Abstract:
The study assessed the effectiveness of YLP as part of various efforts sanctioned by the Government of Uganda (GOU) to respond to the growing challenge of youth unemployment resulting from a bulging youth population. Focusing on YLP, the study was able to establish that the youth livelihood Programme has failed to provide vocational skills for youth self-employment in Wakiso district, central Uganda. The study adopted a qualitative approach, mainly relying on primary data collection methods (interviews, observation) and secondary method (documentary reviews) to assess how effective YLP has been in providing vocational skills for self-employment to youth. The study findings revealed that YLP did not put in place a mechanism to facilitate skills training and lacked a clear procedure for assessing youth needs as a critical element informing intervention design.
The study recommended that the government through the supervisory ministry Gender Labour &Social Development (MGLSD) should immediately halt YLP program implementation and redesign Programme to address critical gaps (missing essentials) such as establishing well-equipped training facilities or establishing affiliates in which skills training can be done and put in place a system to assess youth needs and potentials before deciding on particular
interventions to undertake.