The SYID project intends to empower young people with information on their rights to participate in the electoral and democratic processes in order for them to amplify their own voices in influencing duty bearers to address their needs. While, the GoU has made tremendous efforts to put in place affirmative actions, policies and programs that support young people, such as the 1995 Constitution that Provides for representation of the youth in the national parliament under the NYC ACT CAP 319 and established the Youth Council structures from village to national level to provide channels through which youth engage in the development process, and the 1997 LG Act that Provides for representation of the youth in all LG Council structures, and where as the CSOs andother non-state actors provide alternative spaces for youth participation, , like many beneficiaries of affirmative action in Uganda’s political system, youth’s meaningful participation in the planning, implementation evaluation of programs and services affecting them, is insignificant.

While the Uganda National Youth Council Act defines the Youth structures from Village to National Levels, the established mechanisms for youth participation is not effectively functional especially at the lower level government due to limited technical and logistical support amongst youth leaders. The Youth Council in Kabarole district exists but has a weak representation capacity to solicit issues and provide feedback. There is very limited participation of youth in decision-making and Policy development initiatives due to limited access to quality information on governance, principles, rules, and procedures in specific governance structures. While, civic education does take place in the country, this often happens only around election times with emphasis on voter education rather than comprehensive civic education involving civic engagement principles for the youth. Youth in Kabarole are therefore, not well organized as one body and have not established sustainable structures that would ably have their voices heard as one entity.
Most youth groups have worked as separate silos without utilizing the existing platforms for voicing out their concerns. In Kabarole, Youth do not believe in the democratic values, such as tolerance for divergent viewpoints and the rule of law, and this has often resulted in mob justice and post-election violence because the youth choose to solve political issues outside the legal system they don’t trust. Further structural hindrances, likethe increase in candidate nomination fees, monetization of elections, political patronage and pervasive corruption and now the COVID 19 restrictions on movement, continue to hinder youth participation in decision making, a thing that defeats the principle, ‘Nothing about us, without us’, leaving the youth only being kept at the fringes of the decision making without enjoying full participation in their own governance and democratic processes.
Goal. Young people in Kabarole district aretaking lead in the democratization processes of the districts on all matters affecting them.