Young Africa Works 2025 Dialogue - Kampala, Uganda. February 18 - 19, 2025
To celebrate 5 years of Young Africa Works in Uganda, the Mastercard Foundation hosted an event focused on addressing barriers to youth-led entrepreneurship and workforce development as pathways to dignified work. The event convened youth-led organizations, partners, program participants, private and public institutions, and more, to reaffirm the role of Uganda’s young people in shaping the country’s economic future.
In 2018, The Mastercard Foundation launched its Young Africa Works Strategy - an ambitious goal for the next decade: by 2030, our work will enable 30 million young people in Africa, especially young women, to secure work opportunities they see as dignified and fulfilling. Five years of delivering programs in Uganda, the Foundation has reached a pivotal moment in our learning journey, marked by a triangulation of evidence from baselines, research, program partnerships, and external data.
Barriers like outdated policies, inadequate infrastructure, and discrimination persist. In Uganda, our key areas of focus have been expanding access to finance, education, and skills training to smallholder farmers, teachers, out-of-school youth and youth in agriculture across the country.
Throughout the discussions, young people contributed ideas, shared solutions, and voiced their expectations for meaningful change. Their perspectives influenced key recommendations and reinforced the need for policies and programs that support youth-led entrepreneurship:
- Access to Finance: They emphasized the need for youth-friendly financial products, flexible lending models, and alternative financing mechanisms that cater to young entrepreneurs.
- Stronger Peer Networks: Young entrepreneurs called for platforms that enable peer learning, mentorship, and collaborative partnerships to strengthen business growth.
- Inclusion and Targeted Support: They advocated for deliberate efforts to ensure that women, refugees, and persons with disabilities have tailored access to financial services, training, and market opportunities.
- Policy Reform: They urged for a simplified and supportive regulatory environment that enables startups to thrive.
- Entrepreneurship in Education: They insisted that entrepreneurial skills must be part of every young person’s learning journey, ensuring they graduate with both knowledge and the ability to apply it in real-world business settings.
Their shared experiences made it clear that they are not waiting for change – they are creating it . Youth entrepreneurship is a catalyst for economic transformation, which must be nurtured, funded, and supported at all levels.
