Document Abstract
Published:
1 Apr 2008
The state of female youth in northern Uganda: findings from the survey of war-affected youth (SWAY)
Confronting issues for female youth in northern Uganda
As peace talks being brokered by the Government of southern Sudan offer the prospect of an end to one of Africa’s longest conflicts (between the Government of Uganda and the Lords Resistance Army), this paper carries out a thematic-based analysis of the current situation with regards to female youth in northern Uganda. The paper offers specific recommendations to the Government of Uganda (GoU) and international and local agencies operating in the region.
The paper finds that incomes and employment reported by young women are extremely low - most work less than two days a week and earn less than 1,250 Uganda shillings (c. US$0.75) a day. In education, one in five female youth have received no education whatsoever, and only one in three are functionally literate. Forty three percent of women report complete inability to read or write and 60 percent say they are unable to read a book or newspaper.
In terms of war violence and abduction, males and females perpetrated violence at similar rates, although males reported a higher number of acts of violence. Levels of abduction are immense: more than a third of male youth and a fifth of female youth report abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Forced marriages were also perpetrated on a wide scale in LRA-controlled areas in northern Uganda and south Sudan.
It is pointed out that the evidence strongly suggests that the Ugandan government and NGOs should abandon crude targeting categories such as abduction, motherhood status, and orphans. Assistance will be more effective if it is targeted to observable measurable needs: illiteracy, chronic unemployment, family estrangement, emotional distress, and serious injury and illness. The authors recommend that policymakers must recognise that:
The paper finds that incomes and employment reported by young women are extremely low - most work less than two days a week and earn less than 1,250 Uganda shillings (c. US$0.75) a day. In education, one in five female youth have received no education whatsoever, and only one in three are functionally literate. Forty three percent of women report complete inability to read or write and 60 percent say they are unable to read a book or newspaper.
In terms of war violence and abduction, males and females perpetrated violence at similar rates, although males reported a higher number of acts of violence. Levels of abduction are immense: more than a third of male youth and a fifth of female youth report abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Forced marriages were also perpetrated on a wide scale in LRA-controlled areas in northern Uganda and south Sudan.
It is pointed out that the evidence strongly suggests that the Ugandan government and NGOs should abandon crude targeting categories such as abduction, motherhood status, and orphans. Assistance will be more effective if it is targeted to observable measurable needs: illiteracy, chronic unemployment, family estrangement, emotional distress, and serious injury and illness. The authors recommend that policymakers must recognise that:
- the primary economic activity for youth has been, and will continue to be, agriculture and herding - thus agriculture and enterprise development should be at the centre not the periphery of assistance
- vulnerable young women, especially those with children or orphans to care for, are in most need of livelihoods assistance
- alternative education should be accelerated and age-appropriate, offered in afternoons or evenings, with opportunities for child care for young mothers
- there is a need to take gender into account, from study design, to data collection, analysis, and program implementation - it is also important to appreciate that the age of youth matters and girls and boys experience conflict differently.
