AFRICA YOUTH MOVEMENT

About Africa Youth Movement (AYM):

Africa Youth Movement is a community based organization that was founded by progressive
youth in 2012. Cognizant of the challenges youth in Uganda face and the need for the
empowerment of the youth in society, and also aware of the opportunities and possibilities
available for the youth to explore, and the need for the youth to contribute to the social,
economic and political transformation of their communities and society as a whole, Africa
Youth movement was founded with the main objective of building a generation of assertive,
vibrant and dynamic youth for positive social transformation through a realistic and
constructive organization culture.

Background and Rationale:

The lives of millions of Ugandan Youth are marred by poverty, inadequate education and skills,
inadequate work/employment opportunities, exploitation, diseases, civil unrest and gender
discrimination. The environment they live in brings both new possibilities and new risks that
undermine the traditional social support that helps the Youth prepare for, negotiate and
explore the opportunities and demands of their passage to adulthood.
Given this situation, investment in Youth is not only a social obligation but also rewarding in
economic sense. This is because the Youth are the country's most valuable asset, are an integral
component of the development process and they provide for and safeguard the future of the
nation. This calls for all stakeholders to make a concerted effort to plan, implement, monitor,
evaluate and strengthen activities of the Youth; with the Youth.
A point in time when all Youth of Uganda are nurtured, protected, educated, equipped with
skills and economically, politically and socially empowered remains desirable.

AYM Principle Motto, Mission, Objectives and Core Values:

Principle: The cultivation of a healthy youth culture aimed at nurturing assertive but
nonetheless tolerant citizens who have the iconic uniqueness of making Uganda a more

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tranquillous nation, and Africa a more inclusive continent as we all make the world a better
place to be.

Motto: We hold the candles and take the lead with Gods help, youth to glow!
Mission: To propound intellectual and very constructive youth.
Objectives:

To empower the youth by improving their social, economic and political wellbeing in
society.
To enable youth to contribute to the social, economic and political transformation of their
communities and society as a whole.

Core Values:

Equity

Creativity

Integrity

Diversity

Underlying Policy Definition of the Youth:

Africa Youth Movement adopts the Uganda National Youth Policy definition of youth as all
young persons; female and male aged 12 to 30 years. This is a period of great emotional,
physical and psychological changes that require societal support for a safe passage from
adolescence to full adulthood.
The definition does not look at youth as a homogeneous group with clear-cut age brackets but
rather as a process of change or a period of time where an individual's potential, vigor,
adventurism, experimentation with increased risks and vulnerabilities show themselves in a
socially meaningful pattern. The definition considers youth and child to be mutually inclusive at
some stage of their lives. So this definition reinforces the definition of a child and seeks to
nurture, protect, and ensure their welfare.
It seeks to prepare and empower the youth to be able to take on socio-cultural, economic, civic,
political and adult roles and autonomy. It also reflects the reality on ground that the family and
extended kinship ties loosen due to the different factors and many young people by the age of
12 years have assumed adult responsibilities.

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This definition does not in any way undermine nor seek to change the legislative definition and
interpretation of a child as stipulated in the children Statute, 1996 and age of consent or voting
as provided for in the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda. It simply provides a basis for
the development and preparation of young people for adult responsibility.
Finally, this definition of youth takes into account programmatic issues and is in harmony with a
number of operational and strategic definitions of major youth programmes in the country
including other International Agencies like the United Nations (UN) which defines the youth as
persons between 15-24 years and the Commonwealth Youth Programme definition of 15-29
years.

