TMT+ Entrepreneurship Education for SS refugees in West Nile Uganda Next to each institute’s own wishes and goals, we collaborate on the basis of complementarity. Overall we aim to establish quality TVET in agricultural entrepreneurship that increases the quality of local agriculture, contributes to the food security sector and develops the local private sector in the West Nile region. At the moment, one of the main challenges in the West Nile region is the limited development of a private sector. Only 2% of refugee households have managed to obtain salaried employment due to the lack of businesses and potential employers in the region. This means that a high percentage of people must rely on other sources for livelihood, such as agriculture. By looking more closely into agriculture, the Refugee Response Plan shares that 97% of the host community population and 95% of the refugee population in northern Uganda are engaged in crop production. This means agriculture is the most commonly reported source of livelihoods for both refugees and host communities. However, 75% of households in West Nile report that their land for cultivation is too small to provide food for the entire household. Across refugee-hosting districts, agriculture is characterized by low production and productivity, high vulnerability to climate change and high post-harvest losses. Furthermore, very little value is added to agricultural production through processing and quality, and prices therefore remain low. Acknowledging both the dependency on and insufficiency of food production, it is key to increase agricultural production and productivity.

With this project we align with the CPI description and national policies to move away from humanitarian support for refugees to including students with a refugee background in formal agricultural education together with the host community. TVET can truly be the engine for transformation in the lives of both refugees and host communities. TVET in Uganda (often referred to as BTVET: Business Technical and Vocational Education and Training) can be divided in two categories: formal and non-formal BTVET. Before 2017, a clear distinction between the two categories was made in terms of provider type: formal TVET was offered by formal training institutions (both public and private) and non-formal training was delivered by private companies and NGOs (the total number of informal training centres remain indeterminate, but are estimated at 1000). After 2017 the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports drafted their Education Sector Strategic Plan 2017- 20201 to coordinate the education service delivery in the country. One essential change that took place was the development of formal TVET institutes that started offering non-formal training as well, often referred to by the institutes themselves as ‘tailor made training’. This opened up numerous new possibilities for those students who had not reached ‘O’ level in secondary school or dropped out after primary school. It has the possibility to bring positive change for vulnerable youth. 

Providing agricultural knowledge and approaches for relief and development programmes while working on the nexus between development and humanitarian aid is one of the embassy’s objectives. This is the shift from humanitarian support for refugees towards empowerment. Uganda governmental policies aim to move away from humanitarian support for refugees to including students with a refugee background in formal agricultural education together with the host community. This will make education for refugees more sustainable. With this project, we support these Ugandan policies by removing barriers on refugee student pathways in TVET education and the shift to self-employment. The project aims to establish quality TVET in agricultural entrepreneurship that increases the quality of local agriculture, contributes to the food security sector and develops the local private sector in the West Nile region. The Tailor Made Training plus project targets youth from refugees and  host communities in the districts of Moyo, Adjuman, Koboko, Arua and Madi-Okollo. The project will be implemented in TVETs of Adraa as the lead TVET, Koboko, Moyo, Arua and Amelo TVETs. Participating youth will be drawn from refugee settlements and the surrounding communities in the 5 Districts.