The Government has committed itself to reducing the widening gap between the rich and the poor through income generating projects to affect the transformation of the country that will boost development.
Remarks were made by the vice president Edward Kiwanuka ssekandi this morning while launching a study report on the civic and political participation of women and the youth in the informal sector by Platform for labour action.
The vice president acknowledged that the informal sector currently provides alternative employment to majority of the labour force but it remains insufficiently supported stressing that government will address the gap through boosting the existing programmes that target the women and the youth.
Government will also formulate policies to incorporate women and youth from the informal sector into its programmes right from the grass roots.
The vice president has also called upon foreign investors to not only take interest in the formal sector but also the informal sector.
The study that was carried out in five districts of Amolatar, Bugiri, Dokolo, Iganga and Kaliro highlights that every year about 400,000 young people enter the job market yet less than 1,000,000 can be absorbed in the formal sector.
Out of the estimated 6.2 million households covered, 61% had an informal business including agriculture on a commercial basis.
Women and youth take the bigger percentage out of the sixty one.
It is however unfortunate that a few of these have taken up leadership positions within their communities due to poor orientation and attitude towards political activities, illiteracy, bureaucracy , early marriages, low esteem , household power relations, poverty and the nature of their work where they rarely have time to get involved in community work.
Ninety eight percent still lack full knowledge about the concept of decision making, youth councils as well as women councils at community levels.
There’s therefore the need to target local leaders as transmitters of information to women and youth, promoting civic responsibility through involvement of women and youth in the informal sector in commemoration of national days, shifting political participation from money to issue based politics and designing flexible programmes that address factors that inhabit them from participation alongside dissemination of information about their political rights.
