Implications of youth unemployment on Uganda’s National Security

Abstract

This study is on the implications of youth unemployment on Uganda’s national security. It was a literature review; the main sources including secondary data and library records. National securityconcerns freedom from the danger of threats to a country’s core values ensuring the protection of its people, their property, territorial integrity, national sovereignty, the economic and social wellbeing of its citizens. Unemployment is the condition where people with skills and willing to work are not able to secure work for pay. The study found that youth unemployment is a global problem experienced in all continents and countries even though cross-national variations exist.Factors contributing to youth unemployment include lack of adequate and/or relevant skills, limited access to finance, lack of entrepreneurship skills, and rural urban migration. The limitation factors pre-dispose youth to engage in criminal activies and acts of civil disobedience. To mitigate the risk of youth unemployment to security of Uganda, this study recommends creating opportunities through improvement of agriculture, industrialization, maximizing efforts and budgetary allocation to business arms of government institutions like NEC. In addition the study recommends encouraging the youth to fully embrace Operation Wealth Creation as a platform to harness employment opportunities. Skills limitations should be addressed through capacity builing on diverse fronts – technical skills, attitudinal change & values clarification through the Business Technical Vocational Training Framework. Finally placement of stringent rules to govern activities that are prone to addiction - sports betting, gaming and substance abuse. This will significantly reduce the potential threat that youth unemployment presents to the security and stability of Uganda.