Africas Youth Employment Challenge:

AFRICAS YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

New Perspectives CHALLENGE: NEW PERSPECTIVES
Editors Seife Ayele, Samir Khan and James Sumberg

Volume 48 | Number 3 | May 2017

Introduction: New Perspectives on Africas Youth Employment Challenge

Transforming Development Knowledge
Seife Ayele, Samir Khan and James Sumberg
Youth Employment in Developing Economies: Evidence on Policies and
Interventions
Nicholas Kilimani
The Politics of Youth Employment and Policy Processes in Ethiopia

Transforming Development Knowledge

Eyob Balcha Gebremariam
The Side-Hustle: Diversified Livelihoods of Kenyan Educated Young Farmers
Grace Muthoni Mwaura
Gambling, Dancing, Sex Work: Notions of Youth Employment in Uganda

Volume 48 | Number 3 | May 2017

Victoria Flavia Namuggala
Navigating Precarious Employment: Social Networks Among Migrant Youth
inGhana
Thomas Yeboah
Youth Participation in Smallholder Livestock Production and Marketing
Edna Mutua, Salome Bukachi, Bernard Bett, Benson Estambale and
IsaacNyamongo
Non-Farm Enterprises and the Rural Youth Employment Challenge in Ghana
Monica Lambon-Quayefio
Does Kenyas Youth Enterprise Development Fund Serve Young People?
Maurice Sikenyi
Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship: The Role of Mentoring
Ayodele Ibrahim Shittu
Programme-Induced Entrepreneurship and Young Peoples Aspirations
Jacqueline Halima Mgumia

Transforming Development Knowledge

Youths aspirations and imagined potential are
the most important basis on which young
people can engage with policy and programmes
concerning their working futures.
ISSN 0265-5012 (print), 1759-5436 (online) DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.121 Volume 48 | Number 3 | May 2017
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Transforming Development Knowledge
Volume 48 | Number 3 | May 2017

Africas Youth Employment

Challenge: New Perspectives
Editors Seife Ayele, Samir Khan and James Sumberg

Introduction: New Perspectives on Africas Youth Employment Challenge

Seife Ayele, Samir Khan and James Sumberg 1
Youth Employment in Developing Economies: Evidence on Policies and Interventions
Nicholas Kilimani 13
The Politics of Youth Employment and Policy Processes in Ethiopia
Eyob Balcha Gebremariam 33
The Side-Hustle: Diversified Livelihoods of Kenyan Educated Young Farmers
Grace Muthoni Mwaura 51
Gambling, Dancing, Sex Work: Notions of Youth Employment in Uganda
Victoria Flavia Namuggala 67
Navigating Precarious Employment: Social Networks Among Migrant Youth in Ghana
Thomas Yeboah 79
Youth Participation in Smallholder Livestock Production and Marketing
Edna Mutua, Salome Bukachi, Bernard Bett, Benson Estambale and Isaac Nyamongo 95
Non-Farm Enterprises and the Rural Youth Employment Challenge in Ghana
Monica Lambon-Quayefio 109
Does Kenyas Youth Enterprise Development Fund Serve Young People?
Maurice Sikenyi 127
Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship: The Role of Mentoring
Ayodele Ibrahim Shittu 141
Programme-Induced Entrepreneurship and Young Peoples Aspirations
Jacqueline Halima Mgumia 155
Glossary 171
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the very helpful comments and
suggestionsof the individuals who peer reviewed the
articles in this IDSBulletin, including: Koffi Assouan,
SteveCumming, Victoria Johnson, Karen Moore,
ChristieOkali and Shova Thapa Karki.

We also acknowledge the valuable assistance of

HannahCorbett and Carol Smithyes.

Funder acknowledgements
This issue of the IDS Bulletin was produced in partnership
with The MasterCard Foundation. The MasterCard
Foundation works with visionary organisations to provide
greater access to education, skills training and financial
services for people living in poverty, primarily in Africa.
Asone of the largest private foundations, its work is guided
by its mission to advance learning and promote financial
inclusion to create an inclusive and equitable world. Based
in Toronto, Canada, its independence was established by
MasterCard when the Foundation was created in 2006.
For more information and to sign up for the Foundations
newsletter, please visit www.mastercardfdn.org. Follow the
Foundation at @MastercardFdn on Twitter.

Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017:

Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives
DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.121
 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

Notes on Contributors

Seife Ayele is a development economist with over 20 years experience

in research, teaching and development practice, mainly in Africa and
Asia. His work focuses on agricultural innovations and development,
technology access and adoption, biotech crops regulation, and
enterprise development. He is currently a Fellow in the Business,
Markets and the State Cluster at the Institute of Development Studies
(IDS). Prior to joining IDS, he directed programmes in Ethiopia
providing access to and adoption of improved agricultural technologies
by smallholder farmers. He was a Research Scientist at the International
Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, and a Research Fellow at
the Open University, UK.

Bernard Bett is a Senior Veterinary Epidemiologist currently working

with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi.
His research interests focus on identifying drivers for zoonotic diseases
and effective ways of controlling them. He also works with local and
international institutions to train local veterinarians on a wide range
of epidemiological techniques including risk analysis, risk mapping
and mathematical modelling. He completed his PhD studies at the
University of Nairobi, Kenya, and the University of Guelph, Canada.

Salome Bukachi is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of

Anthropology, Gender and African Studies, University of Nairobi,
Kenya. She has a PhD in Medical Anthropology, with over 16 years
experience in teaching and research on socioeconomic and behavioural
aspects in human and livestock health, including addressing community
participation and gender issues on the same. She consults widely as
well as providing technical backstopping on social aspects of infectious
diseases for both local and international organisations such as the
Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Malteser International,
the African Union, the World Food Programme and the Food and
Agricultural Organization (FAO) among others.

Benson Estambale is Professor of Medical Microbiology and

Infectious Diseases, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology
(JOOUST), Kenya. He has been involved in various health research
activities of public health importance including epidemiology and
control of HIV/AIDS, malaria, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis,
leishmaniasis, soil-transmitted helminths and other climate-sensitive
vectorborne diseases such as Rift Valley fever. He is currently the
Principal Investigator of the World Health Organization (WHO)/
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)-funded project
onPopulation Health Vulnerabilities to Vector-Borne Diseases in
Kenya.

IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives ivi | iii
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

Eyob Balcha Gebremariam is a PhD researcher at the Global

Development Institute (GDI) at the University of Manchester, UK,
and a Matasa Fellow. His PhD research broadly focuses on the politics
of development and statecitizen interactions in Ethiopia. The study
specifically analyses different state and youth initiatives in Addis
Ababa to examine their role in shaping developmental aspirations
of the state and stateyouth citizenship interactions. Eyob previously
worked as a civil society activist facilitating African citizens and civil
society organisations interaction with the African Union and Regional
Economic Communities decisionmaking processes.

Samir Khan is Senior Manager, Research Policy and Communications

at The MasterCard Foundation, Toronto, Canada. Previously, he spent
almost ten years working in public opinion research, with a particular
expertise in public health marketing and youth political participation.
He holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa,
Canada, and is currently a candidate for the Executive Master of Public
Administration at the London School of Economics.

Nicholas Kilimani is a Lecturer in the Department of Policy and

Development Economics at the College of Business and Management
Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and a Matasa
Fellow. He completed his PhD in 2016 at the University of Pretoria.
His research interests are in the areas of environment and development
economics in a developing country context. He previously worked at
the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), a leading policy research
thinktank in Uganda. He has provided technical support to government
and non-government organisations, within and outside of Uganda.

Monica Lambon-Quayefio is a Lecturer and researcher at the

Department of Economics at the University of Ghana, and a Matasa
Fellow. Her work focuses broadly on human development, with a
particular focus on child health, womens empowerment as well as
migration and labour issues in Africa. She completed her PhD in
2014 in Economics at Clark University, Massachusetts, USA after her
Bachelors degree at the University of Ghana in 2006.

Jacqueline Halima Mgumia is an Assistant Lecturer in the

Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Dar
es Salaam, Tanzania, and a Matasa Fellow. She is currently finalising
her PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where
her thesis is on youth and entrepreneurship in Tanzania. Jacqueline is
interested in researching family relations and the working conditions
of women and men from a feminist perspective, and particularly
the intersections between youth, state intervention, development
programmes and everyday lives.

Edna Mutua is a Graduate Fellow with the Food Safety and Zoonoses
Team at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI),
Nairobi, and a Matasa Fellow. She is also a final year PhD student of

iv | Notes on Contributors DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.122

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

anthropology at the Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African

Studies of the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Edna has a keen interest
in intersections between gender and agriculture, and previously worked
in a project that evaluated the impacts of livestock value chains and
microcredit programmes on womens empowerment.

Grace Muthoni Mwaura is a non-residential Research Fellow with

the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Nairobi, and
a Matasa Fellow. She completed her PhD in 2015 in Geography
and the Environment at Oxford University. Her doctoral research
investigated youth aspirations and subjectivities in the context of
prevailing socioeconomic uncertainties, agricultural development
and environmental change. Grace has eight years experience of
working with young people in different fields including climate change,
education, conservation, intergenerational partnerships and leadership
programmes across Africa and internationally. Her current research
interests are in youth livelihoods and agency, inclusive development, and
policy and governance.

Victoria Flavia Namuggala is a Lecturer at the School of Women

and Gender Studies, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and
a Matasa Fellow. She recently completed her PhD in Women and
Gender Studies at the School of Social Transformation, Arizona
State University, USA. Her research interests centre on the multiple
intersecting forms of oppression and privilege experienced in situations
of forced displacement associated with armed violence. Specifically, she
examines violence in relation to youthhood and unemployment drawing
on northern Uganda, a region that has experienced over two decades of
armed violence. Her research largely draws on feminist and indigenous
epistemologies.

Isaac Nyamongo is a Professor of Medical Anthropology at the

University of Nairobi. He has 30 years of teaching and research
experience and has worked as a consultant with many organisations
including WHO, the United Nations International Childrens Emergency
Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), the
African Union and the World Bank among others. He has published
scholarly books and peer-reviewed papers in reputable journals.

Ayodele Ibrahim Shittu is a Lecturer in the Department of

Economics, University of Lagos, Nigeria, and a Matasa Fellow. He
received a BSc and MSc degree in Economics from the University of
Lagos and completed his PhD in 2014 at Soochow University, Suzhou,
China. Ayodele specialises in the economics of entrepreneurship and
innovation, and his research interests include entrepreneurial intentions
and innovation competency building among adolescents, financial
system innovations and universityindustry collaborations. He is an
active member of the African Network for the Economics of Learning,
Innovation, and Competence Building Systems (AfricaLics).

IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives ivi | v
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

Maurice Sikenyi is a PhD candidate in both Comparative and

International Development Education, and Development Studies and
Social Change at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA, and
a Matasa Fellow. His thesis is on higher education and peace-building
in Kenya. He has experience in international development, education,
and peace-building, having worked in various capacities in project
management, research design and implementation, capacity building,
and programme evaluation. At the University of Minnesota, Maurice
has served as a Lead Project Fellow for a longitudinal multinational
evaluation on youth livelihoods in East Africa.

James Sumberg has been a Research Fellow at IDS since 2009 and
leads the Rural Futures Research Cluster. His current research interests
include rural young people and employment in Africa, agriculture and
rural development policy, and the development implications of ongoing
changes to the field of agronomic research. Previously he worked at The
New Economics Foundation, the University of East Anglia, WARDA
the Africa Rice Center, the International Livestock Centre for Africa,
CARE International and the Gambian Livestock Department.

Thomas Yeboah is an Assistant Research Fellow at the College

of Distance Education, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and a
Matasa Fellow. He is finalising his PhD in Development Studies at
the University of Cambridge, UK, on how young people actively
shape, negotiate and challenge their social worlds through rural to
urban migration. More broadly, he is interested in youth migration
and unemployment issues, microfinance and bottom-up development
approaches, as well as analysis and interpretation of policy discourses.
Thomas collaborated with the Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC)
on a Q Methodology study of young people and work in Ghana.

vi | Notes on Contributors DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.122

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

Introduction: New Perspectives

on Africas Youth Employment
Challenge

Seife Ayele, Samir Khan and James Sumberg*

Abstract This article frames and introduces the ten other contributions
to this collection. First, the dominant narrative around Africas youth
employment challenge is set out, as are four key points of debate and
discussion that are subsequently addressed by the various contributions.
Wethen draw from the research into policy literature and note that it
says little about how young researchers move into a policy engagement
mode, or how they can be helped to move in this direction. This sets the
stage for an introduction to the Matasa Fellows Network, which was
established to do just this, with a particular focus on the youth employment
challenge in Africa. The articles in this IDS Bulletin are authored by the ten
members of the first cohort of Matasa Fellows and are briefly introduced in
the last section.

Keywords: underemployment, engaged excellence, side-hustle,

precarious employment.

1 Introduction
Neither youth nor employment are new to development discourse
and policy in sub-Saharan Africa. But while both have been on the
development agenda at least since independence, over the last decade
policy and programme interest in both youth and employment has
increased dramatically. Specifically, the youth employment challenge
provides an increasingly important focus for policy, intervention and
research throughout the continent (as it does globally).

This renewed interest in youth and work reflects a heady combination of

ideas, policy entrepreneurship, fear and crisis response, and was kicked off
by the 2007 World Development Report, Development and the Next Generation
(World Bank 2006). The reports primary framing is of young people as
an investment opportunity, and the central argument is that governments
and development partners should invest in youth because their situation
presents an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate growth and reduce
poverty (op. cit.: 2), and that if they remain unemployed for long periods

2017 The Authors. IDS Bulletin Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.123
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0
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This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives.
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

they could be a drain on the economy (ibid.). The notion of human capital
is central to the report, and specifically how policy can be used so that
this capital, as embodied in young people, is kept safe, developed, and
deployed (ibid.). The main part of the analysis is structured around five
life transitions: continuing to learn, starting to work, developing a healthy
lifestyle, starting a family, and exercising citizenship. The suggestion
is that policy reform can most effectively help young people navigate
these transitions by focusing on three strategic directions for reform:
opportunities, capabilities and second chances. Despite the reports
largely instrumental approach to young people, it does acknowledge that
an important element of getting it [policy] right is listening to youth,
allowing them to exercise their client power.

Two closely related ideas youth bulge (Evoh 2012; Sommers 2011)
and demographic dividend (Ahmed et al. 2016; Choi 2016; Eastwood
and Lipton 2011, 2012) figure prominently in Development and the
Next Generation, and have since become key aspects of a now dominant
narrative that both justifies and orients policy around youth and
employment. A youth bulge refers to the situation that arises when
countries reduce infant mortality but still have a high fertility rate, and
as a result, a large share of the population comprises children and
young adults.As these young people come into the workforce they
give rise to a potential, one-time, demographic dividend a boost in
economic productivity when there are growing numbers of people in
the workforce relative to the number of dependents.1 Whether or not
this dividend is realised depends on the structure and dynamism of the
economy an economy that cannot provide productive employment to
young people will forego any demographic dividend.

Another important aspect of the dominant narrative that was

consolidated through the 2007 World Development Report is a concern
with risky behaviours among especially under- and unemployed youth,
associated with unprotected sex, alcohol, tobacco and drugs. Related to
the sense that young people can be drawn into situations and behaviours
that put themselves and society at risk is a fear that in the absence of
employment opportunities, the youth bulge becomes a threat to political
and social stability (Urdal 2004, 2006). Playing on the image of idle
young men as breakers (Honwana and de Boeck 2005), the civil war
in Sierra Leone (19912002), the violence following the December
2007 election in Kenya, the Arab Spring (201011) and other examples
are used to demonstrate the clear and present danger posed by young
people who lack gainful employment.

The remainder of this article is structured as follows. The next section

introduces four key points of debate and discussion relating to youth
and employment in Africa. Each of the articles in this IDS Bulletin
address one or more of these points. Following this, we draw from the
literature on how development research affects policy and note that it
says little about how young researchers move into a policy engagement
mode, or how they can be helped to move in this direction. This sets

2 | Ayele et al. Introduction: New Perspectives on Africas Youth Employment Challenge

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

the stage for an introduction to the Matasa Fellows Network, which

was established to do just this, with a particular focus on the youth
employment challenge in Africa. The articles in this IDS Bulletin are
authored by the ten members of the first cohort of Matasa Fellows and
are briefly introduced in the last section.

2 Four points of debate

In this section, we introduce four points of debate and discussion
in the emerging researchpolicyintervention nexus around youth
and employment in Africa. Not surprisingly, they are also important
concerns of the articles in this IDS Bulletin. The four points are: Who
are the youth?, What is the problem?, Are entrepreneurship and
selfemployment the solution? and What about youth aspirations?.

The Who are the youth? debate arises because different agebased
definitions of youth are used within and across countries and
development organisations, with implications for official statistics and
cross-country comparisons. From a policy coherence perspective, the
issue is not so much with the lower age cut-off, but rather the upper
age cut-off and the resulting range. There can be as many as ten years
difference between the oldest youth by some United Nations definitions
compared to some national definitions. Further, a typical definition of
youth lumps together individuals who span a range of 20 years, which
begs the question: do a 15-year-old and a 35-year-old have enough
in common to enable coherent policy? More fundamentally, the hard
boundaries that are inherent to age-based definitions, and the resulting
compartmentalisation of policy, provide little space for the notion of
transitions that is now so central to modern understandings of young
peoples lives (Locke and te Lintelo 2012). Related to this is the other
and perhaps more important aspect of this debate, which is the
tension between the age-based definitions from the worlds of law and
policy, and more fluid cultural and lived-reality understandings of youth
that may take account of markers like dependence and independence,
marriage and childbirth. Again, do a 17-year-old dependent student
living at home and a 17-year-old working mother have enough in
common to enable coherent policy?

It is clear that there will always be a need for unambiguous definitions

of the age at which young people can, for example, leave school,
vote, marry, sign contracts, join the army or hold public office. It is
not obvious, however, if or why policy relating to young people and
employment must continue to be bound by arbitrary and overly broad
definitions. Even if in a particular country anyone between the ages of
15 and 35 continues to be defined as youth, it does not follow that policy
and interventions could or should not focus, for example, on either the
lower end of the range, or those individuals who, regardless of their
age, find themselves at a particular transition.

The What is the problem? debate has two important dimensions.

The first revolves around unemployment versus underemployment.

IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives 112 | 3
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

The fact that the official statistics estimate unemployment means

that it is commonly used to frame the problem, with the absolute
levels and differences between youth and adult, and rural and urban
unemployment being most often cited. However, some observers argue
that these figures are of little value, particularly in rural Africa, because
unemployment is generally low, while underemployment, which is less
often estimated or reported, is high (Gough, Langevang and Owusu
2013; Hino and Ranis 2014: see also ILOSTAT, the International
Labour Organization (ILO) database of labour statistics). This matters
because policy responses to unemployment and underemployment
should be quite different, and a faulty framing of the problem will
likely result in lost opportunities and wasted resources. The second
dimension of this debate is reflected in the choice of related but subtly
different terms, including employment, self-employment, job, work,
entrepreneurship and career, and the additional complexity that comes
from combinations like gainful employment and decent work. What
are the explicit or implicit messages that accompany alternative framings
like the the youth employment challenge, the youth jobs challenge or
the youth work challenge? From the perspective of (some) policymakers
and/or (some) young people, is wage employment in the formal sector
the gold standard, while everything else is simply work, or waiting? And
where should, for example, domestic work and unpaid care work fit into
our thinking about the youth employment challenge (Chopra 2015)?
As illustrated by Victoria Flavia Namuggala (this IDS Bulletin), in some
situations the boundaries between employment, socially unacceptable
activity and criminal activity are becoming increasingly blurred.

The Are entrepreneurship and self-employment the solution? debate,

such as it is, remains extremely one-sided, with most policymakers
and development professionals committed to entrepreneurship as the
best (and only) response to the youth employment challenge. This
commitment must be set against two observations. First, there has
been a move from strong to weak conceptions of entrepreneurship,
so that it is now considered synonymous with self-employment
any activity that is undertaken to generate income is considered
entrepreneurship (Langevang et al. 2015; Singer, Amores and Moske
2015). This inclusiveness risks draining the terms entrepreneurship
and entrepreneurial behaviour of any meaning. Second, by accepting
that entrepreneurship and self-employment are synonymous, it forces
one to take seriously the conclusions of a recent ILO review of
selfemployment programmes for young people, which concluded:

It is not clear, on the basis of the evidence and data reviewed, that
the [self-employment] schemes that have been tried actually created
new self-employed jobs, nor is it clear whether these jobs are of
sufficient merit to be worth creating (Burchell et al. 2015: 40).

Yeboah et al. (2016) suggested that the commitment to entrepreneurship

and self-employment as the main responses to the youth employment
challenge in Africa indicates an imagination gap between the

4 | Ayele et al. Introduction: New Perspectives on Africas Youth Employment Challenge

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

employment futures that policymakers imagine for young people,

and those that young people imagine for themselves. A more explicit
focus on the demand side of the youth employment challenge will be
necessary if this gap is to be addressed (Flynn et al. 2017).

Reference to the imagination gap brings us to the closely related What

about youth aspirations? debate, which touches on a number of related
concepts including aspirations, expectations, dreams and imagined
futures (Hardgrove, Rootham and McDowell 2015; Leavy and Smith
2010). In a sense, the question is how seriously young peoples stated
aspirations should be taken: for example, while some are adamant that
it is not realistic to think that everyone can be a salaried professional,
others applaud such imagined futures for their ambition, despite the
fact that they may not be grounded in local or personal realities. On a
practical level, their aspirations and imagined futures however they
are judged by adults are the most important basis on which young
people can engage with policy and programmes concerning their
working futures. If the idea of bringing young people into discussions
about how best to address the youth employment challenge is to move
beyond rhetoric, taking the futures they imagine for themselves seriously
will be an absolute necessity.

3 Research plus
Reflecting the broader influence of the evidence-based policy
movement, the renewed interest in youth and employment in Africa
has been accompanied by calls for evidence of what works. While
the existing research base from which evidence can be drawn is quite
limited, there are signs that the level of potentially relevant research and
evaluation activity is increasing.

What are the chances that this research will actually be useful in
informing policy around youth and employment, and how can these
chances be improved? In recent years, much has been written about
the research into policy problem (Court and Maxwell 2005; Eames
and McGeevor 2007; Stone 2009, 2013; van der Arend 2014; Young
2005). Approaches to this reflect different understandings of knowledge
and evidence, and of the policy process. The research into the policy
problem looks very different to those who see the policy process as linear
and largely technical, compared to those who argue that both evidence
and policy processes are always contested and deeply political. The
research and policy in development (RAPID) framework (Court and
Maxwell 2005; Court and Young 2006; Young 2005) for the analysis
of impacts of research on policy draws from both the technical and
political approaches. It highlights the need to understand context
(i.e.forces that influence research uptake crucially include the extent
of civil and political freedoms in a given country, political contestation,
institutional pressures and vested interests; and attitudes and incentives
among officials, etc.); the evidence (which needs to be credible and of
high quality, timely and relevant); the links between policy and research
communities (i.e. the importance of links with communities, networks

IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives 112 | 5
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

and intermediaries, the media and campaigning groups); and external

influence (notably the impact of donors actions on the researchpolicy
practice nexus and international politics and processes).

The notion of engaged excellence (IDS 2015; Oswald, Gaventa

and Leach 2017) is also relevant. In IDS Bulletin 47.6, Oswald et al.
(2017) suggest that engaged excellence reflects a recognition that in
development, the quality of research is dependent upon it linking to
and involving those people who are at the heart of particular change
processes. They also identify four interdependent pillars of engaged
excellence, namely: delivering high-quality research; co-constructing
knowledge; mobilising impact-oriented evidence; and building enduring
partnerships. Crucially, an engaged excellence approach is based on an
appreciation of the importance of knowledge politics and an ability to
engage with and navigate the politics of policy processes in different fora.

There is another strand of literature that focuses more on the individual,

and specifically the links between personal political commitment and
scholarship. Along these lines, OConnell described what he referred to
as politically engaged scholars who entered research settings as change
agents and openly admitted values into their scholarship (2011: iii).

But significantly, these literatures say relatively little about how young
researchers get into a policy engagement mode, or how they can be
prompted or helped to move in this direction. For those in a university
environment, criteria for promotion come into play, as these often
prioritise publication over policy impact. There is also a particular
challenge if new PhD researchers return to their universities to find they
are heavily burdened with teaching and other duties. Understandably,
learning the ropes of effective policy engagement often takes a back
seat in these crucial early years, and regrettably, this may set a pattern
that continues long into the future. The Matasa Fellows Network was
designed to help address this challenge.

4 Matasa Fellows Network

The Matasa Fellows Network was launched in 2015 as a joint initiative
by The MasterCard Foundation and IDS. It aims to develop a network
of young African researchers with the commitment and skills to make a
positive contribution to policy around youth employment in Africa. Ten
Fellows, who either recently completed or would soon complete PhDs
were selected from 222 highly qualified applicants. The Fellows academic
training covers economics and applied econometrics, anthropology,
geography, development studies, international education, politics, women
and gender studies, and migration. This breadth of disciplines reflects the
complexity and multiple dimensions of the youth employment challenge.

Fundamental to the Matasa initiative is the proposition that no

matter how innovative or rigorous the research, policy influence will
seldom be achieved by bolting on a few policy recommendations or a
short discussion of policy implications to a research report or paper.

