Children and youth make up more than 75 percent of Uganda’s population. Among them, vulnerable youth—particularly adolescent girls and young women, children with disabilities, orphans, and those living in extreme poverty—are at high risk of economic insecurity, gender-based violence, early pregnancy, and HIV infection. These vulnerabilities threaten their ability to succeed and progress in their education; stay safe from HIV and violence; and acquire the skills and assets needed to lead resilient, healthy, and productive lives.
USAID/Uganda’s Integrated Child and Youth Development (ICYD) activity is partnering with the Government of Uganda (GoU) and local stakeholders to strengthen government systems and improve the government’s ability to deliver basic education and services to children and youth, including orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), in target districts across Uganda.
The ICYD activity will meet its objectives through the following activities:
- Build from recent Early Grade Reading (EGR) support to the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) and target districts
- Address primary school retention and transition through a combination of family, community, and school-based interventions that address known critical drivers of school dropout
- Provide critical OVC services for up to two years while building the capacity of local partners to transition to prime awards
- Provide technical assistance and coordination to OVC service providers in service delivery districts
- Support the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (MGLSD), MOES, and other public/private institutions and organizations to progressively transition OVC service delivery and education improvement from donor support
The USAID ICYD activity uses an integrated and cross-sectoral approach to achieve the following intended impact:
- Improved early grade reading outcomes for over 2.5 million Ugandan school children through materials enhancement, teacher development and support, and community engagement
- Strengthened school- and community-based child protection and violence prevention structures in over 5,700 schools and their communities
- Strengthened services to HIV children and adolescents and their families affected by HIV in PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) target districts through subcontracts and capacity building for four national OVC partners
- Improved access for out-of-school youth to accelerated learning and work readiness training through grants to local youth-serving organizations
Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development (MGLSD), World Education/Bantwana, Arizona State University (ASU), Resonance, RedEarth Education, School to School International, Agency for Co-operation in Research and Development Uganda (ACORD), Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), Uganda Women’s Effort to Save Orphans (UWESO), Youth Alive!