Of the 35 million people in Uganda, more than 78% of the population are below the age of 30 and 18% are youth aged 18-30 years. Yet 11% of youth are unemployed (9% males and 14% females) and 26% youth are underemployed (28% males and 25% females). These youth unemployment question has been attributed to the narrow size of the formal employment sector and the limited engagement of youth in the agricultural sector that employs more than 85% of the rural population. This situation is worse for West Nile region with 2.7 million people (50% are youth) that suffered 27 years of prolonged conflict and insecurity, which among others led to significant population displacement, socio-economic losses, a breakdown in social infrastructure, severely weakened governance structures and service delivery, and community and household asset depletion. The YES – Project was designed, with European Union funding for coimplementation by SNV (Netherlands Development Organization), Centre for Governance and Economic Development (CEGED) and the Agency for Accelerated Development (AFARD) primarily to enhance youth employment opportunities in Arua, Nebbi, Yumbe and Moyo districts. It focuses on formal and non-formal skills development and technical training, increasing the market relevance of agricultural sector, and employment linkage programmes of local BTVETs. Specifically, the overall objective of YES – Project is, “Poverty reduction through improved incomes and sustainable employment prospects for youth in northern Uganda.” This goal is to be achieved through the following specific objectives:

• To support access to employment for 5,000 in- and out-of-school youth through formal and non-formal skills development and vocational training.

• To increase the market relevance of 20 public and private training institutions (formal) and 100 local enterprises (non-formal) and ensure the design and delivery of market-driven transferable skills development.

• To support the capacity development of non-state actors (NSAs) and local authorities (LAs) service delivery for youth skills development.

The key activities aimed to achieve the above goal and objectives include:

• The provision of transferable, technical and vocational, agribusiness, business and life skills development and training;

• Enterprise development and employment (labour market) linkages (including business incubation, mobile, online and social media platforms);

• Provision of start-up support (start-up kits, small grants, financial service linkages, youth business competitions) including business coaching and savings promotion;

• Training and capacity-building of business, technical and vocational training and education (BTVET), non-state actors NSA and LA in supporting youth skills development and enterprise development and employment;

• Formation/strengthening of partnerships/networks, policy dialogue platforms between actors in BTVETs and private sector to bridge links between training and labour markets in West Nile; YES - Project: Action Research Report 2016. 9

• Hosting annual youth business forums; and • Research, documentation and advocacy on successful, scalable approaches to youth skills and enterprise development.