This project helps deliver the first (No Poverty) and fourth (Quality Education) targets of the SDG as it promotes sustainable economic development and equips youth with skills that would allow them to be self-learners. Building on an analysis of a youth-led Labor Market Assessment (LMA) in Kampala, an LMA that I was part of while working for IREX, my team and I will take 28 youth through a research design and data analysis training before jointly with them carrying out a country-wide LMA. For the research training, in 4 groups of 7 youth, participants will design their research protocols that will be tested and approved by an IRB representative. Also, in their specific teams, participants will learn and practice data analysis and data-driven decision making. The research design training will help young people know how to study any social problem plaguing their society. We expect nothing from participants less than a well-designed and conducted LMA that will help to uncover and understand production and consumption patterns that contribute to un(der)employment and will point to the education and economic policy reforms needed to address this problem.
After the research is completed, participants will use the research findings to come up with proposed solutions, including their own perspectives to address youth un(der)employment. They will share their findings with as much youth audience as possible, through local radio stations, social media and with Prefectural Youth Departments. We believe that this project will significantly raise the employability of not only its direct 28 beneficiaries but also thousands of its indirect beneficiaries.