A Situation Analysis of the Youth of Uganda:

Following a review of literature on Youth policies and Programmes and consultation with the
youth and other stakeholders, the following youth situation was established:
1) Youth and Migration
A trend of rural-urban migration by the youth is observable. The major causes for this migration
pattern are:
Search for better social services and amenities like Education and Health services;
Search for employment and/or business opportunities;
Insecurity;
Domestic Violence;
Parental Neglect.
However, most of the youth fail to get jobs and end up in urban slums and streets. They engage
in unproductive or anti-social activities like prostitution, thuggery, drugs and substance abuse.
They increase pressure on the few urban facilities and amenities.
2) Youth, Poverty, Employment and Productivity
Poverty, Unemployment and underemployment are the main problems affecting the youth. The
major causes of these problems are:

Lack of employable skills;

Lack of access to resources like land and capital;
Lack of focus by the existing programmes on the informal sector and agriculture;
Overemphasis on experience and lack of apprenticeship schemes;

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Negative attitudes by the Youth towards work especially in agriculture;

Negative cultural attitudes such as gender discrimination.

3) Youth, Education and Training

Overall two thirds of the youth 67.8 are literate. Like in the general population, male youth are
more literate than female youth at 76.7% and 59.9% respectively. The salient issues
experienced by the youth in the area of education and training include:
Skewedness of education and training institutions in favor of urban areas;
Lack of equity and accessibility to education and training facilities;
Lack of vocationalisation of education at all levels;
Inadequate education and training facilities;
Shortage of personnel with quality practical skills training.
4) Youth and Health
The youth in Uganda contribute significantly to the number of morbidity and mortality cases.
Their health problems and needs are of basic nature as well as specific in such issues as sexual
and reproductive health, substance/drug abuse and mental health. Many suffer from Sexually
Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and about 47% of the 1.8 million HIV/AIDS cases are youth, with
female being more infected and vulnerable than their male counterparts.
Teenage pregnancies remain high while maternal morbidity and mortality has persistently
remained high too, with many of which cases are youth. All these are partly because the youth
exhibit early sexual debut averaged at 16 years for girls and 17.6 years for boys.
The factors contributing to this situation are:
Inadequate health facilities;
High costs of health services;
Lack of youth friendly health services;
Lack of relevant health information;
Negative cultural practices.
5) Youth, Participation and Decision Making
A trend analysis of involvement and participation in leadership and decision making since
independence shows that the youth were mostly marginalized and their involvement seen only
as beneficiaries of programmes/service rather than as active participants in the development
process.

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The National Youth Council statute was enacted in 1993 as a platform to organize youth into a
unified body to participate in the development process. But still participation or representation
of the youth less than 25 years of age or those who are illiterate or semi illiterate in positions of
leadership at all levels is limited. The low participation of the youth in decision-making is mainly
due to:
Lack of leadership and management skills;
Organizational regulatory barriers and impediments;
Low resource allocation to Youth Programmes.
6) Youth, Leisure, Sports and Recreation
Most Ugandan Youth especially the rural youth and those out of school have not had the
blessing and opportunity to experience planned and programmed physical activities geared to
enhance life and good health. This is a result of lack of an appropriate Sports Policy,
recreational and leisure facilities, sports training institutions and lack of adequate funding to
promote sports for all.
7) Youth, Society and Culture
Uganda being a multi-ethnic country with 56 different ethnic groups has so many divergent
beliefs and practices. These include issues of early non-consensual marriage where many
Ugandan women marry before 18 years, while their male counterparts marry at 23 years. Other
negative practices include wife inheritance/sharing or replacement, Female Genital Mutilation,
with associated rituals and culture that teaches females submissiveness rather than
assertiveness.
The urban youth are also experiencing a lot of influence from Western culture through the
media and are continuously and inappropriately exposed to pornographic materials. This
coupled with changing family structures, disruptions etc. challenge traditional control on
behaviors of youth. This leaves them in a generation with no clear cultural identity or values
often conflicting with society and established structures.
8) Youth and Crime
Over 63% of the in-mates are youth. This locks out a large number of otherwise productive age
group that could contribute positively to national development. Male youth feature more
prominently in crime figures than the female counterparts. The underlying factors in all these
crimes are:

Internal conflicts;

