Capacity building workshops on Nature-based Solutions to create green jobs in Uganda

Uganda has faced two major challenges that threaten its long-term economic and social stability: environmental degradation and youth unemployment. The country’s abundant natural resources—such as forests, wetlands, and agricultural lands—have been increasingly strained due to deforestation, unsustainable farming practices, and rapid urban expansion.

This environmental degradation has had direct repercussions on vital sectors like agriculture. At the same time, Uganda has one of the youngest populations globally, and youth unemployment has emerged as a critical issue. Formal employment opportunities have been insufficient to absorb the rapidly growing labour force (UNDP Uganda, 2020). In rural areas, most young people have depended on agriculture for their livelihoods, yet they have continued to face persistent poverty due to low productivity, limited market access, and the ongoing depletion of natural resources.

While these crises are interlinked, they also offer a unique opportunity to pursue Nature-based Solutions (NbS) as a strategic response. NbS present a promising pathway to restore degraded ecosystems while simultaneously generating employment for Uganda’s youth. Key sectors that could benefit from NbS include forestry, agriculture, and tourism, with potential activities such as reforestation, agroforestry, wetland restoration, urban greening, and ecotourism development.

For these efforts to yield sustainable and equitable outcomes, they must be embedded in pro-employment and green economic policies, along with deliberate job creation strategies. These strategies should aim to ensure a just transition to a climate-neutral economy—one that provides decent and quality jobs, social protection, and expanded training opportunities for young people.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has reaffirmed its commitment to support such initiatives in Uganda. Recognizing the significant potential for job creation through the expanded use of NbS, the ILO PROSPECTS project in Uganda, in collaboration with the International Training Centre (ITC), conducted a capacity-building training programme for implementing bodies at both national and county levels.

This programme aimed to raise awareness among stakeholders about the importance of NbS in creating green jobs for youth. It was designed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to integrate Decent Work, Green Works, and NbS into the design, implementation, and monitoring of large-scale ecosystem restoration initiatives.

OBJECTIVES

This capacity building training programme focused on stakeholders of the importance of NbS to create green jobs for youth and is intended to enable participants to acquire knowledge and skills for integrating Decent Work, Green Works and NbS into the design, implementation and monitoring of this large-scale restoration measure.

CONTENT

• Specifically, the capacity building contributed to:

  • Provide an introduction to climate change, biodiversity loss and its impact on the world of work and livelihoods from a global to local perspective and mitigation measures thereof.

  • Introduce EIIP and green works approach and highlight its employment potential with a focus on youth.

  • Understanding of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) as one of the strategies for job creation among youth as well as building climate change resilience and improved livelihoods.

  • Provide an array of different NbS implementing in the country in different ecosystems that can help sectors create employment opportunities but also show what skills are needed to scale up these actions.

  • Lay a route map of how ILO PROSPECTS can promote and scale up NbS in the country

  • Knowledge sharing on ancestral cultural practices implemented by indigenous communities that address climate change adaptation and reflect on local practices.