
equity and gender sensitivity, and
4.	 Build broad-based consensus around issues concerned with participation of the young
people;
Then youth and women civic actors will have greater bargaining power to effectively engage
the powers that be towards policy prioritization of their issues of concern as well as adoption of
an incremental approach to policy and legislative actions that will ensure the development blue
prints like the Vision 2040 not only speaks into the aspirations of the children but also address-
es , works for them and the young generation is mentored to take up the leadership mantle
with true values reflecting the social fabric and clout of the Ugandan spirit.
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Assessing Government
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6.0
Education Opportunities.
Situational Analysis.
Situation.
-17M children unaccounted for during the 11
years (1997-2008) of UPE as per UBOS re-
ports.
-9M children enrolled in primary school.
-660,000 children of school going age chil-
dren estimated to be out of school.
-200,000 Number of new classrooms needed
to achieve a ratio of 40:1 pupil classroom ra-
tio.
-150,000 Number of primary school class-
rooms.
-63,000 primary school classroom deficit.
The Education and Sports sector is responsible
for the delivery of equitable, relevant and
quality education, training and sports services
for all. The priorities include pursuing the
quality and relevance of education at all levels
and improving effectiveness and efficiency in
the delivery of education services. Uganda’s
education sector has experienced tremendous
progress over the years. The shortcomings of
Universal Primary Education notwithstanding,
the policy has promoted equitable access to
primary education. The same can be said for
universal secondary education. Gender parity
in education at primary secondary and tertiary
level has also improved over the years, reveal
that the gender parity index was less than one
for both primary and secondary education (0.99
and 0.95 respectively) in 2016/1734
.
34	 Uganda National household survey 2016/17
The 2016/17 National household survey noted
that the literacy rate for persons aged 10 years
and above is estimated at 74%, however, it
was higher for males than females. Overall, 5
percent of the school-going-age (6-24 years)
had never attended school while in Karamoja
about half had never attended school. The
Gross Enrolment ratio was estimated as 117%
and was highest in Teso (139%), Bukedi
(133%) and West Nile (131%) sub-regions.
About access to education facilities, 77% of the
persons attending day primary school travelled
less than 3 kilometers to school. It is however
not enough that Ugandan children have enrolled
in school. The persistence and performance of
school going children associated with education
quality indicators like student- teacher ratio,
student book ratio and student classroom ratio
must be enhanced.
It is estimated that the population of secondary
school age persons will increase from 5.8
to 16.2 million in Uganda.35
The demands
made in the 2016/2021 NYM are grouped into
Skills Enhancement, Regulatory Framework,
Curriculum Review, Infrastructure and Special
Needs Responsive Education.
i) Skills based Education.
The argument that Uganda’s problem is not
the lack of technocrats. It is lack of enough
and skilled technicians to build and repair the
nation has been a ferocious one. Hence the NYM
demanded that government “enhance free skills
training opportunities through UPPET and BTVET
which provide an opportunity for creating new
vocational centres and utilizing the available
community polytechnics.”
35	 UK AID, AFIDEP & EARF (2018). EAC Regional Youth De-
mographics Analysis.
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The Government is implementing the 10-year
BTVET Strategic Plan 2012, “Skilling Uganda
Programme” under the theme ‘unlocking our
productivity potential’. The Programme forms an
integral part of the Education Policy Framework
and is designed to address the major challenges
of the BTVET sub-sector regarding relevance,
quality, access, equity, management and
financial sustainability.
According to project plans and the education
sector Ministerial policy statements over the
years, including FY 2018/19 it is evident that the
projects under BTVET are concentrating much
on construction and procurement of machinery
with a limited focus on enrolment which has
consistently been reported to be low. The 10-
year skilling Uganda strategic plan (2011-2020),
the Government planned to raise the number
of graduates to 450,000 annually, with 50%
female population. However, only fewer than
200,000 personnel have been produced, with
two years to the end of the strategic plan. The
enrolment rates for remain low due negative
attitude towards BTVET.
ii)Regulatory Environment.
There is an acknowledgement of the critical
role that the private sector can play in the
education services in terms of increasing both
the quality and quantity aspects in the sector.
The government policy direction following the
adoption of the World Bank initiated structural
adjustment Programs and liberalization of the
economy points to the strong role of the private
actors I the education sector. Realizing this
critical role and influence, the 2016/2021 NYM
advocated that government pursues policies
that ‘Incentivize private sector investments
in education in hard to reach areas’.
During the 25th Annual education sector review
at the office of the Prime Minister Conference
hall in Kampala, the stakeholders in education
called for increased private sector involvement
in the development and financing of Uganda’s
education if efficiency is to be realized.36
NYM Demand: Create and
implement clear policies to regulate
the operations of schools both in
the private and public sector.
In Uganda, about 25% of the Primary school
pupils attend private primary schools,
compared to 11% in Kenya and 2% in
Tanzania.3
The country entirely relies on non-
state provisions for pre-primary education
and over 50% of secondary school going
students attend private schools. Supervision
of private schools is warranted due to the
proliferation. Several do not meet the
minimum standards, over 1,308 were found
wanting by the directorate of education
standards. The government must extend
the enforcement the Standard of Operating
Procedure for private schools in Uganda to
public schools as many are in the same or
even worse situations than many private
schools.
Government has supported the private sector
especiallyattertiarylevelforinstancein2017/18,
the Ministry conducted support supervision
to 5 private Universities receiving government
funding. The Ministry disbursed funds to 5
private Universities (Ndejje, Mountains of the
Moon, Bishop Stuart and Kumi universities) to
support infrastructure expansion, and supported
100 students at the University of Kisubi.37
This
36	 https://www.softpower.ug/sector-review-stakehold-
ers-call-for-private-investment-in-education/
37	 Ministerial Policy statements for the Ministry of Educa-
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August, 2O19
indicates the government’s efforts to incentivize
the private sector investments in education,
however, there is still a gap for supporting the
needs of the schools in the hard to reach areas
due to the financial constraints.
The rapid privatization in the education
sector which has not been matched with a
more appropriate regulatory, supervision and
monitoring framework since the Ministry has
insufficient funding. The private sector has
grown much faster than anticipated, driven
by market forces, and it is only now that
government is endeavoring to catch up with
this expansion. Some of the private schools still
charge exorbitant fees above the capacity of
average Ugandans to afford.
iii) Education Infrastructure.
Improve the learning environment at all
levels of education e.g. build classrooms,
provide laboratory equipment among
others. Ensure appropriate adaptations are
made to meet the needs of students with
special needs.
Provide free daily school meals for all
primary school children.
The Ministry of Finance, Planning and
Economic Development emphaised that that
the proposals on school feeding have serious
budget implications which Government cannot
accommodate within the constrained budget.
Finance advised that feeding of school learners
should remain a responsibility of parents as
stipulated in the Education Act 2008.
tion and Sports for FY 2018/19
Establish a secondary school in each
sub county to cater for those completing
primary education and lower secondary.
The major challenge to the Education sector is
budgetary constraints and as a result, for the
government to be able to construct at least
20 Secondary Schools in the over 20 Sub-
Counties without tham, a total of Ushs 9.48bn
is required.38
In the Sub-Counties where there
are no secondary schools, the students walk
long distances to find schools every day which
is a hindrance to their performance. There is an
urgent need to fill this gap so as to meet the
above mentioned needs.
iv)Special Needs Responsive Education.
The NYM is clear on the need to have an
education system that is responsive to special
needs. It mandates the government to
establish six regional centers of excellence
in special needs education to address the
issues of capacity in infrastructure, access,
knowledge and skills. In the FY 2017/18, the
Ministry of Education provided subvention grants
for Special Needs Education (SNE) learners in
100 schools and completed 7 classrooms and a
4 unit instructors’ house.
Under the Special Needs Education Programme
FY2018/19, the Education Ministry reported
carrying out needs assessment in 20 schools;
constructed Motor vehicle and carpentry
workshop at Mbale SSFD; constructed 3
classroom blocks for Home Economics, Art and
Design at Mbale SSFD; constructed a teachers
house & five stance VIP latrine with shower and
urinal,
38	 Education Sector Budget framework paper FY 2018/19-FY
2022/23
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August, 2O19
and procured Equipment for Home economics
classes, 120 teachers were trained in functional
assessment for learners with special needs;
conducted Sign Language training for 65 teachers
in Wakiso & Mbale schools for the deaf; procured
and distributed 28 Perkins Braille Machine &
braille papers to 18 schools (St. Hellens, Arua
Dem, Pajobi, Angal Girls, Owiny, Masindi Centre
for the handicapped, Lima, Kateera Biikira, Moyo
Girls, Nyarilo, Ishekye, Kisoro Dem, Kiwolero
Army, Ediofe, St. Bernadettea Primary Schools,
Bushenyi Centre for disabled, Saad Memorial
S.S and St.Peters Katukuru S.S.
v) Curriculum Review.
Uganda’s education system as previously
noted has remained very obscelete and can
no longer effectively churn out graduates that
can compete both at the local and international
labour market. As part of curriculum review,
the NYM underscored the need to Design and
establish school vacation programs to
enhance vocational and practical skills,
inculcate an enterprising mindset and build
citizenship. The Ministry of Education trained
178 Item writers on new curriculum at Fisheries
Training Institute in the FY 2017/18. Directorate
Institute of Training (DIT) developed 147 theory
and 133 practical assessment instruments for
Level I, II and III in 29 occupations; 197 theory
and 133 practical assessment instruments for
Modular in 35 occupations.
In our survey, the majority of the respondents
who were the youth with University qualifications
(75.5%) and Tertiary qualifications (10.3%)
indicated that the education they had received
had not prepared them for the available jobs.
As indicated in the figure below, 52.3% which
is more than a half indicated that they do not
think that the education they have acquired has
prepared them for the available jobs.
Figure: Do you think the education you have
received so far has prepared you for the avail-
able jobs?
Source: Survey 2019
The NYM therefore called for a review of the
curriculum from being theory based to become
more practical and solution oriented.
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7.0
SPORTS AND CREATIVE
ARTS
7.1 SPORTS
Physical Education and Sports (PES), if well
harnessed can serve as an effective vehicle for
socio- economy transformation of a nation. PES
improves academic excellence, provides leisure
recreation and entertainment, improves health
and physical fitness and reduces the health
expenditure burden on curative measures and
improves individual and national productivity.
PES is not yet fully exploited, yet it provides
employment opportunities as well as breaking
the barriers of social status, sex, religion and
race.
While government documents like the Education
and Sports Sector Strategic Plan 2017/18-
2019/2020 emphasize the importance of the
sports subsector, it is evident that the sports
sub-sector has not received the requisite
attention from policy makers. For instance,
the report of the committee of education and
sports of Parliament of Uganda for FY 2017/18
does not provide an accurate analysis of the
sports subsector. Save for the mention of plans
to provide equipment to schools, promote
international sports and construct John Aki Bua
stadium, policy and budgetary direction on the
sports subsector is missing.
