Youth unemployment in Uganda. Challenges and survival strategies of women in Kampala

Abstract

Uganda has one of the youngest and fastest growing populations in the world. Youth are often described as a group of people with high potential for increasing productivity and hence can be a good basis for economic growth. However, a large young and fast-growing population also poses immense challenges in the form of widespread youth unemployment. Statistics shows that youth faces a higher unemployment rates than adults, and that women faces higher rates than men. Hence, young women face a double burden by being both youth and female. Young women often find themselves trapped in the middle between the expectations culture and society has of them as women, and their own aspirations. This thesis uses gender analysis to identify some of the challenges faced by youths, especially young women, when looking for employment. And secondly, examines the survival strategies employed by youths. The main findings from the thesis suggest that socially constructed gender norms and cultural practices may discriminate against young women’s access to employment. Women reported facing high levels of Sexual Harassment by potential employers, which made some of them preferring work in the informal sector or as self-employed. As a survival strategy, cross-generational relationships were stressed as a survival strategy both for men and women.