Youth Camp in Uganda

From 13 to 17 November 2023, Uganda’s National Organisation of Trade Unions NOTU organised a youth camp in Mukono, in Grand Praclos Gardens, about 25 kilometres west of the capital Kampala. Nearly 350 young people gathered, including delegations from Kenya and the Netherlands. The Dutch delegation consisted of young people from FNV sectors Trade and Building, Construction & Housing, Young & United as well as Mondiaal staff.

Background information

In 2019 the first edition of the youth camp in Uganda was organised by the transport union (Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union), when approximately 200 young people took part in a week in Kampala offering a whole range of activities, including membership recruitment.

Young people between the ages of 18 and 35 make up about 22.5% of the total population, but 77% of the Ugandan population is under the age of 30. Of these, about 4% have had no formal education, and 52% have at the most had incomplete primary education. Only 25% have completed secondary education. The percentage is even lower for those who have completed vocational training and university graduates. These figures give a reliable picture of youth unemployment in Uganda, which officially stands at 6.6%. But the majority of workers are in the informal economy, which is characterised by precarious and indecent work with unfair pay and other forms of inequality.

Uganda has a young population, but this is not reflected in the number of members (5% of the membership). Despite the steps that have been taken since 2019, including the establishment of a youth committee within the NOTU, this on its own is not enough to attract new members, and is the reason why Mondiaal FNV has organised the ELSA training programme in Uganda for the past two years. Trade union leaders and up-and-coming union talent have worked on their own leadership style and how to use this to strengthen their unions. Thanks to the ELSA programme, they have learned how to negotiate effectively with employers, organise their union better and make it more financially sound as well as to forge valuable alliances. The ELSA alumni were also prominently present at the 2023 youth camp. click here if you would like to find out more about their experiences with ELSA. 

To a great extent, the challenges faced by Ugandan and Dutch young people are similar: young people identify too little with trade unions and have too little knowledge of the work and importance of trade unions. The exchange of experiences and knowledge is therefore an important area of focus.

The organisation charged with running the youth camp was NOTU, which has been a partner of Mondiaal FNV since 2015. The National Organisation of Trade Unions, established in 1973, is Uganda’s largest trade union federation. It currently has 3 member unions with a combined membership of over 900,000 from the formal and informal sectors.

The funding for this camp came from a collaboration between the FNV Solidarity Fund – a fund for international solidarity established by FNV made up of membership dues of FNV members, Mondiaal’s Danish sister organisation DTDA and local contributions by NOTU and its sister unions. In these solidarity projects, active FNV members - in this case, for example, activists from Young & United and young active members from the Trade and Building & Housing sectors - play an active role in international union exchanges with colleagues from across the border. The aim is to learn from each other at an international level, to show solidarity with each other and to support each other in building trade unions from the bottom up. Read here more about the international work done by FNV members.

Structures

Young people In Uganda and the Netherlands are organised differently from each other in the trade unions. In Uganda, young workers are organised through the affiliated trade unions. According to Barbara, this is also enshrined in the constitution. The affiliated unions must, on NOTU’s behalf, elect a youth committee with 9 members. This committee is democratically elected by delegates from the 35 member organisations and has a term of 5 years. The Chairman and Secretary of the Youth Committee are members of the Executive Committee of NOTU and are on the National General Council. The Executive Committee and the National General Council are the decision-making bodies of NOTU. The mandate of the Youth Committee is to collect, discuss and communicate the concerns of young workers to the Executive Board of the NOTU so that strategies are developed to improve the well-being of young people in the workplace as well as serving to improve their recruitment and active participation, which leads to union membership.

In the Netherlands, young employees and students are represented by Young&United, and more specifically by the particular sector board. These board members all have a portfolio. The FNV Young & United board member is amongst other things responsible for the sector board. In addition, the FNV board member represents the interests of students in the #nietmijnschuld (‘not my debt’ [a play of words as ‘schuld’ means both ‘fault’ and ‘debt’]) campaign and in the campaign against the loan system for young people.

The young people within FNV are represented by 6 board members and 10 sector council members. All are elected via elections (once every two years). Y&U also has a seat in the Members’ Parliament. The board members’ mandate depends on the portfolios.

Getting acquainted

For all young people, it turned out to be interesting to learn how young workers are represented in the different countries. At the end of the day on 4 December, an online meeting took place between FNV Young & United official Frank van Bennekom, Young & United board member Aleksandra Zdanowska, Barbara Badaru of the Ugandan Agricultural Union and Geofrey Musanje of the Ugandan trade union for the medical sector. The latter two are active members of the NOTU youth committee. Barbara focuses among other things on youth and climate change, and Geofrey on employees with disabilities and promotion of equality.

Aleksandra primarily represents students and young workers within Y&U. She is responsible for international trade union work, labour migration and women’s rights and in addition she is active in the youth committee of the ETUC. Frank is FNV official for Y&U, and he also represents the interests of students in the #nietmijnschuld-campaign, as also in the campaign against the loan system for young people.

Aleksandra mainly represents students and young workers within Y&U. She is responsible for international trade union work, labour migration and women's rights. She is also active in the youth committee of the ETUC. Frank is FNV official for Y&U, and he also represents the interests of students in the #nietmijnschuld campaign, as well as in the campaign against the loan system for young people.

