Posted on May, 31, 2021 at 09:28 am
Humanitarian aid and development agency, GOAL Uganda has launched a transformative programme that is going to enable 300,000 young rural Ugandans access dignified and fulfilling work in the agricultural sector over the next five years.
The launch which happened last Thursday at Mestil hotel in Kampala was attended by representatives from MasterCard Foundation, local and national government officials, NGOs, development partners and youth representatives.
In partnership with MasterCard Foundation's Young Africa Works in Uganda - Markets for Youths Programme, the programme will target 210,000 young women and 90,000 young men between the ages of 16 and 35 years and will also include 30,000 refugees and 15,000 young people living with disabilities. The programme is going to be implemented in 18 districts across Uganda in five sub-regions of Central, Acholi, Lango, Karamoja and South West.
These youth set to be propped up by MasterCard Foundation will be supported in accessing financial services and products, skills training in practice and management of farm enterprises, accessing and participating in activities in the agricultural market system and collaborating to increase purchasing and influencing power in the agricultural market system.
In addition, the programme will reach 600,000 people indirectly by partnering with the private sector to expand and adopt their business models to develop new products and services for young farmers.
The Country Director of GOAL in Uganda, Jennifer Williams, said the reason they are investing in agriculture is because it is one of the biggest actors in Uganda that will provide a vast opportunity for young people to engage in farming, and given the fact that the rate of unemployment among the youths is high, they saw it fit to support them so that they can be included in the country's agricultural system.
According to the latest statistics from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), more than 80 per cent of Uganda's population is below 35 years, while the conservative unemployment rate as of 2020, stood at 1.92 per cent.
Agriculture, once looked down on as a preserve of the uneducated, has in the last few years attracted many from the corporate world, as well as young people fresh from colleges and universities, frustrated by the job market.
"We are going to do this through four strategies; access to finance, skills, on and off-farm inputs and also target bringing in the private sector and vocational training institutes. We are also going to empower the youths and provide them with a voice through which they can engage the agricultural market and get a response," Williams said.
Siobhan Walsh, the GOAL CEO, said this initiative is going to empower hundreds of thousands of young people in Uganda and provide them with long-lasting opportunities given the fact that Uganda currently has the second youngest population in the world.
"There is an important alignment between GOAL and MasterCard Foundation in supporting communities that have limited access to opportunities especially women, refugees and people with disabilities. We, therefore, look forward to enabling young people to create new futures through access to dignified and fulfilling works," Walsh said.
According to Samuel Yalew Adela, the country head of the MasterCard Foundation in Uganda, the Foundation has committed $200 million over the next 10 years to support three million young women and men and refugees in Uganda with access to opportunities in agriculture, tourism, hospitality and construction.
"Young people in Uganda are among the most enterprising in the world. With the right support, they are ready to bring that energy and innovation to the agricultural sector; an engine of our economy, not just to improve their own lives but also the lives of their families, well-being of communities and the resilience of the country," he said.
Under Young Africa Works, GOAL will work with a range of private sector partners including small and medium enterprises, corporate businesses and social investors to adopt a market systems development approach to improve people's lives.
The programme director of Young Africa Works in Uganda, Netsaalem Gebrie said, "Agriculture provides the biggest opportunity for employment in Uganda. By adopting a market systems development approach, we are aiming at transforming the sector so agriculture becomes an attractive business venture for young women and men all over the country."
Juliet Busingye, a beekeeper from Fort Portal, is one of the young women who are looking forward to benefiting from this programme. She says she has hopes of the programme helping her acquire more skills in beekeeping, increase on her production, enable her add value to her bee products and also connect her to sustainable markets of bee products.
Source: Observer