Youth develop new strategies to attract gov't attention

Uganda North American Youth Development Association (UNAYDA) in partnership with Ugandan youth have developed a new strategy geared at attracting government attention to re-focus on their issues.

The strategy dubbed Youth Explosion seeks to develop a national youth voice that will engage government to refocus its response towards these issues.

The strategy is aimed at empowering youth from different sectors who are creative and innovative in areas like in agriculture, ICT, tourism and creative arts among others.

Unveiling the Uganda Youth Explosion, the founding member of UYE, Philbert Kagangure, said the objective of the campaign is for the youth to share ideas, knowledge, experiences, actions, and ideologies among others.

"Since most youth come from a marginalized background, they are always suffocated and manipulated by some politicians and leaders to carry out meaningless acts. We want youth to be innovative and politically free to make their own decisions," explained Kagangure.

UNAYDA is chaired by State Minister for Youth and Children Affairs, Nakiwala Kiyingi. It was launched in Boston in 2016 and aims at empowering the youth with skills, resource funding and also coming up with innovative ways of exciting the youth.

According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), about 75% of over Ugandans are youth.  Following the UBOS statistical abstract 2016, it indicates that the national youth unemployment rate was 6.2%.

"In Uganda, a voice for a young person who is innovative is rarely given a chance to talk. This campaign calls on youth to address their concerns and their mind-set in order to have meaningful participation in decision making," Joy Nissi, a youth stated.

Instead of sitting back and thinking everything will be done by government, Nissi encouraged youth to take these challenges as opportunities.

"It is our own obligation as youth to raise a voice and be heard" she said.