Unemployment Should be a national security concern

I am compelled to write following the outbreak of Covid-19 in December 2019 which has continued to ravage until now, where most global economies, especially the developing countries, were brought to their knees while the rich ones were almost paralyzed.  

Covid-19 could be likened to death as a leveler in John Donne’s poem ‘Death the Leveler’ because it affected everyone globally although the magnitude varied based on the capacity to absorb the shock by different world governments.

To this end, the Government put in place targeted and strict measures to prevent the spread and eventual impact of Covid-19 through two long lockdowns running from March 2020 to August 2021 with partial opening of businesses in between. However, despite the strict measures many Ugandans lost their lives to the second wave of the virus. 

Whereas, the measures were good in containing the virus, it hit and hurt all sectors of the economy with the most hit being the employment sector. Many Ugandans lost their jobs and were left to the mercy of good and well-wishers who could support them. The question is, were there any immediate mitigation measures put in place by government to avoid driving the most hit population into destitutes? 

Was the food distributed and the cash transfers made a good enough mitigation measure to avert the effect of Covid-19 on the most affected segment in the population?

The Annual Labour Force Survey 2018/19 report by Uganda Bureau of Statistics indicated that the working-age population is aged 14-64 years  and that, the employment to population ratio during the period 2018/19 was 51 percent, implying that about a half of the working age population were employed in 2018/19.

The same report also indicated that about 43 percent of the working age (14 - 64 years) were outside the labour force (neither in employment nor unemployed) representing about 8.6 million persons. 

This was even made worse with the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 and a forecast from Uganda Bureau of Statistics indicated that the unemployment rate in Uganda increased to 2.44 percent in 2020 from 1.80 percent in 2019 respectively.

With such an increase in unemployment rate besides the underemployment and labour under- utilization which can be attributed to skill or qualification gaps and/or the working age population not searching for jobs, an increased dependent population would be no surprise as is the case now. 

Cognizance of the dependent non-working age and those who do not want employment is taken care of. Isn’t it time for employment and unemployment to be considered and shifted from Human Capital Development in the NDP III to Governance and Security Programme by government for the following reasons: The huge youth bulge of Uganda’s population requires a robust national employment strategy spelling out proper manpower planning and timely generation and use of statistics on employment and unemployment to guide policy direction.

The limited employment space is being competed for by Ugandans, refugees and perhaps asylum seekers and “investors” who come and seek employment instead of employing Ugandans through their investments.
The existent interventions such as Youth Livelihood Programme, Skilling Uganda, Uganda Women Entrepreneurship, Students Loan Schemes, NUSAF, OWC, Microfinance Support Programme, PRDD and the heightened labour externalization are good but not sufficient and sustainable solutions enough to make Uganda address the soaring unemployment crisis.

So, unless employment and unemployment is treated as a national security concern to attract more attention and budget support, the dream to take Uganda to a middle-income status and achieve Vision 2040 will remain farfetched. 

Remember an unemployed person be it youth or older adults with all the energy and skills to utilize but are redundant could provide a good recipe for disgruntlement which could prove impossible to contain.  
So, just as governance, rule of law, internal and external threats, refugee protection and migration management among others fall under security in the NDP III, so is and should employment and unemployment.

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