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 Unemployment;
Lack of guidance and counselling;
Redundancy;
Poverty.
Due to erosion in our culture and social support system, the country now witnesses a lot of
cases of delinquencies, street youth, sex workers, drug addicts, orphans and other
disadvantaged youth who are left to cater for themselves and sometimes their younger ones.
9) Youth and Environment
Youth involvement in environmental degradation in their efforts to earn a living through
uncontrollable charcoal burning, brick making, wetland destruction etc. has had a negative
effect on sustainable environment management.
10) Youth and Gender
The prevailing social-economic environment of the youth mainly favors the participation and
development of the male youth. For example the female youth are mainly involved in
domestic/reproductive work like collecting firewood and water, cooking and caring for the
children and the sick, all activities which confine them in homes and do not expose them to
outside opportunities that would enhance their participation in productive
household/community management and leadership development.
Furthermore in the area of health, female youth are more prone to morbidity and mortality
than male youth. Many female youth have limited access to reproductive health services
especially if they are unmarried and still in schools. The health service providers tend to be
judgmental to them and this discourages them from seeking services.

AYM Strategic/Priority Areas:

Based on the situational analysis of youth in Uganda as given above, the successful
implementation of Africa Youth Movements activities largely depends on the strategic/priority
areas and action points developed to address the organizations mission and objectives outlined
above. The strategic areas and action points are as follows:
1) Education and Literacy:
Education: Education is the key! The youth spend more time at school than they
actually do at home and even at home, the cycle of education should not stop. Therefore,
Africa Youth Movement finds education to be a strong and critical pillar in the
empowerment of youth in society.

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The purpose here is to target and foster proactivity amongst school going youth through a
wide range of activities including debate & Public speaking, sports competitions, writing
competitions, music, dance and drama competitions, seminars and career guidance drives
and sessions.
Literacy: Literacy is more than just the skills of reading, writing and numeracy; literacy
can serve as a tool for transformation under a broad definition which embraces IT and
other media resources. Literacy is a significant contribution to the material and moral
quality of peoples lives; literacy enables people to have more influence and control
over their own lives as a result of their newly acquired skills and also their increased
self-confidence and higher status associated with being literate.
Africa Youth movement targets non-school going youth, e.g. school dropouts by evolving
various Literacy approaches and strategies for example;

Civic education for youth to actively engage in community issues including local
decision making, demanding their rights, governance, voter education,
participation in democratic processes and environmental responsibility among
others.
Health awareness-raising, prevention and education projects which adopt a
holistic, inclusive and compassionate approaches to health.
Vocational training for youth of low economic status who have limited access to
employment and income opportunities etc.

2) Economic Empowerment
AYM believes that to empower the youth, their economic stability should be strong. With
entrepreneurship and enterprise taking center stage, Africa Youth Movement evolves a
wide range of activities and approaches aimed at improving the economic wellbeing of
youth in the community. Such approaches include though not limited to;
Entrepreneurship
Mentorship
Training (Workshops, seminars, conferences, radio talk shows, magazines, press
features etc...)
Sponsorships and grants
Exhibition
In most of these, Africa Youth Movement plays a mobilization, organization,
coordination and solicitation role.

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3) Volunteerism
The youth shouldnt only be seen to be in a position of need. Africa Youth Movement
believes that youth have a lot they can offer their communities and society as a whole. As
such, Africa youth Movement evolves a volunteer program which enables youth to give
back to their communities in order to cement their contribution to the social, economic
and political transformation as stipulated in the organizations major objective.
As such, youth do not only stand in a position of need in society but also in a position of
dedicated and committed service to their communities.
The volunteerism program is enhanced with a cross section of activities where the youth
can dedicate their time, skills and energy to impact others. Such activities include
training, mentorship, mobilization, coordination, community engagement, research and
many others with in the organizations series of activities.
Besides giving back to their communities, volunteerism helps the youth themselves to
boost their careers and profiles and also boost their experience in their respective fields of
expertise.

