The 30-minute training we received at Sub County was limited, insufficient, very brief, and we were not able to acquire enough skills, knowledge, and inspiration about business processes (YIG Chairperson, Bungatira subcounty, Gulu District).
The above quotation suggests the training was insufficient. Most youth projects were started without clear strategic plans, vision, and purpose. Many youths were unaware of their responsibilities, basic entrepreneurship principles, and market needs. Thus, they were unable to utilise their own potentials in bringing about socio-economic transformation.
Mindset
The importance of mindset surfaced in all the interviews. Attitude, character and motivation were personal resources captured by the term ‘mindset’. The success of youth enterprises was attributed to hard work, determination, availability, readiness, resilience and passion. In 2018 ‘Openyu’ and his group received funding from YLP, determined members worked hard, and they were able to pay back credit and obtain additional funding. ‘We are now few members’, ‘who know what to do’, ‘willing to work’, and ‘happy’, were expressions of the successful youth enterprises. This positive example was overshadowed by many negative ones:
Our youth have bad attitude, they are not committed to work, and want to enjoy free things. We started our group in 2016 when we were 15 members; many lazy ones have run away, we are now only six (Male Participant, Awach Subcounty).
Indeed, it was observed that some youth projects were neglected. For example, we found unattended piggery enterprises in Bungatira and Unyama Sub counties, and a retail shop in Palaro County which was closed all day, yet owners were idle in trading centres, while others were relaxing at home.
This study aligns with one in Nigeria, which stressed appropriate entrepreneurial attitudes to participate and successfully exploit entrepreneurial opportunities (Aja-Okorie and Adali 2013:119). Participants emphasised weak entrepreneurial spirit among youth. They repeatedly mentioned lack of commitment, patience, passion, determination, and dedication to economic activities. The interlocutors reported that youth behaviours were detrimental to personal growth and development. The youth leaders, youth themselves, and government officials attributed some youth woes to personal responsibility. Youth themselves were to blame. The interlocutors claimed that most youth were arrogant, lazy, and averse, had ‘poverty of the mind’, and lacked positive values. Participants from active youth projects/IGAs and key district stakeholders reported that youth were disrespectful, immoral, negative towards some agricultural work, and preferred freedom to work. They pointed out that youth spend most time on gambling and prostitution, sitting in trading centres, spending what they earn on alcohol and drug abuse, and sports betting. The greed for quick cash characterised most youth in the area, they said.
The youth are not very patient; they want quick returns; they do not want to wait. If the project is taking long to yield productivity, they find it a problem, so they prefer something with quick results like sports betting (District YLP Focal Office).
The youth political leaders agreed, positing that youth are negligent, and waste time and energy meant for productive work.
We have uncommitted youth, some youth in Bardege, Layibi, Laroo divisions did not dedicate their time, energy, and power towards work. Even if opportunities are available, they prefer betting, watching football until late, more than going for work (Female Municipal Youth Leader).
… youth down in our communities are very lazy. Even if there is an activity or programme, they cannot participate. They prefer watching movies, dancing at marketplaces, sitting at shop verandas, bars, betting houses and frequenting trading centres and towns for leisure (Municipal Female Youth Councillor).
Programme implementers thought that youth did not accept the basic premises of youth livelihood programmes. Whereas government emphasises socio-economic transformation and wealth creation, youth take project funding as free government money, a way of making quick cash and meeting their daily needs. They asserted that youth did not commit their total effort towards self-employment as entrepreneurs. Educated youth considered agriculture as a ‘side hustle’ and continued seeking for paid jobs.
One of the biggest challenges with our youth is attitude. Youth do not look at agribusiness and agriculture as very critical activity in getting them out of poverty and getting them employment. Therefore, it takes time to convince the youth to take farming as a business, as something that can get them out of poverty. Therefore, that attitude thing needs a lot of mindsets changing. Of course, it is linked to laziness and how they look at certain enterprises. They have access to productive resources such as land but look at farming as a village dirty job (Key Informant Technoserve[4]).
While many interlocutors, including young people themselves, pointed to mindset as the reason for the failure of so many youth livelihood projects, they were not concerned about why the uncommitted mindset existed and what could change it.
Conclusion
Under the Youth Livelihood Programme, young people in Gulu District engaged in different enterprises based on personal choice, skills, competences, and district guidance. Produce businesses were most successful due to less labour and operational costs involved; most youth could not afford the capital requirements of agriculture and manufacturing. All enterprises operated on a micro level, and on rented premises or family land. Agriculture-related ventures dominated in the YLP; however, these were small scale since most youth lack rights to use large amounts of land (Ayai 2013:9; Gichimu and Njeru 2014:3). No youth venture owned land; they either got land access from parents and clan members or used community land (for cattle grazing). Youth mostly engaged in piggery, poultry, and horticulture, which do not require much land space. Some youth engaged in buying and selling of agricultural produce such as cereals, beans, sesame, and maize. The youth believed that crops were available, accessible, and cheap, and had ready market from intermediaries. Retailing utilised mostly government funding and youth as ‘resources’ since commitment, synergy and personal contribution play an important role towards success. However, only one group had a retail shop supplementing their produce business.
[4] NGO dealing in training youth in Agriculture-related enterprises in northern Uganda.