6 | Ayele et al. Introduction: New Perspectives on Africas Youth Employment Challenge

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

Rather,influence requires careful reflection, strategy, planning and

tactics, and above all, a nuanced understanding of the context and
the politics that shape any given policy process. Unfortunately, this
orientation, and the skills needed to put it into action, are seldom part
of PhD training programmes. This is the gap that the Matasa Fellows
Network seeks to address.

In September 2016, nine of the ten Matasa Fellows participated in

a week-long workshop at IDS. Different aspects and understandings
of the African youth employment challenge were explored, as were
academic and practitioner perspectives on the policy process. A
walkshop over the Sussex Downs provided space to reflect on the value
of concepts like imagined self and imagined future in addressing
the youth and employment challenge, and also helped consolidate
the groups esprit de corps. The Fellows walked and worked together to
develop their ideas for the articles in this IDS Bulletin many of which
were drawn from their PhD research. A second workshop was held
in December 2016 at the University of Ghana at Legon, at which
the articles were finalised and a series of policy briefs prepared. Two
additional events provided valuable insights into workings of national
public policy processes in Ghana.

5 Introduction to the articles

The articles in this IDS Bulletin address four core areas: the evidence
on youth employment policy and interventions; the politics of youth
policy; the changing nature of young peoples work; and promotion of
entrepreneurship.

Setting the scene, Kilimani (this IDS Bulletin) provides an overview of

the youth employment challenge across the developing world, with a
particular focus on policies and interventions. This review identifies
two critical factors that are commonly seen to limit employment
opportunities for young people: human capital, including education,
training and skills; and a business environment facilitating access to
key resources such as credit, infrastructure and markets. But as many
interventions are based on little more than faith and theory, as opposed
to evidence, they generally fail to deliver jobs. Greater support for
labour-intensive sectors and public works may be warranted. There is
in any case strong arguments for more integrated and coherent policy
across education, labour markets, financial services, and infrastructure.

Turning to the politics of youth policy, Gebremariam (this IDS Bulletin)

provides a critical analysis of the development and contradictions of
youth policy in Ethiopia. He charts a shift from government portraying
unemployed youth as threats and vagrants to their incorporation
into the emerging developmental state, reflecting a reframing of youth
as entrepreneurs and as the seeds of democracy and development.
This shift reflected the role that young people played in giving the
government a bloody nose in the fiercely contested 2005 national
elections. An important conclusion is that context matters in shaping

IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives 112 | 7
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

youth policy and interventions, and that a focus on changing framings

and narratives provides an extremely useful window through which to
analyse these political and policy dynamics.

How young people find, access, create, combine and perceive work
how they navigate an increasingly precarious employment landscape
are the concerns of five articles. Using the notion of side-hustle,
Mwaura (this IDS Bulletin) documents efforts by six educated young
people in Kenya to generate income through agriculture. Their efforts
challenge a number of important assumptions that being employed
means having one job; that individuals work in either the formal or the
informal sector; that educated youth are not interested in agriculture;
and that a choice to get involved in agriculture reflects long-term
intentions. The diverse livelihoods, mixing and matching across formal
and informal employment and agricultural entrepreneurship that
characterise side-hustling can be read as young people successfully
struggling against adversity. But Mwaura argues that more than
anything else they reflect the failure of the state to uphold its end of
the intergenerational bargain. Along similar lines, Namuggala (this
IDSBulletin) contrasts formal understandings of work and employment
with the range of income-generating activities undertaken by young
people displaced by the war in Northern Uganda. While the law and
mainstream society criminalise or stigmatise sex work, gambling and
dancing, for these young people they are among the few available forms
of employment. To classify these young people as either unemployed
or deviant is to completely misread their situations and motivations.
This point is brought home in the fact that income generated through
these activities is used to fulfil family and social responsibilities. Broader
perspectives on the nature of work urgently need to be brought into
public policy debate.

The links between young people, migration and work have generated
significant research and policy interest, and Yeboah (this IDS Bulletin)
engages with these debates with a particular focus on migrants social
networks. The article draws on interviews with 30 young migrants from
rural northern Ghana who were working in and around Agbogbloshie
market in Accra. Migrants draw on their social networks to obtain the
funds to travel to Accra, and to secure work and navigate risky and
precarious employment situations. But these same social networks are
also associated with discriminatory and exploitative practices. Yeboah
argues that the key policy challenge is not how to stop migration or
strengthen migrants networks, but rather how to enable young people
from poor families and poor areas to remain in school, so that they
can enter the labour market from a more advantageous position.
The challenges facing young people in marginal rural areas are also
addressed by Mutua et al. (this IDS Bulletin) with specific reference to
livestock production and marketing in Baringo County, Kenya. Results
of a survey are used to explore how social norms and micropolitics
enable or constrain participation. This analysis indicates a disconnect
between Kenyas youth policy which advocates for equitable distribution

8 | Ayele et al. Introduction: New Perspectives on Africas Youth Employment Challenge

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

of employment opportunities, and the reality at community level,

where access to and control over livestock resources remains far from
equitable. This poses particular challenges for livestock development
programmes: can implementation strategies be developed that challenge
existing barriers in ways that increase employment opportunities for
male and female youth, without attracting backlash from other groups?

Continuing with the focus on rural areas, Lambon-Quayefio (this

IDS Bulletin) takes a critical look at the common narrative that the
rural nonfarm economy has the potential to generate a significant
number of jobs for young people. Reviewing evidence from Ghana, she
concludes that rural non-farm enterprises are highly heterogeneous,
and many function essentially as coping mechanisms. At the present
time, these enterprises have little potential for growth or employment
creation. Lambon-Quayefio suggests that a much more disaggregated
understanding of the rural non-farm economy is needed, and in
particular in relation to operators motivations. In addition, policymakers
must follow through on long-standing commitments to invest in rural
infrastructure without this, the rural non-farm sector will be of little
interest to young people seeking productive employment.

The last three articles in this collection look at efforts to promote

entrepreneurship as a response to the youth employment challenge
in Africa. Sikenyi (this IDS Bulletin) questions the effectiveness of the
Kenyan Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF). This flagship
credit programme was meant to transform large numbers of under-
and unemployed youth from job seekers to job creators. However,
the eligibility criteria are such that few young people can qualify; but
perhaps more importantly, the fund has been mired in accusations of
political meddling, mis-management and corruption. Government
credit programmes like YEDF are problematic by their very nature, but
the possibility that they benefit under- and unemployed youth could
be improved with more reasonable eligibility criteria and mentoring,
greater accountability and transparency, and more effectively
coordinated by state and non-state actors.

Shittu (this IDS Bulletin) focuses on the role of mentoring in promoting

youth entrepreneurship. His main conclusion is that in order to address
the scale-up of mentoring programmes, there is a need for much more
research on in what situations and for whom group mentoring models
can be made to work. Finally, Mgumia (this IDS Bulletin) draws on her
PhD research in Tanzania to document the experience of 52 participants
in a youth-oriented entrepreneurship programme. The programme
tried to induce entrepreneurship through training and access to credit.
However, this effort at programme-induced entrepreneurship is shown
to have been of limited relevance to participants who either aspire to
salaried employment, or whose demanding family situations make it
impossible to accumulate and effectively manage the capital required to
establish a small business. This analysis strengthens the call for a more
nuanced, contextualised and constrained approach to the promotion of

IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives 112 | 9
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

entrepreneurship and self-employment as primary responses to the youth

employment challenge in Africa.

In summary, the contributions to this IDS Bulletin: first, underline

the enormity of the youth employment challenge in Africa; second,
demonstrate how politics and political context shape youth-related
policy; third, illustrate the need for critical reflection on the multiple and
divergent meanings of work and employment; and fourth, highlight an
urgent need to rethink interventions that promote entrepreneurship and
self-employment. The scope for quality research and effective policy
engagement is tremendous.

Note
* We acknowledge the very helpful comments and suggestionsof
the individuals who peer reviewed the articles in this IDSBulletin,
including: Koffi Assouan, SteveCumming, Victoria Johnson,
Karen Moore, ChristieOkali and Shova Thapa Karki. We also
acknowledge the valuable assistance of HannahCorbett and
CaroleSmithyes.
1 United Nations Population Fund, www.unfpa.org/demographic-
dividend.

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12 | Ayele et al. Introduction: New Perspectives on Africas Youth Employment Challenge

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Youth Employment in Developing

Economies: Evidence on Policies
and Interventions

Nicholas Kilimani

Abstract Based on a synthesis of the existing academic and policy

literature, this article undertakes a situational analysis of youth employment
in developing countries. The article analyses existing interventions across
sectors and provides insights into how they can be harnessed to generate
employment opportunities, citing examples of specific projects. This has
been undertaken with a view to bringing to light interventions that have
been proven to work, as well as demonstrating the sources of failure.
Finally, the article distils key emerging issues related to human capital and
the business environment. These have been shown to be binding constraints
to higher productivity, and can be used as inputs to shape policy discourse
around youth employment.

Keywords: Africa, developing economies, underemployment, youth,

employment policies, job creation skills.

1 Introduction
Full and productive employment and decent work were targets in
Millennium Development Goal 1 to eradicate extreme hunger and
poverty: employment is considered the main route out of poverty.
Employment also features prominently among the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) which were rolled out in 2015. The
issue of employment for youth and women is of particular interest as
these groups tend to be in the weakest positions in the labour market
(Koehler 2013). In the analysis of youth employment outcomes, it is
important to focus on job prospects over the longer term. This is based
on the understanding that young people with diminished prospects
of finding decent work at their entry into the labour market will likely
face undesirable labour market outcomes over longer periods (see
ILO 2012a). Studies on youth labour market dynamics show that
unemployment during youth and early adulthood results in lower
earnings, higher probability of unemployment, and lower health and
job satisfaction in the future (see Kletzer and Fairlie 2003; Burgess et al.
2003; Bell and Blanchflower 2011).
2017 The Author. IDS Bulletin Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.124
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0
International licence, which permits downloading and sharing provided the original authors and source are credited but
the work is not used for commercial purposes. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode

The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives; the
Introduction is also recommended reading.
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

Youth comprise roughly a quarter of the worlds population, and in many

countries, especially in Africa and South Asia, young people make up
nearly a third of the population (S4YE 2015). Because of this, not only
do nations in the developing world share high age-dependency ratios
the ratio of dependents (people younger than 15, or older than 64)
tothe working age population (those aged 1564) they also have large
populations under the age of 15. Projections suggest that a billion more
young people will enter the job market over the next decade. Cleland and
Machiyama (2016) present key demographic projections between 2015
and 2050 for sub-Saharan Africa. A critical result to note is continued
population growth, albeit at uneven rates across age groups and urban
rural strata. Total population is expected to more than double. Given
such trends, it is critical that sound policies and interventions are put into
place to tap into this potential population dividend:1 the cost of failure
will be lost human potential and possible sociopolitical instability. In East
Asia and the Pacific, the economic transformation witnessed between
1965 and 1990 was partly attributed to a rapidly expanding working-
age population (see Bloom and Williamson 1998; Bloom, Canning and
Malaney 2000). More importantly, the region had just over one working-
age adult for each dependant in 1965, rising to almost two by 1990
(Filmer and Fox 2014). During that time, gross domestic product (GDP)
per capita in the region rose from US$1,300 to US$3,300. East Asias
demographic is understood to have resulted in economic transformation
through, first, the rise in output per capita; and second, the increase in
working age population relative to total population, the result of which
was a rapid decline in fertility.

For many programmes, identification of linkages between the dynamics in

the labour market, entrepreneurship interventions and actual employment
has largely been based first on faith, second on theory, and only lastly
on evidence (see Blattman and Ralston 2015). Consequently, in many
contexts such programmes have failed to deliver jobs, poverty reduction or
stability. Most notable are standard interventions such as skills training and
microfinance. Osmani (2002) provides insights into why, despite numerous
interventions aimed at creating employment, many developing economies
are not able to absorb new entrants into the labour market, especially the
young. Among these is labour market failures and specifically the inaccuracy
of information about the types of work that are available and the returns to
labour that can realistically be expected from each. Even with microfinance
programmes that provide start-up capital, access is often difficult for
young people. This may be partly because of the high cost of reducing the
uncertainty associated with lending to beginners in business, but may also
reflect informational asymmetries. With respect to skills training, there is a
gap in knowledge as to which skills are most profitable to acquire, and how
and by whom they can be acquired. This article synthesises this literature
and provides insights for policy direction. Specifically, it reviews the evidence
on some of the most common policies: labour market interventions,
entrepreneurship, and other social protection programmes. The focus of
the article is on labour market and entrepreneurship interventions that
primarily target youth in developing countries.

14 | Kilimani Youth Employment in Developing Economies: Evidence on Policies and Interventions

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

Figure 1 Global unemployment and unemployment rates (%), 200715

4.8 14
Youth unemployment

Youth and total unemployment

4.6 12

Adult unemployment
Adult unemployment 10
4.4
8
4.2
6
Total unemployment
4.0
4
3.8 2

3.6 0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Notes Youth (1524), adult (25+) and total (15+), 200715.
Source ILO (2015).

Figure 2 Global youth unemployment and unemployment rate, 19952015

80 14

78
Youth unemployment (millions)

13.5

Youth unemployment rate (%)

76
13
74
12.5
72
12
70
11.5
68

66 11

64 10.5
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015

Millions Rate
Source ILO (2015).

2 Situational review of trends in youth employment

Data on various youth employment indicators show that low
unemployment and inactivity rates are not necessarily signs of
better youth labour market outcomes, as they mask high rates of
underemployment, vulnerable employment, informal work, and
working poverty (Pieters 2012). South Asia and especially sub-Saharan
Africa face the largest youth employment challenge in terms of size
and share of the youth population. These are equally the regions where
vulnerable employment shares (self-employment and unpaid work) are
highest. Middle-income countries in the Southern Mediterranean and
sub-Saharan Africa have the worlds highest youth unemployment rates.
Youth unemployment rates tend to rise with education and are higher
in urban areas. Women fare much worse than men, both in terms of
unemployment and vulnerable employment.

IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives 1332 | 15
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

Figure 3 Analytical framework for Pathways to Youth Employment

Source S4YE (2015). Reproduced with kind permission of S4YE.

2.1 Global youth unemployment starts to recover

After a period of rapid increase between 2007 and 2010, the global
youth unemployment rate settled at 13per cent for the period 201214
and is expected to have remained stable in 2015 (Figure 1). While this
rate is now on par with rates observed in the early 2000s, the number of
unemployed youth has shown a significant decline over the same period:
78.7million youth were unemployed in 2005, 76.6million unemployed
at the peak of the crisis in 2009, descending to an estimated 73.4million
unemployed in 2015. In the ten-year span between 2005 and 2015, the
youth labour force declined by as much as 46million while the number
of unemployed youth dropped by 5.3million. Figure 2 reflects the
cyclical nature of youth unemployment and reminds us of the often
repeated tenet that youth are among the most severely impacted by
economic crises: they are the first out as economies contract and the
last in during periods of recovery (ILO 2015).

Evidence from previous crises suggests that it takes an average of four

to five years from the resumption of economic growth before overall
employment returns to its pre-crisis levels (ILO 2009). Recovery of youth
employment can take even longer. In fact, at this point in time, nearly
ten years after the onset of the global economic crisis, the global youth
unemployment rate remains well above the pre-crisis rate of 11.7per cent.
While the number of unemployed youth has declined in recent years, the
global youth unemployment rate is proving more difficult to reduce.

Projections for 2015 through 2019 show no change at 13.1per cent

until 2019. Regional disparities are, however, likely to increase, as some
improvement in youth unemployment rates in developed economies in
the medium term will be offset by the increase in unemployment rates
in other regions.

16 | Kilimani Youth Employment in Developing Economies: Evidence on Policies and Interventions

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

3 The link between employment programmes and actual employment

This articles framework for analysis is adopted from Solutions for
Youth Employments (S4YE) theory of change, which is presented
in Figure 3. The S4YE Pathways to Youth Employment framework
represents the current conceptual thinking on how to provide young
people with pathways to economic opportunities and employment
and how stakeholders can work to achieve youth employment at scale.
The framework depicts a youths journey towards productive work,
highlighting how underlying conditions combine with government and
non-government efforts and interventions to shape her/his trajectory
towards a dignified adult life. In doing so, it provides a road map
for how interventions aimed at creating youth employment should
be crafted. In fact, the framework is not meant to be static it may
change over time with shifting dynamics and new knowledge. Overall,
the challenges constraining productivity and earnings for youth have
to be articulated in order to provide an orientation for policies. Most
importantly, the focus should be on activities with the ability to generate
adequate employment for the growing number of youth.

The Pathways to Youth Employment framework needs to be

interrogated in relation to three critical sectors. The first sector is
agriculture. In many parts of the developing world and especially in
sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture employs over 70 per cent of the labour
force. In principle, it can therefore be a source of employment for
many youth. However, prospects for growth as well as issues of value
chain development are critical for the sector to generate the much
desired capacity to absorb the increasing numbers of unemployed
youth. The second sector is household enterprises. These are most often
unincorporated, non-farm businesses owned by households, which
include self-employed people running smallholder businesses using
unpaid family labour. Third is the modern wage sector, which includes
small, medium and large firms employing five or more workers. In
many developing economies, approximately half of wage employment
is in the public sector. However, given the inelasticity of employment
in the public sector, the focus should be on the private sector where the
prospects for growth, and hence job creation, are greatest.

The framework highlights two dimensions that are critical to

engendering a pathway to productive work. The first of these is human
capital, i.e. the supply side of the labour market, which includes
individual abilities, education and training, skills, family connections,
networks and other characteristics unique to an individual. Human
capital is fundamental in enabling a person to find opportunities to be
productive, increase earnings and achieve income security (Filmer and
Fox 2014). Evidence used to identify externalities in education is derived
mostly from agriculture. Externalities take the form of farmers learning
from their neighbours, especially the more educated who are likely to
adopt new technologies (Conley and Udry 2010; Rosenzweig 2010).
The second dimension is the business environment. This is outside an
individual or firms control, but affects productivity. It includes access to

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productive resources such as land, credit, infrastructure, technology and

markets. In Africa in particular, insecure and ambiguous land rights, as
well as constraints on rental markets are considered major impediments,
especially for young people. Tenure security can be improved through
systematic land registration. This can improve farmers confidence to
the degree that they undertake costly and long-term investments on the
land. Furthermore, they can even use the land registration certificate
as collateral. Evidence from Rwanda shows that the more secure the
land tenure, the greater the investments in soil improvement, up by
9per cent and 18 per cent among male and female farmers respectively
(Ayalew, Deininger and Goldstein 2011). Registered and titled land
provide a basis for the development of land markets which are shown
to engender commercial farming and also increase productivity (see
Morris, Binswanger-Mkhize and Byerlee 2009). Registration can also
facilitate transfer to small-scale farmers (e.g. in Sudan, see Filmer and
Fox 2014). Other aspects of a business environment include government
policies, regulations and programmes which can directly or indirectly
affect the choice of economic activity, and even how it is conducted.

This framework integrates a range of issues including skills acquisition,

the employment options available to youths depending on the skills
acquired, and the supportive interventions that ensure that youth can
be absorbed into the workplace, right through to actual employment. In
the framework, government as a stakeholder can develop the necessary
policies, institutions, infrastructure and legal frameworks to engender
youth employment, while non-governmental actors can influence youth
employment through private investment which in turn has an influence
on the demand for labour. Essentially, each stakeholder has their own
contribution towards realising youth employment. These issues and the
linkages between them are presented in Figure 3 and are discussed in
the subsequent sections of the article.

4 Dynamics of determinants of youth labour market outcomes

To understand the major challenges bedevilling youth employment
in developing countries, it is useful to first discuss the determinants
of labour market outcomes as these form a basis for designing
interventions. Labour market outcomes are reflected by a number of
critical factors which are elucidated below.

4.1 Labour demand

Labour demand is largely driven by economic growth and structural
change. Essentially, job creation depends on the growth and labour-
intensity of production in the different sectors of the economy. In
middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the services sector
accounts for a high and growing share of employment, while the
share of agriculture and sometimes even manufacturing has been
on the decline (IMF 2012). The majority of developing country
workers in the services sector are self-employed, for example in retail
and transportation services. This trend of structural change, with
an increasing share of the workforce in low-productivity activities,

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can result from a lack of labour demand in high-productivity formal

enterprises. Increasing the productivity of smallholder farmers in the
agricultural sector would be one opportunity for generating youth
employment. The growing demand for food locally and globally is a
potential opportunity, and with its land and water resources Africa is
well positioned to respond. If youth could be provided with access to
agricultural resources in tandem with interventions to make agriculture
more productive, some suggest that it would go a long way towards
transforming livelihoods (Filmer and Fox 2014).

In Latin America, for example, productivity growth since the 1990s

has been accompanied by a declining share of manufacturing in total
employment, with workers moving into lower-productivity employment
in services (McMillan and Rodrik 2012). In the Middle East and
North Africa, jobs have been created in low-value-added sectors, such
as construction and the public sector, while few have been created
in manufacturing. Furthermore, job growth has not kept pace with
growth of the working age population. The public sector accounts for
a large share of the total wage bill in countries in the region, due to a
high public employment share and relatively high public sector wages
(World Economic Forum 2012). Public sector employment, including
public administration and publicly owned enterprises, has especially
dominated the market for educated labour. In Egypt for example, this
was a result of public employment guarantees for secondary and post-
secondary graduates. These guarantees proved untenable and were
suspended in the early 1990s (Assaad 1997).

With increasing global integration of economies, the structure of

(employment) growth is also affected by external factors. The impact
of the 2008 financial crisis on GDP and consumption in the developed
world indirectly affected developing countries through reductions in
demand for their exports of goods and services. The global economic
and financial crisis has particularly affected youth, and the decline in
work opportunities has created immense friction in the school-to-work
transition. As a matter of fact, young job seekers have worse prospects
for decent formal sector employment than their parents.

The World Bank (2012b) highlights how employment challenges are

interconnected through the proliferation of production fragmentation.
For instance, jobs in both manufacturing and services are increasingly
mobile. As such, the growing labour costs in Asia (in particular, China)
could open up opportunities for other developing countries to jump-start
industrialisation. What is critical to note is that when labour demand
slows down, self-employment may be the only alternative opportunity.
Thus, intervention to support self-employment may be needed.

4.2 Labour supply

The supply-side drivers of youth employment outcomes are the
quantity, quality and relevance of education and skills. Skills are built
through formal general education, formal vocational education and

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training (VET) and apprenticeships, and through non-formal education

and training. Access to primary education is a first requirement
for basic literacy and numeracy skills, which are a precondition for
ensuring access to decent work. Survey evidence shows existence of
major failures in delivery of education. For instance, cases have been
recorded of teacher absenteeism of 1620 per cent on a given day in
Kenya, Senegal and Tanzania. In these countries, learners are known
to experience only two to three hours of learning a day (Filmer and Fox
2014). Improvements in basic education would lay a better foundation
for improvements in productivity, by maximising young peoples
possibilities of successfully transitioning to remunerative employment.

Besides general education, youth can acquire work-relevant skills

through VET, which can be integrated into compulsory schooling as an
alternative to an academically oriented track, or can be part of several
post-compulsory schooling options. Eichhorst et al. (2012) show that in
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, VET is of limited
importance. This is due to weak links between skills provided by the
VET system and those that are demanded by the private sector. Other
challenges include insufficient funding, poor monitoring and evaluation,
stigmatisation, and lower returns to VET compared to secondary
education.2 In sub-Saharan Africa, the expected benefits from VET
relative to general secondary schooling are not evident, and many view
VET as an inferior alternative. Because the majority of firms and jobs
are informal, traditional apprenticeships after primary education can be
sufficient to gain employment (Pieters 2012).

The benefits of VET in terms of earning and social promotion vary

across countries and influence its attractiveness. Returns to VET are
higher than general secondary education in, for example, Cambodia,
Indonesia (for older cohorts), Thailand and Turkey (World Bank 2010a).
In other countries, such as Egypt, Indonesia (younger cohorts), Iran,
Rwanda and Tanzania, returns to VET are lower than to secondary
general education. Cross-country differences may be due to variations
in implementation, labour market institutions and employers
willingness to invest in skills on-the-job (Eichhorst et al. 2012). Evidence
from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) countries shows that the returns to vocational education
decline with age. This is largely attributed to the idea that VET limits
students ability to adapt to technological change as their potential to
regularly acquire new knowledge naturally diminishes with exposure,
and age (Hanushek, Woessmann and Zhang 2011). In this case, good
quality VET needs inbuilt capacity to prepare students for adapting to
everchanging technologies.

4.3 Migration
Across the developing world, labour supply in different places is also
affected by ruralurban, ruralrural and international migration. Due
to ruralurban migration patterns, urban labour supply tends to grow
faster than the working age population, further increasing the pressure

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on urban labour markets. Globally, about 25 per cent of urban growth

is driven by ruralurban migration, although migration accounts for a
larger share in countries that are still largely rural. This is particularly
the case in East and Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, but also the
MENA region (Grant 2012). At the same time, economic crises induce
high rates of return-migration when migrants lack social safety nets in
the cities, shifting some of the labour supply back to rural areas.

Most ruralurban migrants are young people, who also make up a

significant share of international migrants.3 Youth migration can serve
to build human capital if the migrants attend school or gain work
experience and income in the host region or country. There is evidence
that international migration can help reduce poverty and contribute
to economic growth in the migrants countries of origin. According
to the World Bank, an average increase of 10 per cent of emigrants
in the total population of a developing country is associated with a
1.6percentage point reduction in poverty. Furthermore, economic
analyses show that an increase in temporary migration in developed
countries, including low-qualified migrants, could produce gains
amounting to US$150bn each year, equally shared between developed
and developing countries (Dayton-Johnson et al. 2009). However if
migration leads to a significant loss of skilled labour to more developed
economies (i.e. brain drain), international migration might have
negative impacts on sending countries.