The sports subsector continues to be
underfunded, in the financial year 2016/17,
allocations to the education and sports sector
was as follows: Primary education was allocated
50.17%, followed by Tertiary at 19.61%,
Secondary at 15.20%, BTVET at 10.55%
and others at 4.47% (Physical Education and
Sports, Special Needs Education, Guidance
If schools and the education system;
Adjust their teaching methods and make the education system speak into the realities around
which children are taught,
The education system is made more interactional and freedom intense with children being able
to interrogate and question what they are taught,
Lessons on patriotism and national values are inculcated into the education system and
curriculum, and
Schools undertake to train and mentor children to assume roles as economic, social and
political leaders;
Then schools will be turned into places or incubation centres that churn out national leaders,
technocrats and social influencers. A national value system will have been created and the
values and principles of Uganda as a country will be nurtured hence a generation of Vision
Bearers to lead an upper middle-income Uganda.
THE STATE OF THE
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Assessing Government
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and Counselling and Policy, Planning and
Support Services)39
. As indicated, such miniscule
budgets only serve the goals and objectives of
the sector to a certain extent. The review also
noted non -adherence to the teaching of
Physical Education on the formal time table,
few physical education teachers who at the time
of the release of the review stood at only and
insufficient sports facilities.
Ad hoc government interventions like the
rehabilitation of PECE stadium in Gulu district
and the construction of a swimming pool in
St. Joseph Layibi are indicative of government’s
failure to promote sports in Uganda. These
projects were initiated prior the Federation
of East Africa Secondary Schools Sports
Association (FEASSSA) games. More systematic
interventions that are linked to overall strategic
goals should be imitated. Several district stadia
like in (Jinja, Mbarara, Kabale, Gulu, Masaka,
Mbale continue to be dilapidated.
Corruption has also marred the development
of the sports sector in Uganda. The much
anticipated construction of the Akii-Bua Olympic
Stadium in Lira which was a pledge by President
Yoweri Museveni in 2016 in memory of Uganda’s
first Olympic gold medalist, John Akii-Bua
continues to spur controversy on the usage of
the Ugx.665 million disbursed.
Review the structure of major sports in
consultation with key stakeholders to
develop a comprehensive plan of action to
revitalize the sector
39	 Education and Sports Sector Annual
performance review 2017
The Physical Activity and Sports (PAS) Bill to
address emerging sports regulatory concerns
and gaps in implementation, governance as well
as technical and operational issues has been
in cabinet since 2013. Reluctance on the part
of government through the lack of political will
goes to show that the sector is not a priority
Provide tax incentives to the private sector
to encourage investment in sports.
The URA tax incentive guide for investors in
Uganda only provide an exemption for one rally
car and spare parts in the sports category. This
excludes a variety of sports activities
Support the expeditious passing of the
Lotteries and Gaming Bill to provide for
the re-allocation of revenues realized from
lotteries to sports activities.
This demand has not been realized.
From the survey, the majority of the youth
indicated that there are no government pro-
grams available to tap young people into vari-
ous sports and disciplines. This is illustrated in
the figure below where 64.6% said NO when
they were asked if they were aware of any
government programs supporting the youths in
sports and arts.
THE STATE OF THE
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Assessing Government
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Figure 6: Are there any government programs
supporting the youth talent in sports and arts?
Source: Survey results 2019
The findings further revealed that government
comes in it support a few successful athletes
and others sports personalities but does little
prop them up in their development.
8.0
CREATIVE ARTS
The dimensions of art are vast and yet the
general of perception of Art in Uganda is limited
to antiquities, music, dance, drama and fine
art. Even while art has evolved over the years
to include new forms, Uganda has not adapted
to these new forms. Government interventions
have also been limited to the general forms of
art. Except for Jamafest, which happens in East
Africa on a rotational basis, national art festivals
that celebrate Uganda’s rich art are private
initiatives.
“Creative arts are an essential investment for
peace and stability, and are a prerequisite for
the success of human development. A more
visible and effective inclusion of creative arts
in development programs at local, national
and international levels is critical for sustain-
able development. Creative arts is a powerful
global economic engine generating jobs and
income with a value of US$1.3 trillion in 2005.
Cultural industries account for more than 7%
of global GDP. (2009 UWR). Cultural heritage
not only generates income, but also builds so-
cial cohesion, mobilizing communities around
its care and management. Arts can also be
a brilliant outlet for young people by giving
them skills for the future, a chance to express
their thoughts and feelings, and an opportu-
nity to find something they excel at. Arts and
culture are intimately related, as arts contrib-
ute to and are part of national and individual
identity. Not only does arts education shape
children’s behaviour and vision of life, it also
provides a means of responding to the identity
crisis and social breakdown”.
(2016-2021 National Youth Manifesto)
“the NRM will support the construction and
redevelopment of entertainment infrastructure
such as the National Theatre, the National
Museum and regional museums and cultural/
entertainment centers”.
Art has been useful in the development of Uganda
over the years – art played a significant role in
post- colonial Africa through artistic impressions
of the experiences. Art is important because it
for celebrates nationalism and identity, art pays
tribute to sacrifice. Sometimes art is used for
revelation and advocacy or protest.40
40	 Kyeyune G., (2018). The Role of Art and Popular Culture
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The appreciation of art by policy makers has
not taken root in Uganda, consequently no clear
plans for its promotion are in place.
Provide incentives to the entertainment,
arts, and creative industries to fully
develop the sector to enable it to compete
effectively on the world stage.
One of the greatest contributions that art can
make to society is to become a tool for critical
thinking and social interaction41
. Professor
Kyeyune George an art professor at the
Margaret Trowell School of fine Art asserts that
is a universal language, accessible to both the
literate and the illiterate. Art has been used by
communities to address or corresponds to the
challenges and needs of that society.
in Promoting Democratic Principles and Social Justice. Public Policy
Institute, Kampala
41	 ibid
Government should endeavor to promote art
instead of stifling it. Unfortunate incidents
against art and artists can be seen through the
onslaught on Hon Kyagulanyi aka Bobi wine’s
music through both legal and means has a
negative impact on the industry. In addition,
there was an attempt to cancel the nyege nyege
music festival in September 2018, one of Africa’s
biggest music festival based on unconfirmed
rumors.
Strengthen the copyright regime to
enhance protection for creative works
Not much has changed from the FY2016/17 and
2017/18 where MGLSD lists Strengthening the
enforcement of the Copyright Law and work
with artistes to fight piracy, which is a big threat
to the industry as a key sector out puts, there is
not corresponding funding for the activity.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARIZED.
Domain Description of indicators and
impacts
Policy Landscape
Health care Trends in infant mortality by sex, fertility,
and adolescent fertility; Life expectancy,
dependency ratio.
Health of youth (HIV/AIDS, abortion
related illnesses, suicides, substance
abuse, and non-communicable diseases).
Out of pocket expenditure
Policies and programs that address youth/
adolescent sexual and reproductive health needs
including access to contraception.
Policies and programs that tackle inequalities,
youth poverty,
Education
opportunities
Trends in secondary and tertiary education
by sex, transferrable skills.
Prevalence of ICT and mobile phone use
among youth.
Ability of the graduates to compete
favourably in the labour market
Policies and programs to increase access to high
quality secondary and tertiary education.
Policies and programs to expand transferrable and
ICT skills.
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Employment Youth employment and underemployment
growth of informal sector,
entrepreneurship
access to credit/financial inclusion
Ease and cost of doing business
Policies and programs that focus on job creation,
underemployment, female participation in the
labour force.
Policies and programs that ensure a smooth
transition from school to the labour market
Lending facilities that ensure and improve access
to affordable long-term credit for Ugandan youth
owned enterprises.
Youth in agriculture Youth involvement along the entire
agricultural value chain
Numbers of youth involved in large scale
commercial agricultural production
Funding agricultural Research and Development
(R&D) as the engine that drives agricultural
productivity.
Programs and policies that engage youth along the
entire agricultural value chain
Sports and Creative
Arts
Policies and programs to tap into the youth
demographics for a robust, lively and economically
productive creative arts and sports industry.
Policies and programs to harness the talents of the
youth
Laws and legislations to protect creatives and art
for both profit, technology transfer and for the
coming generations.
Youth participation in
decision making.
Inclusivity and exclusivity of young people
in governance.
Number of young people in policy and
decision making spaces.
Tackle institutionalized exclusion of the young
people most especially the females from the
governance and decision making spaces.
Review legislation most especially the National
Youth Act and
THE STATE OF THE
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Assessing Government
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REFERENCES
MAAIF (2016), Ministerial Policy Statement 2016/17, 2017/18
MoES (2017). Education and Sports Sector Annual performance review 2017
MoES (2016). Ministerial Policy Statement 2016/17, 2017/18
MoFPED (2016). National Budget Framework Paper 2016/17
MoGLSD (2016). Ministerial Policy Statement FY 2016/17, 2017/18
National Planning Authority (2015). National Development Plan FY 2013/2016-2019/2020
Report of the education committee on the MPS and Budget estimates for the FY 2017/18
Report of the Committee on GLSD on the MPS and Budget estimates for the FY 2017/18
The National Youth Manifesto 2016-2021
The Technical National Youth Manifesto 2016-2021
(Footnotes)
1	 Budget Framework paper for the Ministry of Health
2	 Brian Sserunjoji: Alcohol consumption among youth in Uganda: why policy intervention is necessary
3	 Ibid
| 39August, 2O19
THE STATE OF THE
YOUTH REPORT
40 |
Assessing Government
Investment in Young People
August, 2O19
Published by CEPA
P. O. Box 23276, Kampala
Email: info@cepa.or.ug
Website: http://www.cepa.or.ug

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The 2019 State of the youth report

  • 1. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 1 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT Assessing Government Investment in Young People
  • 2. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT Published by CEPA P. O. Box 23276, Kampala Email: info@cepa.or.ug Website: http://www.cepa.or.ug Citation: E. Kwesiga, R. Wamajji, P. Mubangizi and G. Mwesigye (2019). State of the Youth Report in Uganda: Assessing Government’s investment in young peo- ple. Centre for Policy Analysis, Kampala. Authors: Eshban Kwesiga Head of Programs & Analyst at CEPA ekwesiga@cepa.or.ug Reagan Wamajji Programs Associate & Analyst at CEPA rwamajji@cepa.or.ug Godfrey Mwesigye Programs Associate & Researcher at CEPA gmwesigye@cepa.or.ug Prosper Mubangizi Policy Analyst/ Youth Inclusion & Governance Expert prosperm@cepa.or.ug All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. The reproduction or use of this publication for academic or charitable purpose or for purposes of informing public policy is excluded from these reservations.
