UPSHIFT helps young people upskilled to fight climate change in northern Uganda
Let’s #Innovate4UG!
A pile-up of challenges arising from the recent disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic in northern Uganda previously ravaged by two decades of civil war, all in a setting of mounting climate change, are being addressed by a new initiative known as Integrated UPSHIFT (i-UPSHIFT).
i-UPSHIFT was launched jointly with International Labour Organization (ILO) in February 2022 and has so far upskilled more than 350 adolescents and youth in 6 pilot districts. The programme focuses on social innovation and entrepreneurship skills-building for adolescents and youth which as a result brings social change and impact in communities.
This initiative is delivered through a three-month cycle which is led by youth mentors and covers inspiration workshop, followed by a 4-day boot camp and initial mentorship where the adolescents and youth are helped to develop innovative solutions. In the more intensive second mentorship phase, selected participants are provided with seed funding and a ‘Final Meet-up’ is arranged for them to showcase their solutions to stakeholders.
In the pioneer cohort of i-UPSHIFT was Flavia Lanyero, a young mother of a 2-year-old living in Gulu city. Previously a hunger-stricken youth labouring on farms of people who often did not even pay her, Flavia gained hope when she joined the i-UPSHIFT programme.
In her group of five, she has peers Janet Auma, Michka Okidi, Albert Origa Peko and Kennedy Ocakacon trained in human-centred design through i-UPSHIFT bootcamp then later learnt bio-briquette making during the extensive mentorship phase by approaching local experts in this field.
Flavia and her team are combating deforestation because their bio-briquettes are a substitute for charcoal from trees, which is the main form of energy used for cooking all over Uganda’s urban areas. Northern Uganda is the main source of charcoal for Uganda’s towns. The bio-briquettes are skilfully made from an assortment of household waste.
Uganda has over the past 25 years lost 63 per cent of its forest cover to tree cutting mostly for firewood, timber and charcoal, according to the National Forestry Authority. A government survey in 2015 found that two-thirds of urban households use charcoal as their main cooking fuel, with 40 per cent of the supply coming from northern Uganda, a region whose loss of trees and other vegetation has caused longer dry seasons, prolonged drought, and unpredictably heavy rainfall. As a result, the productivity of farmland in northern Uganda, which was once the food basket of Uganda has significantly reduced.
From the successful test of the innovative solution in their community earlier this year, Flavia’s team is now inspired to venture into a new opportunity and showcase their green innovation. In this year’s imaGen Ventures Youth Challenge, a global initiative for youth skills-building for the empowerment of potential innovators and entrepreneurs, the team was identified as having one of the best innovative solutions developed in Uganda through a pitch competition that took place in Gulu in August 2022.
The team was officially announced at COP 27 Youth Pavilion in November 2022 as one of the global winners out of 71 teams from 37 countries. The team will thus enter the global incubation period next year by receiving additional seed funding and extensive mentorship from global experts to expand their innovation.
“We are thinking of sourcing and acquiring equipment that can reduce manual processing of the bio-briquettes and getting hands-on technical skills in handling the equipment,” says Michka Okidi, Flavia’s teammate. “This will enable our production of the bio-briquettes in mass quantities to meet the demands of the community. Consumer education is another thing on our list, as the level of awareness and knowledge on the devastating effects of deforestation on livelihoods is limited in our community.”
Building on this successful case, i-UPSHIFT will be delivered to adolescents and youth in 19 districts in 2023 with a focus on vulnerable groups, including refugees, girls and child mothers under the slogan “Innovate4UG”. The programme will upskill more than 10,000 adolescents and youth in non-formal education centres by partnering with various stakeholders such as the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, the Ministry of Education and Sports, civil society organisations, youth-led organizations, private sectors and academia.
This programme is supported by PROSPECTS partnerships funded by the Netherlands Government.
For more information on the bio-briquette project by Flavia’s team, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH0VwQFQmSA
Announcing the global winners of imaGen Ventures 2022 | Generation Unlimited
