Alternative undertaking as a strategy to extenuate prostitution in the exploitation of oil and gas in Uganda

Abstract

The development of oil and gas in resource-rich countries has had far reaching effects with one of these being alarming rates of prostitution. As has been the case elsewhere, so is it unless addressed likely to be with the exploitation of the oil resource within the Albertine Graben region in Uganda. The high expectation of employment in the oil sector often leads to a massive movement of people especially the youth to the oil producing areas. Unfortunately, many of these young people do not get the anticipated employment and thus end up engaging in various social vices, say prostitution for their livelihood. The research focusses on the relationship between oil extraction and increase in female prostitution where the latter is a condition imposed on females from low-income backgrounds due to poverty. Given the highly secretive nature of prostitution, secondary sources of information were used in the attempt to demystify the social processes and dynamic relations that bring about the vice. Consequently, effort was made to recommend both theoretical and practical measures to curb prostitution as a social problem that the law in place has hardly solved.