  • 3. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 3 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 ACRONYMS 4 Acknowledgements 5 Executive Summary 6 1.0 BACKGROUND 7 1.2 METHODOLOGY. 8 1.2.2 CONTENT SCOPE. 8 2.0 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS 9 2.1 STATE OF THE YOUTH POPULATION DYNAMICS IN EAST AFRICA. 9 3.0 STATE OF THE YOUTH IN UGANDA. 11 3.1 JOBS! JOBS! JOBS 11 3.2 YOUTH IN AGRICULTURE 17 4.0 HEALTH CARE FOR ALL 20 5.0 YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN DECISION MAKING. 25 6.0 EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES. 29 7.0 CREATIVE ARTS 33 8.0 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARIZED. 35 CONCLUSION 36 REFERENCES 38 CONTENTS
  • 4. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 4 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 ACRONYMS BFP Budget Framework Paper FY Financial Year EAC East African Community MDA Ministries, Departments Agencies MoEMD Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development MoES Ministry of Education and Sports MPS Ministerial Policy Statement MoGLSD Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development MPS Ministerial Policy Statement NRM National Resistance Movement NYM National Youth Manifesto SMEs Small and Medium Enterprises TNYM Technical National Youth Manifesto UPFYA Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs YLP Youth Livelihood Programme
  • 5. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 5 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 Acknowledgements This research report on the state of youth in Uganda is published by Center for Policy Analysis (CEPA) a public policy research think-tank in constant search of new solutions to global challenges. The research team comprised of experts in public policy, governance and parliamentary democracy with a focus on youth inclusion for sustainable development. We are grateful to the authors of report; Eshban Kwesiga, Reagan Wamajji, Prosper Mubangizi and Geofrey Mwesigye for the effort they put into compiling this report. We acknowledge the great work by the research assistants in conducting the survey across all regions of the country. The team was comprised of: Ms. Kibirigi Rachel, Ms. Matovu Shamira, Mr. Chemonges Timothy, Mr. Kinani Allan Ms. Mutesi Allen, Ms. Mbanza Pauline, Mr. Mudingotto Ladslaus and Ms. Nalubega Suzan. We acknowledge the strategic inputs from Mr. Atukwase Primus Bahiigi the Manager Global platforms at Action Aid-Uganda and Rachel Proefke from Restless Development Uganda. We acknowledge the input and support of the various partners. This report is produced with support from Restless Development, Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) Uganda, Action Aid Uganda (AAU) and Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs (UPFYA).
  • 6. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 6 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 Executive Summary Uganda is having a youthful population whose potential must be tapped into in the journey to middle income status by 2020 and an upper middle-income nation by 2040 with an average GDP per capita of US $ 9500. To achieve this demographic dividend, clearly targeted and tailor-made interventions and efforts should be invested into bringing up a crop of young Ugandans ready to lead an upper middle-income Uganda into a first world country. These investments are in areas of education, skills development, health care access, sustainable use of nature and the environment, environmental stewardship, diversification of the economy and good governance. The State of the Youth Report is an annual evaluation of government’s investment in its young people based on the demands made in the 2016-2021 National Youth Manifesto. The assessment is based on five thematic areas which are jobs, education, health care, participation in decision making, sports and creative arts. The findings in this report are generated after a nationwide study involving youth selected solely on the basis of their age not political affiliation or social and economic status. The assessment gathered from the youth across the country and the analysis of government policies and legislative action that health care is the demand that government has invested in the most while the sports sector and creative arts are least invested in. Youth participation was discussed mainly in the perspective of tokenism and political gerrymandering and 70% of the study participants expressed a lack of confidence in the National Youth Councilors to effectively represent their voices. Concerning the education sector, government was lauded for its efforts to increase education access through USE and UPE. However, the education system was queried on grounds that it is more theoretical that practical and that it is not sufficient enough to churn out a graduate that can effectively negotiate the labour market terrain. The report recommends that policies and laws that have already been passed, the implementing modalities should be improved upon and strengthened. For other demands that have not been fulfilled, the report recommends that effort to do so be expedited. It is also recommended that Uganda undertake a deliberate investment strategy into its young people most especially as far as jobs and employment are concerned. A robust School to Work Transition mechanism is needed if Uganda is to stop this jobless growth that has been blossoming for the last 20 years. The report recommends more investments in the ICT sector, which is very attractive to young people and has the potential to attract increased investments from the private sector, thus further creating more jobs. Prioritizing the investment for the youth largely requires increasing funding in the above sectors with a special focus on youth programs. We observe that generalization of some government programs with no special attention to young people makes them a marginalized group.
  • 7. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 7 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 1.0 BACKGROUND The definition of youth is a very subjective undertaking characterized by varied responses and outcomes in definition based on the various context specific undertones. The United Nations working documents define youth as a person aged between 15 and 24 while a young person is someone between 15 and 35 according to the African Union. In Uganda, youth are categorized as persons aged 18 to 35 years according to the 1995 Constitution while the National Youth policy puts the cap to being a youth at 30 years of age. This report takes cognizance of the fact that some if not most of the young people remain in education system way beyond the age of 24 and hence will take the legal definition of who a youth is and that is between 18 and 35years of age. This definition allows the opportunity to capture more information on the living experiences of young people in Uganda. The Annual State of the Youth report builds on the current and former global, continental, regional and national development blueprints, namely, the post 2015 Development Agenda (the Sustainable Development Goals), the African Union Agenda 2063, the East African Community Vision 2050 and the Uganda Vision 2040 as well as the 2016/2021. The National Youth Manifesto builds on the interlinkages between these developments agendas 1.1 About the State of Youth Report In the run up to the 2016 general elections the Youth Coalition on Electoral Democracy (YCED) through a highly consultative process developed the National Youth Manifesto 2016-2021 that sedemands to be addressed by the government. The demands are under five thematic areas: Jobs, Education, Health, Youth Participation and Sports and Creative Arts and they espouse the aspirations of young people in the country and call for government action on the same. The government committed to fulfill the demands of the young people as embedded in the National Youth Manifesto 2016-2021 (NYM). The NYM also has a set Monitoring and Evaluation framework; the Technical National Youth Manifesto (NTYM) that provides a basis for tracking performance and the overall impact made in the target population by interventions of government. The 2019 State of the Youth Report therefore reviewed the level at which the government has been able to fulfil its commitments between 2016 and 2019. The report most specifically, underscores the policy and legislative frameworks based on the demands in the 2016-2021 National Youth Manifesto, the key indicators and expected progress indicated in the National Technical Youth Manifesto as of July 2019.
  • 8. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 8 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 1.2 METHODOLOGY 1.2.1 Data collection methods a) Document review The report examined the ministerial policy statements,budget speeches, State of the Nation Address and other budget documents presented by the different Ministries to Parliament. The policy statements set out the performance and plans of spending agencies, linking them with the policy objectives. Summarizing past performances of the sector and the plans for the future expenditure and activities as well as anticipated sectoral challenges and strategies. The study reviewed the aforementioned documents for the period between the years 2016 to 2019. These were assessed against the technical youth manifesto indicators and commitments of government. ● Review of existing policies on private sector growth and investment These policies, including among others government taxation and investment policies, will provide insights on private sector performance in each of the five thematic areas and how this contributes to youth development. b) Survey method A nationwide survey was conducted among the youth across all regions in Uganda; Central, Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern Uganda. The respondents were randomly selected from the mentioned regions and were interviewed using a researcher administered questionnaire. c) Key Informant Interviews Key informants were interviewed to buttress the desk reviewed literature. These included young people across the country, policy analysts and makers in the public sector and key players from the key private sector institutions. Key informant interviews were conducted. These will included policy analysts and technical staff from the Ministries of Education and Sports, Health, Education,Agriculture, political parties (NRM and FDC), National Youth Council leadership, civil society, and private sector actors. 1.2.2 Content Scope This report focuses on the five thematic areas as per the National Youth Manifesto, measured against the expected progress as of July 2019 which includes, Jobs, Healthcare for all, Education for opportunities, Sports and C reative arts; and Youth participation in decision making. The government committed to fulfill the demands of the young people as embedded in the NationalYouth Manifesto 2016-2021 (NYM). “ “
  • 9. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 9 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 2.0 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS According to 2019 estimates, Uganda’s population is at 44 million with a 3.3% growth rate per annum1 and more than 78% of Ugandans are young people aged 30 or below. It can only be guaranteed that the number of youths will keep increasing. How the government harnesses the capabilities of today’s youth and generates opportunities for future youth will be key for Uganda’s ability to tap into a potential demographic dividend. 2.1 STATE OF THE YOUTH POPULATION DYNAMICS IN EAST AFRICA. The East African Countries are experiencing what can be termed as a youth bulge.2 1 http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/ugan- da-population/ 2 A youth bulge is a temporary demographic phenomenon which occurs when child mortality declines and fertility falls rapidly so that the previous cohort of births is larger than subsequent cohorts. As the large cohorts of births move into the working ages (15-64 years), Research has indicated that all the countries in the region, as indeed is the case for most African countries, will experience a significant increase in the total population for the next 30-50 years, irrespective of what population and social development policies the countries adopt.3 This is being attributed to the decades of high fertility that have created a high population momentum, implying that even if total fertility reached replacement level which demographic and population experts put at a global ceiling of 2.1 children per woman in the next few years, there will still be large numbers of women added to the pool of reproductive women every year. Hence, the issue of having a youthful population is not just an issue of the present but also a future case scenario that we must begin preparing for if a demographic dividend is to be utilized. However, the policy direction that we adopt today can influence the pace of growth and the level at which the population will be stable. It is anticipated that the youth population by 2065 will be 7.2 million in Rwanda, 30 million in Kenya, 48 million in Tanzania, and 42 million in Uganda.4 The consequences of the growth in population size and high dependency ratio will be increased pressure on basic social services like education, health care, housing and infrastructure. The increasing youth population will also put pressure on land, water, and other natural resources and this could contribute to food insecurity and resource-based conflicts not forgetting the environmental consequences that are associated with an increasing but uncoordinated and unplanned for youth sector. we get a bulge in the population pyramid 3 UKAID, EARF & AFIDEP (2018). An Analysis of the East African Regional Youth Demographics. 4 UN Population Division. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision, CD-ROM Edition. In: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs PD, ed; 2014. Pledges of the NRM to the youth in the 2016-2021 manifesto. • Invest in training the youth to acquire skills required in the job market. • Deliberate effort will be made to create an environment that offers opportunities to create jobs for the youth. • Continue to fund the youth who are not in formal employment to enable them create jobs for themselves and also employ others.
  • 10. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 10 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 In Uganda, for instance, the secondary school going population will increase from 5.8 to 16.2 million meaning that there will be increased pressure and demand for more education services like schools and teachers. Investments in areas that are crucial to reaping a demographic dividend and helping the nations utilize the advantage of a youthful population are, if not lacking, not well structured and implemented. Sectors like a robust education system that imparts skills for employment, job creation and entrepreneurship, transition mechanisms from school to the labour market, health services like SRHR and basic healthcare access, housing and a well structure urban infrastructure system, transport and communication among others are very much missing. Because of this, it is highly feared that like South Africa and Tunisia, the EAC countries will not be able to profit from the demographic dividend.5 Reaping a demographic dividend warrants that structures are put in place for a healthy, creative, innovative and productive youthful population. It has been posited that the Asian Tigers and Ireland benefited from the demographic dividend by about 25% to 33% for them to be the global rising powers that they are today. Source: Authors’ calculations based on DFID, EARF and AFIDEP Analysis of EAC Youth Demographics. 5 World Economic Forum, African Development Bank, World Bank. The Africa Competitiveness Report 2017: Addressing Africa’s Demographic Dividend. Geneva, Switzerland 2017 Based on the above illustration, if the level of investment in young people remains “business as usual” by 2050, the GDP per capita will be $927, $896, $2264, $2063 for Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania respectively. If these Governments undertake a robust investment in critical areas affecting the young generation (health care, education and skill development, governance, environmental sustainability, It is anticipated that the youth population by 2065 will be 7.2 million in Rwanda, 30 million in Kenya, 48 million in Tanzania, and 42 million in Uganda. “ “
  • 11. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 11 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 among others), the GDP per capita will increase to $3483, $4595, $3457, $3878 for the respective countries. The African Union, through various policy blueprints like the Agenda 2063, has established a desired roadmap for harnessing the demographic dividend6 and this road map has been clear on the need to harness the demographic dividend and has consequently identified four pillars which are important in this endeavour and these are: employment and entrepreneurship; education and skills development; health and wellbeing; and rights, governance, and youth empowerment. 6 African Development Bank. African Economic Outlook 2018; 2018. 3.0 STATE OF THE YOUTH IN UGANDA 3.1 JOBS! JOBS! JOBS Situational Analysis of the current state of employment It should be noted that the creation of jobs to meet the demands of large youth populations requires both local and foreign domestic invest- ment, enabling environments for entrepreneur- ship and good governance and accountability. Governance and accountability are particularly important in ensuring that youth have equita- ble access to the available jobs, particularly in the formal sector. The biggest challenge young people face in acquiring employment is lack of experience. Most of the jobs on the market require candidates to have acquired some minimum Graph showing GDP per capita growth of EAC Countries by 2050 if they invested in youth vs if the current status remained.
