Youth empowerment for development

trueBy Amber Kyambadde

Uganda is currently one of the nations with the youngest population. Quite young in fact with Uganda having the highest share of people aged 0-14 years in Sub-Saharan Africa.

More than 77% of our population is under 30 years, majority of who are below 15 years. This means that the majority of our population is currently dependent and unproductive but will be the one carrying the burden of supporting Uganda’s economy in the medium to long term.

This population will be making electoral, corporate and business decisions and will be raising future generations itself, instilling in them certain values and principals. Today, I want to focus on the youth in the 18-30 age groups, who are the decision-making cohort of this young majority.

Currently, about 23% of the population falls in this category. This is a generation that has just become productive; it relatively supports the economy and will increasingly do so for quite a period of time before it retires. Also as the younger majority grows, this demographic in turn is also going to bulge and its contribution and influence on society is going to become more pronounced. Therefore, it is important to start changing the unprogressive and unproductive mindsets that exist among youth today.

A vital and often overlooked component for development and progress is having the right mindset. A mindset is always emphasised in personal development but is rarely given credit in the larger context of a country’s development.

Many youth in Uganda today are beleaguered with a victim mentality, an entitlement attitude and a sense of powerlessness. They are driven by a desire to get rich quick with the most minimal effort. This may well be the scourge of the African youth but this mentality needs to be tackled today to ensure an empowered generation in the future.

As youth, we have grown accustomed to folding arms and waiting for government or NGOs to solve all of our problems. We have overlooked the biggest resource to our progress; that is ourselves. We need to empower one another as youth and begin a youth-youth conversation.

There is need to be platforms created by us that allow sharing of our ideas. We are all skilled differently with different expertise, backgrounds and experience that we can bring to these conversations. Youthfulness is associated with inquisitiveness, creativity, energy, and intellectual curiosity; all of which drive change in societies.

Yet we keep waiting to be given a platform to express these ideas. The more minds that come together to exchange ideas and share knowledge, the closer we come to changing our mentalities for progress.

I’m not suggesting that we do not need government and other organisational support. The youth today need to realise that we are not as powerless and helpless as we think. We simply need to recognise the capability within ourselves and our peers. We have voices, we have ideas and we need to create platforms for them to be shared. What we lack in resources and influence individually, is well compensated in brain power.

The youth are a significant group in this country and their mindsets have to change in order to have an empowered leadership and citizenry in the next 10-30 years. It is of great importance that we understand that the future of Uganda lies cradled in the minds of the youth and we need a generation with progressive ideas, strong ethics, knowledge of their rights, and a concern for the greater good.

Let’s start these conversations among ourselves and let’s empower one another with knowledge.

This will take us much further than the hand-outs that many are getting accustomed to.