4) Recreation, Sports and Leisure

It is important to eliminate a passive culture and promote an active culture amongst the
youth; this makes sports, leisure and hospitality all important approaches to foster
active engagement of the youth in an organized and competitive sense.
Therefore, Africa youth Movement encourages and supports, and promotes the
development of sports, both traditional and modern, for recreational and competition
purposes among the youth.
Africa Youth Movement promotes sports, recreation and leisure activities and develops
models that appeal to young people and also helps to preserve and promote positive
traditional sport.
5) Environmental Conservation
Africa youth Movement advocates for sustainable utilization of the environment
through promotion of youth education and awareness on the dangers of environmental
degradation.

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Also, Africa youth Movement promotes conservation of the natural resources- - soil,
forest, biomass, water, wildlife, wetlands, etc. through such activities as afforestation,
reforestation and proper waste management by the youth.

Target Youth Groups:

The unemployed youth;

The rural youth;
Youth in schools/ training institutions;
School dropouts and out of school youth;
The female youth;
Urban youth migrants;
The illiterate youth;
The street youth;
Youth with disabilities;
Orphans;
Youth infected/affected with HIV/AIDS;
Youth in refugee camps;
Youth who are terminally ill;
Youth addicted to drugs and substances;
Youth in the informal sector;
Employed youth below the age of 18.
Youth in-mates and those just released from prisons etc

Africa Youth Movements Major Partners:

1. Proactive youth: The organization derives its major resource from proactive,
patriotic, nationalistic and pan African youth who are dedicated to the sole purpose of
making Africa and the world a better place to be. These youth constitute the
organizations general and full membership.
Its these youth that lend the organization their skills, expertise and enthusiasm towards
societal transformation.
2. Communities: These are the communities in which the organization operates. The
organization conceives the communities of operation as the second major resource. In
every community, members are fully dedicated to the transformation of their lives and
wellbeing and if mobilized, coordinated and organized well, their contribution to a cross
section of initiatives is just awe amazing.

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In communities where peoples attitudes towards their contribution to their own societal
transformation are not receptive, the investment in attitude change is always worth
giving. Therefore, the communities in which the organization operates remain a very
significant resource regardless of anything.
3. Associate Members: These consist of AYMs working partners and sponsors. To
achieve its objectives, Africa Youth Movement derives its third major resource from
partnerships, both short and long term. Such partnerships include those with civil society
organizations, non-government organizations, private partnerships and public
partnerships. Such partnerships are for both moral and material benefit towards the
fulfillment of the organizations objectives.

Africa Youth Movements financing

1) Self-Funding: The organization is currently self-funded to the greatest extent, with its
executive members contributing financially to the success of the organizations activities.
Also, the organization evolves the most cost effective approaches to the achievement of
success in most of its activities, while also leveraging the active participation and
contribution of the community members themselves.
2) Membership and Subscription Fees: For full membership to the organization;
Africa Youth Movement requires a minimal membership and subscription fee, which
money is used in the running of the organizations day to day activities and also running
the cross section of community based activities the organization runs.
3) Income generating projects: As a community based organization, Africa youth
Movement runs various model income generating projects with in respective
communities of operation. These are projects that the organization relies on for training
as well us acquiring income to run some of its activities.
4) Fundraisers and Donations: The organization carries out targeted fundraisers
where people who share the organizations vision and are in position to render some
support always do so. This is mostly by way of facilitating different budgetary elements
for the organizations cross section of community based initiatives.
The organization also gets some of its funding through donations. However, the
organization hasnt rolled out a wide spread donation campaign. Therefore, any donations
received have come from a few targeted people.
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5) Sponsorship and grants: To further augment its activities, the organization intends
to seek sponsorship and grants from both local and international partners including
government
agencies,
non-government
organizations
and
international
organizations/agencies.

Conclusion:
Africa youth movement is fully committed to the empowerment of youth to improve their
wellbeing, and also to improve the contribution of the youth in the social, economic and
political transformation of their communities and society as a whole.

Africa Youth Movement 2015

+256-703-591218