  • 12. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 12 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 level of experience which is estimated at 2 years yet most of the youth do not have such experience after school. This was confirmed by the results from our survey where the majority (43.2%) indicated it as a problem limiting them from acquiring jobs and next to it was lack of appropriate skills at 38.1% as indicated in the figure below. Figure: What is the biggest challenge young people face in search for employment Source: Survey results 2019 To many young people, unemployment is the most imminent problem they face as it affects their socio-economic wellbeing and quality of life. The 2016/17 Uganda National Household Survey by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics estimates the unemployment rate at 9% (those actively looking for employment but had not found any) but the World Bank places it at over 80%. The results from our survey indicated that the majority of young people (50.6%) expect the government to support them to acquire jobs and 24.2% indicated that the private sector is best placed to provide employment as indicated in the figure below. This is representative of the high expectations young people have of the government to provide economic opportunities for them. As such, government should involve itself as an active player in state Figure3: Who is best placed to support young people to get jobs? Source: Survey results 2019 run manufacturing similar to countries such as China, Brazil and India whose ownership of state run companies is over 50% through Public Private Partnerships.
  • 13. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 13 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 There are sex differences in employment with males to be more likely to acquire employ ment than females with 13% of female youth were unemployed compared to 6% male counterparts who had no jobs. Urban unemployed youths were at 14 % while about 6% of rural areas are unemployed. Kampala also exhibited the highest unemployment rates (21%) while West Nile sub region had the least (3%)7 . Despite a seemingly low unemployment rate, most of Uganda’s work opportunities are largely informal at 7.7 million, precarious, and poorly remunerated. Underemployment among young people also has far reaching consequences on their socio-economic wellbeing but has not captured the attention of various relevant stakeholders. 7 Uganda Household Survey, 2017 Government commitment to youth employment. Encourage the youth to undertake integrated patrio- tism, skilling and elementary military science training in order to re-orient mind-sets, attitudes and percep- tions of the youth towards vocational skills, hard work and national values. This will improve the country’s la- bour productivity and also make it more competitive within the region. Organise a crash vocational training programme for over 50,000 unemployed graduates in humanities and social sciences to enhance their employability skills. Support youth who come up with innovations, espe- cially in software applications, to commercialize their products. The ongoing skilling programmes in the country will be stepped up to enhance capacity of school leavers for self-employment and employability In addition to these initiatives, unemployed graduates will be re-skilled in vocational disciplines to enhance their employability and capacity for self-employment. Enhance the capacity of implementing agencies such as the Business,Technical and Vocational Education and Training (BTVET), the Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT), the Technical and Industrial Education and Training (TIET) with a view to produce graduates with skills that are relevant to the country’s current needs. Empower disadvantaged groups of society like rural women, youth and the disabled by giving them equal opportunity to skilling and employment. -We will continue to protect our children from all forms of child labour, including combating all forms of human trafficking.
  • 14. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 14 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 Uganda has experienced a tremendous growth trajectory, averaging at 6.5% over the last 30 years.8 However, this growth has not brought with it increased employment opportunities and has been termed by many as “jobless” growth. A 1% growth in GDP in Uganda, creates only 400 jobs as opposed to the 10,000 expected to be created9 . There must be an employment demand to rival the supply of labour, to create an optimal employment level. The already fragile situation is fueled by the rapid population growth of 3.3 percent which has led to a 78 % population under 30 years. The 2016-2021 National Youth Manifesto calls for holistic interventions to improve the employment environment in Uganda through an enabling legal and policy environment to facilitate job creation, skills development and enterprise opportunities for young Ugandans. The demands encompass the needs of all youth despite ability, age, ethnicity, and gender and are meant to be achieved over the 5 year period from 2016 to 2021. In this report, the various demands on jobs and employment are grouped into distinct but broad categories; skills development, infrastructure for job creation and opportunities and enterprise. i) Skills Development. The capacity of Uganda’s human resource has always been cast in serious doubt. An analysis of value added per worker shows that compared to most East African Countries, Uganda’s labour force performs comparatively lower in labour productivity10 . 8 Budget speech for fiscal year 2018/19 by the Hon. Matia Kasaija, Minister of MoFPED 9 Yusuf Kiranda, Max Walter, Michael Mugisha (2017), REAL- ITY CHECK: Employment, Entrepreneurship and Education in Uganda 10 MoGLSD. Social Sector Development Plan Among the demands made in the NYM was to warrant government to institute measures to require employers, particularly foreign investors to: target at least 40% local youth in recruitment and to procure from the area within which they operate. In addition to regulations, this report suggests that a one year tax break should be offered to young people under the age of 35 years as first time business owners who have not been directors in any companies before, as long as the company employs three people, including two directors as required by law and one extra employee. The government passed the Buy Uganda Build Uganda (BUBU) policy, with the intent to increase consumption of local products and increasing demand of the locally established firms in domestic trade. However, the lack of implementing modalities, coupled with lack of sanctions for non-observance of the policy especially for government institutions means it having little or no impact at all. In February 2017 Parliament granted Hon. Patrick Nsamba leave to introduce the Local Content Bill 2017 as a private members bill, however, the lack of political will from the government for both the BUBU policy and the bill has slowed the progress thereof. Other policies such as the PPDA Act Section 2(e) provides for preference of domestically manufactured goods and Ugandan contractors and consultants, in order to promote their development, by giving them a competitive advantage when competing for public procurement contracts, to foreign manufactured goods, foreign contractors or foreign consultants. The PPDA guidelines on reservation schemes to promote local content in public procurement are
  • 15. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 15 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 also being implemented. PPDA maintains that number of contracts awarded to local producers is very high at 99% because of the small nature of procurements made in the financial year.11 The Nakawa Centre is one of the five hubs that the government intends to construct countrywide to facilitate the development of ICT in the country. Steps must be taken to ensure these are accessible to all youth and ensure they are geared to the NDP II growth areas. The National Development Plan, 2016-2020, the government seeks to also put regional hubs in Mbarara, Mbale, Gulu, and Arua. In order to facilitate a proper school to work transition, the youth called for efforts to fast- track the establishment of National Youth Service and Internship Schemes by all sectors including Government. After a delay to fast track this demand, the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs supported the development of a private members bill, the National Graduate Service Scheme Bill 2018, was moved by Hon. Waira Majegere. The Bill which is currently under consideration by the Parliamentary committee on Gender, Labour, and Social Development, seeks to provide a long-term and effective means of developing Ugandan society whilst simultaneously developing the abilities of young people through service and learning. Moving forward, further consultations and policy development process on this policy should endear the private sector, which is a major contributor to youth employment and development. 11 Report the performance of the public procurement system for FY 2016/17 ii) Requisite Infrastructure for Job Creation. The NYM further realizes the need to ‘Strengthen implementation and monitoring of legislation that requires all foreign contractors to develop and implement a technology transfer plan’. The oil sector has attempted to streamline the transfer of technology to locals through legislation1213 . Licensees are required to submit to the government a report on procurements (utilization of Ugandan goods and services) and training and employment of Ugandans within 60 days and 30 days, Case study: Guiding policies on local content in the oil and gas sector The National oil and Gas policy and subsequent regulations; the Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) (National Content) Regulations, Statutory Instrument (S.I.) 44 of 2016 and the Petroleum (Refining, Conversion, Transmission and Midstream Storage) (National Content) Regulations, (S.I.) 34 of 2016 provide legal and policy frameworks that safeguard Ugandans participation in the oil and gas sector. The regulations require any licensee, contractor and sub-contractor to give priority to goods and services that are produced and available in Uganda and which are rendered by Ugandan citizens and companies in their petroleum activities. The provisions also warrant the training and transfer of knowledge/technology to indigenous Ugandans and ring fence, some goods and services for example security, foods and beverages, hotel accommodation for supply by Ugandan citizens and companies. respectively, after the end of each calendar year. 12 Petroleum Act sec 125 4(b) 13 Article 21.1 of the Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs)
  • 16. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 16 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 Another NYM demand on the labour infrastructure was to ‘Institute labour export regulations and policies to eliminate human trafficking and improve working conditions of youth in the Diaspora’. It should be noted that the Government of Uganda has a Labour Externalization programme as strategic initiative intended to facilitate recruitment of Ugandan migrant workers to decent employment opportunities and promote the protection of their rights and welfare in destination countries. The programme is implemented under the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MoGLSD) and is responsible for licensing and regulating private recruitment companies/ agencies; and signing bilateral agreements on behalf of Uganda with countries interested in importing labour from Uganda14 . Between the FY 2014/15 to FY 2016/17, facilitated recruitment of an estimated 70,000 Ugandan migrant workers to jobs in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and Mali. The Ministry has concluded bilateral agreements between Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Hashmite Kingdom of Jordan and are still negotiating with Qatar, UAE and Oman15 . However, given the lucrative nature of the labour export business, it has been bedeviled by human rights abuses of the migrant workers and human trafficking. There was an outcry for a regulatory framework to the labour export industry. 14 Prosper Mubangizi (2019). The Externalization of Labour Bill: Why Uganda Needs to Embrace but regulate the labour export industry. Accessed from http://cepa.or.ug/8328/the-externalization- of-labour-bill-why-uganda-needs-to-embrace-but-regulate-the-la- bour-export-industry/ 15 Press briefing Janat Mukwaya press briefing on the death of Ugandans in the UAE, 20th October 2018 • Almost 30% of the Young Ugandans (18- 34) are actually engaged in the early stages of setting up and running a business. • Uganda’s young people are under-educat- ed and ill equipped to manage commercial enterprises beyond the one person start-up phase • Well over two thirds of young Ugandans (18 – 34) survive on less than USD 800 per year • Only 6% of young entrepreneurs cite finan- cial institutions as the source of their cap- ital; other sources are family, friends and personal resources. • 89% of young entrepreneurs had not received support from any policies or schemes to help them in businesses • 1.8 Million Ugandan Youth are running busi- nesses informally • Over 80% of them admit that their product lines have not changed over time indicating little or no growth • Uganda’s business discontinuation rates are at 26% and among the highest in the world, with many of these businesses un- able to see their first birthday. ii) Enterprise and Youth Start Ups. Uganda is ranked as one of the World’s most entrepreneurial countries with 28% of its adult population co-own a new business according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). However, there are a lot of disturbing statistics as indicated in the table 6.
