Briefing Paper

Work and Income for Young Men and Women in Africa: Case of Uganda

We found that youths accounts for more than a third of the labor contribution to national value added. The contribution of youths is largely driven by the skilled youths. The youths add more value added to service sector, followed by industry and lastly agriculture. The results also show that service sector has the highest labor income multipliers followed by industry and agriculture respectively. This means that; to accelerate economic growth and the contribution of youths to value added, there is need for government to adopt policies that improve the skills of youths particularly in the service and industry sectors. In general, to accelerate jobs for youths and women, there is need to support sectors such as cash crop production, light manufacturing, construction, agro-processing, wholesale and retail trade, financial services, insurance, transport and tourism. These were found to employ more youth and generate more income for the youth. The policies should be holistic to encompass the whole value chain of the identified sectors. For instance, supporting agriculture sector to unlock employment potential for youths and women would require complementary efforts of investing in agro-processing to create market and add value to the agricultural products. Similarly, industrialization would require complementary investments in sectors that would provide inputs.