Two decades of Excellence in Youth Work in Uganda
Ours, since 2005, is a story of working with and by the youth in knowledge building, management, leadership development, dialogue, storytelling and transformation. We have always and continue to focus our programming on key thematic areas of People/ Population, Health and Environment (PHE)
We track back our journey to the Get on Board (GOB) Campaign by ActionAid International. This campaign was part of the Global Call against Poverty (GCAP) campaign that aimed at calling upon governments of the G8 countries to act on debt, aid and trade and accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Our founders, a team of 12, then students and early career graduates, met at the GOB as part of the youth participants and agreed to start a youth initiative to bring more young people into the policy and development processes spaces in Uganda and at global level.
- In 2006, our ground breaking work, we teamed up with Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief (CPAR). We launched the Youth Campaign for Peace in Northern Uganda. We mobilised and organised the youth voice in the Civil Society Coalition for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU). Because of the efforts of Youthplus, youth were in the peace spaces and part of the solution to negotiate the end of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war in Northern Uganda and subsequent recovery program.
- With Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief and other allies we designed and engineered the Gulu Walk charitable campaign and program 2007. We shined a light on the plight of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Northern Uganda at the time. We mobilised funds and resources for humanitarian support and in all this our campaign was championed by youth affected by the LRA war in Northern Uganda
- In 2007, we partnered with Oxfam Great Britain launched and implemented the Active Citizenship for Good Governance Project. We organised students workshops and dialogues on the topic of active citizenship, good governance. We activated active citizen’s clubs in Universities and schools. Our work here inspired the formation of the Students for Global Democracy Initiative.
- In 2008, we partnered with the British Council Uganda to implement the Debate to Action Programme in Uganda. We broke the lid on issues of diversity and inclusion in youth work.
- In 2009, our team members joined the Regional / Global Xchange (GX) Programme an Initiative of the British Council and VSO. They made lasting impact working and serving as volunteers in the United Kingdom and Nigeria. We integrated the lessons into our work
- In 2009, working with the United Nations Millenium Campaign / UNDP we spearheaded the STANDUP TAKE ACTION CAMPAIGN ON MDGs in Uganda . We delivered the first youth-led petition to the parliament of Uganda detailing the Uganda the Youth Want.
- In 2009, we sent our first youth delegation to the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Since then we have had a representative or delegate at every COP.
- In 2009, we worked with the International Republican Institute (IRI) and launched Inspiring Young Women in Leadership Program (YWL). We developed a leadership curriculum customized for young women from low income communities. We built bridges for networking and thriving in a male dominated society. Our YWL alumni have made big impact and change in all sectors in Uganda and abroad.
- In 2010, we teamed up with the Akiba Uhaki Foundation and shed light on the increasing youth unemployment at the time. We formed the Youth Employment Action Network, engaged and activated the youth voice on the issue.
In 2010, we teamed up with the International Republic Institute and Akiba Uhaki Foundation to host our first ever Annual Youth Leadership Training Camp. This is a tradition that we have kept up to today for over a decade now. Our Leadership Camp alumni have gone on to make significant change in the communities, public and political spaces.
- In 2011, we teamed up with Climate Action Network Uganda (CAN-U), Oxfam GB and Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) and implemented the African Caravan of Hope- Speak Up for Climate Justice Campaign. We talked to communities, leaders and stakeholders on climate change. We are proud to have started the conversation on communities and climate change.
- We worked with the Climate Action Network to organize the Youth Innovations Lab and dialogue on climate change. We identified and nurtured youth-led solutions to tackling the climate change crisis in Uganda.
- In 2012, we teamed up with National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) and launched the Youth Campaign for Good Oil Governance in Uganda. We bench-marked good practices, hosted dialogues with young people in the Albertine region. We sent a call and message to stakeholders to ensure a whole of society approach and youth inclusive governance in Uganda’s extractive industry.
- In 2012, we worked with Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) and others to launch the Coalition to Stop Maternal Mortality due to unsafe abortion (CSMMUA). This is a space we have continued to contribute to and support for over a decade now.
- In 2015, we teamed up with IPAS and HealthGap and implemented the life-changing project on access to safer choices sexual and reproductive health services for youth in Kampala and Wakiso District. We still promote safer choices for youth in reproductive Heath.
- In 2018, based on the knowledge and experience garnered as a youth-led and focused organisation for over ten years, we strategized to increase our social impact by investing our resources to maximize the power of the youth, communities and strategized to focus our attention on the communities of the Lake Victoria Basin through a consolidated programme dubbed DEEP ROOTS LVB-Revealing the Power of Youth and the communities in the social economic transformation of vulnerable communities in Uganda.
- This work leverages on the demographic dividends of Uganda where the youth are the majority in a rapidly urbanizing and globalizing community but faces numerous challenges especially adolescent girls and young women in this peri-urban contexts. As a Community Based Organisation (CBO) focusing on a specific context of the fishing communities of the Lake Victoria Basin, we continue to strive to drive cutting edge programmes and projects that address the socio-economic needs of the vulnerable groups in the LVB Programme Area. We do this through Knowledge Management, Advocacy and Engagement, Catalysing Solutions and inspiring youth leaders at the community level.
- In 2020, we teamed up with the Global Green Grants Fund to kick-start the Food Security, Youth Activism, and Climate Resilience in Uganda project. The project dubbed Young Women’s Stories from the Frontlines of Climate Change in Uganda mobilised young women in Katakwi District, empowered them with knowledge and skills on climate change, leadership and food security. They engaged leaders at all levels of the leadership and governance chain.
- In 2022, we worked with the Uganda Community Based Association for Child Welfare (UCOBAC) as the Land, Gender and Vulnerable Groups work group within the National Land Coalition (NLC) to launch and commission research and action on youth access to and ownership of land in Uganda.
- Our work in Uganda inspired a global youth activism movement called Activista initiated by ActionAid Italy.
In all this we have been learning, our today and tomorrow is shaped by our previous work and engagement.
We are optimistic that our next phase of growth will be bigger and better with bigger impact on the livelihoods of the youth.
.
Youthplus 