  • 17. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 17 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 II, Vision 2040 and the NRM manifesto have very decisive focus on youth livelihoods and employment. The Vision 2040 predicts improve- ments in employment levels and labour market conditions through a mix of measures that in- clude: implementation of the National Employ- ment Policy as well as other laws, policies and guidelines on labour productivity and employ- ment; strengthening of labour market infor- mation systems; establishment of a minimum wage; provision of non-formal skills develop- ment targeted at women and youth; and en- hancement of opportunities for medium-sized businesses through improved access to finance, entrepreneurship training and promotion of val- ue chains. NDP II includes proposed major in- vestment in transport, energy, ICT and water infrastructure. 3.2 YOUTH IN AGRICULTURE Uganda has about 5.5 million hectares of arable land that is suitable for agricultural purposes. The country also boosts of 49% of arable land as regards the East African regional land mass. The sector employs about 65% of Uganda’s working population with youth comprising of 63%16 . Labour underutilization is rampant in the informal sector, in which agriculture constitutes most of the informal jobs. In the 2015 School to Work Transition Survey by UBOS, 57.2% of them were engaged in the agricultural sector. It is estimated that about 71% of young men and women working in this sector are ‘vulnerable’. They are unpaid family helpers with inadequate earnings, working under difficult conditions that undermine workers’ fundamental rights. The contribution of agriculture to GDP at current market prices is 23.5%17 despite employing quite a number of people; this may be attributed to 16 National Strategy for youth employment in Agriculture, 2017 17 UBOS Statistical abstract 2017 The Externalization of Labour Bill and The Anti- Slavery Bill are before the floor of parliament seeking to buttress the existing efforts to regulate the industry. The statistics in the table indicate a need for a policy shift to support Start Up Entrepreneurs. It was proposed that government Instigate measures to support youth business start- ups and to nurture new businesses. One the flash ship government initiatives in this regard has been the Youth Livelihood Program (YLP). The program has registered moderate performance to date as indicated by the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social development. According to the YLP Success Stories statistics, 200,000 direct and 500,000 indirect jobs had been created as of May 2019 while a total of 19,305 youth projects in groups have been financed, with 232,325 youth benefiting, of whom 46% are female. The projects financed are in various sectors, including Agriculture (35%), Trade (29%), Services (19%) and Industry (5%) among others. Various vulnerable categories of youth have been reached including school dropouts (34.6%), single-parent youth (11.8percent), and youth with disabilities (2.8%), among others. There has also been a legislative effort to amend the Uganda Development Bank Act to cater for special funding for youth enterprises. On March 29th Parliament granted Hon. Mwine Mpaka (Western Youth MP) leave to introduce a Private member’s bill entitled the Uganda Development Bank (Amendment) Bill, 2018. The bill seeks to streamline development financing for the youth. Policy response. Several planning frameworks such as the NDP
  • 18. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 18 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 the 6 million households engaged in subsistence agriculture. Most young people lack the prerequisites to accessing formal banking services in Uganda. Access to financing for agriculture is the greatest challenge the youth involved in agriculture face. From our survey results, 79.6% of the youth do not have access to affordable credit for agriculture. Among the factors that hinder young people from accessing credit, lack of information about the existing affordable loans stood at 32.5%. This was followed by lack of collateral security with a representation of 33.8%. Though more than two-thirds of young Africans who live in rural areas work in the agriculture sector, it is the least productive sector in African economies. Investments in the agriculture sector provide perhaps the best opportunity for Africa to harness the demographic dividend Figure 4: Why do young people have no access to financing for agriculture? Source: Survey results 2019 The Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) through the National Agricultural Policy, 2013 and the Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan (ASSP 2015-2020) aim to attract, retain and support youth and their employment in the various aspects of the agriculture value chain. The government has set up a UGX 52.9 billion National Strategy for youth employment in Agriculture over the next five years. The strategy whose vision is to “economically empower youth from gainful employment in agriculture.” will emphasize strengthening the enabling environment, youth oriented agricultural extension, youth education, youth entrepreneurship, addressing risks and uncertainties and M&E and Inflation. In our survey, 61.9% of participants revealed that the government has fairly supported the youth
  • 19. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 19 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 involved agriculture as indicated in the figure below. Surprisingly, it was also established that 65.8% of the youth who participated in the survey did not know any young person who had received direct support for agriculture from government. Figure 5: Has Government been supportive to the youth in agriculture? Source: Survey results 2019 The government of Uganda should adhere to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) promotion of cooperatives recommendation, 2002 (No. 193) that states that national poli- cies should “seek to improve national statistics on cooperatives with a view to the formulation and implementation of development policies.” The Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives registered more than 16,500 cooperative societies as at July 2015 while the cooperative societies Bill, 2016 estimates that there are 12,615 registered cooperatives in Uganda. Cooperatives, because of their nature to avail affordable credit services to their members, are believed to be a niche for people who have difficulty in accessing loans from financial institutions such as banks, SACCOs and others of the sort. Young people have not amassed enough assets to present as collateral security to banks and this makes cooperatives become the best alternatives for their financial sourcing, however, the government has not made the cooperative model its priority. Case study 3: Interventions on agricultural financing Bank of Uganda in partnership with Commercial Banks, through the Agricultural Credit Facility, offered at maximum rate of 10percent per annum is available for use. The facility is intended to provide medium and long term loans to projects engaged in agriculture and agro-processing on more favorable terms than are usually available from the PFIs. The scheme is administered by the Bank of Uganda (BoU), with provision for a maximum grace period of 3 years and the interest rate to the final borrower being a maximum of 10percent per annum. Uganda Development Bank Ltd (UDBL), Micro Deposit Taking Institutions (MDIs) and Credit Institutions all referred to as Participating Financial institutions (PFIs). President Museveni, in his state of the Nation address of 2018 asserted that the loan facilities will benefit those participating in commercial agriculture. Private financial institutions like centenary Bank, Equity bank, FINCA, Finance trust bank etc. provide which provide finance across the value chain. However, according to the Value for Money report by the OAG, the scheme was not adequately marketed the scheme leading to low absorption of funds which ultimately hampering the ACF’s objective of supporting agricultural expansion and modernization. Government committed in the 2011- 2020 BTVET Strategic Plan to; Expand and improve agriculture training Establish, improve and expand facilities for agriculture BTVET Strengthen linkages of BTVET institutions with research institutions, industry and farmers Strengthen competency-based training (CBET) in agriculture
  • 20. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 20 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 4.0 HEALTH CARE FOR ALL Context. In pursuit of Uganda Vision 2040, the health sector aims at producing a healthy and produc- tive population that effectively contributes to socio-economic growth. Despite the improve- ments in the health of Uganda’s population over the years, the country is still far from the goal of health for all18. One of the biggest drawbacks has been the high fertility estimated at 5.6 per one woman that the country has been experi- encing which is also compounded by other poor health indicators such as maternal mortality ra- tio, and infant and child mortality rates. In ad- dition, under-nutrition among children below 5 years and women of reproductive age has re- mained high19 . Over the years, the health sector budget has been increasing over the years from UGX 1,190 billion to UGX 2,300 billion in 2018/19, as a per- centage of the overall budget, the health sector allocation has never risen above the 15% re- quirement of the Abuja declaration. Health care financing is also largely funded by individual households (43%), donors at (34%) while the government contributes 23%. The health sec- tor is also marred by issues of human resource crises, lack of equipment, poor working condi- tions, and lack of political will. Therefore, albeit the fact that the quality of life has improved in Uganda in the recent years post 1986, the is- sues that affect the health of the young people still abound. The demands made in the NYM are categorized 18 NDP II 19 ibid into those to do with; access, information, legis- lative and policy environment and SRHR. (i)ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE. The youth in 2016 made demands as regards increased availability, access to and uptake of quality and affordable health care services for young people. The Government of Uganda embarked on implementing the Uganda Health System Strengthening Project; a government initiative set out to assist the country achieve the Uganda National Minimum Health Care Package (UNMHCP). The focus was put on maternal health, new born care and family planning. In addition to providing cost effective interventions identified to respond to the most important causes of disease burden, the project is also intended to contribute to improving human resources for health; physical health infrastructure; and management, leadership and accountability for health service delivery. Despite the progress under the project, success has been marred by the failure to renovate all intended hospitals, failure or government to provide counterpart funding, impairment of funds from the exchange rate, delay to replace There are great challenges when it comes to accessing health care services. The Na- tional household survey of 2016/17 noted that a higher percentage of the population (48%) visited private hospital/clinic when ill than government health facilities (34%). In addition, 86 percent of the population accessed healthcare within a 5km radi- us. Health insurance coverage is still low with only 5 percent of the population hav- ing health insurance. Average household expenditure on healthcare in real terms reduced from shs.27,600 in 2012/13 to shs.22,800 in 2016/17.
  • 21. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 21 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 rejected equipment etc20 . The challenges by the project have an impact on the access to health care. This notwithstanding, deficits in the health care system included that affected access of several persons included unavailability of medicines/ supplies (23%), long waiting time (13%), long distance (12%), and limited range of services (14%) and under staffing (10%) ranked highly among concerns of the communities in public facilities. Whereas, in private facilities, it was found that services being expensive (39%) ranked top followed by limited range of services (23%) and long distance (9%)21 . To improve access to health care, National Youth Manifesto made a demand requiring government to “expedite the passing of the National Health Insurance Bill which will provide universal and affordable health care for all”. Up to now, Uganda is the only country in East Africa that has not yet started the implementation of the National Health In- surance (NHIS). Countries like Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda have already benefited from the introduction of the NHIS where they have significantly reversed their maternal, newborn and HIV/AIDS indices by covering the poor and most vulnerable groups such as women and youth living in rural and peri-urban setting in their countries. The National Health Insur- ance Bill, has been on the proposed healthcare reform agenda for the last three years but has been approved by Cabinet but not yet tabled before Parliament. The level of out of pocket expenditure, as per- 20 Report of the auditor general on financial statements of UHSSP IDA credit agreement NO.4742-UG 21 National household survey 2016/17 centage of the total health expenditures, has been steadily growing in the past years to 41% in Uganda, showing a huge burden of access to quality health care on most of the youth and their already poor and marginalized house- holds. The high out-of pocket expenditure on health care negatively impacts on personal incomes and affects youth demand for, and ac- cess to healthcare. This consequently increases impoverishments, especially of youth in the lower income quintiles. Youth with disabilities face multidimensional exclusion (exclusion across more than one domain or dimension of disadvantage mainly on the basis of disability and poverty due to their youthfulness), resulting in severe negative consequences for quality of life, well-being and future life chances. These barriers exist in access to social services (education, health, social protection, etc.), economic opportunities, as well as political participation22 . Unfortunately, the vast majority of HIV/AIDS and other sexual reproductive programs lack the training, resources and the commitment necessary to accommodate the needs of PWDs. Due in part to the widespread misconception that PWDs are sexual, many are deprived of formal (at school) and informal (at home) education on sexual reproductive health. This educational gap leaves PWDs in a vulnerable position, and can result in an inability to negotiate safer sex. Greater incidences of sexual violence and victimization against PWDs also place them at higher risk of HIV infection. The national disability- inclusive planning guidelines for Uganda lay out progressive potential interventions under the health sector cluster 6. 22 UN CPRD
  • 22. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 22 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 ii)INFORMATION. In the 2016/21 NYM, the government was tasked to undertake interventions that “Provide accurate and comprehensive health information to the youth through the most convenient, affordable, and effective method; including support to ensure language and formal education levels are not barriers to access to information especially for young people with disabilities”. The results from the survey revealed that the biggest challenge that the youth face in accessing sexual reproductive health services is social stigma on information about reproductive health services (45.6%) and lack of information about the services was presented as another outstanding impediment (32.3%). These are illustrated in the figure below. Figure: Challenges facing young people in accessing reproductive health services Source: Survey results 2019 (iii)Legislative and Policy Environment. The NYM was clear on the need to have a robust legislative and policy environment in order to create a very healthy generation of young people. The NYM demanded government to ‘Eliminate harmful traditional practices such as Female Genital Mutilation and child marriages’. Uganda boasts of a robust legal and policy framework against FGM and great strides have been made on tackling Female Genital Mutilation23 . The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development is implementing the National Policy and Action Plan to eliminate Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Efforts through raising awareness, enforcing the law as well as providing support to communities to abandon FGM has been done with support from UNFPA. The Ministry also has joint programs to end child marriages and FGM. However, the budgetary allocation for the last three years has been a meagre UGX .5M and UGX 155M respectively, per year. 23 Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (2017) 16 Days of Activism Campaign Against Gender Based Violence. Avail- able at http://www.faweuganda.org/index.php/cedaw-project/367- 16-days-of-activism-campaign-against-gender-based-violence. NYM Demand: Strengthen multi-sectoral part- nerships between the health sector and other like-minded sectors to ensure coordinated access to health information and services for youth. The Ministry of Health in its MPS for FY 2018/2019 include strength- ening inter-sectoral collaboration to address determinants for health, e.g. safe water, education, and housing among others. This will especially key in areas of adolescent reproductive health rights and education as well as fighting gender-based violence and prac- tices such as female genital mutilation that have severe health indi- cations for young people affected. UGX 16.926 billion shillings was earmarked to increase collaboration the East African Laboratory Network1 .
