Africa-Press – Uganda. In Uganda today, we are obsessed with a subsistence economy rather than being commercial and results-oriented. People live to get by, and it is much worse if it wastes the youth’s energies and passions. Hence, promoting trade and investments in Uganda to uplift the 68 per cent of Uganda’s population who live the subsistence way of life to join the money economy. Yet without skilling, the youth of Uganda, with a median age of 16.7 years and comprising 77 per cent of the population, are currently unemployed or inactive—and 72 per cent living on less than $2 per day—communities are finding it more urgent than ever to enable new avenues and solutions for the creation of quality jobs that make way for youth livelihoods and productivity. But like in many countries of the world, employers in Uganda would prefer to employ skilled and market-ready employees that are better prepared when they come knocking on the job-market door.
Moreover, an acute shortage of skilled workers makes nought the many young adults looking for jobs throughout Uganda. A handful from elite university colleges and universities succeed in becoming part of the professional Haut monde, but a staggering majority lag behind and cannot directly and immediately contribute to the growth of our economy.
Our desire to move towards a middle-level economy remains a mirage unless we lock our resent button, fundamentally changing how we do our things, how we skill our youth and finally, how we change their internal aspirations towards producing for the future, their future. There are several strategic areas of focus that include addressing youth unemployment through: youth for business and enterprise development; to create a targeted skill-building game plan, prioritise youth who demonstrate experience applying skills in a work or volunteer setting.
Entrepreneurship skills, time management and social media skills– the youth need to be prepared to redefine “jobs” based on shifting opportunities and continue to adapt to bridge the skills-opportunity gap. At the same time, skilling and employment interventions have to take these changes into account and be mindful to include rural areas with smaller economies of scale and access to markets—to reduce the rural to urban migrations to the large cities such as Kampala.
We must reach various public, and private sector players and ensure that our determined efforts step up our efforts to promote job creation, eradicate poverty, achieve growth, and allow equitable distribution, particularly for women and the youth.
Extensive partnerships and relations with local businesses and NGOs are necessary to develop training and entrepreneurship initiatives to improve youth employability. These sectors have much to learn from each other, particularly from the community-based social innovators who are accountable to the people and working across sectors to provide holistic solutions.
Social entrepreneurs who are expert organisers and nurturers of change makers should empower the community to help shape and create positive change.
At Brac, we have a disability inclusive project, where we focus on turning discrimination of youth with disabilities into an opportunity for employment and civic engagement: Through linkages we can build the entrepreneurial and social leadership skills that increase access to jobs for all youth, especially traditionally underserved students. By training and empowering employees today, the best teams and companies can mitigate the adverse effects caused by losing out on the proximity of working together in an office environment and help employees develop new skill sets they might otherwise not have had the opportunity to discover.
Dr George O. Matete, Ph.D. is the country director, BRAC Uganda.