In this regard, policies toward international migration and employment

in developing countries must be more coherent, given the many
interactions between the two phenomena. Coherent policies require a
much better understanding of the links and impacts between mobility,
jobs and development. Given the current socioeconomic challenges,
these policies should be pursued by means of stronger partnerships
between origin and destination countries, with special attention to
brain drain and circular migration issues. Of particular importance are
remittances and their contribution to job creation in recipient countries:
can policy help create stronger incentives to save and invest in migrants
home countries?

4.4 Labour market functioning

Youth employment outcomes are shaped by the institutions governing
the matching of job seekers to vacancies, notably those institutions
that are charged with the provision of labour market information,
intermediation and regulation. Availability and quality of information
plays a key role in the labour market, for job seekers to identify relevant
opportunities and for employers to find adequate workers. Evidence
from school-to-work transition surveys in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iran,
Kosovo, Mongolia, Nepal and Syria (Matsumoto and Elder 2010) show
that the most important channel for job searching by youth is social
networks, and specifically family and friends. Reliance on informal
networks and connections may be efficient when employers find it
costly to assess competencies of potential employees, or when there are

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no formal institutions mediating short notice hiring. However, it does

mean that young job seekers are unlikely to find work outside their own
networks, which limits social and intergenerational mobility.

Lack of information about job opportunities can contribute to skill

shortages and mismatches, because parents and children are not well
informed to assess the returns to education. Experimental evidence for
India and the Dominican Republic has shown that giving information
about job opportunities or returns to education increases the time
children spend in school (Jensen 2010, 2012). The role of information
also includes transparency in hiring practices. Labour market
functioning further depends on regulation, such as a minimum wage,
which exists in all developing countries for which institutional data are
available. Unemployment benefit legislation is present in most countries
in Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Europe, North Africa,
and the Latin American and Caribbean middle-income countries
(Aleksynska and Schindler 2011).

5 Challenges by region
5.1 Latin America
Over half of the working youth in Latin America are in informal
employment (against 30 per cent of adults), and this proportion is rising.
Informality is highest among youth with primary education, but has
recently increased rapidly among more highly educated youth, signalling
a lack of formal private sector labour demand and/or a mismatch of
skills obtained in secondary and tertiary education (Busso et al. 2012).
Furthermore, figures for young people not in education, employment,
or training (NEET) are particularly high in Latin America compared
to other regions. Besides a slow-down in growth and formal private
sector labour demand, youth employment in Latin America faces major
supply side challenges, in particular the quality and relevance of skills
attained in secondary education. Large skill mismatches and poor quality
of education and training mean that joblessness coexists with unmet
demand for skilled labour. Where experience in informal employment
serves as a training ground for formal wage employment, some have
pointed to deficiencies in the education system (CEDLAS 2013).

A particular challenge related to informality in Latin America is the

design of social insurance and social assistance systems. Formal sector
workers pay mandatory contributions to social insurance schemes,
which increase the cost of formal labour, while informal workers are
covered by social assistance programmes, which effectively subsidise
informal labour. Redesigning these financing mechanisms could have
important impacts on the labour market (Ferreira and Robalino 2010).

5.2 Middle East and North Africa

This region has the worlds lowest private sector investment contribution
to growth, and most investment is directed to low-skilled, labour-
intensive sectors (Gatti et al. 2013, based on foreign direct investment
(FDI) data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and

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Table 1 Employment composition: sub-Saharan Africa vs high growth counterparts

Wage job

Income level and Home

region Industry Services All enterprise Agriculture Total

Low income

Sub-Saharan Africa 2.3 10.0 12.3 18.3 69.4 100

Bangladesh 10.8 14.9 25.7 27.7 46.6 100

Cambodia 11.1 12.2 23.3 21.0 55.7 100

Low-middle income

Sub-Saharan Africa 2.0 11.9 13.9 31.1 55.1 100

Bolivia 12.6 30.4 43.0 28.1 28.9 100

Lao Peoples
Democratic
Republic 54.0 8.1 13.5 19.0 67.5 100

Mongolia 5.9 33.4 39.3 16.0 44.7 100

Nicaragua 13.3 30.6 43.9 22.9 33.2 100

Philippines 12.6 36.1 48.7 19.5 31.8 100

Vietnam 14.3 17.5 31.8 19.1 49.1 100

Source Filmer and Fox (2014).

Development (UNCTAD) and World Bank World Development

Indicators). Private sector dynamism is harmed by inconsistent and
unpredictable policy implementation and poor access to credit.
Distorted prices of primary factor inputs, such as energy due to the
presence of fuel subsidies, increase the relative cost of labour (ibid.).

On the supply side, the major challenge is the mismatch between skills
and expectations of young job seekers on the one hand, and skills
demanded by the labour market on the other. Queuing for public
sector jobs is often a rational strategy for highly educated youth, as
public jobs are more secure and provide higher pay, with higher returns
to education than in the private sector. Students choose academic
programmes that are increasingly irrelevant to the private sector. The
World Bank Enterprise Survey shows that about a third of firms in the
region identify a lack of appropriate skills in the labour force as a major
obstacle for their business (Filmer and Fox 2014).

A great challenge in terms of labour market functioning in the Middle

East and North Africa is the lack of merit-based hiring processes.
Meritocracy in hiring practices would secure greater equality of
opportunity across socioeconomic backgrounds and, importantly, would
improve signals from the market to education and training institutions.

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Finally, the region stands out because of the large gender gap in youth
labour market outcomes. Women do much worse on all quality and
quantity indicators than men, and make up the majority of young
NEETs. In many of the regions countries, social norms restrict womens
mobility and access to work, with very few employment opportunities
for young women. This results in high unemployment rates for the
minority of young women who complete higher education (ETF 2012).

5.3 Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa has the worlds highest youth population growth
rate and the highest share of youth in the working age population. Still,
the regions youth employment problem should be seen in qualitative
rather than quantitative terms. This is especially true in low-income
countries and for the most vulnerable groups: young women, youth
in rural areas, youth from poor families, and those with no or little
education. Despite high unemployment among well-educated youth,
firms in many of these economies report difficulty in finding qualified
personnel, an indicator perhaps that the skills being inculcated by the
education system are not aligned with efforts to promote new economic
activities (World Bank 2012a, 2013).

Employment creation by the private sector has been weak due to a low
growth elasticity of employment, especially in resource-rich countries.
The share of the labour force in private industry in sub-Saharan Africa
is markedly different from the rapidly growing economies of Asia and
Latin America (Table 1). Solid growth over the past decade has not led
to a significant improvement in labour market outcomes and poverty
reduction. A review of youth employment programmes in Cameroon
established that although they addressed a wide range of specific
challenges, they lacked coherence and were clearly not integrated within
the countrys broader policies to alleviate binding constraints to growth
and employment (World Bank 2012b).

The informal economy employs up to 90 per cent of the working age

population in low-income countries (AfDB 2012), and is a structural feature
of economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Because of its pervasiveness, the
informal sector has to be part of any policy addressing youth employment.
Low labour productivity and earnings in self-employment and the informal
economy are a limitation to sustained poverty reduction. In countries where
the majority of youth are in rural areas, increasing agricultural productivity
and non-farm rural activities is crucial. Low productivity is related to lack
of learning opportunities for youth in the informal economy. However, in
basic formal education, gender gaps in enrolment and the poor quality of
education also remain an urgent challenge.

5.4 Asia
Most countries in South Asia are characterised by high vulnerable
employment shares, informality and working poverty. Despite high
growth rates compared to other regions, a large share of workers
remain in agriculture, in the urban informal sector or in informal

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jobs in formal enterprises. Employment growth in the formal sector

is too low to absorb large numbers of young labour market entrants.
Manufacturing still accounts for a small share of total output and
employment, compared to other developing regions. This mostly affects
low- and medium-skilled workers, who are still predominantly confined
to working in agriculture and informal services (ILO 2013). Besides
structural change towards more low-skilled intensive manufacturing
production, increasing productivity in agricultural and informal
activities is key to improving youth employment outcomes.

On the supply side, although primary school enrolment has increased,

the transition rate from primary to secondary schooling is declining.
Due to the poor quality of basic formal education and persistent gender
gaps in educational attainment, the most vulnerable youth groups do
not get much of a chance to obtain decent work. Another striking
feature of youth employment in the region is persistently low female
labour force participation. Southeast Asia has the worlds highest youth-
to-adult unemployment rate ratio; adult unemployment is very low
(2.5per cent in 2011 according to International Labour Organization
(ILO) statistics) while youth unemployment is close to the world average
(13 per cent in 2011). The main challenge for Southeast Asian countries
is the poor quality of employment for the majority of workers; more
than 60 per cent of the regions employed are estimated to be in
vulnerable employment (Pieters 2012).

6 Policy direction and lessons for intervention design

Based on the foregoing analysis, the critical issues to engender youth
employment revolve around empowering youth by enabling them to
build human capital and providing them with opportunities for quality
jobs. In this section we review a number of measures to guide the
development, consolidation, and reshaping of existing policies.

6.1 Youth employment strategies

In order to address the youth employment challenge there is a need
for integrated approaches involving different levels of government and
multiple stakeholders, including relevant ministries, education and
training providers and social partners. Because of the complex nature of
developing country labour markets, and the diversity of income-generating
activities that people undertake, the youth employment challenge requires
policy action beyond basic education and labour markets, in areas such as
credit markets, infrastructure, business regulation, and rural development.
In addition to basic education, high productivity skills that can accelerate
youth employment include those relating to processing, marketing,
machinery operation and repair, commercial transportation (passenger
and haulage), logistics and quality control. Responsibility therefore lies with
governments to ensure coherence and coordination (ILO 2012b).

6.2 Growth
Promoting job-rich, inclusive growth is key to youth employment
promotion in the long term. Although achieving job-rich growth is a

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major challenge in general, strategies to expand labour demand are

needed to complement interventions targeting more short-term and
youth-specific goals, such as wage subsidies and skills training (IEG
2013). Thus, macro and growth policies need to stimulate private
investment, especially in labour-intensive sectors or sectors with large
employment multipliers (ILO 2012b). Examples of such policies for the
MENA region are reducing relative labour costs and promoting more
labour-intensive agricultural crops, rather than the traditional subsidies
on fuel, energy and wheat (Gatti et al. 2013). Lin and Chang (2009) call
for policies that enable firms and sectors to make use of a countrys
relatively abundant production factors. This means focusing on labour-
and resource-intensive production activities, rather than prioritising
capital-intensive industries. Harrison and Rodrguez-Clare (2010) call
for so-called soft industrial policy, aiming to facilitate collaboration
between government, industry, and cluster-level private organisations, to
reduce coordination failures in order to increase productivity.

6.3 Promotion of entrepreneurship

Promotion of youth entrepreneurship and self-employment requires
increased access to credit by strengthening financial infrastructure, bank
competition and non-bank financing. Youth micro-entrepreneurship
also requires reform and more consistent enforcement of business
regulation, in order to reduce red tape and increase transparency
(ILO 2012b). The most effective entrepreneurship training combines
core business administration skills, such as accounting, with softer
entrepreneurial skills, such as problem solving. It is important to
systematically screen youth for latent or active entrepreneurial
characteristics, such as innovative thinking, leadership attributes,
passion and results orientation. Programmes should clearly separate
training and financing functions by forming partnerships with financial
institutions to provide and manage credit for youth (MIF 2012). To
improve entrepreneurs ability to benefit from trade liberalisation and
foreign investment, they also need skills for developing their networks
and linking with higher levels of the value chain.

Various institutional arrangements and incentive schemes can be

used to widen access to credit. In Uganda, the Development Finance
Company of Uganda Bank Limiteds (DFCU) credit facility is largely
provided under a leasing arrangement. Evidence shows that having
credit and financial services that are accessible to women is crucial for
increasing their ability to save and start a business (Dupas and Robinson
2013). In Kenya and Uganda, M-Pesa and Mobile Money respectively
have been central to providing financial access to a wide section of the
unbanked population.

Some suggest that engendering entrepreneurship starts with a mindset

change towards a culture which rewards competition and innovation.
This entails addressing the beliefs, values and attitudes underlying
behaviour and choices. Effective mindset change begins with identifying
prevailing mindsets. As such, honest discussions can provide hypotheses to

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be tested through surveys. While most economic development efforts shy

away from explicitly addressing mindset change, this is an issue that some
suggest is key to any real progress (The Brenthurst Foundation 2011).

6.4 Public works programmes

The most direct way to increase labour demand in the short term is
through public works programmes (PWPs). PWPs create temporary
jobs for the poorest and most vulnerable, with the primary goals
of income smoothing, poverty reduction and asset building. Many
PWPs are organised around infrastructure development, but there is
significant scope for PWPs to provide social services. This is a highly
labour-intensive sector and could be better targeted to increase young
womens participation (ILO 2012b). Beyond providing a safety net,
PWPs can also be used to improve participants employability in paid
jobs or self-employment in order to graduate from the programme.
Examples are the Sierra Leone Cash for Work project, the Temporary
Income Assistance Program in El Salvador, the Expanded Public Works
Programme in South Africa, and the Kazi Kwa Vijana programme in
Kenya (Andrews and Kryeziu 2012; Subbarao et al. 2013). To increase
employability, youth or other participants with high re-employment
opportunities should receive skills training and education that may result
in some type of accredited certification.

6.5 Skills
Addressing skills shortages and mismatches requires action on several
fronts, including formal and non-formal general education, VET
and apprenticeship training. Improving literacy skills through better
primary education requires urgent attention in many low-income
countries. Education policies should also aim to improve access to
secondary education for disadvantaged youth. Disadvantaged youth
are especially constrained by the cost of schooling and, in the case of
young women, by social and cultural barriers. New technologies in
education and access to open educational resources could enhance
flexible course delivery and customised training for specific groups of
youth. Policies that increase the permeability of education systems
are also needed, to allow youth to move more easily between different
levels and types of education. Mobility would also include allowing
students to move between VET and other higher education tracks,
which could increase the attractiveness of VET. Since the benefits of
formal VET depend largely on the relevance of skills to actual demand
in the private sector, a widely heard policy recommendation is to
build publicprivate partnerships in the design and provision of VET.
Almost by definition, however, formal VET policies cannot address
challenges for the majority of youth in low-income countries working in
the informal sector. It is crucial that skills development policies include
youth in agricultural and non-agricultural informal employment, where
poverty reduction is most urgent (Walther 2012). This could be achieved
by improving and expanding traditional apprenticeship schemes, for
example through local training committees and training schemes for
agricultural (or agriculture-related) occupations.

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6.6 Labour market information

When jobs exist, youth can be helped by providing information and
employment exchange services through educational institutions, or by
offering these in youth centres. Better access to information further
requires the availability of transportation. For poorer youth and those
living further from urban centres, offering transport subsidies may be
necessary to allow them to benefit from employment exchange services.
In predominantly informal labour markets, however, formal information
channels may be of little relevance. We know little about the functioning
of informal labour markets, but it is clear that informal networks are key in
the job searching process. The use of new technologies, particularly mobile
phone-based, could help in expanding job search networks for youth,
linking formal and informal networks, and increasing the effectiveness of
these networks. Where growth is weak and there is a lack of productive
jobs, overseas employment programmes may be part of a solution.

6.7 Regulation
In countries with high unemployment among educated youth, particularly
in the MENA region, there is a need to restructure public administration
hiring and promotion processes, and to reduce publicprivate dualism in
the labour market. This requires labour regulation and social insurance
reforms and more social dialogue, including with youth organisations
and representatives (Gatti et al. 2013). Wage subsidies and reduced social
contributions for young workers can be used to increase demand for
young workers, if targeted and provided for a limited period of time and
with strong monitoring to avoid abuses (ILO 2012b). A minimum wage
could be important for young workers to sustain a decent earnings level,
while a lower youth minimum wage could be used to stimulate youth
labour demand. In terms of employment protection, special first job
contracts or reducing restrictions on temporary contracts have also been
used in some situations to stimulate demand for youth labour.

6.8 Knowledge gaps

In low-income countries, youth will continue to be absorbed in agriculture,
non-farm informal jobs and/or self-employment. Much of the existing
analytical evidence tends to focus on formal employment in urban areas,
where political interest and data can be found. Little is therefore known
about the functioning of the informal and agricultural labour markets,
and even less about the youth specifics of these labour markets. As such,
investing in youth labour market data and analysis is an important first
step in aiding policy and programme design. Improving data infrastructure
in developing countries is furthermore likely to increase attention to the
labour market situation of vulnerable youth. Even where policies can be
and have been evaluated, impacts of interventions on non-targeted groups,
spillover effects and other general equilibrium effects have been extremely
hard to assess. Finally, a number of youth employment determinants
and relatively new policy areas and programmes remain particularly
understudied. Examples are the role of urbanisation and the location
of jobs, new technologies in production and in job searching, micro-
franchising for stimulating entrepreneurship, and green growth strategies.

28 | Kilimani Youth Employment in Developing Economies: Evidence on Policies and Interventions

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

Notes
1 A population or demographic dividend occurs when the proportion
of working people in the total population is high as this indicates that
more people have the potential to be productive and contribute to
growth of the economy.
2 Returns here refer to the overall benefits that accrue to those that
choose to undertake a given form of education and training.
3 Youth make up about one third of international migrant flows,
especially flows towards developing countries (McKenzie 2008 based
on census data for 12 countries, including six developing countries).

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32 | Kilimani Youth Employment in Developing Economies: Evidence on Policies and Interventions

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The Politics of Youth Employment

and Policy Processes in Ethiopia

Eyob Balcha Gebremariam

Abstract Policy processes are inherently shaped by political contexts.

One way of identifying the impact of politics on policy processes is by
examining how policy narratives and framings evolve through time. This
article examines youth employment-focused policies in Ethiopia between
2004 and 2015. It argues that policy narratives and framings driving youth
employment policy are directly derived from the developmental orientation
of the incumbent Ethiopian regime. The 2005 post-election political crisis
also played a major role in streamlining youth-focused policy processes.

Keywords: unemployment, Africa, young people, Ethiopian Peoples

Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

1 Introduction
This article uses youth-focused policies in Ethiopia to demonstrate how
politics and societal narratives shape policy processes. It does this by
adopting two interlinked lines of analysis. The first explores the role of
political context in shaping policy processes. In doing so, the primary
focus is on how policy narratives and framings change depending on
context and political dynamics. The second related line of analysis
explores the relationship between broader social narratives and policy
narratives. Here, the focus is on the two-way interaction between
socially constructed positions of youth and youth-focused policies. The
argument is that categorisations of youth such as vanguard or vandals
(Abbink and van Kessel 2005) or makers and breakers (Honwana and
De Boeck 2005) of society shape and are shaped by policy processes.

The analysis focuses on the period 200415, when Ethiopia registered

significant socioeconomic developmental success. According to the
World Bank, the average economic growth rate between 2004 and 2014
was 10.9 per cent (World Bank 2016). Furthermore, the poverty trend
has also been declining significantly from 55 per cent in 2000 to 31per
cent in 2013 (UNDP 2014; World Bank 2016). At the same time, the
countrys political landscape also changed considerably. With three
national elections conducted during this period, the ruling party, the
2017 The Author. IDS Bulletin Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.125
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0
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The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives; the
Introduction is also recommended reading.
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), emerged

as the dominant political actor in the country. One example of this
dominance is the current parliament (201520) where the party controls
100 per cent of the seats. The article explores how these political and
economic dynamics have been affecting youth-focused policy processes.

There are two questions that motivate the analysis. First, how does
politics shape policies relating to youth employment? In answering this
question, I will demonstrate that policy processes are not technocratic,
linear and rational, but are rather driven by political dynamics and
interests. Second, how do socially constructed positions of youth affect
policies that address youth employment? Answering this question
contributes to the understanding of how societal beliefs can be
translated into policy frameworks and how politically crafted policies
interact with social narratives. To address these questions, a legal
document, two youth-specific policies and the youth-focused sections of
three consecutive national development plans are examined.

Two core arguments are developed. First, dominant policy narratives

and framings relating to youth are directly derived from the political
orientations of the government, which in Ethiopia is building a
developmental state through rapid economic growth. In line with
the developmental orientation, policy narratives and framings have
changed from portraying youth as vagrants and threats to society,
or marginalised and victims of social evils, to seeing them as
entrepreneurs and seeds of democracy and development. Second,
with specific focus on youth employment, the policy process was driven
by the need to respond to a political crisis.

The remainder of the article is divided into four sections. Section 2

introduces the two main ways of understanding the social position of
youth, viz. as an age group or a transitional stage. Section 3 sets the
context towards understanding the social position of Ethiopian youth.
Hence, the section provides an overview of the political and policy
context and implications for the social position of youth. Section 4
analyses the four policy documents in order to address two central
questions. Finally, Section 5 discusses the findings and concludes.

2 The social position of youth

2.1 Age-based notions of youth
Age is one of the most crucial elements that shapes understandings of
youth. One of the central features of age-based categorisation of youth
is the assumption that there are clearly identifiable processes which
are universal (Wyn and White 1997: 53). Hence, when young people
depart from the assumed set processes and behaviours, they are easily
categorised as deviants and abnormal (ibid.). Age-based categorisations
are often used to frame policy interventions in areas such as education,
health and criminal justice. One important limitation of age-based
understandings of youth is that they promote a categorical approach.
Examples include the notions of adolescents and juveniles that link

34 | Gebremariam The Politics of Youth Employment and Policy Processes in Ethiopia

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the biological age of young people to their psychological and emotional

status, and to their social identity and behaviour. This is critiqued for
being biologically determinist and reducing the experiences of young
people at the individual level (Wyn and White 1997: 547).

However, one cannot ignore the crucial role that age plays in shaping
the experiences, opportunities and challenges of youth. One way of
broadening the understanding of youth is to examine how biological
age shapes interactions between youth and the state as well as with
other social institutions. For example, some argue that states use age
statuses to categorise youth as a discrete and distinctive social category
(Mizen 2002: 6), and that this categorisation provides a foundation for
dominant policy narratives that subsequently shape the experiences
of young people (Wyn and White 1997). Age also interacts with state
institutions through, for example, the legal voting age, age-based
eligibility to claim social and economic rights (such as minimum/living
wage) and access criteria for state loans.

Age-based characterisation of youth plays a central role in policy

narratives built around the notions of demographic dividend and
youth bulge. Reaping the demographic dividend essentially requires
policy and institutional frameworks to make the segment of society
within a certain age range healthier, educated and more productive
(Bloom and Williamson 1998). Without age-specific characterisation,
one can argue that all aspects of policy relating to youth will remain
weak (Mizen 2002: 8). However, the experience of being a youth is not
only about belonging to a certain age group for a specified period it is
also about growing up and transitioning to the status of adulthood.

2.2 Transitional status of youth

Youth is not a permanent status, and some scholars argue that the
meaning of youth is inextricably linked with the concept of adulthood
(Wyn and White 1997: 11). Signs and processes associated with the
transition to adulthood include school-to-work transition, economic
independence, leaving the parental home and establishing a family.
Processes of transition are complex, non-linear and context-dependent,
which only complicates the job of much youth policy that aims to
facilitate transitions into adulthood.

It is important to note that growing up is a social process that is

contingent on the interplay of enabling and constraining conditions
within a given context and society. State policies and institutions in
particular have a direct impact on youth transitions. For example, the
introduction of neoliberal policies impacted on the lives of many African
young people (Caffentzis 2002). Withdrawal of state guarantees to rights
and services in the areas of health, education and employment severely
affected young peoples transitions into adulthood. In some cases, the
failure and degeneration of the state led to civil war and protracted
conflict, with young people being both victims and perpetrators (Abbink
and van Kessel 2005; Honwana and DeBoeck 2005). More generally,

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

in contexts where the state fails to deliver the benefits of development,

smooth transitions to adulthood are compromised.

Precarious socioeconomic conditions, civil unrest and institutional

exclusion can also prolong the process of transition. Honwana developed
the concept of waithood to explain this, with waithood being a prolonged
period of suspension between childhood and adulthood (2012: 1).
The argument is that because of structural challenges which hinder
social mobility there are multiple cases where youthhood has become a
more permanent status rather than a transitional stage. Furthermore,
in situations where transitions are prolonged, young people often
engage in survival strategies while navigating the contours of waithood.
Expressions such as eke out a living or getting by (Honwana 2012)
and hustling (Di Nunzio 2012) provide a flavour of this navigation.
The key point is that this period of extended liminality increases the
vulnerability of young people (Honwana 2012).

In the following section, the article reflects on age-based experiences

and transitional statuses of youth in recent Ethiopian socioeconomic
and political contexts.

3 Ethiopian youth: political contexts, policies and changing social

positions
This section sets the ground to understand the interplay between
political contexts, policies and changing social positions of youth. It first
discusses the notions of political context and politics. Then, after a brief
historical overview, the methods of analysis used are presented.

In a nutshell, an appreciation of political context helps to understand

when policy processes emerge onto the scene, how policy is crafted and
who the leading or powerful actors are, both in policy formulation and
implementation (Turner, Hulme and McCourt 2015). This approach
contrasts with the stages approach to the policy process, which focuses
on technical processes (Jenkins 1978). Whilst examining the role of
political context in policy processes, it is imperative to clearly set how
the study approaches politics.

