Background
Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth affairs is an advocacy platform in Parliament formed in 2008 by a section of youthful members of the eighth Parliament with a shared purpose of using collective energies to effectively and meaningfully represent youth issues through legislation, budget appropriations and oversight. UPFYA has a membership of about 152 Members of Parliament whose collective force in influencing mainstreaming of youth issues has been central.
UPFYA’s rationale rested on the fact that there are only five representatives for young people in Parliament. It was observed that influencing parliamentary business to address youth interests would be an insurmountable task for only five youth representatives thus a collective voice that embraces all the youthful voices in the legislature was considered necessary.
UPFYA draws its rationale in the demographic characteristics that place youth at 80% of the population and yet there are no sustained efforts to invest in these groups in order to reap from the demographic dividends they represent.
Vision: A responsible and active and empowered youth citizenry
Mission: To promote policies and programs that place young people at the core of Uganda’s governance and development process through legislation, advocacy, networking and outreach.
Objectives:
- To advocate for youth focused mainstreaming as standard with all relevant government
- To strengthen youth legislative capacity
- To advocate for increased government financing of youth programs
- To increase meaningful youth participation in governance processes
Core values:
- Equity and accessibility
- Responsiveness to youth demands
- Respect for humanity
- Integrity
Our Approaches:
- Information sharing with youth leaders through NYC structures.
- Sharing perceptions, challenges and opportunities for advocacy and legislative purposes
- Research and documentation
Working with youth organisations, Parliamentary fora, Parliamentary committees to lobby and influence youth mainstreaming in all legislation
Using new media, social media, print and all other forms of media to engage, debate, advocate and lobby stake holders on youth issues.
Focused youth discussions/Parliaments at regional, district and sub regional levels to reflect on critical youth issues like unemployment ,government interventions, existing policies, youth intended government programs like YLP, to monitor ,share and bench mark on accessibility and impact on youth and propose ways to better accessibility.