Why is Agriculture the focus of this Strategy?
Agriculture being the mainstay of Uganda’s rural economy means that sustainable economic development and decent employment and resultant livelihoods can be attained through promotion of well-designed, competitive and inclusive agricultural enterprises. This strategy applies especially in rural areas where residents derive their livelihoods from agriculture. The local rural economies in Uganda and neighbouring countries revolves around agriculture. Promotion of proven agricultural innovations are likely to mitigate the extreme hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition evident in these rural communities. Furthermore agri-business and entrepreneurship using digital technologies to aggregate and link to markets offer good scope to engage youth and women as this would reduce unemployment and revitalize rural economies.
SKILLING THE YOUTH THROUGH SCHOOL GARDEN LEARNING LABS
Why is Youth Employment and Community Advancement the focus of this Strategy?
Africa has the fastest growing population with the continent expected to constitute about 47% of the world population by 2050. Of that population, about 70% will be youth (less than 35 years old). This mushrooming population is already posing significant challenges with the overwhelming majority of the youth (>70%) being unemployed apart from increasing rural poverty and 4 contributing to environmental degradation. This is made worse because most of the rural areas in Africa remain underdeveloped, underserved and often marginalized. As such targeted interventions are needed to train and skill the youths so as to make them employable and job creators. Furthermore, interventions ares needed to improve and increase livelihood opportunities for rural communities, including providing necessary safeguards especially for girl child, women and vulnerable communities. Hence, RAE will prioritize interventions that enhance youth skill development for job creation and employability while at the same time promoting safeguards for the target communities. RAE will build on its efforts of catalyzing rural transformation through intentional community engagement.