YOUTH ECONOMIC LIVELIHOODS RECOVERY IN POST-CONFLCIT AREAS: THE CASE OF ACHOLI SUB-REGION IN NORTHERN UGANDA BY: ENTERPRISE UGANDA

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YOUTH ECONOMIC LIVELIHOODS RECOVERY IN
POST-CONFLCIT AREAS THE CASE OF ACHOLI
SUB-REGION IN NORTHERN UGANDABY ENTERPRISE
UGANDA
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Objectives of the Session

• Participants will increase their understanding
  of
• Entrepreneurship as a tool that can provide
  livelihoods for many rural and urban communities
  and create jobs for young people.
• The need to  integrate attitudinal transformation
  (mind-set change) of the beneficiaries in design
  of  relief and emergency  assistance programmes
  for communities emerging from post-conflict
  situations.
• The BEST tool as means of improving and expanding
  youth employment creation and employability.

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Session outline

1. Introduction
2. The Root causes of Youth Unemployment in Africa
   (5min)
3. How the BEST Model addresses the Root causes and
   increases employment options (10mins)
4. Sustainability of Youth Community empowerment
   interventions(5mins)
5. Questions and Discussions (5mins)

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Introduction

• The Acholi sub-region in northern Uganda has
  experienced insecurity, wars, civil strife and
  rebel activity since the 1980s that resulted into
  mass human displacement, death, loss of property
  and disruption of economic development
  opportunities
• More than 11,000 children and adolescents were
  abducted between 1986-2000, of whom over 6,000
  never returned to their homes or villages.
• The abductions made it difficult to for the
  children and youth to attend school, get life
  skills, productive employment and loss of
  productive labour
• The majority of the current youth population in
  Acholi sub-region were born in internally
  displaced peoples camps (IDPs) and had no access
  to quality health care, education, skills and
  social development.
• With the end of the conflict and withdrawal of
  donor assistance, the community was left to start
  fending for themselves (private sector),
  something they were not used to before.

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Effects of the conflict on the population

• It strengthened the dependency syndrome the
  entire population living in IDP camps depended on
  Government relief programmes, UN agencies, NGOs,
  relatives in Diaspora and within Uganda
• The region attracted a lot of resources for
  development in form of relief assistance,
  infrastructure development projects, agricultural
  tools and inputs, livestock, including cash
  donations
• Other regions took advantage of the resources
  flow to region to engage in cross border trade
  opportunities, services etc. while the local
  population looked on
• Over the long period of the donor support, the
  community developed an attitude/mindset of
  consumption and deserving to be supported
  perpetually
• They could not sustain their newly acquired
  consumption habit and most donor supported
  interventions have little evidence of impact on
  the ground.

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Problem Statement

• Conflict leads to many negative consequences
  including mass human displacement, death, loss of
  property and disruption of economic development
  opportunities. The long periods of war leave
  livelihood options/opportunities limited and
  undiversified, low productivity, severely
  depressed employment and incomes and a fragile
  local economy mainly dependent on external
  support.
• Despite the huge resources mobilized and extend
  to support the rehabilitation, economic recovery
  and livelihoods of the affected communities in
  the post-conflict areas, impact evaluations and
  audit highlight, among others, inadequate
  visibility, impact and sustainability of the
  interventions.
• Most interventions and programmes do
  not integrate attitudinal transformation
  (mind-set change) of the beneficiaries to
  facilitate a desired shift from a dependency
  syndrome to self-independence of the
  beneficiaries.

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The Roots of Youth Unemployment in Uganda

• Mainly agricultural economy with low
  value-addition and job creation (addition)
• It has been argued that the education systems in
  Africa are geared towards churning out
  job-seekers rather than job-creators.
• Liberalized Education Sector too many
  institutions and many of them commercial.
  Curricular and content that emphasize white
  collar jobs.
• Employers market - Poor education, experience,
  and skills that dont match the job market. Not
  mandatory to employ youths without desired
  skills.
• Attitude of the educated Youth towards hard work
  and self-employment.

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Examples of Post- Conflict Interventions in
Northern Uganda

• 1. NUSAF 1 PROJECT(2003-09)
• The Government of Uganda received a credit of SDR
  80.1 million from World Bank (equivalent to US
  100 million)
• Government of Uganda counterpart funding was
  supposed to be equivalent to U 13.3 million.
• Community contributions were expected to be
  equivalent to US 20.2 million.
• 80 of the credit was for direct subproject
  funding.
• NUSAF1 post-implementation impact evaluation and
  audit highlighted, among others, inadequate
  visibility, sustainability and viability of the
  interventions.

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2. NUSAF 2 (2009-2014)

• The Project is being implemented over a period of
  five (5) years in the forty (40) PRDP Districts
  in Acholi, Bukedi, Bunyoro, Elgon, Karamoja,
  Lango, Teso and West Nile sub regions.
• The projects objective is to improve access of
  beneficiary households of Northern Uganda to
  income earning opportunities and better basic
  socio-economic services.
• The Project is financed through IDA Specific
  Investment Loan (SIL) of US.100 million and the
  funds were allocated among the three components
  as follows Livelihood Investment Support Fund
  (60m )Community Infrastructure Rehabilitation
  Fund (30m)Institutional Development Fund (10m)
  
• Again absence of deliberate interventions to
  provide business and entrepreneurship skills to
  the to the prospective beneficiaries before they
  receive the investment funds.

