Youth minister Anite addresses UN General Assembly

UN - State minister for youth and children Evelyn Anite, addressed the UN General Assembly during the 20th anniversary of the World Programme of Action for Youth in New York.

Below is her full speech

Chairperson,

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Uganda aligns itself with the statement made by South Africa on behalf of G77 and China and Nigeria on behalf of African Group to mark the 20th anniversary of the World Programme of action for Youth in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Uganda reaffirms its commitment in ensuring that all young people have access to opportunities to participate effectively in gainful economic development for improvement of their life and their society.
Chairperson,

In 2012 Uganda had a youth population appropriately 20percent aged 18-30 years who contributed to 40percent of the labour force in Uganda.

There are about 1.5%(600,000-700,000) new youth entrants in the labour market every year. This translates to an overall total of 53.4 percent of youth unemployment in Uganda.

Some of the key factors to this high-level of unemployment includes:

Anite with Alvaro Jose de Mendonca e Moura, the acting President of the UN General Assembly and Permanent Representative of Portugal to the United Nations

• Lack of employment opportunity
• High rate of illiteracy
• Lack of Capital
• Failure to match skills needed in the labour market to the education system(lack of skills)
• Unfavourable demographic profile made up largely of dependents
• Gender based disparity in employment status
• High subsistence and low profitability of agriculture hindering gainful employment in the sector.
• Low labour productivity with a value added per worker in Uganda standing at 68 percent.
 
Chairperson,

This increasing young population needs crucial policy framework which offers practical guidelines at international, regional and national level, and support to improve their situation in the society.

To address these challenges, government of Uganda under the able leadership of a wonderful President H.E. Yoweri k. Museveni has made a number of interventions to boost youth development opportunities in our society which includes;

• Addressing gaps in the legal and institution framework to strengthen youth employment in the country
• Increasing youth employability through improving the effectiveness of education from the traditional concept to skilling Uganda youth programmes and also by starting to offer internship and volunteering programs in the Kampala City Authority( KCCA)
• Improving the sustainability of youth economic enterprises by acquiring skills in financial management and promoting effective programmes that support youth employment such as “ Youth SACCO”, Youth livelihood programme (a five year  demand driven 265bn Shillings rolling programme) and the Youth venture Capital fund ( a 25bn youth programmes)
• Liberalization of the economy and adoption of private sector led growth strategies to create more jobs

Chairperson, in conclusion as we move forward in building youth capacity to meet the challenges of post-2015 development agenda through different interventions, government of Uganda will ensure that,all young people have access to opportunities to participate effectively in gainful economic activities, peace-building, the civic life of their societies and in decision-making across all sectors of national development.

We reaffirm our political will and commitment to tackle any gap and challenges that we face in realizing social and economic progressive of young people in Uganda and world over, and maintain strong partnership with private sector in eliminating extreme poverty in our society.

I thank you.

For God and My Country