By Godwin Abedican

Arua

Partners implementing the security protection and economic empowerment (SUPREME) project in which over 2000 youth of both host and refugee status have been trained in refugee hosting districts and called upon to embrace skills development.

SNV together with Rural Initiative for Community Empowerment West Nile (RICE-WN), World Vision and ZOA began implementing the SUPREME project, a 4 years project in 2020 with funding worth 3.6 million Euros targeting two thousand youth with a 50/50 ratio between refugee and host community youths.

Speaking during a private sector youth internship and linkage meeting organized by the implementing partners at Le Tsuba Hotel in Arua city on Thursday April 18, 2024, Swaib Toko, the Resident District Commissioner Madi Okollo, notes that, many local governments in West Nile always fail to pick up youth empowerment when non-governmental organizations have set foundations for life changing programs for the youth

“Now it’s a challenge to us as local governments. Many districts today are complaining about high dropout rates from primary, secondary even tertiary levels. We are talking about teenage pregnancy and sometime we all have negative perception about these youth when they drop out. There has never been any formal or practical step by local governments that, this large number is out of school and what needs to be done. The direction SNV has taken should be the direction we should take as local governments,” Toko appealed.

Swaib Toko, the Resident District Commissioner, Madi Okollo district  makes
a point during his submission at the engagement

The overall aim of the supreme project is to increase access to decent employment for the refugees and host communities in the four districts of Moyo, Obongi, Terego and Madi Okollo, targeting those aged between 18 and 30 years in line with achieving the SDG targets by 2030. 

Phomolo Maphosa, the Country Director, SNV Uganda, maintains that with what they have done it’s easy for other partners to engage the youth positively. “We would like to see more and more organizations supporting youth interventions in line with the government priorities. The project is going to close, but we also want to think about the sustainability aspect. If we look at the sustainability of this project, we are saying as a consortium that it is possible to train the youth and skill them to be self-employed. Its now about how the local governments and the OPM continues this link with the youth to get better employment opportunities and to offer them opportunity to raise their skills to higher levels,” she emphasized.

Phomolo Maphosa, the Country Director, SNV Uganda speaking to participants

However, Jenna Atoma, the Deputy Refugee desk officer in the Office of the Prime Minister, Arua area office, expresses challenges with refugees in adopting informal education “The majority of the refugee population here are the South Sudanese, and for them they want the formal education where one goes through primary to secondary, proceed the university and come out to get white color jobs and identify themselves by saying I am an accountant, am this am that. When there are such opportunities, they say 50 percent for refugees and 50 percent host communities, you find the hosts taking 80 percent and the refugees take 20 percent because they sigh informal education and yet this is the time where the refugees need to take the informal education with both hands,” Atoma expressed.

The supreme project will end on 27^th July 2024 after a total of 2034 youth benefiting from the program.