SNV project in Uganda creates jobs for 4,300 youth

The SNV Uganda EU-funded project creates new jobs for 4,300 youth in the West Nile region.

With over 78% of Ugandans below the age of 30 and youth unemployment standing at 11%, tackling unemployement is critical for the social and economic development of Uganda. SNV Uganda and its partners CEGED and AFARD are implementing the Youth Employability through Enterprise and Skills Development (YES) Project in the districts of Arua, Nebbi, Yumbe and Moyo in West Nile. The EU-funded project aims to improve access to employment and business opportunities for 5,000 youth through agricultural skilling and enterprise development. The project which started in 2014 has so far created employment for 4,387 youth (72%) up from 1,693 youth employed at the start of the project.

This has been acheived through the following interventions:

• Promoting investment by local public and private training institutions and enterprises in skills development (apprenticeship, internship) for the youth.

• Provision of transferable and entrepreneurship skills training for youth

• Promoting peer to peer learning through coaching and mentoring of young model farmers who in turn mentor other youth in agriculture

The project is on course to achieving its set target of creating employment for 5,000 youth by 2017. The project has also contributed to poverty reduction among the youth from 71% at project baseline to 56%. This represents a 21% reduction against the project target of 25% reduction in the number of youth living on 1.25USD by 2017.