For the purposes of this study, politics is understood as the processes

of conflict, cooperation and negotiation involved in the [ownership],
use, production and distribution of resources (Leftwich 1996: 17).
In operational terms, this definition leads to a concern with how
youthfocused policy processes trigger conflict, cooperation and
negotiation (ibid.) between the Ethiopian state and youth. Because of
the interest in youth employment policy, economic opportunity and
fulfilment of economic citizenship rights are crucial elements around
which the processes of conflict, cooperation and negotiation occur.
Political processes that affect the provision of economic opportunities
directly influence how economic resources are accessed and claimed
by youth. Furthermore, changing social positions of youth are also
inextricably linked with the evolving political context, and affect the
dynamics of conflict, cooperation and negotiation between state and

36 | Gebremariam The Politics of Youth Employment and Policy Processes in Ethiopia

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

youth. Likewise, societal narratives about youth cannot remain insulated

from the dominant features of politics.

Here it is important to sketch out how the changing political context in

Ethiopia has affected the social positions of youth. After the EPRDF
came to power in 1991, the country was forced to implement structural
adjustment programmes by the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) (Demissie 2008; Feyissa 2011). Despite strong
ideological resistance from the EPRDF not to reduce the state to an
ideal night-watchman status as the neoliberal policies would have
required, there was a considerable escalation of privatisation (Stiglitz
2002). The EPRDF tried its best to remain committed to its ideological
aspiration of building a socialist economy. To this end, the party pursued
its revolutionary democracy ideology to remain the politically dominant
player in the country while strategically engaging with western donors
(Feyissa 2011). The strength of the EPRDFs ideological commitment
was demonstrated by its determination not to relinquish state ownership
of land and not to liberalise key sectors of the economy such as finance,
telecoms, transport and energy. Nevertheless, other aspects of the
stabilisation and privatisation programme were implemented.

The structural adjustment programmes had significant impact on

society in general and youth in particular. Especially in urban areas,
government employment, which was often considered desirable (Mains
2011: 115) for young people joining the labour market, was severely
affected. A reduced public sector as a result of privatisation, reduction
of public expenditure and restructuration contributed to increased
unemployment (Krishnan, Selassie and Dercon 1998; Demissie 2008).
On top of limited employment opportunities, the number of high
school graduates continued to increase. With a growing gap between
the available employment opportunities and the number of new young
jobseekers, the seemingly predetermined process of transition into
adulthood started to derail, resulting in new societal problems.

Youth unemployment became a major problem starting from the early

years of EPRDFs tenure. A socioeconomic household sample survey
conducted in 1994 revealed that young people below the age of 35
constituted 90 per cent of the urban unemployed (68 per cent between
the ages of 1625) (cited in Kebbede 2004). Another study argued that
in 1994, 50 per cent of the male workforce below the age of 30 were
unemployed in urban areas (Serneels 2004). The considerably reduced
capacity of the state to offer employment opportunities was seen to
explain urban youth unemployment. Furthermore, the mismatch between
education and job openings was also a major factor. For example,
another survey in 1994 showed that in Addis Ababa, 50per cent of the
unemployed youth were high school graduates (cited in Minas 2002).

In 2001, a decade after it came to power, the EPRDF went through

a major ideological revision. The objective of creating a socialist
society was dropped in favour of building a capitalist society

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

(TadesseandYoung2003). As a result, the principles of free market

economics were adopted, and there were more opportunities for
private accumulation of wealth. The late prime minister called this new
development strategy democratic developmentalism (Zenawi 2006).
The reform processes also endorsed the good governance agenda and
established formal institutional and policy frameworks. As part of
this, the first youth-focused ministry was established in 2000, and was
mandated to formulate the first national youth policy.

The first post-reform election was in May 2005, and in a relatively

open political environment, the ruling party suffered huge losses (Aalen
and Tronvoll 2009). However, the EPRDF used its power over the
military to squash both opposition parties and protest activities during
the postelection period (Aalen and Tronvoll 2009; Gudina 2011).
Following the wake of the post-election violence, EPRDF undertook
a campaign of mass mobilisation, particularly targeting urban youth
who participated in protest activities in significant numbers (Di Nunzio
2012). To this end, the EPRDF-led government started to invest
heavily to address urban youth employment, and to reduce youth
marginalisation through the introduction of youth participation fora.

Furthermore, the EPRDF controlled the post-2005 political context by

putting in place institutions and politico-legal frameworks to guide the
processes of conflict, cooperation and negotiation. These, combined
with political repression, acted to constrain the activities of opposition
parties, private media and civil society organisations (Aalen and Tronvoll
2009; Gudina 2011). At the same time, the ruling party enhanced its
political power by establishing channels of mass mobilisation targeting
women, youth, farmers and other segments of society. These served
both as spheres of cooperation and negotiation as well as political
control. In contrast to the early 1990s period of dismantling public
services, the EPRDF expanded the state structure which also created
massive employment opportunities. Mobilisation occurred hand in hand
with recruitment into the party structure, which also involved resource
distribution. Young people became crucial targets of the ruling party
in these processes of cooperation and negotiation, which included
controlled economic and political inclusion. For example, the ruling
party established its youth league in May 2009 with 180,000 founding
members, and reaching 2.3 million in 2013 (EPRDF 2013). At the
same time, party membership also increased exponentially from around
700,000 in 2005 to 6.3 million in 2013. These efforts to manage conflict
and promote cooperation and negotiation have been important aspects
of the ruling partys agenda of democratic developmentalism.

The remainder of the article uses discourse analysis to examine

youthfocused policy documents. Narratives and framings are analysed
with considerable focus given to the policy processes and context. Since
the study relies on secondary data, it also refers to studies conducted
on Ethiopian youth to provide additional evidence alongside the close
examination of the policy documents.

38 | Gebremariam The Politics of Youth Employment and Policy Processes in Ethiopia

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4 Analysis of youth employment-focused policies

This section presents analysis of policy frameworks that address youth
employment launched by the Ethiopian state between 2004 and
2015. The analysis is based on a review of one legal document, two
youthfocused policy documents and three national development plans.

4.1 Vagrancy Control Proclamation

The Vagrancy Control Proclamation (VCP) (384/2004) came into force on
27 January 2004. The preface of the proclamation explains the rationale:
Vagrancy is increasing and wide-spreading in our country from time to
time, thereby creating a threat to the tranquillity and order of the people
(FDRE 2004: 2533). Hence, the purpose is to permanently dispel this
threat to bring criminals to justice and create conditions for their social
rehabilitation (ibid.). The objective of the VCP is bringing criminals
to justice, imposing punishment proportionate to their crimes and to
create conditions for their transformation into lawabiding and productive
citizenry (FDRE 2004: 2534). The VCP defines vagrancy as whosoever,
being able-bodied, having no visible means of subsistence but found
committing actions restricted in the proclamation. Such restricted actions
include betting and gambling in a public place, substance abuse, disturbing
on streets or around schools, participating in organized gang brawls (FDRE
2004: 25346). Police and the federal prisons commission are identified
as being responsible for implementing the VCP. The proclamation also sets
up a centre for psychosocial and behavioural counselling as an institutional
mechanism for providing rehabilitation services to any persons convicted
of vagrancy (FDRE 2004: 2534).

In terms of political context, it is worth considering two important

factors that contributed to the emergence of the VCP. First, as argued
earlier, the contraction of the public sector due to structural adjustment
programmes significantly reduced potential job opportunities. The
nascent private sector was not at the time mature enough to create
employment opportunities for the increasing young population. As
a result, young people, many of whom were high school graduates,
remained unemployed for relatively long periods of time. But remaining
unemployed defies societal expectations about youth. Since youth is
considered as a short period of transition, moving out of this temporary
status is essential, and not being able to complete this transition is
deviancy. For example, Mains (2012) described how members of the
wider society in Jimma town, south-western Ethiopia, felt insecure and
threatened with the presence of idle and unemployed young men on
the streets. For the young men, the abundance of unstructured time
(ibid: 122) was a trap that they wanted to escape from if they could get
job opportunities. With quite narrow job opportunities, as well as with
limited skills acquired through education, the young men were forced to
pass most of their time hanging out on street corners, watching films,
chewing khat (mild stimulant) (ibid: 123).

Second, the VCP was introduced in the wake of large-scale unrest in the
capital following Addis Ababa University student protests in April2001.

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The students called for the reinstatement of the independent students

union and newspaper, and replacement of armed campus police
with civilian police (Balsvik 2007). The protest spilled over into the
city and resulted in large-scale looting, ransacking and vandalism in
major market and shopping areas. At least 40 people were killed. The
government accused unemployed young people and opposition parties
of being the main perpetrators of the violence and looting (ibid.): the
blame was laid at the feet of unruly and unemployed youth.

The name of the Amharic version of the VCP can be literally

translated into Dangerous Vagrancy Control Proclamation. The
use of such alarmist language helps to garner unconditional moral
and normative support. The VCP argues that social order and
tranquillity is compromised because of dangerous vagrancy. Hence,
punishment and rehabilitation need to be administered as remedies.
With such interventions, the VCP claims it will restore societal order
by transforming criminals into law-abiding and productive citizenry.
Furthermore, the VCP strengthens the crisis narrative and the need
for urgent action by adding both a space and time dimension. The
proclamation depicts dangerous vagrancy as wide-spreading, which
implies it affects or will affect large areas and numbers of people,
while the phrase from time to time is ambiguous and provides no real
indication of the prevalence of the problem (FDRE 2004: 25334).

Both the narratives and framings in the VCP correspond with societal
narratives about idle and unemployed youth who pass most of their
time on the street. These youth were perceived as deviants because
of their failure to meet societal expectations of growing up and
becoming independent adults. The VCP builds on such narratives,
and making reference to occasional, large-scale incidents such as the
riot in April 2001 links unemployment with crime. Furthermore,
the VCP also claims moral superiority by stating its purpose as to
bring criminals to justice. In addition to the judiciary solution, the
VCP declared its intention to change the values of vagrants through
social rehabilitation, which was broadly defined as transformation
into law-abiding and productive citizenry. The components of social
rehabilitation mentioned in the proclamation include education,
vocational training, civic education, counselling and hard labour.
The police, public prosecutor, courts and rehabilitation centre were
identified as key implementers of the VCP (FDRE 2004: 25389).

The VCPs link with youth employment can be seen in its targeting of
unemployed youth. One of the key elements of the definition of vagrancy
in the VCP is having no visible means of subsistence. Particularly in
a context where young peoples transition to socially acceptable status
of adulthood (Honwana 2014: 2931) is severely compromised, a
dependence on activities in the informal economy is inevitable. Studies
have indicated that young people with limited opportunities for social
mobility rely on casual work and activities on the fringe of legality. These
survival strategies are not considered visible means of subsistence by the

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VCP, which makes young people who are actively involved in the street
economy (Di Nunzio 2012) prime targets of the proclamation.

Di Nunzio (2012) describes survival strategies of young people in poor

urban neighbourhoods in Addis Ababa as including a combination
of street activities, which are broadly defined as hustling. Hustling is
being smart and finding a way to make money for survival (ibid:443).
Common street activities include brokering small transactions, running
errands for a small fee, working as an informal tourist guide and
grabbing any opportunity that would generate money. Sometimes
hustling may involve illegal activities such as pick-pocketing, thieving
and drug selling. It is important to note that hustling differs significantly
from the notion of being idle and unemployed. Young people who
are involved in hustling consider that their activities are tiring, and
require skills, networking and different layers of interactions.

The VCPs focus on these young people became more pronounced

during the highly contested 2005 elections. The government used the
VCP as an instrument of repression when it targeted unemployed
youth because of their support for the opposition during the tense
pre- and post-election period. Opposition parties widely criticised the
government for the high unemployment rate and for its criminalising
discourse. The government labelled young people who participated
en masse in pre-election demonstrations and post-election protests as
dangerous vagrants, jobless and unruly young people (Aalen and
Tronvoll 2009; Di Nunzio 2012). Furthermore, unemployed youth and
particularly those surviving through hustling constituted a significant
majority of the nearly 30,000 people detained during the post-election
violence (Gebremariam and Herrera 2016). Hence, in the tense political
context around the election, unemployment was not only associated
with crime but also dissent and protest.

The VCP definition of vagrancy also unequivocally focuses on the

individual an able-bodied person not having any visible means
of subsistence. The proclamation never mentions a single causal or
contributing factor social, economic, cultural or political. Thus it
fails to recognise the multiple factors that can force young people into
activities defined as vagrancy, including an ineffective education system,
lack of work, and the expectations of society that young people quickly
become independent adults (Miles 2003: 189). As discussed earlier, a
political context which removes systems of direct and indirect support
for youth employment pushes young people to the margins of illegal
activities. When opportunities for transition into adulthood become
narrow, young people engage in activities such as hustling. By focusing
on the survival strategies of these economically marginalised young
people, the VCP missed the root cause of the problem.

To conclude, the VCP came into being when the political context and
limited economic opportunities had led a large number of unemployed
youth to hustle for survival through a combination of legal and illegal

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activities. Both societal narratives and the VCP perceived the survival
strategies of the youth and the situation they were forced into as
deviance; hence a threat that needed legal intervention (Mains 2012).
However, the VCP was not the only approach that the EPRDF used to
address youth issues. It also produced a youth policy that is discussed in
the following section.

4.2 National Youth Policy

Endorsed on 12 March 2004, the National Youth Policy (NYP) is one
of Ethiopias most significant youth-specific state documents. It argues
that an age-based definition of youth is most suitable for research and
policy purposes (MYSC 2004: 3), and goes on to define youth as people
between 15 and 29 years. The NYP envisions creating [an] empowered
young generation (op. cit.: 19) with values incorporating a democratic
outlook, knowledge, professional skills, organised engagement and ethical
integrity. The objectives of the policy include: to bring about active
participation of youth (ibid.) in socioeconomic, political and cultural
activities; and enable [youth] to fairly benefit from the results (ibid.).

The VCP and NYP emerged at approximately the same time and
within the same socioeconomic and political context. However, the
NYP was produced based on a comprehensive study (op. cit.: 1) which
involved consultation with stakeholders including youth. The study
conducted as a baseline for the policy identify pervasiveness of extreme
poverty (44 per cent in 2004), high youth unemployment (67 per cent in
1999), high prevalence of HIV/AIDS and low enrolment in secondary
and higher education as major challenges for Ethiopian youth.
Furthermore, the countrys long history of non-democratic politics is
highlighted as a hindrance to meaningful youth participation.

There are two levels of narrative within the NYP: a broad narrative
about the status of youth, and a narrative more specific to youth
employment. At the broader level, high levels of poverty, economic
and political marginalisation are identified as main factors restricting
young peoples potential energies and capabilities (op. cit.: 5). The
policy envisions changing the dire socioeconomic and political situation
through active participation (op. cit.: 19) of the youth. The government
aims to play an instrumental role to help youth organise themselves and
actively participate in development endeavours, building democratic
system and good governance (op. cit.: 21).

The narrative specific to youth employment issues has multiple layers.

The NYP suggests that the government alone cannot resolve the
problem of unemployment (op. cit.: 12). Hence, the policy aims to create
favourable conditions for the youth to create new jobs for themselves
(op. cit.: 26), and to enable the private sector to create job opportunities
for them. It also advocates for policy interventions that shape both
formal and informal employment opportunities, and suggests that these
can help address the under- and unemployment problems among youth.
With regard to rural youth, ensuring access to land and expansion

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of off-farm activities are identified as part of the solution to youth

unemployment.

One of the most important framings adopted by the NYP is an

agebased definition of youth. While it is not the only document to
use age-based definitions, taking an age-based definition has serious
limitations. One of these is the tendency for homogenisation, despite
important differences arising from gender, culture, socioeconomic
status and geographic location. For example, the kinds of expectations,
experiences, challenges and opportunities facing young men and women
vary significantly despite age similarities. Mains (2012) for instance
talks of barriers to adulthood for young men in Jimma town because
of limited economic opportunities to move towards marriage and
fatherhood. In this case, young men are forced into a prolonged period
of transitioning into adulthood. On the contrary, young women might
be forced by cultural practices of early marriage, even as young as ten,
which inevitably shortens their period of transition. It is also important
to note the salient role that socioeconomic status and geographic location
play in shaping young peoples lives, despite belonging to the same age
cohort. For example, young people from wealthy families may have better
access to opportunities than other young people in the same age cohort.
Likewise, social norms, values and practices based on age hierarchies
among different cultural groups across the country also vary considerably.
Hence, the age-based definition needs to be used with caution.

The other main characterisation of youth in the NYP is in terms of their

receptiveness to new ideas, [their] potential capacity for creativity and
productivity, and potential energies and capabilities. This framing is
supported by depictions of youth as nation builders and positive agents
of change. While focusing on the potential capabilities of young people,
the NYP also identifies present-day challenges that may compromise
the future for example, young people as potential victims of an
unfavourable environment broadly categorised as economic and social
problems. Here youth are portrayed as marginalised and vulnerable
members of society who are exposed to social evils (MYSC 2004: 5).

In response to the crisis around the 2005 election, the government relied
on the VCP instead of the NYP. As argued earlier, unemployed young
people in the informal economy were targeted because of their direct
involvement in the post-election violence. Furthermore, the highly
technocratic approach of the NYP, with its stakeholder engagement
and strategic plan, was not deemed to be useful in the short term. The
EPRDF-led government faced a serious crisis of political legitimacy
because of the post-election violence. It chose to address this among
the youth through massive political mobilisation: the political priority
was addressing the legitimacy deficit, irrespective of the existing youth
policy framework.

In general, it can be argued that the NYP illustrated the case in which the
political context becomes a vital factor in shaping policy processes. When

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the NYP was formulated, the government was not under any immediate
political pressure. However, when the political environmentbecame tense,
the NYP was not used to guide the political processes of cooperation
and negotiation with the youth that the government badly needed. The
political urgency required another policy framework, and as a result the
government drafted and introduced the Youth Development Package
(YDP) that directly serves the political interest of the government. The
following section further elaborates on the YDP.

4.3 Youth Development Package

The Youth Development Package (YDP) was launched in September
2006. The associated documentation claims that the YDP reflects
consultations with youth in both urban and rural areas (FDRE 2006: 6).
Based on the consultations, the YDP was formulated to address three
burning problems: unemployment, unavailability of wellequipped
and youth-focused social services and recreational centres and
exclusion and lack of participation forums. A number of strategic
directions are set out through which these issues will be addressed.
Perhaps the key one is the endorsement of youth as the front-leaders
to solve the problems they are facing. Additional strategic directions
include: enabling the youth to understand its leading role, facilitating
[the creation of] youth participation forums, enhancing young peoples
educational, vocational and leadership skills for improved participation,
and organizing the youth depending on their interests. The package
assigns the role of key supporter to the state in addressing the burning
problems. The YDP adopts the age-based definition of youth set by the
NYP and approaches the problems of urban, rural and pastoralist youth
differently (ibid.: 119).

The YDP emerged as a response to the 2005 post-election violence:

in effect, the government used the YDP to try to mend its relations
with young people. The central narrative of the YDP focuses on the
imminent risk associated with youth marginalisation. This narrative
establishes a direct connection between the status of youth and both
the existing and future socioeconomic and political orders. The central
proposition that the level of exclusion and desperation among youth
has detrimental effects in the present and the future suggests the YDP
is mainly meant to mitigate serious risk. Within this narrative, the
YDP addresses youth as vital actors: in the present as nation builders,
and in the future as inheritors or successors. Youth need to prepare
themselves to be leaders of their time, while the government must play
its role to prepare the youth to become inheritors (ibid.: 2).

Unemployment is identified as one of the burning problems that

requires a coordinated response, and it is argued that the causes of
youth unemployment in urban and rural areas have both similarities
and differences. Some common causes are identified such as limited
skills development and exclusion of those who are not in education,
employment or training. It is also suggested that limited access to
financial services restricts youth entrepreneurship. Two factors are

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posited to contribute specifically to urban youth unemployment, with

the first being the constraining environment that inhibits the private
sector and specifically growth of micro and small enterprises (MSEs).
The second factor is that the education system needs to produce
entrepreneurial youth with improved skills and mind-set. The YDP
argues that unemployment among rural youth is deeply rooted in the
land tenure system, which excludes them and makes them property-
less. The document notes that the national agricultural policy neglects
the specific challenges of rural youth, which contributes to their high
economic vulnerability. In order to address these problems, the
YDP aims to expand off-farm employment and income-generating
opportunities (ibid.: 58).

Two observations can be made about the YDP. First, it can be seen as
an example of a policy process that responded quickly to a particular
political crisis. Political expedience the Prime Ministers Office
formulated the YDP and ordered the Ministry of Youth, Sports and
Culture (MYSC) to implement it meant that the finer points of
policy formulation, like consultation, went out of the window. Broadly
speaking, the YDP is fairly similar in its narratives and framings to the
NYP. But it also has unique features: for example, despite adopting
the age-based definition of youth, the YDP attempts to broadly
categorise youth in terms of their geographical location and primary
socioeconomic activities. In doing so, the YDP categorised youth as
being either urban, rural or pastoral. Challenges and opportunities
that correspond to these categories were also elaborated. Perhaps the
long-standing EPRDF tradition of producing detailed political strategy
documents came into play in the production of the YDP. Whilst
the NYP followed the formal structure and presentation of a policy
document, the YDP is produced in a detailed 90-page document similar
to other political strategy and propaganda documents.

Second, while relying fairly on similar framings and narratives to

the NYP, the YDP clearly acknowledged structural and institutional
constraints on youth. The government did not stop at identifying
the constraints; it also acted swiftly to address both economic and
political marginalisation. For example, it highlighted the expansion
of MSEs, and provided young people with financial and technical
assistance to start their own businesses. Obviously, since the programme
was primarily initiated to regain the governments legitimacy, the
sustainability and long-term impact must be carefully examined.
However, the effort required to address youth unemployment with
actual job creation programmes should be recognised. As part of the
effort to address the political marginalisation of young people, the
EPRDF also initiated Youth Forums, particularly in Addis Ababa, as a
permanent consultation platform between youth and the government.

4.4 National development plans

Three national development plans have been adopted since 2005, and
in different ways each addressed youth issues and particularly youth

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employment. The Plan for Accelerated and Sustainable Development

to End Poverty (PASDEP) (200510) (MoFED 2006) emerged as part of
the global effort to reduce poverty which had the effect of reducing any
sense of ownership on the part of the Ethiopian government. With the
subsequent Growth and Transformation Plans (GTP I from 201015,
and GTP II from 201520), the government enjoyed more policy space
to formulate its own approach and plans. After electoral defeat in several
constituencies, the EPRDF engaged in mass mobilisation, effective political
restrictions and huge public sector investment (Aalen and Tronvoll 2009;
Gudina 2011). These activities contributed to the party winning 99.6per
cent of the parliament seats during the 2010 elections. The national
development plans need to be examined in relation to the political context
from which they emerge. Accordingly, in GTP I, the government officially
declared its aim to build a democratic developmental state (MoFED
2010: 22), and this was reaffirmed in GTP II. Both plans were preceded
by national elections that gave the ruling party control of almost all
parliamentary seats. Hence, the development plans were also commitments
through which the ruling elite sought to consolidate its legitimacy.

PASDEP addressed youth employment by incorporating the narratives

of NYP and the ten-year multi-sector and five-year strategic plans that
followed the NYP. By aligning PASDEP and NYP, the government
attempted to maintain some level of policy coherence. However, as
noted earlier, once the YDP entered the policy scene, it replaced all other
youthspecific policy frameworks. GTP I approached youth issues in
tandem with sports, and youth-specific objectives were presented in broad
terms: [T]o increase the participation of youth in democratic governance
and economic development processes (ibid.: 112). The three identified
GTP I targets for youth development were increasing youth centres at
district level; youth mainstreaming in development programmes; and
increasing the number of youth volunteers. No clear indication was given
as to how youth employment would be addressed. GTP II maintained
the broad objective of enhancing meaningful youth participation in
the socioeconomic and political arenas. GTP II defines youth as seeds
of development and democracy and aims to make them sources of
developmental investors through entrepreneurship schemes (MoFED
2015: 86) It further argues that youth employment is best addressed
by organising young people in MSEs. The plan aims to integrate the
job creation and entrepreneurship programmes with education and
training and the manufacturing sector (ibid: 127). To this end, it set a
goal of organising 7.43 million young people in MSEs and 1.35 million
in cooperative unions. These plans included making approximately
366million available to young entrepreneurs.

In all three documents, the age-based definition of the NYP was

the main departure point. Youth issues are also presented as cross-
cutting in the national development plans. At the same time, there is a
shared portrayal of youth as a marginalised and excluded segment of
society that needs coordinated support. GTP II in particular uses the
phrase seeds of democracy and development (ibid.: 86) to embed the

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process of growing up into the political and economic discourse of the

developmental state.

5 Discussions and conclusions

Three main learning points can be identified. The first is that context
plays a critical role in influencing when a policy emerges, how it is
formulated and implemented, and who gets involved. The VCP, NYP,
YDP and the national development plans emerged in different contexts
and these contexts are reflected in their respective narratives, framings
and implementation. The structural adjustment period that caused
the economic marginalisation of youth did not trigger a direct policy
response. Rather, the resulting prolonged period of unemployment and
transition was treated as a sign of deviance and a threat to society, and
the VCP was crafted as a remedy. The NYP, while in many ways good
intentioned, had minimum impact, and was quickly overtaken by the
YDP and GTPs after the 2005 election crisis. The post-election crisis
provided the EPRDF with lessons about the relevance of cooperation and
negotiation, and as a result new framings were introduced that recognised
the marginalisation of youth and the need for them to be included.

