Maracha, Nebbi and Zombo (MANZO) Youth Empowerment Project (MAYEP) was a 3-year project whose goal was to ‘contribute to sustainable poverty reduction among youth in West Nile Region, Northern Uganda’. The 

project’s specific objective was to ‘increase access to employment/self-employment opportunities for 3,000 youth in Zombo, Nebbi, Maracha districts in West Nile Region.’  An independent end line evaluation found out the project impacted youth positively since it formed 100 Youth Agribusiness Groups (YAGs) with 3,998 members (1,637 females) who were supported by BTVET trained trainers (200 Young Model Farmers, 30% females, 200 Enterprise Skills Animators, 60% females, and 182 VSLA trainers, 78 females) to develop seasonal business plans, establish learning sites, train and mentor in various skills and link the YAGs to markets. The project also established three district advocacy fora (with 90 members – 30 females) and seven sub-county youth advocacy fora whose members were trained in advocacy and policy influencing skills. These investments resulted into:

• 96% of youth employed in profitable agribusinesses with increased the use of improved agricultural practices and production.
• Increased seasonal agribusiness income from UGX 282,484 to UGX 573,791. 
• Increased acquisition of livestock (64% goats, 50% chicken, and 40% pigs).
• Increased female youth participation in decision-making on the use of incomes from 68% to 87%. 
• Increased savings from 46% to 86%. VSLA savings increased from UGX 37 million in year 1 to UGX 197 million in year 2 to UGX 231 million in year 3. 
• Nine supported YAGs to access UGX 68 million from local government programs.

Project Budget: UGX 1,333,137,000 

Donor: European Union