The international learning group is formed. Together they have determined goals, milestones, and developed a tailor-made learning programme to share, test and blend the chosen solutions in the local context.

PREPARATION OF THE PROGRAMME                                                 

In a bid to pilot and scale up GALS in youth and Rural finance, the Empower@Scale project set out and undertook trainings for youth on GALS and VSLA. To that effect, a total of 147 youth (92 males and 55 females) from five youth groups from Yumbe, Arua and Pakwach were trained on VSLA and GALS and adequately equipped. Field monitoring reports by the project team indicate that GALS is already improving the savings culture among youth as indicated by the tune of savings realized as they strive to work towards achieving their visions and becoming focused towards their future as individuals and groups.

Several exchanges and learning visits had been planned in April and May 2020 for selected youth to learn from other youth both in-country and outside the country with best practices for youth engagement already identified and documented. However, this was short lived because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures that came through.

The E-motive team crafted new modalities of how to conduct an exchange and learning visit within the new normal that the covid-19 pandemic has presented to the world.

The Emotive exchange and learning visit therefore draws youth who are part of the pilot of GALS in youth and rural finance and will provide an opportunity for youth in Uganda to digital interface with youth from Tanzania to share experiences and best practices for youth engagement.

In order to avoid internet connectivity problems and create the sense of a journey, each team (one in Uganda and one in Tanzania) was sent to for the whole event to an accommodation with conference rooms (respecting Covid-19 measures) from which they connected with the rest through one computer. To make the communication more fluent, the teams in Uganda and Tanzania had at least one facilitator who was in charge of organizing the group, making sure that the presentations are ready and to document by taking pictures and recordings, when necessary.