  • 23. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 23 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 The NYM also envisaged a need to ‘Eliminate laws and policies that contribute to gender- based violence and inhibit access to sexual and reproductive health services (such as the criminalization of HIV exposure and transmission)’. The Constitution of Uganda guarantees equality as well as protection of women and girls rights28 . However, outside the protection guaranteed by the constitution and subsequent laws, violence in all its forms – psychological, physical and emotional continues unabated. Several laws including the Anti Phonography Act, the penal code enacted to protect women are the very ones used against women. New forms of violence have emerged like ICT abated violence against women that is not provided for in the current legal framework. Laws on contentious issues like marital rape continue to face backlash because of perceptions wielded by highly patriarchal societies in Uganda. The extent to which young girls and women are affected by many of the challenges faced by youth can be significantly heightened by two factors a) gender biases and discrimination faced in educational, cultural and political contexts as well as in the labour market, and (b) access to health services and in the private sphere. Young women may face a broader range of obstacles preventing them to actively engage in the public sphere. MGLSD partners with other government agencies and CSOs to organize the 16 days of activism against gender based violence annually. In addition to the interventions by the MGLSD, the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) requested the government to set up specialized courts on gender based violence 28 The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (1995) protects women and their rights under Article 33 and specifically prohibits under 33(6) ‘Laws, cultures, customs or traditions which are against the dignity, welfare or interest of women or which undermine their status . . .’ Further, Article 44 states that no person shall be subjected to any form of ‘torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment’ It is important to note that enforcement remains a challenge because the practice continues in very remote rural areas where support for the practice remains strong, and FGM has increasingly been performed in secret. More on having a robust legal and policy environment for positive health outcomes, the NYM demanded that “mechanisms to reduce teenage pregnancies” be instituted. In Uganda, one in every three girls is married off before the age of 18 years whether through formal or informal unions24 . More than a third or 39 percent of women aged between 20 and 49 years give birth by age 18, and more than half or 63% have had their first birth by age 20. In 2017, 30.7 % of the girls were already pregnant. In rural areas, 24% give birth earlier than girls from urban areas whose rate is 21%. Teenage pregnancies are high in the East Central, Eastern, and Karamoja regions with 30% compared to other regions, with the Southwest region having the lowest at 15% and Central emerges with the second lowest at 19%.25 The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development developed The National Strategy on Child Marriage (NSCM&TP) 2014/2015 – 2019/2020 provides a holistic and comprehensive policy framework to end child marriage and other forms of violence against girls including teenage pregnancy because of child marriage26 . Rates of teenage pregnancy had increased to 25% in 2016 compared to 24% in 2011 and this costs Uganda about UGX 18 Trillion per year.27 24 The World Bank(2017). A Situation Analysis of Child Mar- riages in Uganda 25 UDHS 2017 26 Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (2017). The National Strategy on Child Marriage. 27 The World Bank(2017). A Situation Analysis of Child Mar- riages in Uganda
  • 24. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 24 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 issues. The sexual offences bill, 2015 currently in Parliament seeks to consolidate laws relating to sexual offences and combat sexual violence. The Uganda Police Crime report of 2017 indicated that domestic violence was the second most committed crime in 2017. 29 The 2016 Uganda Demographic Survey 2016 indicated that women in Uganda are more than twice as likely to experience sexual violence as men. More than 1 in 5 women age 15-49 (22 percent) report that they have experienced sexual violence at some point in time compared with fewer than 1 in 10 (8 percent) men. (iv) SEXUAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS. A debate on SRHR courts a lot of controversy in Uganda. There has been long standing contention and controversy surrounding the teaching of sexuality education for adolescents in schools. . Only 5% of the health facilities in Uganda provide30 youth-friendly health services. Other issues related to access to health for young include inadequate funding for youth-friendly health services; low perception of risky sexual behavior, abuse of alcohol, and drugs. The absence of a National Health Insurance Scheme, law or policy further impedes the ability of the young people who are poverty stricken to access health care and health services when they need. In May 2018, the Ministry of Education and Sports launched the National Sexuality Education Framework which is Uganda’s first ever guidelines on sexuality education which seeks to create and 29 Uganda Police Annual Crime Report 2017 30 Rutgers Uganda https://www.rutgers.international/sites/ rutgersorg/files/PDF/Advocacy_Uganda_0.pdf overarching national direction for response in respect to sexuality education in the formal setting of educating young people in Uganda. The Ministry of Health has been working a school health policy since 2015, and this policy is currently reported to be in advanced stages. The MGLSD initiated the drafting of guidelines for Sexuality Education for out of School students in 2016 while the Ministry of Education and Sports is responsible for developing the guidelines for those in school. It is important that these policies are communicated to young people through consumable material and through mediums easily available to them. Mass sensitization through old (radio, TV and newspapers) can be complemented using new media like social media to reach even the most vulnerable youth. More on access to SRHR, the NYM demanded that 5% of the annual Ministry of Health budget be allocated as a stand-alone allocation for the establishment and sustenance of youth corners in all public health facilities at all levels. UGX 911.426 billion, 2.3 trillion and 2.8trillion was allocated to the sector for FY 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20. However, there is no realignment for the establishment and sustenance of youth corners in all public health facilities at all levels. Given that youth are more susceptible to drug and substance abuse, the 2016-2021 NYM demanded for efforts that “Support youth involvement in efforts to prevent drug and substance abuse”. According to the World Health Organization report on Drug and Substance Abuse, alcohol is the most abused substance followed by sedatives, cannabis, inhalants Opiates, synthetic narcotic analgesics
  • 25. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 25 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 and hallucinogens. Uganda’s average total per capita consumption of pure alcohol per year is about 9.8 litres. This is over and above the global and African region averages of 6.4 and 6 litres of pure alcohol each year respectively for individuals aged 15 years and older31 Legislative response to drug and substance abuse. Parliament enacted laws like Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic substances Act 2016, and the Tobacco Control Act, but enforcement is lacking, robust enforcement of these laws is necessary. In addition there is a need to introduce a national alcohol policy to regulate manufacture, avail- ability, advertising, distribution and marketing of alcohol in Uganda and put restrictions on the number of alcohol selling outlets per area and selling of sachet alcohol2 . At a local level, some local governments have enacted ordinances to protect citizens against the devastating effects of reckless and excessive alcohol consumption. Gulu, for instance, passed the alcohol ordinance which it stipulates that those seeking to sell alcoholic drinks in the dis- trict must ensure that their places are located more than half a kilometer from education in- stitutions. The others are all packaging must be in breakable bottles as opposed to polythene sachets, restricts the smallest quantity to 250 milliliters and establishes a district licensing committee to review licenses of operators amongst others 31 WHO, 2016 5.0 YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN DECISION MAKING. “Young people must think about whether they are representatives of the youth to the State or the representatives of the State to the youth” EshbanKwesiga. The demands of the youth in the NYM are grouped into participation, youth leadership and mentorship and representation for purposes of this study; (i)Youth participation. Effective youth participation is about creating opportunities for the youth to be actively involved in designing, shaping, and influencing policy development and implementation processes. Hence the NYM demanded of the government to “ensure that youth actively and meaningfully participate in the development, implementation and monitoring of government policies and programs”. Government of Uganda, on its part, has put in place legal and institutional frameworks to ensure participation and involvement of the youth in decision making and national development.
  • 26. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 26 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 On a positive note, there have been recent developments in the public policy arena, that is shaping and cementing the role of young people in influencing development outcomes. Currently, Parliament is considering three critical bills, the Externalization of Labor Bill 2018, the Graduate Service Scheme Bill 2018, and the Anti-Slavery Bill 2018. These bills have been sponsored and supported by the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs. The significance of these processes points to the shift in the realization and recognition of the role of young people in public policy and contributing to decision making processes. However, structural hindrances like the increase in candidate nomination fees, monetization of elections, political patronage and pervasive corruption continue to hinder youth participation in decision making. The youth have been kept at the fringes of the decision making and have not enjoyed full participation in their own gov­ er­nance, except by serving as a pud­dle from which those who have benefited from political benefaction find their conduit to sustain their political dominance.32 32 Mwesigye G (2019). Young Citizen’s Participation in Leadership Today: Where is the Youth Power. The NYM also wanted to ‘Change the mandate of National Youth Council to place it at the center of addressing issues of youth. Female youth should be empowered to take on leadership as District Youth Chairpersons’. Sec. 2 of the 1993 National Youth Council Act (NYCA) as amended in 2010, prescribes the objectives of the NYC, but does not clearly show the various roles and responsibilities and mandate of the NYC; or if shown, there has not been efforts to popularize these roles through empowering these structures. Sec. 11 of the NYCA provides for about funding of the youth councils, however funding for the council leaves a lot to be desired. Given the broad mandate of the youth councils, inadequate funding hinders the effective execution of the council’s mandate. In our survey, 60.1% of the respondents acknowledged having knowledge about the national youth council, but 77.9% had no confidence in their councilors addressing their issues.To increase youth participation in decision making, the NYM demanded the recruitment of ‘Youth Engagement Officers http://parliamentwatch.ug/young-citizens-participation-in-leadership-today-where-is-the-youth-power/#.XUgii_IzbIV LEGISLATION REMEDY PROVIDED 1995 Constitution Provides for representation of the youth in the national parliament NYC ACT CAP 319 Established the Youth Council structures from village to national level to provide channels through which youth engage in development process 1997 Local Government Act Provides for representation of the youth in all Local Government Council structures. Equally, Civil Society Organizations and other non-state actors provide alternative spaces for youth participation. However, like many beneficiaries of affirmative action in Uganda’s political system, youth’s meaningful participation is questionable.