The second point is about how policies in turn affect the way politics
is pursued. For example, the VCP with its narrow perspective arguably
contributed to the 2005 conflict. On the other hand, policies with a
different point of departure, which are not focused on criminalising
youth such as the creation of Youth Forums and promotion of MSEs
can promote political processes based on cooperation and negotiation.

The third point is that policies rooted in long-term developmental

objectives and the political vision of the state tend to be consistent
in their narratives and framings, and can be effective in identifying
root causes and delivering tangible outcomes. As a result of its strong
developmentalist orientation, the Ethiopian state can claim to have
created millions of jobs and self-employment opportunities for youth.

In terms of addressing youth employment, two points need to be

underlined. First, the challenges of youth employment cannot be
addressed with categorical approaches to defining youth or with
approaches that frame young people as isolated individuals. The VCPs
criminalising narrative stems from detaching the individual young person
from the socioeconomic and political context in which they live. Second,
when broader socioeconomic and political contexts are taken into
account, challenges of youth employment can be addressed systematically.
The NYP, YDP and GTP II identified structural and institutional
challenges, which set the stage for effective long-term intervention.

Finally, the analysis demonstrates that it is important to examine youth

employment within the context of the broader socioeconomic and political
dynamics of the state. How state elites pursue their political purposes
determines the developmental orientation of the state. These broader
political dynamics inevitably shape youth employment policy processes.

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The Side-Hustle: Diversified

Livelihoods of Kenyan Educated
Young Farmers

Grace Muthoni Mwaura*

Abstract Side-hustling the engagement in diverse income-earning

activities has become a common phenomenon among Kenyan educated
youth who are increasingly faced with formal employment uncertainties.
Inthis article, I examine how aspirations and expectations of educated
youth are formed within their opportunity space, involving their assessment
of what is possible within their geographical, socioeconomic and political
contexts, and given their own qualities and characteristics. Through the
life stories of six educated young farmers interviewed in 2014, I show how
side-hustling offered them an alternative livelihood strategy; a means for
self-improvement; and a reconfiguration of their imagined futures. The
article suggests moving beyond our deductive statistical analyses of who is
employed and who is not; and instead utilising a youth livelihood framework
which helps to understand how young people make meaning of themselves
and opportunities around them in extreme socioeconomic conditions.

Keywords: Africa, agricultural livelihoods, entrepreneurship.

1 Introduction
The twenty-first century is marred with images of waiting youth (Honwana
2012) who have become marginalised through under- and unemployment
and are increasingly disconnected from their life aspirations. Nonetheless,
these youth are not just waiting; they continually develop new subjectivities
that enable them to manoeuvre the changing labour markets. They
choose to reconstruct their aspirations through a range of new social
relationships (Durham 2007), multiple identities (Gough and Langevang
2015), new political formations (Honwana 2012), and entrepreneurial
individuality (Thieme 2013). To fully comprehend youth responses to
economic austerity, it is important to examine the nexus of the flexibility
of protracted youthhood inspired by neoliberal reforms and resultant
socioeconomic uncertainties, as well as other specific local changes.

In this article, I examine side-hustling in agriculture as one response

by educated youth to economic austerity. I broadly view the side-hustle
2017 The Author. IDS Bulletin Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.126
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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

as that which young people do on the side during their free time, on
weekends or in the evenings, not merely to supplement their incomes
but also as a capital accumulation strategy in preparation for other
livelihood opportunities. These side-activities are conducted alongside
schooling, while job-seeking (locally referred to as tarmacking) (Prince
2013), caring for the family, and even when employed.

The notion of side-hustling is important for understanding youth

livelihoods in contemporary contexts for several reasons. First,
sidehustling allows us to show what educated youth do when facing
uncertainties about employment. Second, it suggests that youth
employment should not be viewed through the lens of a single job.
Thirdly, inasmuch as side-hustling is a supplementary source of
income, it also fulfils other imaginations of young people such as
attaining social markers of adulthood. Indeed, side-hustles illuminate
how the aspirations of educated youth change when they anticipate
or face livelihood uncertainties, and how they develop diversified
career trajectories that potentially enable them to attain the desired
social markers of adulthood, while also avoiding the stigma of being
unemployed youth (Prince 2013).

This article begins by providing an overview of youth employment and

agriculture in Kenya. In Section 3, it contextualises side-hustling in the
conceptual framework of opportunity space. Section 4 discusses the
methods of data collection used. Section 5 presents six life stories of
educated young farmers focusing on their variations of sidehustling.
Section 6 analyses how side-hustling helps understand the everyday life
of young people in terms of providing a livelihood strategy, shaping
their identities and reconfiguring their aspirations. Finally, Section
7 concludes with implications for policy and recommendations for
furtherresearch.

2 Youth employment and agriculture in Kenya

Although Kenyan youth1 make up 60 per cent2 of the working
population (NCPD 2013), their contribution to economic development
remains low, posing a great challenge to the sustained growth envisaged
by government. For instance, in 2009, the National Human Development
Report recorded a youth income index of 0.44, meaning a high
dependency ratio and continued struggles for youth to earn a living
(UNDP 2010). Even with an increasing number of young people
completing primary and secondary education, only approximately
200,000 students per year proceed to higher learning institutions, with a
small fraction of these completing university and securing employment
afterwards (Njonjo 2011). This article is concerned with the role that
education plays in configuring and reconfiguring the aspirations of
young people in a context where the labour market offers limited formal
employment opportunities for young people.

The idea that agriculture can provide significant numbers of jobs for
young people is now accepted in most African countries. In Kenya,

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it is part of a well-established policy narrative that supports informal

sector work and self-employment in rural areas. However, this narrative
is problematic for two reasons. First, it excludes educated youth who
it is claimed reject rural-based occupations as dirty and demeaning,
aspiring instead to white-collar formal employment. Second, it fails to
consider the broader context of the Kenyan agriculture sector which
has significantly changed since the structural reforms of the 1980s
(Rono 2002). Even though agriculture contributes 25 per cent directly
and 27 per cent indirectly to the countrys gross domestic product
(GDP), the national budget allocation to the sector remains at only 5 per
cent of total expenditure (GoK 2013). As such, the sector fails to attract
and retain skilled human capital capable of driving profitability and
sustainability. Most youth are educated to leave the maisha ngumu (hard
life) in the rural areas.

While some studies show that indeed young people in the past have
been educated out of farming (White 2012), others argue that even with
increased education, migration and urbanisation, many African youth
will continue to live in the rural areas and thereby will rely directly or
indirectly on agricultural livelihoods (Filmer et al. 2014). These studies
underpin the youth in agriculture narrative that seeks to entice young
people to become farmers by making agriculture cool, sexy and
lucrative (AGRA 2015). Fundamentally, this narrative segues with
neoliberal frames of entrepreneurship and has produced agribusiness
farming as a business as the new opportunity space for youth
self-employment (Sumberg et al. 2014). In particular, agriculture is
to be made attractive to educated youth through the combination of
entrepreneurship and the potential to expand opportunities beyond the
farm, including service provision, processing and marketing (Proctor
and Lucchesi 2012).

While for some educated youth, agriculture could be an undesirable

last resort or not an option at all (Tadele and Gella 2012) or just boring
(Lewa and Ndungu 2012), to others, agriculture provides quick incomes
that facilitate a transition into other activities that promise social and
economic gain (Berckmoes and White 2014). For instance, Okali and
Sumberg (2012) found that young Ghanaians farmed tomatoes to build
capital with which to meet other social and economic needs, attain
economic independence, and then shift to other types of livelihoods.
Fundamentally, the change in perceptions occurs when young people
start re-imagining agriculture as an entrepreneurial venture facilitating
their moving forward and getting a total reward (Fanthorpe and
Maconachie 2010). What was once seen as a denigrated occupation,
and not a first choice, becomes desirable because it allows investing in
oneself and starting up something on your own (Gough and Langevang
2015). Here young people view themselves not as farmers, but as
creative agents who try to seize the available opportunities to improve
their positions (Langevang and Gough 2012: 248). While the discursive
frames of entrepreneurship and agribusiness camouflage the experience
of under- and unemployment within precarious economies, they also set

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the stage for side-hustling. This article will show how side-hustles allow
young people to reconstitute themselves as subjects capable of offering
products and services, which enable them to meet livelihoods needs,
achieve elite distinction and transition into social adulthood.

3 Side-hustles and the opportunity space framework

Conceptually, side-hustles are different from hustling. Hustling has been
described as the everyday survival strategies of marginalised young
people to capitalise on every opportunity to earn an income or generate
symbolic capital in extreme economic landscapes (Munive 2010;
Thieme 2013). Munives research with Liberian youth depicts hustling
as a common phenomenon in African cities where young men and
women work, for example, as load carriers, motorcycle riders, weekend
farmers, petty traders or street food caterers. He argues that hustling is
both a survival strategy to address material constraints, and a means of
crafting an identity, creating a self-efficacious and meaningful existence.
As Thieme (2013) observed among young men in the Mathare slums
in Kenya, hustling can also be understood as a cumulative set of
behaviours contesting existing structures of authority. Importantly,
hustlers resist the identity given to unemployed youth by those in
authority as being desperate and lacking opportunities; and instead view
hustling as offering them a good life on their own terms, and enabling
them to maintain a status in society even in difficult circumstances.
Successful hustling reflects an individuals intentional strategies,
ingenuity and social networks (Munive 2010; Thieme 2013).

Building on Thiemes and Munives work, this article focuses on what

my respondents referred to as a side-hustle to pursue alternative
livelihood activities on the margins of a constrained agricultural
economy. A side-hustle might be income-earning in the present, or
could lead to economic gain in the future. For the educated youth with
whom I worked, side-hustling was seen as offering potential for upward
social mobility (Mwaura 2016).

In the broader framework of youth employment and livelihoods, the

inquiry of side-hustling is important because formal employment
opportunities are severely constrained. There is, therefore, the need
to understand how young men and women perceive and respond to
this challenge. As work opportunities emerge (and others shrink), ones
aspirations change and expectations are reformulated to reflect what is
possible (Hardgrove, Rootham and McDowell 2015).

Sumberg et al. define opportunity space as:

the spatial and temporal distribution of the universe of more or

less viable [work] options that a young person may exploit as she/he
attempts to establish an independent life. The opportunity space of a
situated person is a function of global, national, and regional factors
including institutions, policy, and demand; place; and social and
cultural norms (2012: 5).

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In this regard, young peoples aspirations and expectations are

determined by the existing broader circumstances, such as financial
crisis, education, technology, migration, urbanisation, environmental
change and social-cultural norms among others (Leavy and Smith
2010). Opportunity space can be analysed in terms of depth, diversity
and dynamism, reflecting on one hand, the interplay of forces existing
in the broader geographical, social-economic and political contexts in
which these opportunities exist and on the other hand, the differentiated
capabilities and dispositions of young people. The extent to which a
young person is able to exploit a given opportunity is a function of their
access to key resources; support from social relations and networks;
information, knowledge and skills; attitudes (e.g. towards risk and travel);
imagination, alertness and adroitness to judiciously exploit opportunities
(Sumberg et al. 2012). In effect, opportunities range from last resort
survival strategies to transformative livelihood strategies that result in
real incomes, enhance capabilities, address social equity and exclusion,
and offer livelihood diversification opportunities.

4 Methods
This article draws from my doctoral study carried out in 2014 and
2015 in Eastern, Western, and Central regions of Kenya investigating
the changing aspirations and alternative livelihood options of educated
youth. Educated youth were defined as those aged 1835 years and with
post-secondary education at degree, diploma or vocational certificate
levels. I worked with a sample of 60 educated young farmers. First, I
selected participants from social media platforms of young farmers who
then referred me to other young farmers who met my criteria. Second,
I utilised contact lists of organisations working on youth in agriculture
to reach out to young people benefiting from their programmes.
Third, I attended various events on youth in agriculture and selected
participants based on their self-identification as farmers and their
willingness to participate in the study.

The data collection process involved 60 open-ended interviews and

field visits. I also followed the young farmers online activity via social
media to monitor any new information regarding their farming and
other income-earning activities. I transcribed, coded and analysed
the data using NVivo. This article presents the life stories of six young
farmers to show how they pursued alternative livelihoods alongside or
when seeking formal jobs. The six were selected on the basis of their
mention of agriculture and other activities as side-things they engaged
in. I specifically analyse how these individuals perceived changes in the
labour market and viewed the potential of their agricultural activities
to provide the needed income, achieve elite distinction, and satisfy their
responsibilities in society.

5 Life stories
The six individuals whose stories are given next belong to a generation
born in the 1980s during a time of structural adjustment and economic
liberalisation. By the 1990s, government spending cuts led to a

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significant downsizing of the public sector. While educated youth of

previous generations were socialised to expect white-collar employment
upon graduation (Munene and Otieno 2008), this new generation finds
few formal sector employment opportunities. Officially, although only
an estimated 15.7 per cent of 2529-year-olds (the age group coinciding
with completion of tertiary and/or higher education) are unemployed,
the rate of underemployment is very high, and it takes approximately
five years for a graduate to secure a job (Njonjo 2011).

5.1 Wangechi
It is a side thing; I did it [farming, training young farmers, blogging, and
writing farming manuals] for one year in 2013 close to full-time, because I
had sponsorship from a womens organisation. Now that I am done with the
fellowship, I am thinking of going back to work because I had actually quit my
job to do this for a year. (Wangechi, female farmer, Central Kenya)

Wangechi (28 years old) was introduced as a strawberry farmer. When

we met in 2014, she was leading a community-based organisation
(CBO) in Kiambu County while undertaking postgraduate studies
in one of Nairobis public universities. In 2013, the CBO received a
fellowship grant which enabled Wangechi to mobilise and build the
capacity of young farmers in her county. She had successfully trained
over 500 youth; developed one of the leading blogs on agricultural
information and youth farming opportunities; and published manuals
on modern farming practices. At the time of the interview, she had just
completed the fellowship grant and was registering a company separate
from the CBO through which she planned to continue offering the
trainings for a fee and blogging, while she sought a formal job. However,
Wangechi had quit strawberry farming after several failed attempts and
had no intention of going back to farming. She viewed the trainings, the
blogging and the publishing of farming manuals as her side-hustle as
she completed her postgraduate studies and searched for a formal job.

5.2 Wambaya
Wambaya (26 years old) was a telephone3 horticultural and dairy farmer
in Western Kenya. He was also seeking a white-collar job while pursuing
other entrepreneurial opportunities in Nairobi. After graduating in 2011,
Wambaya had volunteered with several international organisations in
Kenya, Ethiopia and Japan, but none of these experiences had led to
a job. He then established himself as a freelance consultant offering
online research training, volunteered with development organisations,
and acquired new information and communications technology (ICT)
skills. In late 2013, Wambaya invested in a greenhouse that was managed
by his mother and a farm worker in Migori. He also bought two dairy
cattle, which provided enough income through milk sales to pay the farm
workers wages. When I visited his farm, Wambayas mother described
her son as unemployed and viewed his investments in agriculture as
security for when he would return to the rural areas after failing to find
a formal job. During our interview in mid-2014, none of the farming
projects were yet to turn a profit, and Wambaya had not travelled to

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Migori. Nevertheless, he was determined to make agriculture a major

income source and was already planning his next projects in fish farming
and drip irrigation. His newly acquired ICT skills had enabled him to
collaborate with a friend and invest in an online marketing business.
While his goal was to use the profits from these ventures to expand
his farm, he also intended to diversify into other enterprises: Like any
other businessman will tell you, I will also invest outside farming. I want
to diversify to cushion myself. Because you dont know what might
happen in future. Even though he referred to himself as a businessman,
Wambaya was still seeking a formal job and intended to pursue a
postgraduate degree the following year. Similar to Wangechi, he was
using every opportunity in Migori and Nairobi to diversify his options
and build capital in preparation for his desired future.

5.3 Cherunya
Oh my God, No! I was thinking of how I would become a diplomat, attend to
political parties, and be fabulous. I did not imagine soil and stuff. It was never
in my plan. But that happened during my transition when I got married
so I had to naturally blend into the culture. (Cherunya, female farmer,
WesternKenya)

Cherunya (33 years old) was from a wealthy family in Western Kenya and
educated at prestigious schools in Uganda and Kenya. Upon graduating,
she worked with a policy thinktank in Nairobi where she expected to
rise up the ladder into the diplomatic service. Nevertheless, on getting
married, she acquired a new identity as a wife which meant blending into
the culture and so migrating to rural Kericho to assume the traditional
roles of a Kalenjin wife. She cared for her ageing parents-in-law and
like other housewives in her community, established a kitchen garden.
However, given her knowledge and access to resources, Cherunyas
kitchen garden included modern poultry rearing and a greenhouse,
both of which were income-earning. She also opened a grocery shop in
the nearby trading centre where she sold most of her produce. Despite
assuming the traditional roles of a Kalenjin housewife, Cherunya also
positioned herself in the community as a gender activist, soon establishing
a womens empowerment group and becoming a local politician. While
farming had not been her choice, Cherunya used her kitchen garden to
teach the local women entrepreneurial skills, thereby achieving her goal
of being politically active, while fulfilling her obligations as a housewife.

5.4 Musembi
After my internship, I tarmacked for like a year, thats when I was very busy
with the farm. (Musembi, male farmer, Eastern Kenya)

Musembi (28 years old) was a diploma graduate, a development worker,

and an online degree student living and working in rural Kitui, Eastern
Kenya. Unlike other educated youth in his community who migrated to
urban areas to seek formal jobs, after earning his diploma Musembi had
returned to Kitui where he worked for a local organisation, enrolled for an
online degree programme, and later married. He self-identified as a young

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farmer growing horticultural and other crops on a piece of land inherited

from his parents. He had started farming to finance the tarmacking for
a formal job after college, but even after he found one (itwas seasonal
and paid very low wages) Musembi continued farming as it supports me
when I am not on contract. The income from farming and the contract
job enabled him to sustain his family and pay for his online degree course.
Musembi was optimistic that the online course would help him find a
well-paid job, but in the meantime, farming remained a significant source
of income that shaped his identity as an educated man with responsibility
to support his nuclear and extended family.

5.5 Joe
Joe (30 years old) was a full-time business journalist in Nairobi and
self-identified as a young farmer, leasing five acres of land in Kajiado
County in Central Kenya where he grew onions under a contractual
arrangement with an international seed company. Our conversation
started on the subject of his current occupation, business journalism;
only later did it emerge that Joe had trained as a veterinary doctor but
never practised:

I went to university because I passed with a good grade that could take me
to university to earn a degree. But when I got there, I realised I was drawn
to communications and not [veterinary] science. It was a long struggle I
didnt like it because we were doing it for a job I dont really use it now
Thats why we go to university; to identify what we really want to do [So]
when at the university I used to do a [radio] show on entrepreneurship and was
encouraging young people to invest.

Joe realised his passion for journalism in his first year of university,
but the administration and his parents did not allow him to change his
area of study. He therefore went ahead to pursue veterinary science,
but worked as a broadcaster at the university radio station for the four
years. During this period, he developed an interest in business and
planned his radio programmes around youth entrepreneurship. This
experience landed him a business journalism job after university. From
there he enrolled for a second degree in media studies. Even though he
was aware that his progress as a journalist depended on his educational
qualifications, Joe was disappointed that the education system had
already failed to match his aspirations, or at least, enable learners to
provide solutions to the society. To get a pay rise or promotion at his
workplace, Joe needed to earn a postgraduate degree and at the time of
the interview, was considering enrolling.

Joes drive was no longer in just becoming a journalist; he was now

focused on wealth accumulation and promotion in the journalism
industry, and success in his side-businesses were major parts of his plan.
Only a few months into farming, Joe referred to it as a hobby: I am not
a journalist on the weekends. I am in my wellies, my hat, and its a lot
of fun just like going to play golf. However, he planned to eventually
expand it into a large-scale farm for export purposes:

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It [farming] is my pet project, and it is fun Its a new thing, but it was not
cool five years ago. If you look at it as a business, its cool This business needs
to grow, because when you move into exports, you are talking big money. I am
planning to go into farming for export.

Joes income from journalism was split between supporting his family,
saving for a postgraduate degree and investing in the farm. Similar to
Wambaya, he viewed the current farming activities as experimental
projects that would eventually grow into major investments.

5.6 Matei
Matei (34 years old) was educated in Machakos, Eastern Kenya, and
lived and worked there for a development organisation. He identified
himself as a successful young farmer and an entrepreneur: he had
managed to purchase a plot of land, build a house, and marry. He had
also inherited a piece of land from his father where he was farming
sweet potatoes, cassava, mangoes and bananas. Alongside his formal
employment, Matei was committed to earning extra income from
his farm and other side-businesses (the nature of which he would not
disclose). When I asked him why diversifying his income was important,
he responded: I dont want my family to hustle, implying the need
for him to move his family beyond survival mode. He also pointed to
the fact that formal employment did not give him the independence
he desired. Thus, agriculture and the other side-businesses were
progressively opening up new opportunities for him to become
financially independent while also accumulating capital.

His wife lived in Machakos town and refused to migrate to their newly
constructed house in the neighbouring rural area. She argued that
relocating to a rural neighbourhood would symbolise a meagre living,
not in keeping with the expectations of society of an educated and
modern family.

6 Whats in a side-hustle?
Wangechi, Wambaya, Cherunya, Musembi, Joe and Matei are examples
of how present-day educated youth in Kenya are re-imagining their
futures and pursuing work opportunities in the absence of formal sector
employment. Their transition from one activity to another shows how
they seize contingent labour market opportunities while keeping an eye
on possible future opportunities. Their strategies to remain employable
yet entrepreneurially active are similar to the description of a side-hustle
in a recent news feature:

A side hustle is a business people run while concurrently doing

something else. The something else in many cases is a full-time job,
so you operate your side hustle after working hours and on weekends.
Or rather, thats what all employers would like to believe. Most
probably, you sneak in a few logistical phone calls, emails, meetings,
etc The something else could be that you are in university or are a
stay-at-home parent (Nduati Omanga 2016).

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Indeed, side-hustling is how young people, given their differential

capabilities, position themselves within and exploit the opportunity
space. While Betcherman and Khan (2015) argue that youth livelihoods
in agriculture reflect a variety of factors including land tenure,
lack of investments in technology and infrastructure, and limited
profitability the multiple identities of these six young farmers suggest
a need to acknowledge that education changes the nature of livelihood
opportunities for young people and in agriculture. Additionally,
sidehustling is an indicator of the self-improvement strategies of young
people and their continuous efforts to rework their work aspirations in a
constrained economy.

6.1 A livelihood strategy

Side-hustling has become deeply entrenched in the Kenyan culture of
work and it is fast becoming socially acceptable among young employed
professionals, students and those seeking jobs and working in their first
or temporary jobs. Journalists, teachers, civil servants, doctors and even
politicians talk of side-hustles when informally sharing information
about how they supplement their monthly income. Side-hustles shape
ones identity as opportunities for self-advancement present themselves
in a precarious social and economic context. Ku4 hustle is the new
language and symbol for making ends meet among the young people
who use phrases like I also have a ka-farm5 back in the village and
I am thinking of my next hustle to explain their supplementary
income activities. While it is not class-based (even though class-based
sidehustles exist), failing to side-hustle is construed as laziness or being
too posh to earn extra income from presumably available economic
opportunities. Nevertheless, side-hustles are often difficult, and can
involve risk, loss and failure.

Among the educated young farmers, side-hustling exhibited the

temporality and uncertainty of most agricultural activity as well as
the possibility of having options beyond agriculture. Sometimes, as
in Wangechis case, side-hustles can be regarded as short stints of
profitmaking and ways of accumulating capital, contributing to
attainment of social markers of adulthood. Even so, sometimes they
are also opportunities of just moving around rather than moving up
and away from the economic uncertainties and marginalisation that the
young people face, for example in Musembis case.

The choice of a side-hustle is determined by ones availability, expected

gains, and access to necessary capital. The main goal is to earn an
income. Those involved remain flexible to stop some or pick up new
side-hustles as dictated by evolving challenges and opportunities. The
educated young farmers I interviewed embodied an entrepreneurial
identity that included a plan to maximise profits, adopt innovations,
and improve the quality of their farm products and services, while
coping with risk. This was the case for Joe, Wambaya and Matei. Many
were also driven by a last resort instinct and an immediate need to
accumulate capital that would propel their upward social mobility, to

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support their families and to maintain certain distinctions in society.

For example, Musembis agribusiness provided the much needed
economic and symbolic capital that helped him in his efforts to find
a job; and Cherunya utilised her kitchen garden to empower women,
hence creating the social capital for her transition into politics. These
young farmers confirm previous studies indicating that, not only do
entrepreneurs respond to static economic pressures, they also change
and mould new opportunities in such difficult situations (Langevang and
Gough 2012).

6.2 A self-improvement strategy

Side-hustling is an important marker of a young persons self-making
efforts, allowing them to gain financial independence and social
acceptability among peers and in society more generally. As formal
employment is declining in number and in status, educated young people
are choosing occupations that help them develop new subjectivities
expressed as doing work for myself , hence drawing on the neoliberal
ideologies of self-making (Durham 2007), competitive individualism
(Standing 2011), and multiplicity of identities (Schwiter 2016). Matei
and Joes stories illustrate the creation of these new subjectivities.

