Almost everyone is doing something, and almost nothing pays

By national statistics, Karamoja records one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in Uganda. That figure conceals the real crisis: almost everyone is doing something, and almost nothing pays.

The meaningful measure in Karamoja is disconnection — young people who are not in employment, education or training at all — and on that measure Karamoja is the worst-performing sub-region in the country.

Two consequences follow, and they define who we work with

For young men, the collapse of pastoral livelihoods through drought, raiding and disarmament has removed the only economy many ever knew. Those who drift into the town councils find no wage work waiting. For a proportion of them, joining a raiding party remains the most economically rational option available. Security responses alone have not changed that calculation, because they address the act and not the alternative.

For girls, early marriage and teenage pregnancy end formal education long before any skill is acquired. Those who exit these marriages return to communities with no means of support, no qualification and no route back into school.

Karamoja’s own leaders have named the gap precisely. In 2026, district and sub-county officials publicly called for expanded skilling provision, observing that government livelihood programmes have underdelivered in the sub-region because beneficiaries receive capital before they have the practical skills to use it. SEYIK exists to close that sequence: skills and certification first, then capital, then work.