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*** * * * * * * *** European Union and International Labour Organization Youth

Entrepreneurship Facility Background

As a continent, Africa is home to the highest concentration of youth in the world, with almost 200 million people recorded between the ages of 15 and 24 (AEO, 2012). A report by Africa Economic Outlook (2012) projects this population to double by 2045. In the midst of a growing youth bulge, countries across Sub-Saharan Africa struggle with youth unemployment rates which have hovered at approximately 11 . 7% since 2008, and are expected to rise along with global trends (ILO, 2013).

With the limited opportunities within the formal or wage employment sector, labour markets across Sub-Saharan have recognized the promotion of entrepreneurship as a viable means to simultaneously improve livelihoods and stimulate economic growth.

In Uganda, the European Union (EU) is partnering with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to address the high youth unemployment. In this partnership, the EU is contributing to an existing successful programme, the Youth Entrepreneurship Facility which is being implemented by the ILO. The Facility's mission is to contribute to job creation through youth entrepreneurship development by focussing at i) fostering a culture of entrepreneurship among young people, ii) promoting entrepreneurship education in schools, iii) promoting evidence­based advocacy to better understand what works and what does not work in youth entrepreneurship development, iv) providing opportunities for youth to actively engage in employment generating projects through a youth­to-youth fund, and v) ensuring that potential and existing young entrepreneurs have access to business development services and affordable finance.

The YEF prioritizes the continual monitoring and review of project components, to determine the extent to which designed objectives are being achieved, to generate evidence on effective strategies, and to explore ways in which services can be improved.

The Youth to Youth Fund

The Youth-to-Youth Fund is one of the components of the Facility which offers local youth-led organizations an opportunity to actively participate in the development of youth entrepreneurship in their communities. It supports small-scale youth entrepreneurship development projects implemented by youth-led organizations and was created as a mechanism to identify, test and promote innovative entrepreneurship solutions to youth employment challenges.

PROMOTE

The goal of the Y2Y Fund is accomplished through a competitive grant scheme for youth-led organizations to propose innovative project ideas on how to create entrepreneurship and business opportunities for their peers. The organizations with the most innovative project ideas receive a grant and complementary capacity building to help them implement their projects and test the viability of their ideas.

Beneficiaries of the Y2Y Fund displaying their dummy cheques

The Youth-to-Youth Fund is not a Business Idea or Business Plan Competition. The Fund does not support entrepreneurs/for-profit enterprises or applying youth-led organizations themselves to become entrepreneurs or employers. The applying youth-led organizations should facilitate and support the process of young people becoming entrepreneurs rather than the organization itself aspiring to make profit from entrepreneurial activities.

From 2014 to date with European Union financial support, the Y2Y Fund in Uganda has been able to award grants to a total of 62 youth led organizations from the 11 project focus districts of; Kampala, Jinja, Mbale, Soroti, Gulu, Kitgum, Oyam, Lira, Nebbi, Zomba and Arua. 18 of these have completed their project implementation and are due for screening to determine those that can be further supported for upscaling to consolidate the projects within their communities.

Capacity Building offered to grantee Organizations

To ensure effective implementation and utilisation of the funds, ILO-YEF works with Advance Afrika a local implementing partner which offers technical and mentoring support to the grantee organisations. Today, the grantee organisations are able to make timely reporting and also share information via an online group discussion platform that was developed by advance Afrika known as "advancin".

Beneficiaries of the Y2Y Fund displaying their products

Intended key Outcomes of the Fund The Youth-to-Youth Fund model is designed to be evaluated on three key desired outcomes namely: 1) number of new businesses created by beneficiaries; 2) number of new jobs created by beneficiaries; and 3) the quality of jobs created in new or improved businesses. Others areas include; Improved income and livelihoods, shift in positive active attitude-particularly in seeking income generating activities, health positive engagement in community, expanded networks, linkages and partners.

Achievements of Y2Y Fund

Child and Youth Empowerment Network located in Buwenge, Jinja district aims at promoting sustainable pumpkin business for income generation among youth through value addition. Youth are strengthened into producer groups and marketing systems, trained in pumpkin farming and management. Products from pumpkin flour include pumpkin cakes, cookies, bagiya

Team Building exercise with the grantee representatives

Alert Agency for Desired Development that is based in Gulu was established to improve the quality of lives of the vulnerable communities and promote socio-economic empowerment of the youth and women in enhancing sustainable livelihoods in Northern Uganda. The project "Scraps for Cash" under the Youth to Youth Fund targeted 60 beneficiaries who were engaged in traditional making of cooking and heating appliances (saucepans, pots, iron box and serving spoons from scraps and used metals).

The project addressed decreasing household income earned from locally made cooking and heating appliances specifically due to; poor quality products, inefficient marketing and inadequate production tools. The beneficiaries were trained in the technique of producing high quality cooking and heating appliances from scrap metal materials and now producing high quality products that are fetching high prices.

Fight to Improve Community Health (FICH), an indiginous grass root organisation found in Oyam district is one of the beneficiaries of the Y2Y Fund. FICH has registered constant demand from local leaders and communities to support young women within the district because of the persistent low incomes from locally available soyabean grains arising from limited access to technology for value addition to produce what is required by the market. "FICH therefore has responded to the outcry by empowering young women engaged in soya bean farming to produce and add value to their products and become commercial suppliers of soya flour rich in proteins for babies, pregnant mothers, and older persons. Production of soya flour is a step towards processing integrated soyabean cake & bread,

porridge among others. This is being achieved by improving their technical and entrepreneurship skills through capacity building and facilitating the young women access necessary information sources and services.

In addition to being introduced to soya flour production and integrated cake, bread and porridge processing, the women are being trained in business management, with a focus on market research and quality production to increase the value of their products. Community groups which are not project beneficiaries are buying soya flour to generate money for their groups through making porridge for sale to their members. Some beneficiaries are earning income by buying the flour to make and sell confectionary within Oyam and other districts.

Beneficiaries parking soya flour ready for sales

Testmonies

"The ILO gave us the financial support worth twenty million nine hundred fifty two thousand shillings towards implementing the briquette making project in Kinawataka. The funds enabled the organization to effectively implement the project which has started yielding fruitful results for the youth of Kinawataka. This has helped to reduce on the unemployment problem and improved on the income of the youth most especially the single mothers in Kinawataka, a dream the organization has been yearning to achieve for the last four years." Okanya Dan, Christian Youth Missionary group

Beneficiaries receiving the Village Savings and Loans kits

"I always had a dream in me to make a change in the lives of young women in Nebbi district by training them in rabbit rearing as well as value addition. As we speak, together we are able to make rabbit products such as rabbit sausages, burgers, fillet, breast, thighs, liver and whole rabbit. The first products of their kind in Uganda, ILO has helped us realize that innovative part". Grace Achieng, Graceland Rabbits

International Labour Organization, Plot 4, Luthuli Close, Bugolobi IP.O.BOX 7184 KAMPALA, UGANDA

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