  • 27. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 27 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 in Ministries, Departments and Agencies’. Youth participation should be in terms of youth- led development, which always acknowledges the importance of local contexts and cultural values and practices. This was to be realized through the establishment of youth desks in MDAs. However, there is no evidence on the progress of this indicator. Positive strides have been made in KCCA which has enrolled youth community officers33 . The affairs of the youth are mainly looked at by the Community Development Officers and the Probation Social Workers. (ii)Representation. There was a demand for government to ‘Establish a Multi-Sectoral Working Group on youth development to represent youth in the various government decision making platforms and act as a link between youth and government bodies’. It should be appreciated that youth are represented on various sector working groups in the country, however, this demand pertains to an organized youth led consultative process. The national youth council should be empowered beyond a political body to undertake this role. Capacities on qualified human resources , research, funding, etc. should be enhanced to promote more meaningful participation of the councils. UNSA plays a vital role in the socio-political landscape in Uganda. It has the potential to reinforce the roles of other youth led organizations through the provision of strategic direction. 33 Reagan Wamajji (2017). First State of the Youth Report. Hence, the NYM highlighted the need to ‘Reinvigorate the existing student’s movement (UNSA) to enable the students community meaningfully participate in and influence decision making processes. Strengthen the governance systems of UNSA to ensure that it acts as a training ground for leaders’. Synergies therefore should be created with the various existing bodies in order to promote unified youth movement. Some of these bodies duplicate each other’s work and stand to gain from working together. Lower the age to contest for LCV seats and harmonize with the age for contesting for other political positions like MP. Parliament of Uganda passed the Constitutional Amendment Act 2017 in a bid to open political spaces for the young and old people alike to participate in politics. In the same spirit, the Local Government Act must be amended to allow youth below 35 years of age to contest for the post of LC V chairperson. (iii)Youth Leadership and Mentor- ship. The framers of Vision 2040, Uganda’s develop- ment blueprint, acknowledge ideological dis- orientation as one of the bottlenecks impeding the nation’s transformation in the socio-eco- nomic and political context. It is argued and rightly so that countries which have attained upper middle income status have had clear and well defined national ideologies with the young population being the root and stem of such national ideologies.
  • 28. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 28 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 Principle to guide a Youth Leadership and Mentorship Program. Should build on what is working - avoid creating parallel or new structures that are unlikely to be sustained and focus on issues and reforms that have real traction. Be politically smart, locally-led: Invest in ongoing political economy analysis and in understanding institutions, rules of the game, power dynamics, incentives and norms - not just on organizations. This lens will be crit- ical to achieving sustainable, locally-owned results. Aim at building networks and coalitions that go beyond the ‘usual suspects’, and that bring together diverse partners around issues and reforms that have strong locally-driven support. Be creative about how to foster and empower emerging youth leaders – especially females and other marginalized youth groups. Leverage and collaborate with other government and donor programs wherever possible. Build in adaptability. Seize on unexpected windows of opportunity and critical junctures and be prepared to change quickly if needed. Innovate and test viable pathways and incen- tives for change. Build in rapid cycles of strate- gy testing and feedback loops to evaluate and adapt approaches and tactics to changes in the context. Recognize the heterogeneity of the youth like intra youth differences based on disabil- ity, gender and social background. All such differences should be factored in for all-inclu- sive mentorship Theoretical Framework on how to increase youth participation and representation in decision making spaces. If the government, youth councils, civil society networks; 1. Strengthen their technical, institutional and organisational capacities to sustainably engage youth in the development processes, 2. Work collaboratively to promote continuous civic engagement that reaches out to the youth both in and out of school, 3. Promote transparent and accountable leadership informed by principles of social justice, equity and gender sensitivity, and 4. Build broad-based consensus around issues concerned with participation of the young people; Then youth and women civic actors will have greater bargaining power to effectively engage the powers that be towards policy prioritization of their issues of concern as well as adoption of an incremental approach to policy and legislative actions that will ensure the development blue prints like the Vision 2040 not only speaks into the aspirations of the children but also address- es , works for them and the young generation is mentored to take up the leadership mantle with true values reflecting the social fabric and clout of the Ugandan spirit.
  • 29. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 29 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 6.0 Education Opportunities. Situational Analysis. Situation. -17M children unaccounted for during the 11 years (1997-2008) of UPE as per UBOS re- ports. -9M children enrolled in primary school. -660,000 children of school going age chil- dren estimated to be out of school. -200,000 Number of new classrooms needed to achieve a ratio of 40:1 pupil classroom ra- tio. -150,000 Number of primary school class- rooms. -63,000 primary school classroom deficit. The Education and Sports sector is responsible for the delivery of equitable, relevant and quality education, training and sports services for all. The priorities include pursuing the quality and relevance of education at all levels and improving effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of education services. Uganda’s education sector has experienced tremendous progress over the years. The shortcomings of Universal Primary Education notwithstanding, the policy has promoted equitable access to primary education. The same can be said for universal secondary education. Gender parity in education at primary secondary and tertiary level has also improved over the years, reveal that the gender parity index was less than one for both primary and secondary education (0.99 and 0.95 respectively) in 2016/1734 . 34 Uganda National household survey 2016/17 The 2016/17 National household survey noted that the literacy rate for persons aged 10 years and above is estimated at 74%, however, it was higher for males than females. Overall, 5 percent of the school-going-age (6-24 years) had never attended school while in Karamoja about half had never attended school. The Gross Enrolment ratio was estimated as 117% and was highest in Teso (139%), Bukedi (133%) and West Nile (131%) sub-regions. About access to education facilities, 77% of the persons attending day primary school travelled less than 3 kilometers to school. It is however not enough that Ugandan children have enrolled in school. The persistence and performance of school going children associated with education quality indicators like student- teacher ratio, student book ratio and student classroom ratio must be enhanced. It is estimated that the population of secondary school age persons will increase from 5.8 to 16.2 million in Uganda.35 The demands made in the 2016/2021 NYM are grouped into Skills Enhancement, Regulatory Framework, Curriculum Review, Infrastructure and Special Needs Responsive Education. i) Skills based Education. The argument that Uganda’s problem is not the lack of technocrats. It is lack of enough and skilled technicians to build and repair the nation has been a ferocious one. Hence the NYM demanded that government “enhance free skills training opportunities through UPPET and BTVET which provide an opportunity for creating new vocational centres and utilizing the available community polytechnics.” 35 UK AID, AFIDEP & EARF (2018). EAC Regional Youth De- mographics Analysis.
  • 30. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 30 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 The Government is implementing the 10-year BTVET Strategic Plan 2012, “Skilling Uganda Programme” under the theme ‘unlocking our productivity potential’. The Programme forms an integral part of the Education Policy Framework and is designed to address the major challenges of the BTVET sub-sector regarding relevance, quality, access, equity, management and financial sustainability. According to project plans and the education sector Ministerial policy statements over the years, including FY 2018/19 it is evident that the projects under BTVET are concentrating much on construction and procurement of machinery with a limited focus on enrolment which has consistently been reported to be low. The 10- year skilling Uganda strategic plan (2011-2020), the Government planned to raise the number of graduates to 450,000 annually, with 50% female population. However, only fewer than 200,000 personnel have been produced, with two years to the end of the strategic plan. The enrolment rates for remain low due negative attitude towards BTVET. ii)Regulatory Environment. There is an acknowledgement of the critical role that the private sector can play in the education services in terms of increasing both the quality and quantity aspects in the sector. The government policy direction following the adoption of the World Bank initiated structural adjustment Programs and liberalization of the economy points to the strong role of the private actors I the education sector. Realizing this critical role and influence, the 2016/2021 NYM advocated that government pursues policies that ‘Incentivize private sector investments in education in hard to reach areas’. During the 25th Annual education sector review at the office of the Prime Minister Conference hall in Kampala, the stakeholders in education called for increased private sector involvement in the development and financing of Uganda’s education if efficiency is to be realized.36 NYM Demand: Create and implement clear policies to regulate the operations of schools both in the private and public sector. In Uganda, about 25% of the Primary school pupils attend private primary schools, compared to 11% in Kenya and 2% in Tanzania.3 The country entirely relies on non- state provisions for pre-primary education and over 50% of secondary school going students attend private schools. Supervision of private schools is warranted due to the proliferation. Several do not meet the minimum standards, over 1,308 were found wanting by the directorate of education standards. The government must extend the enforcement the Standard of Operating Procedure for private schools in Uganda to public schools as many are in the same or even worse situations than many private schools. Government has supported the private sector especiallyattertiarylevelforinstancein2017/18, the Ministry conducted support supervision to 5 private Universities receiving government funding. The Ministry disbursed funds to 5 private Universities (Ndejje, Mountains of the Moon, Bishop Stuart and Kumi universities) to support infrastructure expansion, and supported 100 students at the University of Kisubi.37 This 36 https://www.softpower.ug/sector-review-stakehold- ers-call-for-private-investment-in-education/ 37 Ministerial Policy statements for the Ministry of Educa-
  • 31. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 31 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 indicates the government’s efforts to incentivize the private sector investments in education, however, there is still a gap for supporting the needs of the schools in the hard to reach areas due to the financial constraints. The rapid privatization in the education sector which has not been matched with a more appropriate regulatory, supervision and monitoring framework since the Ministry has insufficient funding. The private sector has grown much faster than anticipated, driven by market forces, and it is only now that government is endeavoring to catch up with this expansion. Some of the private schools still charge exorbitant fees above the capacity of average Ugandans to afford. iii) Education Infrastructure. Improve the learning environment at all levels of education e.g. build classrooms, provide laboratory equipment among others. Ensure appropriate adaptations are made to meet the needs of students with special needs. Provide free daily school meals for all primary school children. The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development emphaised that that the proposals on school feeding have serious budget implications which Government cannot accommodate within the constrained budget. Finance advised that feeding of school learners should remain a responsibility of parents as stipulated in the Education Act 2008. tion and Sports for FY 2018/19 Establish a secondary school in each sub county to cater for those completing primary education and lower secondary. The major challenge to the Education sector is budgetary constraints and as a result, for the government to be able to construct at least 20 Secondary Schools in the over 20 Sub- Counties without tham, a total of Ushs 9.48bn is required.38 In the Sub-Counties where there are no secondary schools, the students walk long distances to find schools every day which is a hindrance to their performance. There is an urgent need to fill this gap so as to meet the above mentioned needs. iv)Special Needs Responsive Education. The NYM is clear on the need to have an education system that is responsive to special needs. It mandates the government to establish six regional centers of excellence in special needs education to address the issues of capacity in infrastructure, access, knowledge and skills. In the FY 2017/18, the Ministry of Education provided subvention grants for Special Needs Education (SNE) learners in 100 schools and completed 7 classrooms and a 4 unit instructors’ house. Under the Special Needs Education Programme FY2018/19, the Education Ministry reported carrying out needs assessment in 20 schools; constructed Motor vehicle and carpentry workshop at Mbale SSFD; constructed 3 classroom blocks for Home Economics, Art and Design at Mbale SSFD; constructed a teachers house & five stance VIP latrine with shower and urinal, 38 Education Sector Budget framework paper FY 2018/19-FY 2022/23
  • 32. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 32 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 and procured Equipment for Home economics classes, 120 teachers were trained in functional assessment for learners with special needs; conducted Sign Language training for 65 teachers in Wakiso & Mbale schools for the deaf; procured and distributed 28 Perkins Braille Machine & braille papers to 18 schools (St. Hellens, Arua Dem, Pajobi, Angal Girls, Owiny, Masindi Centre for the handicapped, Lima, Kateera Biikira, Moyo Girls, Nyarilo, Ishekye, Kisoro Dem, Kiwolero Army, Ediofe, St. Bernadettea Primary Schools, Bushenyi Centre for disabled, Saad Memorial S.S and St.Peters Katukuru S.S. v) Curriculum Review. Uganda’s education system as previously noted has remained very obscelete and can no longer effectively churn out graduates that can compete both at the local and international labour market. As part of curriculum review, the NYM underscored the need to Design and establish school vacation programs to enhance vocational and practical skills, inculcate an enterprising mindset and build citizenship. The Ministry of Education trained 178 Item writers on new curriculum at Fisheries Training Institute in the FY 2017/18. Directorate Institute of Training (DIT) developed 147 theory and 133 practical assessment instruments for Level I, II and III in 29 occupations; 197 theory and 133 practical assessment instruments for Modular in 35 occupations. In our survey, the majority of the respondents who were the youth with University qualifications (75.5%) and Tertiary qualifications (10.3%) indicated that the education they had received had not prepared them for the available jobs. As indicated in the figure below, 52.3% which is more than a half indicated that they do not think that the education they have acquired has prepared them for the available jobs. Figure: Do you think the education you have received so far has prepared you for the avail- able jobs? Source: Survey 2019 The NYM therefore called for a review of the curriculum from being theory based to become more practical and solution oriented.
