Eradicating Poverty Among the Ugandan Youths: An Evaluation of the Youth Livelihood Programme’s Contribution to Achieving MDG 1 and SDG 1

The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) No 1 sought to eradicate extreme poverty, and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No 1 as adopted by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/70/1 seeks to End poverty in all its forms everywhere. Uganda as a participating member of the United Nations General Assembly, is obligated to join the united global fight against poverty stipulated in the resolutions laying out the MDGs and SDGs. In 2014, the Ugandan government launched the Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) to aid in the fight to end poverty, targeting the largest segment of her population, the youths, in line with Goal 1 in the MDGs and subsequent SDGs. In this study, we: sought to determine the anti-poverty targets in Goal 1 of the MDGs and SDGs; and, scrutinise the Youth Livelihood Programme within the framework targets to eradicate poverty in Goal 1 of the MDGs and SDGs. We used qualitative research which was guided by the critical theory paradigm to analyse the Youth Livelihood Programme with a view to determine if it was a suitable tool in the fight against poverty. We adopted an explanatory research design focusing on the YLP in Uganda as a case study. The findings show that the Youth Livelihood Programme has recorded some success by benefiting 263,897 youths and creating over 1,250,000 indirect jobs (UGANDA-MoFPED, 2024). It is also clear that the YLP has only benefited 3.4% of the Ugandan youth population and the revolving fund is slowly getting depleted due to poor loan recovery rates from the youth groups that borrowed from the YLP fund. Based on the findings of this study, we recommend that the YLP fund can be saved by hiring competent loan recovery managers. The program could be boosted by allocating free land to the YLP beneficiaries. The government ought to increase resource mobilisation and allocation for the YLP and formulate YLP-supportive policies in the agriculture, trade and banking sectors. The recommendations will lead to greater success of the YLP and enable Uganda to fulfil its commitment to Goal 1 within the MDGs and the Successor SDGs