COVID-19 stalls poverty alleviation programs

Ariam Riam Women's Group in Lakiror village, Lokatapan parish, in Nakapiripit district is among the women groups which benefited from the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Program (UWEP).

UWEP is an initiative which was initiated by Government in 2016 to improve women's access to financial services, equip them with the skills for enterprise growth, value addition and marketing of their products and services. The women are availed with interest free revolving credit.

The group received shs7.9m in January 2020 and invested shs6.3million in their cereal banking business hopping to get profits and start clearing their loan.

Agnes Alinga, 40, the chairperson of the group, says their venture got stalled after the sudden pronouncement of the COVID-19 lockdown.  

"Our market was the weekly markets but they were all suspended and movement restricted," she notes.

She says this made it difficult for them to start clearing their loan as they had planned.

The Assistant Commissioner in the Ministry Labour Gender and Social Development, Mondo Kyateka said the global pandemic greatly affected the various government programs aimed at alleviating poverty.

"Many beneficiaries of UWEP and the Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) were affected by the lockdown. Majority of the groups were in service areas (saloon, entertainment, catering and in trade among others) which were affected most," he noted.

While speaking at the launch of State of Youth Civil Society at the Bugolobi Royal Suites in Kampala, Kyateka noted that as a result, many of the youth and women became jobless and could not pay back the money.

The event was organised by Restless Development and Development Alternatives with support from Democratic Governance Facility (DGF).

"We are now handling case by case, and we give different groups more time depending on the enterprise and how they were affected to easily recover the funds," he added.

He said they are using the little recovered funds in the very districts to support other groups.

Kyateka said all budgets of various programs in the ministry were cut, which affected their operations.

"It was serious because COVID-19 was the priority and it has really helped to control the spread of the pandemic," he added.

Youth CSOs frustrated by limited funding 

The Youth CSO report indicates that majority of the youth organization were facing financial constraints, thus hindering their operations in communities.

However, this was attributed to structural and systematic problems within various organizations.

Kyateka urged youth CSOs to be more innovative and create independent development arms where they can raise funding locally than depending on donors only.

"Some of these organisations depend on one source of funding. That is why they are facing a challenge. They should get diverse partners and also start their ventures for sustainability," he added.  

He also noted that some organisations do not grow because the founders want to remain in control.

He added that at times some organisations divert away from their original agenda, thus missing out on funding due to lack of consistency.

The head of Democratic Governance Facility-Uganda (DGF-U), Nicole Bjerler noted that youth organisations often grapple with funding and resource mobilisation due to leadership challenges and administrative challenges.

She said DGF remains committed to supporting youth-led CSOs, and to also help bring in a youth perspective among our other partners.

Bjerler stressed that world over, youth CSOs have been frontline respondents to the pandemic, through supporting community responses to COVID-19.

"They have helped to spread awareness about the virus and delivered services to vulnerable community members," she said.

The board chair, Restless Development Uganda, Joseph Munyangabo, said most youth organisations are not thriving but merely surviving.

"We realised that these organisations were even more hit during COVID-19. That is why we carried out this research to see how further the youth were impacted and get solutions to the problem," he said.

The executive director of Girl Up Initiative Uganda, Monica Nyiraguhabwa, said youth CSOs need to start creating networks and strengthen their social sustainability than depending on donors.

"Partnerships and working with consortiums is a key to bridge the gap between big and small organisations," Nyiraguhabwa noted.

The coordinator of Youth Advocacy and Development Network (YADNET), Raymond Ruyoka, noted that some youth organisations have failed to diversify their operations, a reason why they continue to be affected during the COVID-19 pandemic.