On the other hand, side-hustling can also supplement formal jobs that
young people find unsatisfactory due to their low wages, temporary
contracts, skills mismatch, and sometimes lack of personal development
opportunities. They turn to side-hustles to recreate work as something
flexible and that allows them to exercise their agency. As a result, their
everyday lives are characterised by creative use of space and time that
allows self-improvement, re-working new identities, and re-imagining
their futures. For instance, Wangechi, Musembi, Wambaya and Joe
planned to pursue further education alongside their side-hustles to
improve their skillset and remain competitive in their professional fields.
In the absence of state social protection mechanisms, Matei, Musembi
and Wambaya planned to utilise farming to accumulate capital a
valuable safety net if they lost their jobs. Musembis formal job was
contractual, and hence his farming activities provided an income when
he was without salary, while furthering his education would, he hoped,
position him for a well-paid job in the future. Similarly, Wambayas
ICT skills helped him operate online businesses, while Joes journalism
experience had landed him a job even without having the specific
academic qualifications.

However, as in Cherunyas case, social norms and differences might

block some opportunities while opening up others. Her hopes of
becoming a diplomat were curtailed when she married and migrated to
rural Kericho. Nevertheless, in this new location, given her education
and access to resources, she was able to reposition herself and develop
a new identity as an entrepreneur and gender activist. Similarly, even
though Wangechi gave up farming strawberries, her experience of
running a CBO had prepared her to consider establishing her own
company through which she would continue offering the same services

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at a fee. This, coupled with her postgraduate education, was her way of
remaining competitive in the labour market.

6.3 A re-imagination of aspirations

Aspirations are an individuals desire to obtain a status or achieve a goal
in the future (Hardgrove et al. 2015). They are developed and evolve
in certain contexts that are influenced by social and relational factors
(such as family background, peers, gender and norms) as well as the
interplay of forces in the contemporary context spanning globalisation,
urbanisation, migration, engagement in diverse labour markets, and
connectivity offered by technology. For instance, while Wambaya had
not succeeded in finding a formal job, his ability to start up other
income-earning activities enabled him to reconfigure a future where he
could have a sustainable livelihood. Likewise, while Cherunya had never
imagined herself becoming a farmer; when tradition demanded that she
live as a Kalenjin wife in a rural area, she found herself using the very
traditional roles to re-imagine her future as activist and politician.

Even though side-hustling might be depicted as reflecting

disenchantment with the education system and economic conditions,
educated youth are using their education to develop alternative life
trajectories. Joes experience as a radio presenter helped him develop
an interest in entrepreneurship which informed his drive to accumulate
wealth. While journalism was his passion, he now aspired to accumulate
capital which he associated with rising up the ranks in the journalism
industry and investing in his side-businesses.

These examples of side-hustling also challenge existing notions of a

good life (urban and employed), and instead portray the possibilities of
a decent life even in the rural areas. Matei described disenfranchised
urban job seekers as very many clean people coming from towns; but
they have a lot of nothing, with a big phone, just for Facebook. Yet they
are broke. While migrating to urban areas offers educated youth a
chance to acquire certain symbols of modernity such as a smartphone
and new clothes, often these youth continue to struggle to find decent
employment, and remain as vulnerable as those in the rural areas.

On the other hand, some young people brought up in urban areas are
going to rural areas and assuming rural lifestyles, while keeping a close
connection with their urban social networks Joe and Cherunya are
good examples. The rural space takes on new meaning when it offers
opportunity for economic gain and social acceptability.

7 Conclusion: does a side-hustle employ?

This article illustrates several nuances with regard to youth employment.
First, that educated youth, whether formally employed or not, earn a
livelihood from more than one activity. The life stories of these educated
young farmers depict their embodiments of multiple identities in
response to opportunities emerging from the liberalised yet uncertain
Kenyan economy. They are acting as self-disciplined citizens who, despite
their disillusionment with unemployment, do not wait for the state to

62 | Mwaura The Side-Hustle: Diversified Livelihoods of Kenyan Educated Young Farmers

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

take action. Rather, they have been socialised to take responsibility for
dealing with their own problems and thereby also, defining on their own
terms what is productive and respectable in society.

Second, while traditional conceptions of youth employment cover the

informal and formal sector, they fail to explain instances where one
sector is used as a safety net for the other. They also fail to inform us
about the haphazard transitions of young people between formal and
informal sectors that affect the existing categorisation of youth work
opportunities. In the absence of formal work, young graduates become
informal sector workers, not out of choice, but because opportunities
open up through their education and other factors such as geographical
positioning and social contexts. They use their limited capital to start
farming, sometimes with an intention of transitioning into other
income-earning activities or into a more established agribusiness. These
somewhat unknown and unpredictable transitions should inform the
basis of continued inquiry into youth livelihoods, especially in how we
translate the information needed to guide the contribution of statistical
analyses of the categories of youth work. Fundamentally, the concept of
side-hustling begs further research questions on whether youth under-
and unemployment should be addressed from the viewpoint of youth
poverty, social organisation and public morality, urbanisation and rural
depopulation, political unrest, or merely as a problem of effectively
utilising the youthful workforce to contribute to national income and
reconstruction of the country.

Third, the stories of the six young farmers challenge the popular
assumption that those who are educated take up skilled jobs while those
with little or no education end up in informal, unskilled and semi-skilled
work (Bennell 2010). Educated young farmers are seen to retain their
educational identities, while also acquiring and utilising a specialised
skillset (often entrepreneurial and innovation-based) needed to succeed
in agriculture. As a result, they may help transform the sector by
introducing new technologies, by finding new ways of managing risks,
and thus changing the opportunity space in which others might engage.
Whether engagement by educated youth in agriculture will really help
to address the youth employment challenge remains to be seen, but this
possibility should not be discounted.

Fourth, efforts to diversify youth livelihoods through the agriculture

sector engages with ongoing debates on the demographic dividend.
There is a narrative that new and younger farmers are needed who will
bring new ideas, energy and technologies into the sector. Nevertheless,
the side-hustling described in this article portrays a sense of temporality
about young peoples engagement with the sector that should raise
questions about this narrative.

Finally, a recognition of side-hustling should be brought into youth

employment policy. Side-hustling challenges orthodox conceptions
of employment and the youth employment challenge, as well as the

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

standard set of policy responses. It would be a mistake to see side-

hustling as a vindication of youth employment policies that place the
burden of job creation on the shoulders of the young people themselves.
While side-hustling can be read as young peoples struggle against
adversity, more than anything else it reflects the failure of the state to
uphold its end of the intergenerational bargain.

Notes
* I am grateful to all the young people who participated in this
research, my research assistants, and the World Agroforestry Centre
Evergreen Agriculture Partnership for funding the fieldwork. I
also thank Professor Patricia Daley, Jacqueline Mgumia, Eyob
Gebremariam, Jim Sumberg and Carol Smithyes for their comments
on the initial drafts of this article.
1 The Kenyan constitution defines youth as those aged 1835 years.
2 Seventy-eight per cent of Kenyas estimated population of 46 million
people are aged below 34 years (NCPD 2013).
3 Meaning he transacted most of the farm activities over the mobile
phone with his mother and a farm worker.
4 Swahili for to.
5 Ka here means something small and on the side.

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Gambling, Dancing, Sex Work:

Notions of Youth Employment in
Uganda

Victoria Flavia Namuggala

Abstract Using the case of Uganda, this article explains how previously
displaced youth conceptualise employment compared to what is formally
understood as employment by national and cultural institutions. Using key
informant interviews, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, the
study examined the experiences of formerly displaced youth in Northern
Uganda. Findings indicate that in order to survive, these youth participate
in socially and culturally unacceptable activities, some of which are criminal
offences. This article focuses on these deviant forms of employment,
arguing that the youth population has been framed as unemployed
based on a formal understanding of work. Yet, in Northern Uganda, this
disregards the complexities of the lives of the formerly displaced, leading
to the criminalisation and pathologisation of alternative forms of income
generation. This research concludes that these forms of work can be
transformative and empowering for young people and thus deserving of
attention from policymakers and development practitioners.

Keywords: Africa, gender, risky behaviour, conflict, sex work.

1 Introduction
The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines unemployment
simply as when people are without work, currently available for work
and are actively seeking work (ILO 2010). The ILO in addition adopts
particular indicators in reference to unemployment including hours
worked, skills required and wages attained by doing a particular
job. In this article, I argue that this approach to unemployment
and employment disregards much of the work done by people who
find themselves in difficult or irregular situations, such as formerly
displaced young people from Northern Uganda. It is thus important
to re-conceptualise what (un)employment means, taking into account
contextually relevant factors including location, age and gender.

Besides unemployment, internal displacement is another challenge

facing Africa generally. According to the Internal Displacement
2017 The Author. IDS Bulletin Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.127
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0
International licence, which permits downloading and sharing provided the original authors and source are credited but
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The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives; the
Introduction is also recommended reading.
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

Monitoring Centre, by the end of 2014, there were 38 million displaced

people globally with the majority in sub-Saharan Africa (Lenard
2015). Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from protracted displacement,1 and
this hinders reintegration, resettlement and reconstruction, and thus
development. Uganda has not escaped these dynamics of displacement.
The country has been entangled in decades of civil violence in the post-
independence period (Byamugisha, Shamchiyeva and Kizu 2014). The
rebels of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) have particularly affected
the northern part of the country. Their rebellion started in 1986 when
the current government took power and it continued until 2008 (Dolan
2009). The civilian population, and especially young people, have been
the rebels primary target (Cheney 2007; Machel 2000).

This article draws on a larger qualitative study: Gender, Age and

Violence: Complexity of Identity Among Returning Formerly Displaced
Youth in Uganda (Namuggala 2016). This doctoral thesis adopted an
integrated approach to understanding youthhood. The approach moves
beyond numerical age definitions (the Uganda National Youth Policy
defines youth to include persons between the ages of 18 and 35 years) to
reflect local functional and relational perspectives to human growth and
development.

Throughout this article, therefore, unless otherwise stated, I use the term
youth to refer to persons who identify or who the community identifies as
such, irrespective of their numeric age. This population is heterogeneous
in terms of gender, location, marital status and so on, and therefore
an approach to youthhood based on the notion of intersectionality is
useful (Crenshaw 2006). In addition, it unveils the ways interconnected
domains of power organise and structure inequality and oppression and
thus links research and practice (Dill and Zambrana 2009).

This study examined the experiences of youth affected by the war

between the LRA and the Ugandan government in the Northern
Uganda region. The research is informed by feminist scholarship, as
well as by indigenous studies, childhood studies, peace studies and
conflict studies. These interdisciplinary frameworks were crucial in the
analysis of complex social issues like unemployment. For instance, by
conceptualising unemployment essentially as a male youth challenge,
youth bulge theory2 gives a highly gendered perspective, which is open
to a feminist critique. Also, local perspectives provide a contextually
relevant counter to the official age-based construction of childhood,
youth and adulthood (Chilisa 2012; Chilisa and Ntseane 2010). Such
contextual relevance is particularly important for local policy reform.

The article begins by providing a general introduction to the

understanding of unemployment and conceptualisation of youth
especially in the context of displacement. Section 2 details the
methodology that informed the data collection and analysis process.
To provide a historical overview to the youth unemployment challenge,
Section 3 explains and provides a critical analysis of Ugandan

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government strategies and frameworks to address youth unemployment.

With a clear understanding of the history informing current
employment narratives, in Section 4 I discuss formerly displaced youths
understanding of employment in relation to the official understanding.
This includes implications for their work options and choices, as well as
for policy.

2 Methodology
This research was qualitative. Data collection methods used included
indepth face-to-face interviews, key informant interviews and focus
group discussions. In total, 50 interviews were conducted with 34
females and 16 males ranging between 10 and 35 years of age. Ten
key informant interviews were conducted with non-governmental
organisation (NGO) employees working as youth, local and cultural
leaders. Six focus group discussions with the youth were also held.

Soroti District provided a good location for understanding youth

experiences because it hosted a number of camps for internally
displaced persons and a large number of returnees upon closure of
the camps. Following the successful Juba peace talks which took place
between 2006 and 2008, displaced people have returned to their
communities. However, there have been land disputes, marginalisation
and violence, which has at times resulted in secondary displacement
where formally returned populations are forced to depart again.
The situation has been exacerbated by high unemployment, especially
among young people. While the general national unemployment rate is
high ranging between 64 and 70 per cent (Magelah and Ntambirweki-
Karugonjo 2014) the situation is worse in Northern Uganda given the
breakdown in social structures and systems as a result of the war.

Study participants were recruited using lists of formerly displaced

persons provided by a community organisation called Community
Integrated Development Initiatives (CIDI), which has worked in the
region since 2007. Two gender-specific lists of young people were drawn
up from which names were randomly selected until the desired number
of participants was attained. These youth included those displaced from
neighbouring districts but also those from Soroti displaced within the
district, as well as those born and raised in the camps with nowhere to
return to. Key informants included individuals working on youth issues
through civil society, NGOs and government. Initial reflection on each
interview informed subsequent interviews. Upon completion of the
fieldwork, all interviews were transcribed, coded and analysed.

3 Overview of youth unemployment

Unemployment, especially as it affects the younger generation, is a
long-standing development challenge in both developed and developing
economies. Actors including states, international development partners
such as the United Nations, World Bank, and civil society have
focused on unemployment, but in Africa little progress has been made
(Cleland and Machiyama 2016). Africa has the fastest growing and

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most youthful population in the world (AERC 2013: 1), but youth
unemployment on the continent is also attributed to interrelated
dynamics between economic underdevelopment, political instability,
and a lack of political will (Opute 2015).

Given the diversity of situations and young people, dealing with

unemployment in Africa requires a multifaceted understanding of
work that privileges the different experiences and perspectives of young
people themselves. For example, in Uganda, while the entire youth
population is affected, the rate of unemployment among female youth
is twice as high as that among males (Ahaibwe and Mbowa 2014). In
addition, female youth are more susceptible to vulnerabilities emanating
from unemployment, such as sexual exploitation. Besides gendered
differences, labour market experiences of rural and urban youth can
also be very different.

The government of Uganda appreciates the challenge that

unemployment poses and has implemented a range of policies to
promote youth employment. These must be examined against the
backdrop of major reforms implemented during the 1990s that resulted
in the retrenchment of many civil servants and the privatisation of
public enterprises. These reforms reduced the role of the state as an
employer and the private sector is currently the biggest employer in the
country (Ahaibwe and Mbowa 2014). To encourage private investment,
the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) was established in 1991
through a parliamentary act. It has, however, not delivered to desired
standards and is critiqued for failing to create employment, especially
for youth (Ahaibwe and Mbowa 2014). In addition, the UIA is urban
based despite the majority of Ugandans residing in rural areas. For
instance, youth in rural regions such as Northern Uganda could not
access the investment schemes because they were urban centred, and
because political instabilities meant that the youth lacked information
and skills for self-employment.

Following disappointing results from the UIA, the government began

to focus on enterprise development and particularly promoting self-
employment among the youth. The Youth Entrepreneurial Scheme
(YES) was established in the 1990s, under which youth were given
loans to start businesses. YES proved unsuccessful because it was used
as a political tool and the expected loan recoveries were not made
(Ahaibwe and Mbowa 2014). Other loan schemes implemented by the
government included the Youth Venture Capital Fund (YVCF), the
Graduate Venture Fund (GVF) and the Youth Livelihood Programme
(YLP). All of these prioritised urban youth; in addition, they had such
stringent conditions and collateral requirements that relatively few
young people could access them. While these schemes were gender-
neutral in principle, they delivered gendered consequences. The
stringent conditions hindered female youth, who generally have more
limited access to resources including land, motorcycles and other
household items, which could be used as collateral.

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Besides promoting enterprise development, the government has also

taken steps to upgrade the skills that young people bring to the labour
market. This has been done through the Ministry of Education. For
example, the government increased pay for science teachers and
sponsorship for students taking sciences at higher education institutions.
Skills promotion also involves curriculum review, and encouraging
technical subjects, entrepreneurship and vocational training. Despite
being a practical step to dealing with unemployment, this approach
has been perceived negatively by some (Ahaibwe and Mbowa 2014).
For example, local communities see vocational training to be for
academically weak students who may not be able to make it to higher
education institutions. This has resulted in low recruitment and retention
rates. Vocational training also suffers from gender biases. Female youth
are expected to take on training in areas that are traditionally seen as
womens work; for instance, tailoring and catering, while male youth go
for carpentry, motor vehicle mechanics and welding, among others.

It is clear that the government has not turned a blind eye to the youth
unemployment challenge. Its policies and programmes, however, have
not been effective. This is particularly the case in areas such as Northern
Uganda that have been affected by armed violence. In assessing the state
of livelihoods in Northern Uganda, scholars have shown that economic
opportunities open to youth are abysmal, with the principal form of
income generation being leje leje (casual labour). This kind of work is
unprofitable, and the median youth have just days of work per month at
wages of 55 cents per day (Annan, Blattman and Horton 2006: v).

4 Re-conceptualising youth employment in Northern Uganda

In post-conflict Northern Uganda, young people have developed
alternative forms of work that allow income generation and survival,
but which have either been overlooked, not considered as legitimate
employment or condemned as criminal. In some cases, these forms
of employment can be transformational. I argue that in order to
challenge dominant discourses that frame youth in Africa as violent
and unproductive, rather than being socially pathologised, these forms
of self-identified employment must be recognised and much better
understood.

4.1 Sex work

Sex work is common in situations of conflict and displacement (Machel
2000) and despite the formal declaration of the end of conflict in
Northern Uganda, it remains a survival strategy amidst food shortages,
extreme poverty and unemployment. Scholars have referred to such
sex work as survival sex because if it is not performed, family survival
may be curtailed (Mulumba and Namuggala 2014). Sex work is highly
gendered and at the same time it is also age sensitive: in agreement with
other scholars, my research showed it to be dominated by young women.

Factors explaining sex work in Northern Uganda include womens

limited access to communal resources and high rates of domestic

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

violence. Domestic violence takes the form of physical abuse and

rejection of previously displaced youth by family and community
members. Rejection can reflect a blaming of the young people for
collaborating with, marrying and/or having children with rebels.
While mothers were encouraged to return with their children, they
have not received adequate support for reintegration (see Irin News
2015). Indeed, some female captives who gave birth during captivity
returned to have these children labelled as rebel children. Some former
captives were drawn into sex work in the search for belonging, support
and survival. Gendered victimisation in this case becomes a cause
and a consequence of unemployment. While male youth might have
fathered children during displacement, they do not go through the same
experiences as females, especially relating to childcare.

Besides being perceived negatively by society, prostitution is also a crime

in Uganda. As such, for their own safety sex workers operate under
cover. Yet the income young women generate through it is used to fulfil
important social and cultural responsibilities, for instance to pay for
childcare and the care of elderly and/or disabled family members. One
respondent, a young woman and mother of four noted:

People think because we get money from sex, we are not good people. But we use
that very money to provide for our families, our children. If I cannot acquire
basic needs like food for my children, what do you expect me to do? This is the
only alternative we are criticised for being loose but no one criticises us for
putting food on the table.3

Sex work therefore becomes an accommodated form of employment

among vulnerable female youth given the circumstances in which
they live. These circumstances include their failure to attain a socially
acceptable role in their communities. One female aged around 24 years
explained the dilemma she encountered upon returning to her village
following abduction:

Yes, I was abducted but I was confined and I did not kill anyone. I did not
even hold a gun. I was married off and used to cook for others during the
abduction when we came back, people think we are all murderers and
heartless. Neighbours mistreated me and no one wanted to talk to me. Thats
how I joined some other friends and we went to the [town] centre, and later
started prostitution for food, money and other needs.4

The fact that the community labelled this girl as a murderer, and the
resulting stigmatisation, discrimination and eventual isolation, led to a
failure to re-integrate and unemployment. For excluded young women,
sex work may be the only available employment option.

Although looked down on by the community, sex work is a form of

employment that is potentially open to everyone and brings quick income
for young women. Nevertheless, it comes at a cost since it is culturally and
religiously despised, stigmatised and pathologised (Namuggala 2016). My
informants noted that access to some public services such as education

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and health, and loans, was thwarted when personal recommendations

were required from opinion leaders and other community members.
In these circumstances, and given the poor health service provision in
Northern Uganda reflected in the shortage of health practitioners, drugs
and outbreaks of preventable diseases like malaria, diarrhoea and cholera
(Annan et al. 2011; Spitzer and Twikirize 2013), sex work becomes a
source of livelihood. Survival sex may eventually result in long-term
consequences including unwanted pregnancies, and exposure to sexually
transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS.

In addition to the negative moral connotations associated with sex

work, it runs counter to expectations about the temporal aspects of
acceptable employment. In Northern Uganda work is expected to be
done during the day. Sex work, however, is principally night activity,
when societal gatekeepers are less vigilant. When local leaders and
government officials observe youth sitting idle during the morning
hours, the assumption is that they are jobless and unemployed. For
those who are sex workers, however, mornings are used as free time
after working nights. Because sex work is not officially acknowledged as
employment, working conditions are unregulated and poor, resulting in
risk, vulnerability and exploitation for those involved.

It is also important to highlight that, while cash is a dominant payment

method for formalised employment, in some cases, young sex workers
are paid in kind, for instance in the form of food including posho (maize
flour), beans, groundnuts and millet. Such youth therefore understood
employment broadly as work for survival, even if cash is not exchanged.
Phrases like working for food were commonly used. One youth
explained that a way to tell if someone is employed or not is whether
they are having food every day.

4.2 Gambling
Gambling is another activity that youth consider as income-generating
employment. It takes various forms with the most popular being playing
cards locally referred to as zaala or matatu and sports betting. Unlike
sex work, gambling is male dominated. It takes place round the clock,
hence the popular phrase any time is gambling time. Gambling is
popular among young people because it has the potential to bring quick
cash with little effort. Compared to ILO standards relating to time,
skills and wages, gambling does not require any particular skills and
thus is not considered work. The youth, however, consider gambling as
working smart. Asked about this work, one youth said:

Now whats wrong with that?? Whom have I cheated? We play I win. It takes
the brain. You get money easily and quickly Agriculture???? How long does it
take and how am I going to survive? I have no land, I have no hoe and no seeds.
We just work smart.5

In another interview, a youth explained sports betting as a type of

employment:

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

Sports betting is a full-time job. It is not easy Im telling you. You have to keep
informed in sports. We listen to radio, read newspapers in order to bet right. You
have to know how teams are performing in the season, which team is likely to
win or lose. Otherwise you make losses.6

Young people believe gambling and sports betting are forms of

employment: while they do not require the physical effort associated
with local notions of work, they engage the brain. In this context,
youth understand employment to require access to up-to-theminute
information locally and internationally, for example to track
particular sporting teams or individuals. It also involves the ability
to take shortterm risks. Such an understanding of employment is
individualised and not community focused. This deviates from common
understandings of work and employment that emphasise the value of
a relatively long-term community orientation, such as investment in
agricultural activities like crop production and animal rearing.

Like sex work, gambling is illegal and youth can be incarcerated if they
are apprehended. Local leaders believe that gambling reduces young
peoples productivity, and they use this to rationalise restrictions.

4.3 Contemporary dancing

Dancing is also used by some young people to generate income, especially,
but not only, young women. Advertising companies hire both male and
female youth to dance on advertising trucks, podiums and at promotional
events and are paid in either cash or in kind in the form of phones, drinks
or clothing. Informants noted that it takes practice and determination
to get to the level where they can be hired. They also have to dress in
trendy ways and develop links with event organisers and promoters who
provide access to information hiring and also recommendations. Once
engaged, they must hang around town centres to ensure they can keep
up with the trends in the form of songs, dancing styles and dressing. The
young people reported that this work empowers them to make decisions
affecting their lives, for example in the way they dress, act and express
their sexuality. Also, since most female dancers are not expected to be
mothers, many young women use contraceptives as a way of avoiding
unexpected pregnancies, which they also see as empowering.

Although dancing might appear to be a more acceptable means

of earning an income, and be a less risky occupation, most elders
expressed disapproval of young women who dance: in their opinion,
they dress indecently, but as a group their disapproval includes the use
of drugs (especially marijuana), and their disrespectful language and
behaviour. Also, such dancers are frequently away from home at times
for days and travel during the night, which challenges parental control
and dominance.

5 Discussion and conclusion

The previous section used examples of sex work, gambling and dancing
to illustrate that formerly displaced youth in Northern Uganda do
not necessarily see themselves as unemployed but rather as involved

74 | Namuggala Gambling, Dancing, Sex Work: Notions of Youth Employment in Uganda

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

in forms of gainful employment that are not recognised or legitimised

by official definitions and frameworks, or by members of local
communities. For example, they do not meet the ILO criteria relating to
time, wages and skills. Because of this, their work is not acknowledged
in international, national and local labour statistics, nor are their
activities supported through youth employment policy and programmes.
This undervalues young peoples agency and frames them as vulnerable,
idle and undeveloped.

The three forms of survival employment, though different, share some

important commonalities. First, with their comparatively low barriers to
entry, they are open to young people who have been rejected, victimised
or marginalised because of previous displacement and/or association
with rebels. Second, despite the fact that these forms of work allow them
to earn an income and survive and to fulfil family, social and cultural
responsibilities, they are all either illegal, seen as morally deviant or
frowned upon by community elders. Third, they can be associated with
the use of drugs. Some informants, for example, reported that the use of
marijuana was common because it increases stamina, determination and
endurance in distressing circumstances that included police brutality.
Drugs are used at times in combination with alcohol and tobacco.
Finally, aside from the individual income and in-kind benefits, these
activities promote unity and solidarity among groups of young people
who meet regularly. It was reported that if a particular individual does
not appear for daily meetings consecutively, the group endeavours to
reach out and help if necessary. Regardless of negative community
opinion, for the youth involved, these activities may be seen as
empowering and transformative in the sense that they made it possible
for them to earn an income and survive in difficult circumstances, and in
addition, those involved form a valuable support system.

