DYNAMIC: Driving Youth-led New Agribusiness and Microenterprise in northern Uganda

Project description / objective

The DYNAMIC programme targets 126,000 out-of-school, economically disadvantaged young people (15-24 years old). It focuses on skills, capabilities and support systems intended to enable youths to seek and secure entry-level jobs and start or strengthen their own businesses along agricultural value chains.  

Market system focus

1. Youth-led microenterprises

Strengthening youth-led, off-farm microenterprises such as value addition, access to tillage services and access to improved inputs by the youth.

2. Youth farmer access to markets

Linking youth farmers to markets such as for the sales of goods and services.

3. Youth access to training

Facilitating youth access to, and usage of, formal and informal training service suppliers such as vocational training centres, transformative institutions, peer educators, private sector engagement partners.

4. Youth access to financial services

Facilitating youth access to and usage of formal and non-formal financial services such as through VSLAs, SACCOs, MFIs and banks.

Programme interventions

For youth-led microenterprises

Making commercial opportunities available to youth in existing or new youth-led, off-farm, enterprises through cost-sharing with competitively selected private sector small and medium enterprises. Off-farm microenterprises activities include value addition in agriculture crop markets, tillage services and input and output network strengthening.

1. Provide technical assistance to low-cost technology and mechanised farming services providers, PHH technology suppliers, aggregators and FIs to train, serve and link more youth as clients and agents.
2. Provide technical assistance to agro-processors/agribusinesses to train, serve and link more youth as clients and agents.
3. Increase and improve public and private agricultural extension services, agricultural market information to the youth as clients and agents.

For youth farmer access to markets

DYNAMIC links out-of-school youth farmers to markets for sales of goods and services.

1. Improve youth know-how, productivity, competitiveness and marketing in selected value chains including: poultry, pig, oilseed, cassava, sesame, maize and sorghum, beans and pigeon peas, sweet potato and horticulture.
2. Provide trained youth with discounted inputs in selected value chains
3. Provide technical assistance to input dealers to increase youth access to quality inputs.

For youth access to training

Improving young people’s access to market-based learning and information and facilitating the development of youth’s technical, business and life skills and supporting employability.

1. Build the pre-entrepreneurship and pre-employability capacity of youth (15-24).
2. Provide technical assistance to institutions supporting youth technical and entrepreneurship skills development.
3. Provide technical assistance to transformative institutions (TIs) to increase life skills, financial literacy training and career counselling for younger youth (15-18).
4. Provide technical assistance to transformative vocational training institutions (TVTIs) to improve off-farm vocational training for older youth (19-24).
5. Provide technical assistance to government and industry associations to enable pro-youth agricultural value chain growth.
6. Recruit and train Peer Educators in life and business skills, financial literacy and VSLA methodology and support them in organising and training youth groups.
7. Engage local governments to facilitate youth farmer group and cooperative access to discounted products and services, including business services.

For youth access to financial services

DYNAMIC's focus on youth access to finance is a supporting market function that is key to driving pro-youth growth in value chains across agriculture, agribusiness and animal industry market systems.

1. Facilitate MFIs and banks to link with, train and serve youth and their agribusinesses and farm enterprises.
2. Facilitate non-formal financial institutions such as SACCOs, VSLAs to link with, train and serve youth and agribusinesses and farm enterprises.
3. Increase insurance product knowledge among, and services to, youth and their agribusinesses.
4. Facilitate financial institutions to adapt, develop and make available youth-friendly agricultural financial products and services.

[uploaded May 2018]