Strength and weaknesses

Young people have come to be an integral part of the FNV and NOTU. Among the strengths of the Ugandan youth committee, Barbara mentions the diversity of the young people, the potential of the organisation and the feeling of interconnectedness of the generation. Geofrey states that there is good coordination and cooperation between the members of the NOTU youth committee. And that they feel there is a positive attitude on the part of the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development towards the activities of young workers. There are weaknesses too: the fact that the committee does not have a budget for youth activities, which makes it extremely difficult to operate, the lack of structures for young workers in the affiliated unions and that they still have to contend with a low membership of young workers in the affiliated unions. Another weakness is the lack of targeted activities for special interest groups, especially people with disabilities.

Frank mentions his own strength and weaknesses: his enthusiasm is both his strength and his weakness. He puts his heart into this work and in his enthusiasm he finds everything a good thing and great fun to take on. That is also a pitfall, because if you do too much, it will be at the expense of quality.

Results

Thanks to the strength of both organisations, they are also achieving success. Barbara refers to the creation of a forum where young people are able to network, learn and exchange ideas in the same way they did during the youth camp. She also mentions the large-scale mobilisation of young workers (compared with the time before the existence of the youth committee), the flow of communication from the trade union federation through to the member unions and the revision of the youth policy. Geofrey mentions the following points: an improved relationship between the young workers and the union leaders; training for young workers on leadership skills, financial literacy, mental health and substance abuse, the role of young active members, an improved attitude of young workers towards joining and participating in trade union activities and the inclusion of the interests of young workers in collective bargaining agreements in the workplaces.

For Y&U, the aim is to successfully organise strikes, abolish the loan system and reintroduce the basic grant in collaboration with the National Assembly of University Parties LSVB. In addition, there were successful actions on behalf of riders.

Youth Camp programme

The programme of the last youth camp was varied, with morning gymnastics, lectures and workshops (including on the history of the trade union movement, international trade union work, digital/innovative membership recruitment, leadership and financial literacy and savings), group work (on labour law and digital/innovative organising/campaigning, leadership), panel discussions on mental health and climate change/just transition, the work and challenges of young active officials),  2 membership recruitment campaigns on the street (with a music band leading the way) and a clean-up at a central location in the city. A lot of publicity was also sought through newspapers, radio and TV. Unfortunately, it was a very rainy week.

Various affiliated trade unions played an active role in the execution of the youth camp. For example, the transport union was responsible for transport, the artists' union for music and the medical union for first aid.

Experiences

All four say their week at the youth camp in Mukono was a very special experience and that they learned a lot from each other. Frank is particularly impressed by the number of young people who attended. How did you manage that, he wanted to know. According to Barbara, the initiative lay with the NOTU youth committee.  All the members approached as many young people as possible. In addition, all the general secretaries of NOTU member unions were approached. They even had to create a waiting list, because 400 participants was the limit. More could not be accommodated.

The Ugandan trade union colleagues look back on the week with satisfaction. Geofrey says that compared with the previous camp, this year was livelier, with more activities. The whole picture was quite simply better, he says. Barbara said there was now greater interaction partly because there were more panel discussions. She is grateful for the contributions by several members of the FNV delegation, which made a real impact on the participants. She saw more exchanges of experiences going on, and above all that everyone was enjoying themselves together.

Frank emphasises that having fun is crucial, because trade union work is often serious and very stressful. You can’t keep this up in the long term if you don’t now and again pause and reflect and think about what it is you’re fighting for. The Ugandan unions had a better understanding of this aspect than the Dutch and that was inspiring. Aleksandra was also impressed by the merriment all around. She thinks a youth camp like this a great idea and would very much like to organise an event of this sort in the Netherlands for young active members of FNV. With a proper balance between serious issues and fun.

Finest memory

Barbara’s fondest memory of this last camp was the interactive panel discussions on the various different subjects, in particular the one on mental health, and also the campfire. Geofrey was the lead facilitator of two interesting subjects: mental health and drug abuse, and the work by young active members in East Africa and the Netherlands. Both sessions were a mix of panel discussions, group work and presentations. He had the opportunity to brush up his skills by chairing discussions between colleagues from Uganda, Kenya and the Netherlands (FNV). He has also broadened his social network. He is in the medical sector, but has made many new friends from other sectors as well as from the FNV. He writes that he is proud of being part of the group in the youth camp and labour movement in Uganda, and he is already looking forward to next year’s camp. ‘I am sure that it will be bigger and better, with lots of fun, sharing of information, and networking between the participants from various parts of the world.’

The Dutch participants also look back on the week with enthusiasm. Frank writes: 'I myself gave a lecture about the limits of what is permissible. Who decides what a trade union is able to do? And where do we draw the line? How can you make sure that you push the boundary to the limit? Knowing that it is constantly changing. Is this boundary different when you campaign digitally? We had a very lively discussion about these questions, which I look back on with a huge amount of pleasure.'

Already upon arrival in the big tent at the beginning of the conference, Aleksandra was impressed by the energy of the attendees. There was a lot of singing and dancing going on. It was great to see young people having fun at such a serious union get-together. She writes: 'I’m jealous, too, that we at the FNV don’t sing 'Solidarity forever' all together before every meeting. It gave a passionate feeling to sing for solidarity, while at the same time holding hands with the people next to you and stamping in time to the rhythm.'