March 21, 2019 – The Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) – in partnership with the US African Development Foundation (USADF) and the Swedish Postcode Foundation – recently conducted a four-day training workshop for 29 youth peacemakers from 15 counties across the Acholi sub-region. This workshop is part of WPDI’s Business Bootcamp program, a platform that we have established to incubate businesses created by young women and men from vulnerable backgrounds. The workshop aimed to help the youths develop the skills they need to build detailed and comprehensive business plans regarding the businesses they are to launch in their communities in the coming months.
Promoting economic empowerment is intrinsic to our approach to fostering peace and reconciliation in areas that have been affected by conflict and armed violence. Breaking with the view that conflict-impacted young people are either victims or perpetrators of violence, our strategy is to mobilize young people from such places as agents of positive transformation – we work to empower them as assets for peace and sustainable development. In northern Uganda, many of the youths we work with have been deeply impacted by violence and its aftermath. But their capacity for resilience is immense. Today, after over a year of training with us, they have become educators who teach conflict resolution education in local schools, peacebuilders who organize community dialogues in remote villages, and entrepreneurs who create businesses to ensure self-reliant communities, sustainable economic development, and improve livelihoods in their communities.
From March 13-18, five trainers from WPDI and the USADF worked to strengthen the skills of our 29 youths as they prepare for the next phases in their entrepreneurial journeys. In order to raise the youths’ comprehension of constructing sound business plans, they used a variety of teaching techniques. Sessions focused on storytelling, how to conduct feasibility studies, and filter through business ideas. The youths were given time to present their existing plans and received feedback from the trainers as well as their peers. They learn more about financing opportunities. Later, they integrated what they had learned into revising their preexisting business plans. In the coming weeks, they will submit them to a review committee and, if accepted, WPDI will support and help implement them.
This session of the Business Boot Camp proved very successful among the attending youths. As Solomon, from Kitgum municipality, told us, “this four-day training was life-changing. I learned things that I can apply in my practical life and I feel that I am good to go. Now, I can effectively conduct a feasibility study, design a good business plan, identify existing opportunities in my community, and select a business idea that is commercially viable.” Durel, from Gulu municipality, agreed, noting that, before the workshop, he “was not very good at explaining business concepts, but, now, I know what it takes to develop a good business plan. I was very inspired by my trainers. They are good mentors.”
These young people are the future of their communities, not just because of what they will accomplish through their projects, but also by the example they will set for their peers and their communities at large. We are thankful to our partners for joining us in investing in their enthusiasm and desire to make a difference.