By Ashraf Kakaire, a member of the Youth Coalition for Electoral Democracy (YCED) and the Platform for Youth Inclusion in Politics (PYIP)
- What is the National Youth Manifesto?
The National Youth Manifesto represents a youth led political framework that highlights key policy priorities/demands by youths to government, political parties, and candidates ahead of and beyond the 2021 general elections.
- What is the intention behind the youth manifesto?
Our intention through this Manifesto framework is to bring forth the issues to policy makers during and after the general elections, for consideration to harness the youth potential for national development.
- Who is spearheading the Youth Manifesto?
The manifesto is spearheaded by the Youth like-minded youth-led and youth-focused Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) spread across Uganda, united in the desire to create synergy in various electoral democracy efforts in Uganda.
- Why launch at this time?
THE Youth Manifest launched on 15th December 2020. The process was affected by Covid 19 pandemic and the lockdown which could not create the ease to manage the process. In addition, there was very limited funding for the initiative. The funding received for the process was only 30% of what was needed to accomplish the task on time. However, the timing is still good enough given the fact that the ongoing campaigns by most candidates are not vivid on youth issues. The Youth Manifesto should therefore re-shape and re-direct the campaigns towards youth issue based priorities
- Is this the first Manifesto?
No. This is the third Manifesto. We had one from 2011 to 2016 and a second one from 2016 to date
- Have you made any achievements with the Manifesto?
Here are some of the achievements registered as a result of the 2016-2021 National Youth Manifesto;
- The National Local Content Bill was drafted and legislated into an Act of Parliament to provide for deployment of local resources and labour
- The Uganda Investment Authority has established a training program that has so far trained more than 20,000 youth entrepreneurs and innovators in Start Ups and management of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in about 75 districts
- Under the Directorate of Industrial Training, more than 200,000 youth innovators have had their skills and plans embellished
- The Public Procurement and Disposal Of Public Assets (PPDA) Act was amended by Parliament to provide for consideration of young people’s interests in public contracting and tendering
- To tap into the huge potential in the agricultural sector, the Government of Uganda adopted the National Strategy for Youth Employment in Agriculture and UGX 52.9 Billion was availed to enable youth oriented agricultural extension services, address risks and uncertanities and increase opportunities along the agricultural value chain
- An Agricultural Credit Facility has been established to give credit to agripreneurs at an interest rate of not more than 10%. This is intended to benefit about 6.5 million youth engaged in agriculture
- The National Strategy on Child Marriage and Teenage Pregnancy (NSCM&TP) has been adopted to provide a holistic and comprehensive policy framework to end child marriage
- The National Sexuality Education Framework was launched by Government and it provides an overarching national direction for response to sexuality education in education settings
- To control drug and substance abuse, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the Tobacco Control Act were enacted in 2016
Yes. For example
- What will happen after here/ the launch?
After the launch, the manifesto will be disseminated and popularized to as many youth as possible to equip them with issues upon which they should engage those seeking for election.
The Manifesto will also be a youth guiding framework for holding the elected leaders and government accountable on youth aspirations