CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE YOUTH LIVELIHOOD PROGRAMME (YLP) TO YOUTH EMPOWERMENT IN HOIMA DISTRICT, UGANDA

Year 2019, Volume: 11 Issue: 1, 54 - 73, 01.01.2019

David Mwesigwa Betty C. Mubangizi

Abstract

The Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) of Uganda is a youth
empowerment strategy based on the three pillars of skills development,
livelihood support and institutional support. The programme targets and
unemployed youths of the country but questions have been asked as to
whether the YLP leads to the empowerment of the target group. This paper
reports on a study that explored the contribution of the YLP to youth
empowerment in Hoima District of Uganda. Using self-administered
questionnaires, data were collected from 130 respondents selected randomly
from the Youth Interest Groups (YIG) in the District. Both descriptive and
inferential statistics were used to analyse collected data. The study
established that YLP faces a range of implementation challenges. The study
concludes that while skills development significantly contributes to youth
empowerment, results suggest that livelihood support and institutional
support do not significantly contribute to youth empowerment. Strategies to
enhance empowerment of the youth and suggestions for scaling up activities
are given.

Keywords

youth empowerment, skills development, livelihood support, institutional support

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