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3. UN Peace Building Fund Project for Acholi
Sub-region

• The United Nations (UN) Peace Building Fund (PBF)
  has been implementing a Joint Programme on
  Livelihoods and Local Economic Recovery for
  Acholi Sub region (JP3) since 2011.
• Its primary aim is to contribute strongly to the
  rebuilding of a strong economy within the context
  of a post-conflict, post-displacement development
  scenario.
• The target group included vulnerable
  ex-combatants and female-headed internally
  displaced people (IDP) and returnee households.
• Enterprise Uganda has been the implementing
  partner and has been building capacity for youth,
  women and vulnerable groups in business,
  entrepreneurial and value addition skills
• It covered the seven districts of Acholi Gulu,
  Amuru, Nwoya, Pader, Agago, Kitgum and Lamwo
  which overall had a weak economic situation
  largely attributed to the 20 year insurgency.

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About the BEST Model

• It was an initiative by Government and
  Enterprise Uganda to provide entrepreneurship and
  business skills to initally to graduates to
  enable them start their own businesses as an
  alternative to chasing few jobs.
• It is main goal is to build the capacity of young
  people to participate in employment creation to
  reduce unemployment rates by equipping them with
  the confidence and practical skills to start and
  run successful enterprises.
• It is delivered through a 5-Day Business Clinic,
  followed by 1-3 Business Coaching Mentoring
  Clinics, Networking and Market Information
  dissemination and linkages with other business
  development services providers.
• Based on its initial success and results, it was
  customized and extended to semi-educated rural
  youth and communities.

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6 KEY BEST MODULES

• Module 1 - Getting Hold of the Inner Game
• Module 2 - Traits of World-Class Entrepreneurs
• Module 3 - Business Opportunity identification
  translation into a business
• Module 4 - Sources of Business Capital
• Module 5 - Business Partnerships
• Module 6 - Action-Oriented Business Planning.

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How BEST Addresses Root Causes to Unemployment

1. Attitudinal transformation and self-reliance
2. Education is there to increase career options
3. Emphasizes getting started immediately
4. Business Opportunities identified immediately
5. Offers 7 sources of finance with Loans as last
6. Backed by follow-up clinics to mentor start-ups
7. Enterprise start-up rate of 65-75 in 90 days
8. In a nutshell BEST addresses the foundations for
   fear of and excuses for entrepreneurship and for
   high enterprise mortality rate.

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Results /Sample Impact

• 8190 youth and Women trained in 7 districts of
  Acholi sub-region in northern Uganda.
• In one sample survey of 1 district with 2700
  beneficiaries, after 3months, 666 new start-ups
  and 1238 expansions were registered
• 1467 new jobs were created 884 permanent , 583
  casual. On average 1.3 new job had been created
  within 3 months by each micro-enterprise.
• Within 3 months USD 439,000 had been invested by
  youth women to start micro-enterprises from the
  following resources equity grants sale of
  existing asset and microfinance.
• All new start-ups were earning above US 2 per
  day effectively lifting them reducing the number
  of people living below the poverty line.
• Interesting case studies and evidence of
  improvement in livelihoods and quality of life by
  the beneficiaries of the interventions.

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Sustainability of Youth community Interventions
- Key Lessons and Experiences

• Mindsets transformation for the educated and
  rural households is a critical precursor for
  sustainable interventions and development
• Unlike infrastructure and technology which are
  easily bought, mindsets are built and nurtured.
  That takes time
• Spending national resources on empowering local
  communities and the youth in urban and rural
  settings is in the long-run an investment in
  taxes, stability, etc, for the nation
• The BEST Philosophy model that promotes values
  of self-reliance is a tested model with high
  impact that can be easily adapted and customized
  to any economic setting.

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Key lessons Learnt contd

• Involvement and commitment of local leaders in
  the mobilization of the communities increases
  confidence of the communities to participate and
  contribute to the cost of the interventions
• Token personal contribution by the beneficiaries
  of the interventions act as the first fundamental
  in attitudinal shift and increases motivation and
  ownership of solutions.
• Independent consultants mentors are better
  placed to play mobilization and facilitation
  roles than local leaders or politicians who cant
  deliver the hard message required for
  self-reliance and attitudinal transformation.
• Involvement of local models, religious and
  traditional leaders enhances confidence and
  participation in the interventions.

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Conclusions

• Research elsewhere indicates that inclusive
  economic growth is the single largest
  contributing factor to post-conflict stability
  and unemployed youth with limited options can be
  mobilized easily than those in the formal
  economy.
• Although entrepreneurship is not a panacea to the
  daunting challenge of youth unemployment across
  Africa, it is a critical pillar that stands to
  provide a livelihood for many and, in turn,
  create jobs for more young people.
• Imparting values that promote self-reliance,
  entrepreneurial abilities through training and
  skills upgrading through mentoring and coaching
  is a more sustainable way of enhancing
  employability and promoting self-employment.

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Conclusions contd

• Relief and emergency assistance programmes not
  preceded or backed by Attitudinal transformation
  and mind-set change of the beneficiaries tend to
  breed a permanent dependency syndrome in
  post-conflict communities.
• Restoring self-belief, confidence and empowering
  the communities to identify and exploit local
  economic opportunities can stimulate quicker
  transition to self-reliance and economic recovery
  than perennial which a create an attitude of
  rights to handouts.

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Quote The Role of Entrepreneurship

• To lift one billion people from poverty, 250
  million jobs are needed. You can ask yourself...
  where will those jobs come from? They wont come
  from government... they wont come from big
  industry... They will be engines of growth, but
  they wont take up the millions required. They
  have to come through small enterprises.
• Percy Barnevik Advisor, Hand in Hand
  International, The Business of Jobs Forum,
  London, November 2009

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Questions Answers

• Discussion