Youth Unemployment in Uganda

Abstract

This research showcases the difficulties Uganda faces with their increasing youth unemployment, such as school dropouts, teenage pregnancy, and lasting consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak. It compares how different demographics have an augmented risk of dropping out of school and contrasts policies from other east African countries that helped them decrease their youth unemployment. Particularly, Kenya’s and Tanzania’s programs in different sectors, such as Kazi Kwa Vijana and Building a better Youth Initiative for Agriculture businesses. The paper also analyses Uganda’s previous attempts in decreasing youth unemployment and why they remained unsuccessful. Finally, the paper recommends solutions to different drawbacks Uganda faces. One of those suggestions is by making contraceptives more accessible to reduce the teenage pregnancy rates. Furthermore, by having inmates aid in building new infrastructure like schools could help increase jobs that were lost during the 2020 Covid outbreak. Uganda could also implement training facilities to help certify more primary and secondary school teachers, as well as advertising more job opportunities. In addition to that Uganda can carry out a similar program to Tanzania to get more youth interested and competent in agriculture.