These details make it obvious that these forms of income-earning

activity are not to be seen as attractive career choices to be actively
promoted among young people. Nevertheless, they must be seen as an
integral part of any community-level post-conflict reconstruction in
which the authorities engage. An important first step would be to bring
the perspectives of the young people on their work into public debate
with one objective being to ensure that they have access to essential
services. This access must not be denied on the basis of public opinion.
Local leaders, both male and female, along with other local actors must
therefore be engaged in this public debate.

There remains the issue of criminality and illegality of these income-

earning activities. Although this issue would appear to be a significant
obstacle facing any attempt to legitimise or support these income-earning
activities, this has been addressed in a number of countries in different
ways and exploring these would seem to be a step in the right direction.

Acknowledging youth agency and resilience would be one way of

encouraging attitudinal and behavioural change among the returned

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

population. Young peoples ability to survive and cope amidst such

distress is commendable. Youth have created their own support
networks, which need to be accommodated institutionally. Since they
are an especially at-risk population among the returned populations,
health service centres can for instance come up with youth-friendly
services targeting the vulnerabilities that youth face. They could also
avail youth with information relating to HIV/AIDS, and reproductive
health services such as birth control and family planning.

Notes
1 Protracted displacement is displacement that lasts more than five
years (Lenard 2015).
2 Youth bulge theory is a theory of violence that conceptualises poor
male youth as a security threat. High percentages of young people
in the population poses insecurity since youth can easily use violent
means as a way of engaging with the state hence their participation
in armed and other forms of violence (Urdal 2004).
3 Interview, June 2015.
4 Interview, June 2015.
5 Interview, June 2015.
6 Interview, June 2015.

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78 | Namuggala Gambling, Dancing, Sex Work: Notions of Youth Employment in Uganda

 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

Navigating Precarious
Employment: Social Networks
Among Migrant Youth in Ghana*

Thomas Yeboah

Abstract This article is concerned with the precarious employment

situations of migrant youth and the supportive role of social networks. It
draws on interviews conducted with 30 young migrants in Accra, Ghana.
The empirical findings reveal that the precarious nature of young peoples
employment manifests in the uncertain nature of work, exploitation by
clients and employers, as well as low and irregular income. These lead
to socioeconomic hardships such as not being able to meet basic needs.
The article further demonstrates how social networks strengthen young
migrants agency through the provision of financial resources that allow
them to navigate hardships. However, exploitative practices are also
inherent within these networks and this article exposes these, alongside the
demonstrable benefits. Provision of financial support for rural young people
to further their education, enforcement of laws within the informal sector
and support for migrants networks would help improve the situation.

Keywords: Africa, migration, informal sector, head porters, inequality,

social injustice, economic survival.

1 Introduction
A decade and a half of economic growth across Africa, including
Ghana, gave birth to the Africa rising narrative (Obeng-Odoom 2015).
Ghana has been lauded as something of a model. With almost two
decades of consolidated democratic institutions and economic growth
over 6 per cent, the country appears to have avoided many of the
pitfalls of macroeconomic mismanagement afflicting other countries on
the continent (Rexer 2015).

The irony is that while Ghana has experienced high growth rates, the
creation of new formal sector jobs has not matched the number of
new entrants to the labour market (AfDB 2014). Evidently, labour-
intensive manufactured exports the driving force behind economic
transformation and employment creation in East Asian countries is
far from taking off in Ghana (Filmer and Fox 2014). This phenomenon
2017 The Author. IDS Bulletin Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.128
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International licence, which permits downloading and sharing provided the original authors and source are credited but
the work is not used for commercial purposes. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode

The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives; the
Introduction is also recommended reading.
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

of jobless growth has combined with globalisation, economic

restructuring and transformation of labour markets in reducing
employment opportunities for young people. Shrinking public and
private sectors have limited the possibility for young people to secure
wage employment (Langevang and Gough 2012). In 2010, official
unemployment of young people aged 1524 years was estimated to
average 12 per cent, ranging from 18.1 per cent in Greater Accra
to 5.8 per cent in the Northern Region (Osei-Assibey and Grey
2013). However, these figures may underestimate the magnitude
of unemployment as they fail to capture the widespread nature of
underemployment (Hino and Ranis 2013). A recent report by the
World Bank (2016) dubbed Landscape of Jobs in Ghana suggested that
48per cent of all young people aged 1524 years are jobless.

Many young people find themselves in informal sector jobs, which is

estimated to encompass approximately 90 per cent of the labour force
(Baah-Boateng 2013). While statistics on the participation of different
social groups in the informal sector are hard to come by, anecdotal
evidence suggests that young people from Ghanas northern regions may
be over-represented. Their movement to southern cities to participate
in the booming informal sector is motivated by hopes of accessing jobs,
earning income and increasing social mobility. These young migrants
have few skills and are involved mainly in low-skill, easyentry activities
such as mechanical repairs, shoe mending, hairdressing, truck pushing,
commercial payphone services, dressmaking, barbering, running
errands, shop assistant work, photography, food preparation and sales,
and repair works including garment, watch and clock repairs, as well
as hawking and head portering (Gough, Langevang and Owusu 2013;
Heintz and Pickbourn 2012). Their working days are marked by
longer working hours, irregular income, insecurity and lack of written
contracts (Yeboah et al. 2015). Youth researchers are now concerned with
exploring young peoples tactical and navigation strategies in negotiating
multiple forms of transitions towards respectable social positions (Ng
et al. 2016). For example, Hardgrove, Rootham and McDowells (2015)
work on young people in a precarious labour market in the UK revealed
that experience and exposure to desirable occupations were important
for transition to imagined future jobs. In her ethnographic account of
young peoples desire for social mobility and respectable adulthood in
Madagascar, Cole (2011) reports entry into the sexual economy as a
tactic employed by young women, although on the surface, this might
appear to be a sharp break with traditional values and norms. While
these studies give insight into how young people negotiate multiple forms
of transitions, the ways in which social networks facilitate young peoples
entry into the labour market and help strengthen their agency in
navigating socioeconomic hardship has received little research attention.

This article focuses attention on the precarious employment situation

of young migrants working in the urban informal economy and the
supportive role of networks. It draws on data from qualitative interviews
conducted with 30 young migrants (aged 1324 years) in Accra,

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Ghana. The aim is to contribute to the literature by contextualising

young migrants employment situation within the social network and
social capital literatures. This contextualisation helps us to situate the
everyday employment struggles of young migrants. Policymakers could
draw on the articles insights to: (1) learn more about young migrants
employment situation and the forms of social networks utilised, and
(2) develop specific strategies to harness these social networks to reach
migrant youth and support employment interventions.

The article starts by discussing the concepts of social capital and

networks and their relevance in relation to young peoples social
mobility. Section 3 then provides a description of the research site and
the overall methodology. Section 4 discusses the findings, focusing on
the background of study participants, motivations for moving, pathways
for entry into the labour market, precariousness of employment
situation and supportive role of networks. Finally, Section 5 offers
concluding remarks with some policy suggestions.

2 Social capital, networks and youth social mobility

The concept of social capital is well established in social science. It is
rooted in the nineteenth-century classical social science of Durkheim,
Marx, Togueville and Weber (Woolcock 2010). In practice, it is linked
to material and symbolic relations of exchange (Bourdieu 1983). While
the concept is complex and has varied meanings, this article employs
the definition put forward by Bourdieu as the aggregate of the actual or
potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network
of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance
and recognition (1983: 249).

Existing research has paid little attention to the ways that young
migrants socialise in friendship networks and generate their own
connections for mutual benefit (Edwards, Franklin and Holland
2003:12). Youth researchers note that the fact that migrants of all
ages are part of kinship and ethnicity networks obliterates the sense of
social rupture espoused in sedentarist thoughts (Thorsen 2013). The
scant scholarly attention given to young migrants interaction with their
networks is partly because the anthropological gaze moved away from
structures, instead privileging practices and discourses (ibid.). It is partly
also because trafficking and child rights dominated and framed the
earlier debates about young peoples spatial mobility. Even though the
trafficking discourse has begun to recognise young peoples migration
as inexorable and legitimate, the ways in which young people utilise
their networks to navigate precarious employment situations figure only
marginally (ibid.). By using social networks as an analytic optic, we can
better understand the ways in which young migrants draw on their
multi-sited social contacts as a resource in the face of adversity.

Two main forms of social capital have been identified: bonding and
bridging. The former occurs within groups while the latter is evident
across groups. Bonding capital is when people have ties to others who

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

share common characteristics, including family members, close friends,

neighbours and colleagues within the work place. Bridging capital on the
other hand is primarily instrumental, links across groups, and generates
a more varied flow of resources for advancing aspirations, hopes
and expectations (Jrgensen 2016). This distinction matters because
reciprocity exchanges within groups of high bonding social capital may
be facilitated or constrained by the totality of resources possessed by
members within the group (Villalonga-Olives and Kawachi 2015).

Allen (2009) has argued that bonding social capital can offer young
people an initial entry into the labour market, for example through
employment in co-ethnic firms. Even though bonding networks may be
limited to members of the same family or ethnic group, young people
who are privileged to have such ties may be more likely to find jobs
than those without. Bonding capital provides physical or emotional
support in times of crisis and upholds identity and status. Nonetheless,
bonding social capital and networks may also curtail opportunities
for young people to access wider and more diverse networks beyond
family, locality or ethnic group. De la Haye et al. (2012) and MacDonald
and Shildrick (2007) analysed social networks among disadvantaged
youth and discovered that bridging networks provided the support
needed for economic survival, while those with bonding capital did
not have access to the diversity of resources needed for realising
employment aspirations. Flow of information within the bonding
networks encouraged and supported criminal activities which suggest
further marginalisation. Engagement in criminal activities including,
for example, pilfering saleable items from garden sheds, motorbikes,
cars and garages, emerged as street-based leisure activities in response
to tedious days created by persistent school absence (MacDonald and
Shildrick 2007). In Ghana, relatively younger migrants residing in
slum areas may be more likely to join gangs and get involved in risky
behaviour, sexual exploitation, pilfering and gambling.

Lancee (2012) asserted that there is the possibility for young people
to diversify their networks over time, and in this way, bonding capital
will become gradually supplemented by bridging networks. Bridging
networks create broader identities and reciprocity and are required to
get ahead (Putnam 2000: 213). Granovetter (1973) equates bridging
networks with weak ties. Such ties serve as bridges to other networks
and are essential to a persons integration in a new society. Young
people with bridging networks may be able to access a wide range of
informational resources connected with job placement through, for
example, the diversity of people that may be part of the networks. In
contrast, individuals with few bridging networks will be deprived of
information from distant parts of the social system and confined to the
provincial news and views of their close friends (Granovetter 1973:
202). Bridging networks may therefore foster stronger connections
across social divisions, thereby strengthening the collective ability of
young people to undertake coordinated actions for a common goal. And
this may further help facilitate vertical labour market mobility. Research

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has found that conflict prevention between Muslim and Hindu groups
in India hinges on the presence of bridging networks (civic organisation
membership that cut across religious lines, for example sports groups
and local business organisations of which Muslims and Hindus are
equally represented) (Villalonga-Olives and Kawachi 2015).

In addition to bonding and bridging, a third type of social capital

linking capital has been noted. This is concerned with ties to people
in positions of authority these links are essentially vertical, to people
in key economic institutions, or who may provide access to political and
other resources (Woolcock 2010). Someone with ties to people of higher
socioeconomic status may be more likely to access employment avenues
that are filled through word-of-mouth. Young people with secondary
and tertiary education in Ghana complained that the school certificate
takes you nowhere (Langevang and Gough 2009: 745) because of lack
of linking social networks that could connect them to employment
in formal sector jobs. Linking capital may thus provide support that
bonding and bridging networks may be unwilling or unable to offer to
young people. In a study of how runaway and homeless youth navigate
difficulties in transition towards adulthood, Kurtz et al. (2000) found that
linking capital of professional social workers provided services including,
for example, sending young people to hospital for treatment, counselling
and shelter. Professionals assisted the young people in developing
communication and anger management skills, in meeting basic needs
and the provision of structures and positive activities, and helped them
to plan for their futures. The homeless and runaway youth also learned
how to manage feelings, desist from alcohol and drug use and improve
family relationships.

A social network is neither given nor granted. Significant and

continuing effort is required to establish and maintain lasting and useful
relationships that can help secure material or symbolic benefits. Regular
acts of communication, and the resulting mutual recognition, enhance
a sense of belonging (Bourdieu 1983: 1923). However, opportunity
to build, access and participate in networks may be restricted by time
and resources. Even when these barriers are overcome, Anthias (2007)
notes that the benefits from participation in network activities may be
unequally distributed. Along these same lines, Bourdieu (1983) speaks of
a more dynamic and somehow less optimistic conception of social capital
as a source of inequality and social injustice, given that some groups may
be more privileged in accessing valuable networks and resources than
others. The usefulness of social capital surfaces from the capability of
individuals to convert it into other forms of capital (e.g. economic). Such
transformation may be stratified by gender, class, ethnicity and other
social factors. Convertibility may thus be problematic for individuals with
a low stock of economic and cultural capital, as well as for those with
lower social status (Ryan, Erel and DAngelo 2015). These challenges
may hinder the conversion of valuable social capital to economic capital
and can hinder young peoples access to formal and informal sector jobs,
wealth accumulation and social mobility.

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

Figure 1 Map of the Accra Metropolitan Area showing Agbogbloshie market

Legon University
of Ghana

Burma Camp

ts
en
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on
Kpeshie Lagoon

nt
Ca
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South Rid La
Industrial
est

Area
Ag

Osu
W
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gb

GULF OF GUINEA
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Korlebu Anora Central Markets

James Town Study areas
0 0.5 1 2 3 4km

Source Redrawn from Wrigley-Asante (2013, Figure 2), reprinted by permission of the
publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd, www.tandfonline.com.

3 Methodology
3.1 Research context
The research was conducted at the Agbogbloshie market in Accra (see
Figure 1). The entire population of Agbogbloshie is estimated to be
about 15,000 (Obeng-Odoom 2014), comprising mainly economic
migrants from northern and other rural parts of Ghana. They live,
work, eat and do almost everything in the market and surrounding area.
Many of them sleep in wooden structures, uncompleted buildings, open
spaces and lorry parks. Living conditions are unhygienic, and migrants
have limited access to bathrooms, kitchens and sanitary facilities.

3.2 Methods
The empirical material for this article comes from a larger project
investigating the ways in which young people actively shape, negotiate
and challenge their social worlds through rural to urban migration. The
study was conducted between December 2015 and August 2016. The
total body of empirical material for the project included 42 individual
interviews; three focus group discussions with young migrants;
field observations and participatory activities (drawings and photo
elicitation); policy-level interviews; and a questionnaire-based survey
with heads of migrant households in Wungu, a poor rural community
within West Mumprusi District of northern Ghana. This article draws

84 | Yeboah Navigating Precarious Employment: Social Networks Among Migrant Youth in Ghana
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specifically on 30individual interviews with the young migrants to

illustrate their precarious employment situations and the supportive role
of social networks.

The data collection exercise started with young migrants who are
beneficiaries of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called the Kayayei
Youth Association (KYA). KYA is an association of young female migrants
who work as head porters in the Central Business District of Accra. The
snowballing sampling technique was employed to reach migrants who did
not benefit from KYA programmes. This offered more scope to cover the
diversity of young migrants in the urban informal economy. With prior
permission, participants interviews were recorded using a digital recorder
device. These were transcribed verbatim and analysed using the thematic
coding and analysis technique. The analysis also relied on narrative data
from diverse sources which provided a framework for comparison of
perspectives and triangulation of findings across sources.

4 Findings
4.1 Background and motivation for migrating
The 30 young people (18 females and 12 males) whose accounts are
reported in this article are migrants from several rural parts of northern
Ghana including Bimbila, Gushegu, Savelugu, Namumba South,
Yendi, Karaga, Nakpali and Tamale. Their ages range from 13 to
25 years. The young migrants belong to large families ranging from
three to 15 siblings. The data suggest that all of them are from poor
rural socioeconomic backgrounds with parents engaged in low-income
occupations including small-scale farming and petty trading. With
large families and limited income, it was difficult for parents to meet
the young migrants educational and economic needs: 13 never had
any formal schooling; five were junior high school (JHS) graduates or
dropouts respectively; while the remaining seven were senior high school
(SHS) graduates. Similar to findings reported by Langevang (2008),
the young migrants bemoaned the fact that their families had failed to
provide them with the resources needed to further their education or
start-up capital to establish their own ventures:

If I get the sewing machine and money to sew I wouldnt have come here.
Myparents dont have money to buy it for me. I am here to make money. (Ishak,
20-year-old female, from Yendi)

A clear gender difference in educational history is evident. Except for two

females who had completed JHS, all the females were either dropouts
from school or had not been to school at all. On the other hand, all the
seven SHS graduates were males. Gender differences in the educational
outcomes of the young migrants is attributed to the socialisation processes
and culture in much of rural northern Ghana. Largely confined to the
domestic sphere, young women are viewed as temporary members of the
household since they will invariably marry and move to their husbands
village (Hashim and Thorsen 2011). Thepreference of sons over
daughters makes education a privilege for males and not females:

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

Table 1 Distribution of participants by type of work

Type of work Number

Head portering (kayayei) 18

Construction work 5

Scrap dealer 2

Driver, drivers mate, bus station worker 2

Photographer 1

Repairer 1

Multiple jobs 1

Total 30

Source Fieldwork 2016.

I have never been to school before. I was staying with my mum and dad but my
father said we are many so I should stop schooling and join them in the farm
so that my brothers rather go to school. (Anasa, 15-year-old female, from
Tamale)

Understanding young peoples motivation to migrate is crucial for

analysing and contextualising their lived experiences. Many of them
(19) were motivated by the need to work, earn income and either restart
or further their education, or establish a business:

I came here last year, my aim is to be able to establish my own business, so I

came to look for money to establish my business back home. If today I get
15 million as we speak I will go home but I am still planning towards it.
(Mariam, 18-year-old female, from Tamale)

I came here to make money to continue school because I gained admission

to Walensi SHS. I made part payment but the school authorities did not
accept that. If they had accepted I would have been a candidate by this year.
(Amaalu, 22-year-old male, from Bimbila)

The remaining 11 who are all females were interested in using

migration to enter the world of work, in preparation for marriage. As
key players in the domestic sphere, the young females are socialised to
accept responsibility as the sole providers of household items such as
basins and pots before marriage (Awumbila and Ardayfio-Schandorf
2008). But their confinement to the domestic sphere where their labour
is not remunerated makes it difficult if not impossible to procure these
items. Migration in search of paid employment is the only viable option.

4.2 Sectors of employment and pathways to entry

Given their limited education and skills, the informal sector provides the
only plausible avenue for these young migrants. The types of work they
were engaged in at the time of the interviews are shown in Table 1.

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Engagement in particular types of work is highly gendered: all of the

18 who reported doing head portering (kayayei) were females. Other
researchers have suggested that while the young male migrants do
multiple jobs, females are confined to head portering (Awumbila and
Ardayfio-Schandorf 2008; Yeboah et al. 2015). Engagement in multiple
jobs by one male migrant is to ensure higher daily wages and insure
against any non-payment by his employers. Thorsen (2013) suggested
that this was also a way to develop new skills and broaden work
experience.

As Allen (2009) has suggested, bonding social networks can help

migrants entry into the labour market, and the young migrants
interviewed in Accra also emphasised the importance of networks for
their entry into the informal sector. For example, the only requirement
for starting work in kayayei is a head pan which costs on average GH30.
The rest is about being physically fit. However, in order to overcome
their limited finances, young females relied on families and friends for
the money to secure a new pan, or the loan of an old pan: My sister
assisted me to get head pan to start work. She gave me GH30 to buy
the pan (Alima, 16 years old, from Tamale).

The supportive role of networks in facilitating young migrants

transition to the labour market is consistent with Awumbila, Owusu
and Teye (2014) who report that ruralurban migrants in Ghana mostly
receive financial support and information about jobs in the destinations
through social networks. Further, the initiation into the informal labour
market via social relations is central to the creation of occupational
niches. In Accra, most kayayei are from the Mumprusi and Dagomba
ethnic groups, while almost all itinerant shoe-shiners in Ouagadougou
(Burkina Faso) are of Bisa ethnicity (Thorsen 2014). However, there
is a downside to this: for example, growing competition and market
saturation in the kayayei business as a result of supportive social networks
may reduce earning potential (ibid.).

Eight young female migrants demonstrated their agency through

traversing and negotiating the structural constraints that might have
hampered their migration and entry into the labour market. For
example, Anasa, a 15-year-old from Tamale, said: I do kayayei. I came
with money, I harvested groundnut to raise the money for my movement
and head pan. Thus, in contrast to the image of a passive or powerless
actor, Anasa planned ahead and acted to make her migration successful.

Other jobs such as construction, scrap dealing and driving require

no financial resources. Rather, social connections are critical: I do
construction work with one Chinese firm. My friends assisted me to
get that job (Alhamo, 24-year-old male from Bimbila). Mahamadu
describes how he combined schooling and work and this allowed him
to develop skills as a mason, which became useful when he migrated to
Accra after linking up with his friends:

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

I was learning mason after my JHS but I continued my education. Shortly

afterwhen my results came, I communicated with my friends in Accra who told
me that I could use that skill to make a living in Accra. When I arrive in Accra
I told them I was looking for a job, they took me to a construction company at
Tema station and then they took me. (Mahamadu, 22-year-old male, from
Yendi)

4.3 Young migrants precarious employment situations

The work of the young migrants is characterised by complex
interlocking difficulties. Findings on the precariousness of young
migrant employment centred on uncertainty and exploitation by clients
and employers manifested through lowering or non-payment of wages,
all of which affect earning potential. This further results in an inability
to meet daily consumption, accommodation and health needs. However,
these experiences differed by gender and type of work.

The young migrants spoke of how every day they remained uncertain
as to whether their services would be required. For the males who are
engaged in construction for example, the possibility of going to work
depended on whether their services would be required by their employers:

As for you being called to work, it depends. Sometimes my master will call me
to come, other times he will not. When there is more work then you are sure that
you will be called. (Mahamadu, 22-year-old male, from Yendi)

Female head porters experience uncertainty differently:

I wake up around 4am and goes straight to yam market. By this time the lorry
from north will have arrived to offload yam. I go there to see if I will get some
load to carry. Sometimes you will get something to carry. Other times, nothing.
From there I go to the Makola market to see if I will get load. During the day,
it is all about walking and walking. If you are lucky you will get every load,
if you are not, you wont get anything to carry. I take break in the afternoon
with my friends under a tree. We talk about our lives and how we can make
it here and play. By 4pm I return to the market to look for some load to carry.
(Asanafi, 13-year-old female, from Gushegu)

There is no assurance that her services will be required, and walking

and walking looking for something to carry inevitably leads to fatigue
and stress. The possibility of getting a load to carry, which Asanafi
argued depends heavily on luck, was keenly discussed by the other
females interviewed. A few of the female head porters had developed
connections with owners of larger shops or supermarkets, which provide
some greater stability. Although Asanafi alludes to taking breaks in the
afternoons and engaging in conversation and play with her friends when
tired, for these young women, navigation of the cityscape in search of
work is done individually.

Interview data reveal that the income that the young migrants earn
in a day ranges from GH3 to about GH26 (US$0.21 to US$5.47),
depending on the kind of job. Some, however, said that there were days

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when they earned nothing. Susceptibility to low or irregular earnings

is linked to factors such as the fortunes of the market, attitude of
employers and clients, gender and power relations, as well as lack of
written work contracts or standards:

I sometimes carry people stuff but they refuse to pay. They see me to be young.
(Memu, 16-year-old female, from Tamale)

Initially it was difficult to get work or load to carry when I first came to Accra
but now it is quite okay. The payment for our services is irregular. People
dont treat us fairly. They pay any amount they want. Sometimes you can earn
nothing. (Mariam, 18-year-old female, from Tamale)

The accounts of Memu and Mariam raises several issues. Firstly,

because female head porters can be desperate to get something to carry,
they may fail to agree a price with their clients beforehand. The lack of
any guidance on amount to be paid allows customers to offer amounts
that are not commensurate with the weight of the load or the distance
covered. The latter part of Mariams account further suggests that the
lower income earnings of females are also enforced by issues of power
relations and patriarchy embedded in the fabric of the local culture.
The patriarchal structures dominant in Ghana often paint a picture of
the ideal woman or girl as submissive, respectful and tractable. Thus,
any articulation of dissatisfaction and expression of displeasure in their
own language can be construed as an insult, resulting in reproach,
intimidation and physical abuse:

I once carried the items of one man from Agbogbloshie to Tema station. When
we got to the station he did not give me any money. When I asked him why
in my own language, he started to insult and beat me. (Alima, 16-year-old
female, from Tamale)

Those who had been employed by companies had similar experiences.

Some employers particularly in the construction sector fail to pay the
wages of the migrants. Alhamo narrates how his employers a Chinese
construction firm failed to pay the agreed monthly wage to him and
his colleagues:

They normally pay us on monthly for the work through a time card. Just
last month they misplaced my time card so they said they cant pay me about
GH300, about five of us. There was nothing I could do. My problem now is
getting new job. (Alhamo, 24-year-old male, from Bimbila)

Alhamos experience is widespread among many informal sector workers

in Ghana. This resonates with the findings of Thorsen (2013) inBurkina
Faso, when she reports that employers, particularly in the food sector,
deliberately introduce wage cuts or fail to pay young migrants when
business slackens or when the young employees break or waste something.
In addition to a sense of abuse and injustice, this kind of behaviour leads
to socioeconomic hardship, including inability to meet daily subsistence
needs and the symbolic culture of sending remittances home.