  • 33. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 33 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 7.0 SPORTS AND CREATIVE ARTS 7.1 SPORTS Physical Education and Sports (PES), if well harnessed can serve as an effective vehicle for socio- economy transformation of a nation. PES improves academic excellence, provides leisure recreation and entertainment, improves health and physical fitness and reduces the health expenditure burden on curative measures and improves individual and national productivity. PES is not yet fully exploited, yet it provides employment opportunities as well as breaking the barriers of social status, sex, religion and race. While government documents like the Education and Sports Sector Strategic Plan 2017/18- 2019/2020 emphasize the importance of the sports subsector, it is evident that the sports sub-sector has not received the requisite attention from policy makers. For instance, the report of the committee of education and sports of Parliament of Uganda for FY 2017/18 does not provide an accurate analysis of the sports subsector. Save for the mention of plans to provide equipment to schools, promote international sports and construct John Aki Bua stadium, policy and budgetary direction on the sports subsector is missing. The sports subsector continues to be underfunded, in the financial year 2016/17, allocations to the education and sports sector was as follows: Primary education was allocated 50.17%, followed by Tertiary at 19.61%, Secondary at 15.20%, BTVET at 10.55% and others at 4.47% (Physical Education and Sports, Special Needs Education, Guidance If schools and the education system; Adjust their teaching methods and make the education system speak into the realities around which children are taught, The education system is made more interactional and freedom intense with children being able to interrogate and question what they are taught, Lessons on patriotism and national values are inculcated into the education system and curriculum, and Schools undertake to train and mentor children to assume roles as economic, social and political leaders; Then schools will be turned into places or incubation centres that churn out national leaders, technocrats and social influencers. A national value system will have been created and the values and principles of Uganda as a country will be nurtured hence a generation of Vision Bearers to lead an upper middle-income Uganda.
  • 34. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 34 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 and Counselling and Policy, Planning and Support Services)39 . As indicated, such miniscule budgets only serve the goals and objectives of the sector to a certain extent. The review also noted non -adherence to the teaching of Physical Education on the formal time table, few physical education teachers who at the time of the release of the review stood at only and insufficient sports facilities. Ad hoc government interventions like the rehabilitation of PECE stadium in Gulu district and the construction of a swimming pool in St. Joseph Layibi are indicative of government’s failure to promote sports in Uganda. These projects were initiated prior the Federation of East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Association (FEASSSA) games. More systematic interventions that are linked to overall strategic goals should be imitated. Several district stadia like in (Jinja, Mbarara, Kabale, Gulu, Masaka, Mbale continue to be dilapidated. Corruption has also marred the development of the sports sector in Uganda. The much anticipated construction of the Akii-Bua Olympic Stadium in Lira which was a pledge by President Yoweri Museveni in 2016 in memory of Uganda’s first Olympic gold medalist, John Akii-Bua continues to spur controversy on the usage of the Ugx.665 million disbursed. Review the structure of major sports in consultation with key stakeholders to develop a comprehensive plan of action to revitalize the sector 39 Education and Sports Sector Annual performance review 2017 The Physical Activity and Sports (PAS) Bill to address emerging sports regulatory concerns and gaps in implementation, governance as well as technical and operational issues has been in cabinet since 2013. Reluctance on the part of government through the lack of political will goes to show that the sector is not a priority Provide tax incentives to the private sector to encourage investment in sports. The URA tax incentive guide for investors in Uganda only provide an exemption for one rally car and spare parts in the sports category. This excludes a variety of sports activities Support the expeditious passing of the Lotteries and Gaming Bill to provide for the re-allocation of revenues realized from lotteries to sports activities. This demand has not been realized. From the survey, the majority of the youth indicated that there are no government pro- grams available to tap young people into vari- ous sports and disciplines. This is illustrated in the figure below where 64.6% said NO when they were asked if they were aware of any government programs supporting the youths in sports and arts.
  • 35. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 35 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 Figure 6: Are there any government programs supporting the youth talent in sports and arts? Source: Survey results 2019 The findings further revealed that government comes in it support a few successful athletes and others sports personalities but does little prop them up in their development. 8.0 CREATIVE ARTS The dimensions of art are vast and yet the general of perception of Art in Uganda is limited to antiquities, music, dance, drama and fine art. Even while art has evolved over the years to include new forms, Uganda has not adapted to these new forms. Government interventions have also been limited to the general forms of art. Except for Jamafest, which happens in East Africa on a rotational basis, national art festivals that celebrate Uganda’s rich art are private initiatives. “Creative arts are an essential investment for peace and stability, and are a prerequisite for the success of human development. A more visible and effective inclusion of creative arts in development programs at local, national and international levels is critical for sustain- able development. Creative arts is a powerful global economic engine generating jobs and income with a value of US$1.3 trillion in 2005. Cultural industries account for more than 7% of global GDP. (2009 UWR). Cultural heritage not only generates income, but also builds so- cial cohesion, mobilizing communities around its care and management. Arts can also be a brilliant outlet for young people by giving them skills for the future, a chance to express their thoughts and feelings, and an opportu- nity to find something they excel at. Arts and culture are intimately related, as arts contrib- ute to and are part of national and individual identity. Not only does arts education shape children’s behaviour and vision of life, it also provides a means of responding to the identity crisis and social breakdown”. (2016-2021 National Youth Manifesto) “the NRM will support the construction and redevelopment of entertainment infrastructure such as the National Theatre, the National Museum and regional museums and cultural/ entertainment centers”. Art has been useful in the development of Uganda over the years – art played a significant role in post- colonial Africa through artistic impressions of the experiences. Art is important because it for celebrates nationalism and identity, art pays tribute to sacrifice. Sometimes art is used for revelation and advocacy or protest.40 40 Kyeyune G., (2018). The Role of Art and Popular Culture
  • 36. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 36 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 The appreciation of art by policy makers has not taken root in Uganda, consequently no clear plans for its promotion are in place. Provide incentives to the entertainment, arts, and creative industries to fully develop the sector to enable it to compete effectively on the world stage. One of the greatest contributions that art can make to society is to become a tool for critical thinking and social interaction41 . Professor Kyeyune George an art professor at the Margaret Trowell School of fine Art asserts that is a universal language, accessible to both the literate and the illiterate. Art has been used by communities to address or corresponds to the challenges and needs of that society. in Promoting Democratic Principles and Social Justice. Public Policy Institute, Kampala 41 ibid Government should endeavor to promote art instead of stifling it. Unfortunate incidents against art and artists can be seen through the onslaught on Hon Kyagulanyi aka Bobi wine’s music through both legal and means has a negative impact on the industry. In addition, there was an attempt to cancel the nyege nyege music festival in September 2018, one of Africa’s biggest music festival based on unconfirmed rumors. Strengthen the copyright regime to enhance protection for creative works Not much has changed from the FY2016/17 and 2017/18 where MGLSD lists Strengthening the enforcement of the Copyright Law and work with artistes to fight piracy, which is a big threat to the industry as a key sector out puts, there is not corresponding funding for the activity. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARIZED. Domain Description of indicators and impacts Policy Landscape Health care Trends in infant mortality by sex, fertility, and adolescent fertility; Life expectancy, dependency ratio. Health of youth (HIV/AIDS, abortion related illnesses, suicides, substance abuse, and non-communicable diseases). Out of pocket expenditure Policies and programs that address youth/ adolescent sexual and reproductive health needs including access to contraception. Policies and programs that tackle inequalities, youth poverty, Education opportunities Trends in secondary and tertiary education by sex, transferrable skills. Prevalence of ICT and mobile phone use among youth. Ability of the graduates to compete favourably in the labour market Policies and programs to increase access to high quality secondary and tertiary education. Policies and programs to expand transferrable and ICT skills.
  • 37. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT | 37 Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 Employment Youth employment and underemployment growth of informal sector, entrepreneurship access to credit/financial inclusion Ease and cost of doing business Policies and programs that focus on job creation, underemployment, female participation in the labour force. Policies and programs that ensure a smooth transition from school to the labour market Lending facilities that ensure and improve access to affordable long-term credit for Ugandan youth owned enterprises. Youth in agriculture Youth involvement along the entire agricultural value chain Numbers of youth involved in large scale commercial agricultural production Funding agricultural Research and Development (R&D) as the engine that drives agricultural productivity. Programs and policies that engage youth along the entire agricultural value chain Sports and Creative Arts Policies and programs to tap into the youth demographics for a robust, lively and economically productive creative arts and sports industry. Policies and programs to harness the talents of the youth Laws and legislations to protect creatives and art for both profit, technology transfer and for the coming generations. Youth participation in decision making. Inclusivity and exclusivity of young people in governance. Number of young people in policy and decision making spaces. Tackle institutionalized exclusion of the young people most especially the females from the governance and decision making spaces. Review legislation most especially the National Youth Act and
  • 38. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 38 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 REFERENCES MAAIF (2016), Ministerial Policy Statement 2016/17, 2017/18 MoES (2017). Education and Sports Sector Annual performance review 2017 MoES (2016). Ministerial Policy Statement 2016/17, 2017/18 MoFPED (2016). National Budget Framework Paper 2016/17 MoGLSD (2016). Ministerial Policy Statement FY 2016/17, 2017/18 National Planning Authority (2015). National Development Plan FY 2013/2016-2019/2020 Report of the education committee on the MPS and Budget estimates for the FY 2017/18 Report of the Committee on GLSD on the MPS and Budget estimates for the FY 2017/18 The National Youth Manifesto 2016-2021 The Technical National Youth Manifesto 2016-2021 (Footnotes) 1 Budget Framework paper for the Ministry of Health 2 Brian Sserunjoji: Alcohol consumption among youth in Uganda: why policy intervention is necessary 3 Ibid
  • 40. THE STATE OF THE YOUTH REPORT 40 | Assessing Government Investment in Young People August, 2O19 Published by CEPA P. O. Box 23276, Kampala Email: info@cepa.or.ug Website: http://www.cepa.or.ug