Empowering refugee youth through the PROSPECTS Partnership
PROSPECTS Partnership in Uganda shows how education and skilling, economic inclusion and protection empowers refugee youth
The Netherland’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Development, H.E. Reinette Klever, visited the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Isingiro District to witness the impact of the multi-agency and multi-sectoral PROSPECTS partnership in supporting inclusion, resilience and self-reliance of young refugees in Uganda.
During the Minister Klever’s inaugral visit to Uganda and to a PROSPECTS programme site, she saw first-hand, how the PROSPECTS Partnership supports refugee and host community adolescents and youth to gain essential skills and empowers them to build resilience and find solutions to identified problems in their communities. The visit included a walk-through of the journey of a refugee in Uganda, from the time they arrive and are registered at the UNHCR reception center and the diverse services provided by the PROSPECTS partnership.
As a part of the experience, the Minister met with students from the UNICEF-supported alternative education programme (AEP), which provides much needed primary school-level education to over-age out-of-school refugee and host-community adolescents, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, and enables them to acquire foundational literacy and numeracy skills and later transit into other education and other skilling pathways. The Minister engaged with students to hear about their motivations for joining the AEP programme and how the programme and accompanying by adolescent-centered life skills education have helped and empowered them.
The Minister also learned about the youth innovations created through the Integrated UPSHIFT’s (i-UPSHIFT) social innovation and social entrepreneurship skills training programme. Delivered through non-formal education training, i-UPSHIFT, a UNICEF and ILO joint skills training module trains young participants to learn to identify and analyze problems of their concerns and develop products or solutions to address them thus both acquiring core skills of innovation and entrepreneurship and practicing these skills at the same time (by creating solutions) during the training. In the visit, the young people presented to her promising solutions to address issues such as access to finance, employment and sustainability in Nakivale refugee settlement and developed their enterprises after going through i-UPSHIFT training in Nakivale refugee settlement and developed their enterprises after going through UPSHIFT training.
Building on the success of the i-UPSHIFT skills training programme, i-UPSHIFT was certified as modular training course by the Directorate of Industrial Training of the Ministry of Education and Sports in July 2024 and recommended for delivery in formal and non-formal TVET institutions. The young people who will complete the i-UPSHIFT training course in these institutions will receive a vocational qualification of “Social Innovator” of levels 1 and 2 that will be recognized by employers across the country.
The visit was also attended by the Netherland’s Ambassador to Uganda, Ms. Frederieke Quispel, the UNICEF Chief of Education, Barno Mukhamadieva, UNHCR Deputy Representative, Mr. Jason Hepps, ILO Chief Technical Advisor, Evans Lwanga, World Bank Senior Operations Officer, Yaye Ngouye Ndao, IFC Country Officer, Anita Louise Nabirye Mwandha, Refugee Desk Officer in the Office of Prime Minister Palyne Abina and other members of the delegation of the PROSPECTS partnership, as well as representatives of Isingiro District local government and participants of the PROSPECT programme.
Witnessing the innovative solutions that young refugees developed, UNICEF Chief of Basic Education and Adolescent Development, Barno Mukhamadieva, emphasized that, "PROSPECTS partnership played a catalytic role in the development and institutionalization of innovative skills training programmes for most vulnerable groups for young people in Uganda, in particular refugee youth."
PROSPECTS is a multi-year strategic partnership funded by the Government of the Netherlands and implemented by five development partners in Uganda to empower young refugees and host-community youth through sustainable solutions for inclusion, resilience and self-reliance. UNICEF, together with UNHCR and ILO, contributes to pillars related to education and learning and protection interventions. Within the scope of the partnership UNICEF, with UNHCR and ILO, implemented foundational learning and 21st century skilling programmes to empower both refugee and host community adolescents, including the most vulnerable, to develop skills that will help them successfully transition from learning to earning and to navigate their futures. The progress made in Phase 1 of PROSPECTS partnership will be built on in Phase 2 (2024-2027), with a strong focus on scaling and institutionalization of proven, innovative activities to enhance the self-reliance, resilience and inclusion of refugees in national systems.