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

4.4 Social networks and navigation in times of economic hardship

The young migrants do not accept the situation passively but navigate it
as best they can by drawing on their social connections. The role of social
networks in young migrants navigation of economic hardship manifested
largely through the provision of financial resources in meeting basic
needs (e.g. food, shelter, water and accommodation), encouragement and
emotional support for those who encounter nonpayment or lowering of
wages by clients or employers. Young migrants networks also enabled
them to save part of their earnings. However, exploitative behaviours
including, for example, pilfering and inability to retrieve savings from
network leaders, were inherent within these networking ties.

Ethnic-specific bonding networks are thought to provide not only

information about jobs and services, but also to help migrants to get
by through the provision of financial, emotional and moral support
(Simeand Fox 2015). Similarly, the young migrants interviewed spoke of
how networks of families and friends from the same community or ethnic
group are instrumental in providing financial support to meet basic needs:

We have a group whom sleep together. So, when I dont have money I borrow
money from my group. Sometimes they will not give you, they will tell you to go
and work for money. (Sarafina, 14-year-old female from Gushegu)

Most of them are full of praise for friends and family members for
the financial help they provide. Some (15) of the participants also
mentioned receiving encouragement and advice from their friends and
family members not to give up when wages are not paid by clients or
employers. The latter part of Sarafinas account, however, highlights
the fact that support from social networks is not guaranteed. Very
young migrants (less than 15 years old) may receive few benefits from
these networks, and they do not necessarily provide them with support
or protection. For example, it is common for young migrants to rent
a single room, splitting the cost between them equally. While this
reduces the cost of accommodation, it can have unintended negative
consequences, including fighting and theft: My phone was stolen last
week. I dont know who did but I suspect someone whom I sleep with at
the mosque (Alidu, 20-year-old male from Wungu).

The young migrants also spoke of involvement in savings groups. Each

ethnic group has their own savings model, making them exclusionary.
The groups are mediated by relatively respected older people who the
young migrants could identify with and who are from their home town.
Participation in such a savings model is said to be voluntary and out
of free will; there is no set amount one must contribute. The principle
is that the individual will request the savings to be returned at the end
of the month. Nonetheless, in the event of circumstances such as lack
of payment by clients or employees, the young migrants draw on such
savings to meet subsistence needs: We have a susu [savings] group where
I save some of my money. When I do not have money, I go to our leader
to get some of my money (Anasa, 15-year-old female, from Tamale).

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Awumbila, Teye and Yaro (2016) have argued that under certain
circumstances participation in social network activities may be a site for
exploitation of young migrants. Consistent with this is an account of
misunderstanding and tension among members in one savings group:

I was saving my money with our group but there was misunderstanding. The
leader was one woman from the north who was keeping the monies. The woman
was not staying with us in our room. One girl requested for her money, and
the woman gave it to her. Other girl requested for her money and there was
misunderstanding because the woman was not happy. I requested for my money
and did not get. Since then I have not set my eyes on the woman again. I saved
about GH50 but I did not get. (Faati, 20-year-old female, from Tamale)

5 Conclusion and policy implications

Young migrants transitions into the labour market demonstrates the
important role that their networks can play in providing the finance
necessary for travel and to secure work. Their precarious employment
situation involves considerable uncertainty and risk, and exploitation
by employers and clients. Incomes are low and irregular, which brings
additional difficulties in fulfilling daily subsistence needs. Some of these
difficulties are mitigated through social networks. These networks are
therefore fundamental in the life trajectories of young migrants, right
from the time the decision to migrate is taken (see also Awumbila et
al. 2016). However, they are also associated with discrimination and
exploitative practices.

The empirical findings have implications for both research and policy.
Future research could focus on young migrants utilisation of linking
social capital and the extent to which it supports their life trajectories.
In relation to policy, there is the need for supportive systems that can
provide an enabling environment for young people to realise their
aspirations around education with the aim to gain decent employment
in the formal sector. While schooling in Ghana is in theory free from
primary to junior high school, there are school-related expenses
which parents must pay. Moreover, at the senior high school level,
fees become payable. While the fees vary between schools depending
on the perceived status and desirability of the school and its nature
(day-school or boarding school), they can be prohibitive for parents
in rural northern Ghana whose livelihoods are dependent on rain-fed
agriculture. One way to address this is to provide direct support to poor
families for childrens education: just as there is a youth employment
fund, government could set up a school development fund for young
people from poorer rural backgrounds to further their education.

Deliberate action is also needed by the state to better protect informal

sector workers from exploitation by clients and employers. While laws
such as the Labour Act (2003) are supposed to protect the rights of
all workers (including migrants), they are only enforced in the formal
sector (Awumbila et al. 2016). Thus, the vast majority of workers,
who are, after all, within the informal economy, receive no protection.

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

The operations of Ghanaian institutions such as the National Labour

Commission, the Department of Social Welfare, the Ministry of
Employment and Labour Relations as well as the Ministry of Gender,
Children and Social Protection must now be strengthened and
expanded to cover the informal sector.

Lastly, there is an opportunity for government bodies and NGOs to

work much more closely with migrants networks to better provide for
the health, safety, education and wellbeing of young migrants.

Note
* This work was supported by the Smuts Memorial Fund, managed by
the University of Cambridge in memory of Jan Christiaan Smuts.

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94 | Yeboah Navigating Precarious Employment: Social Networks Among Migrant Youth in Ghana
 Institute of Development Studies | bulletin.ids.ac.uk

Youth Participation in Smallholder

Livestock Production and
Marketing* **

Edna Mutua,1 Salome Bukachi,2 Bernard Bett,3

BensonEstambale4 and Isaac Nyamongo5

Abstract Agriculture is a leading source of employment for rural

populations in Kenya. Through a mixed methods approach, this study
soughtto investigate youth participation in smallholder livestock production
and marketing in Baringo County. The specific focus is on how social norms
and micropolitics enable or constrain participation of particular groups
of young people. The study established that personal choice, preference
for paid over unpaid labour and gender norms in asset access, ownership
and control influence smallholder participation in livestock production
and trade. This shows a disconnect between Kenyas youth policy which
advocates for equitable distribution of employment opportunities and the
reality at community level. Interventions that seek to improve livestock
production and marketing, particularly involving young people, should
therefore adopt strategies that recognise these norms as a first step to
addressing social exclusion.

Keywords: Africa, transformation, empowerment, Kenya, Baringo,

livestock production, livelihoods, participation, smallholder, markets,
gender norms.

1 Introduction
In 2014, Kenyas agriculture sector employed three in every four
workers in rural areas and contributed to 27.3 per cent of the countrys
gross domestic product (GDP), mainly from crops (19.7 per cent) and
livestock (4.9 per cent) (MoALF 2015). Sixty per cent of the countrys
livestock is found in the arid and semi-arid areas which make up 80per
cent of the national land mass (MoLD 2008). The total monetary value
earned from animal products in 2014 was US$464.5 million from
beef, US$279.2 million from goat, US$375.0 million from mutton,
US$331.8million from poultry and US$1.6 billion from milk (MoALF
2015). There is growing demand for meat and milk fuelled by increases
in population, purchasing power and urbanisation (Delgado et al. 1999;
MoALF 2015). It is estimated that in developing countries such as
2017 The Authors. IDS Bulletin Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.129
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Introduction is also recommended reading.
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

Kenya, 48 per cent of food protein and 20 per cent of food energy is
derived from livestock (FAO 2009).

Despite agriculture being the leading source of employment, young

people are often said to prefer employment in non-farm sectors. Negative
attitudes towards agriculture have been associated with drudgery, low
returns, poor access to markets and market information, limited credit,
lack of prestige compared to white collar jobs and awareness of the
disparities between rural and urban life (Afande, Maina and Maina
2015; Leavy and Smith 2010). Other factors include non-involvement
of youth in policymaking processes (Afande et al. 2015). In Kenya, the
constitution classifies persons between 18 years and 34 years of age as
youth (GoK 2010). This categorisation is used in the remainder of the
article, but it is critically important to recognise that even within this age
range there is a tremendous level of diversity across the broad range of
social and economic indicators (Leavy and Smith 2010).

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries 20132017

strategic plan proposes to draw youth into agriculture through the
introduction of new farming technologies such as irrigation and
aquaculture (MoALF 2013). However, the plan does not explain how
youth engagement in livestock production and marketing will be
improved. Similarly, the national youth policy advocates for equitable
distribution of employment opportunities but does not explain how that
will be achieved in the livestock sector (MoYA 2006). The governments
Vision 2030 recognises Kenyas youth as an important segment of the
population and the livestock sector as key to Kenyas economic growth
but does not state how the youth can gainfully engage in the livestock
sector (GoK 2007).

The research reported here sought to explore the factors affecting youth
participation in livestock production and marketing in Baringo County,
Kenya, and the implications of these for youth employment and
livelihoods. At the heart of the study is the question: who participates in
livestock production and marketing, and what are the social norms and
micropolitics around participation?

2 Materials and methods

Baringo County is part of Kenyas semi-arid regions, and in 2014
contributed to 2.4, 3.5, 2.2 and 2.1 per cent of the countrys chicken,
goat, cattle and sheep populations respectively (MoALF 2015). The
study was conducted in three sub-counties, Baringo Central, Baringo
North and Marigat, which make up the central part of the county (see
Figure 1). The study site was divided into four ecological zones, namely
riverine, highland, midland and lowland. The highland zone, defined as
an altitude greater than 1,500 metres above sea level (masl), is the most
favourable for crop and dairy farming. The midlands are at an altitude
of 1,0001,500 masl and have a high goat population. In the lowland
and riverine zones, irrigated crop farming and livestock production
are practised in the Perkerra Irrigation Scheme and along sections

96 | Mutua et al. Youth Participation in Smallholder Livestock Production and Marketing

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Figure 1 Map of study site

Kenya Study area

Barwesa Kechii/Loruk
Sibilo
Issas
Kondo Kapkiamo
Taimon/Tibingor
Keturwo Tirimionin
L. Baringo
Kaptum Kipcherere
Kapchepkor
Kapluk Lelian Salabani
Riwa Endao Loiminang
Kapchepterit Kabusa/
Lelmen Kimondis
Baringo County Kewamoi Kituro Ngambo
Salawa A&B Perkerra
Timboeyo Koriema L. 94
Kimoino
Eldume
Kaptarakwa
Sagasak
Timboeyo Sabor
Kapkelelwa Sandai Chebinyiny
Kibinjos
Kaplelwo
Kaplel
Koibarak Bekibon Maji Ndege
Tenses

FGD sites Maji Moto

Survey clusters L. Bogoria
Markets Waseges/Oukokwe
Riverine zone
Koitumet
Highland zone
Mid-altitude zone
Lowland zone

0 10 20 30 40 50km

Source Redrawn from authors original, from the project titled Early Warning Systems for Improved Human Health and
Resilience to Climate-Sensitive Vector-Borne Diseases in Kenya.

of the Kerio River, respectively. The highland, midland and riverine

zones are predominantly populated by Tugen people who are mainly
agropastoralist, while the lowlands are populated by the pastoral
Ilchamus people.

A cross-sectional, mixed methods approach was used. Quantitative data

was collected through two surveys that included 335 household heads
and 203 livestock traders respectively. The household survey focused
on household demographic characteristics, livelihood activities, types
and numbers of livestock kept, and quantities of milk produced. Each
zone was subdivided into five clusters, and households were selected
through stratified random sampling. The trader survey was conducted
on six different market days in November 2015 in three main livestock
markets within the study site. All traders in the market were surveyed.

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Data collection focused on demographic characteristics, types and

numbers of livestock traded and trading frequency. Household survey
respondents did not participate in the livestock traders survey.

Qualitative data was collected through focus group discussions and

direct observation. Twenty-six focus groups were organised half
included only men and half only women. Each group had 710
participants, for a total of 231. Participants were selected purposively,
with the following inclusion criteria: having lived in the county for at
least one year, and being a livestock keeper or coming from a household
that keeps livestock. The discussions covered livelihood activities, how
individuals become livestock owners, types of livestock ownership, and
division of labour in livestock production and marketing practices.
Following Quisumbing (1999), dimensions of livestock ownership
were categorised as management, access, withdrawal, alienation and
exclusion. Direct observation techniques were used to collect additional
data that would further contextualise the research findings.

Quantitative data was entered and cleaned with CSPro6 and analysed
with SPSS7 using both summary and inferential statistics. Qualitative
data was transcribed and coded into emergent themes using NVivo8 and
analysed using the content analysis method. All respondents were of
consenting age and voluntarily agreed to participate in the study.

This study gives a snapshot of the context within which different people
engaged in livestock production and marketing. The study did not
investigate whether the livelihood activities the respondents engaged in
were a result of choice or necessity, or whether they were considered
as long-term or short-term activities. The results cannot be generalised
beyond Baringo County.

3 Results
3.1 Demographic characteristics
A total of 335 household heads, comprising 260 males and 75 females
participated in the household survey. Just over a quarter (27.8 per cent)
were 34 years old or less, while the rest were 35 years or more. Three
quarters of the young household heads were male (75.5 per cent) while
the rest were female. Among household heads aged 35 years and above,
78.6 per cent were male and 21.4 per cent female. The vast majority of
both young (88.6 per cent) and older household heads (79.7 per cent)
were married. There was a statistical difference between the education
levels of the young and the older respondents, with the youth having
more primary, secondary and tertiary education (c2 =28.810, df=3,
p<0.001). Among the youth, there was a statistical difference in education
levels between the men and women (Fishers test p=0.013), with more
men than women having primary, secondary and tertiary education.

Nearly half of the traders interviewed (49.3 per cent) were 34 years old
or less, and most of these were aged 2534 years. Traders of all ages
were overwhelmingly male (96.1 per cent overall). There was a statistical
difference between the education level of young and older traders,

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with more youth having post-primary education (c2 =26.948, df=4,

p<0.001). The study participants were predominantly Christian.

3.2 Livelihoods and livestock

The main livelihood activities in this region are crop farming, livestock
keeping, self-employment in supply of goods (such as firewood, water
and food items), wage and salaried employment. As primary livelihood
activities, household heads reported engaging in crop farming (50.2per
cent), livestock keeping (19.1 per cent), goods delivery (15.4 per cent),
wage labour (9.5 per cent) and salaried employment (5.8 per cent). Their
main supplementary activities were livestock keeping (52.1per cent) and
crop farming (32.1 per cent). Compared to their older counterparts,
young household heads were more likely to engage in goods supply,
wage labour and salaried employment than crop or livestock production
as primary livelihood activities (c2 =10.610, df=4, p=0.031).

A clear majority of households (83 per cent) reported keeping livestock,

with 29.7 per cent having goats, 29.1 per cent cattle, 25.6 per cent
chickens and 15 per cent sheep. Heads commonly reported that their
households keep more than one livestock species. The livestock are
mainly of indigenous breeds: few farmers kept cross-breed cattle,
favoured for higher milk production compared to local breeds.
Households headed by young people had on average 11.1 tropical
livestock units (TLUs),9 slightly lower than the average for older
household heads (13.0). Among the youth, male-headed households had
more livestock TLUs (12.3) than female-headed households (9.4).

The animals were considered sources of food (meat, milk, blood, eggs
and animal fat), medicine, income and prestige; as well as stores of wealth
and means of social acceptance. For household heads, livestock keeping
was considered an important indicator of wealth: households with few
cattle, sheep or goats were perceived as poor and those with more were
considered wealthy. The size of herds was also associated with the level
of social capital and the respect extended to household heads and their
families. Persons from households with a lot of livestock were more
respected, had greater voice and were easily accepted as leaders. Inclusion
and non-inclusion of women into groups locally referred to as merry-
go-rounds was partially determined by the members perception of an
applicants individual wealth status, and thus livestock holdings mattered.
Merry-go-rounds are a form of rotating savings group in which
members contribute savings at regular intervals with each member taking
the pot in turn. Members with more livestock might be seen as less risky.

3.3 Sources of livestock and ownership

Men and women, young and old, reported sourcing livestock through
purchase, gifting and loaning, as well as through the reproduction
of animals already owned. Animals were purchased from friends,
neighbours or from markets. The purchase was often done by the
person that wanted the animal or a proxy assumed to be knowledgeable
of prevailing market prices and skilled at selecting good animals.

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Cattle, sheep and goat transactions were mainly handled by men, while
chickens, eggs and milk were handled by women. A newer strategy
of acquisition of cattle, sheep and goats by women was through the
merry-go-round groups.

Livestock were gifted to young persons as a result of good performance

at school and at home. Boys were also rewarded for exhibiting bravery
during circumcision, whereas girls were gifted animals upon getting
married in a culturally acceptable way, and also after childbirth.
Additionally, a brides parents were gifted livestock by the grooms
family (bride price). In some instances, the bride price was also shared
with the brides uncles and aunties, with the expectation that those who
received these gifts would reciprocate when their children married.

Only sons were reported to inherit livestock from their parents, with the
animals being bequeathed to the sons at a time of the fathers choosing
or after his demise. Traditionally, among the Tugen community, a
fathers livestock was only inherited by the firstborn son while the
lastborn inherited from the mother. However, this practice was
reported to be in decline as sons press for equal shares of inheritance
regardless of birth order. For girls, it was reported that inheritance of
any kind of property encouraged insubordination and decreased the
probability of getting and remaining married.

Sourcing livestock through traditional borrowing was reported as a

last resort, when, for example, all other livestock had been lost. In this
region, lack of cattle, sheep or goats is equated to nakedness, and the
culture demands an individual borrows clothing to cover the shame.
Thus, an individual who does not have animals can borrow from
one who has many, and utilise the milk in exchange for caring for
the animal. Once the borrowed animal reproduces, the owner gives
the caregiver a female offspring to start their own herd, then often
repossesses the mature animal and any other young ones.

Livestock ownership was reported by men and women, but ownership

has several different dimensions. For example, ownership claims
are manifest in making decisions about livestock management
(management); in determining who has access to livestock or their
products (access) or not (exclusion), and which animals are sold, gifted
or loaned, and to whom (alienation); and over the benefits accrued
from the livestock and derived products (withdrawal). Management is
the ability to make decisions on care of livestock. At household level,
management of cattle, sheep and goats is primarily a male responsibility
regardless of who or how the animal was sourced. Prior to marriage,
cattle, sheep and goats belonging to male and female children are
held in trust by their parents. According to focus group discussants,
the majority of young women married aged 2025 years while
young men married aged 2530, both well within the youth category.
Upon marriage, most dimensions of ownership by young women are
transferred to the new male head of household regardless of their age:

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As a woman, you have nothing to say is yours. You wont say this livestock
[cattle, sheep and goats] it is mine. (Female discussant, Litein4)10,11

As far as livestock [cattle, sheep and goats] are concerned, women do not have
authority to own or sell them. (Male discussant, Lorok1)12

There are those women who can buy cattle, but when it reaches home it does
not belong to the woman because the home is the husbands, there is no home
belonging to a woman. The home belongs to the man. So everything in the home
belongs to the man. The children and the woman are his. Everything in that
house is his. (Male discussant, Litein1)13

Despite these cultural norms, women still source and keep cattle,
sheep and goats. However, their security of ownership depends on
maintaining anonymity of who sourced the animal:

If you come to brag at home that you have [cattle, sheep or goats] he gets angry.
He can sell or slaughter them. (Female discussant, Litein4)14

He [the household head] does not want you to tell others that you have [cattle,
sheep or goats]. Even if they are full in the home and he doesnt have even one
you dont tell anyone. You let it look like they are his. (Female discussant,
Litein1)15

Chickens, milk and eggs are considered to be of less value than cattle,
sheep and goats; they are mainly managed by women, even young women.

The average milk volumes reported by young and old household heads
were 1.4 litres and 1.7 litres respectively, with the milk mainly being used
for domestic consumption. Among the youth, male- and female-headed
households produced nearly equal amounts of milk, on average 1.4litres
and 1.5 litres respectively. In cases where the volumes produced were
high and milk value chains were commercialised, management claims
reverted to men except in female-headed households:

There is no time men say that chicken are theirs. If someone comes to ask me
[the man] for chicken, they will not be given because I am not the one that
deals with chicken. I cannot take chicken and say I want to give this one out.
For small things you ask the mother/wife because it is women who deal with
chicken. (Male discussant, Borowonin2)16

Men consider chicken, eggs, milk as something small. Women are then ones
concerned about them and when they are sold, nobody will question. (Female
discussant, Kipcherere4)17

If the cow [you have] is a cross-breed that produces 34 litres of milk or more,
it is the man who will decide whether it will to be sold in a hotel or somewhere
else. (Female discussant, Perkerra1)18

Access to livestock and livestock products is granted to all family

members regardless of age. However, household heads can also deny
access (exclusion).

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In day-to-day activities related to the animals, men typically construct

sheds, treat sick and injured cattle, sheep and goats, dip or spray animals
infested with insects, brand or ear notch, castrate and slaughter. On
the other hand, milking, caring for the sick, injured and those about to
deliver, cleaning animal sheds and constructing sheds for young livestock
are primarily female activities. Grazing and watering of livestock can
be done by both men and women, who can be assisted by both male
and female children. Girls do milking, while the care of chickens is left
to women and children, with men rarely getting involved. Increasingly,
women are involved in the treatment of sick livestock, particularly in
households where the head stayed or worked away from home.

Decisions concerning the sale or lending of cattle, sheep and goats

(alienation) and use of income generated from their sale (withdrawal)
are predominantly made by household heads. Household heads may
make these decisions before or after internal consultations with their
spouses. Women independently make decisions on chickens, eggs and
milk in non-commercialised systems. Consequently, in the study site,
cattle, sheep and goats were considered male products while chickens,
eggs and milk were for women, therefore influencing the types of
livestock trade men and women engage in.

3.4 Market participation

Different livestock and livestock products are traded in different spaces
and by different people. Cattle, sheep and goats are mainly traded by
men in livestock markets where animals are publicly auctioned. Reasons
provided as to why, despite a thriving livestock trade, only a few women
participate include lack of market information and avoidance of male
spaces:

Women do not know the price of cattle. So even if a woman is allowed to sell
cattle, how will she sell? (Male discussant, Kipcherere2)19

Women dont trade in the livestock [cattle, sheep and goat] markets. They shy
away the livestock section of the market. (Male discussant, Kipcherere1)20

Market participation occurs at two levels. There are traders who are
either selling cattle, sheep or goats to raise income to meet household
needs, buying livestock for domestic purposes, or offloading stock to
minimise losses in the dry season. These are essentially needs-driven
traders and they comprised 44.8 per cent of all traders interviewed.
The other 55.2 per cent of traders were those who derived a livelihood
from livestock transactions. There was a significant statistical difference
between the cattle volumes transacted by young traders and older
traders, with the older ones trading larger quantities (c2 =9.935, df=2,
p=0.007). For sheep and goats, there was no statistical difference in the
volumes traded by young and old traders.

Most of the young male traders were aged 2534 years, the age range
within which most got married and assumed ownership of livestock.
Of the eight female traders interviewed, only three were aged 34 years

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or less, and two of these were aged 2534 years. It appeared that half
(4) were needs-driven and half (4) were regular traders. There was only
one young female who worked as a regular trader. Three of the four
regular female traders came from Trans-Nzoia County and Nairobi.
They traded by negotiating with livestock owners before the animals
were taken to the auction yard or by having male representatives or
companions in the auction yard to help with sale or purchase. On
livestock market days, women generate income indirectly from livestock
trading through the sale of ropes for tethering livestock and ready-to-eat
food items to the traders.

Livestock sales were not restricted to established markets and market

days only. Traders and farmers also buy livestock at the farm gate for
resale, slaughter and herd expansion. Potential sellers declare their
intentions to neighbours and local butchers as a strategy for attracting
buyers. The key benefits of selling at the farm gate as reported by focus
group discussants are that a seller does not bear the cost of moving the
animal and they could utilise their social networks as market sources.
The key weaknesses of this strategy are that it results in lower returns
compared to established livestock markets, and buyers might not always
be readily forthcoming.

Chickens, milk and eggs are mainly sold by women at the farm gate or
in local centres. Despite these products being considered of low value,
sales were reported to be more regular than large stock. The incomes
gained were used to meet small needs in the household such as food
items, stationery and payment of school fees. Women valued these
products because they could use their discretion in relation to when to
sell, and exercise control over incomes earned:

When it comes to milk and chickens and eggs you dont have to ask. That is
yours. (Female discussant, Perkerra1)21

We [men] are just not concern with chicken, eggs and milk. Women sell
them and use the money to solve small financial issues. (Male discussant,
Lorok1)22

4 Discussion
Overall, the study shows that livestock farmers and traders are not
homogeneous groups. Social norms introduce differences in claims
and privileges based on gender and age, inhibiting womens ability to
gainfully engage with livestock. A detailed analysis of the differences
in choice of livelihood activity, livestock sourcing, ownership and
marketing highlights the norms and micropolitics that affect the
participation of different social groups. Caution must be exercised,
however, as it is not straightforward to distinguish between statements of
community norms from those describing individual behaviour.

In the study area, young household heads reported a preference for

self-employment, wage or salaried employment, while those aged
35years and above mainly engaged in crop and livestock farming. This

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suggests that while young people may be unwilling to provide unpaid

agricultural labour in their household, they would provide it if it was
paid. Young peoples choice is informed by the need for regular income
which small-scale crop and livestock farming do not offer. An important
research question is whether the employment aspirations of the young
household heads will shift more towards farming and livestock as they
grow older.

Young household heads and traders had more primary, secondary and
tertiary education compared to the older ones. The difference can
be explained by improved access to learning institutions and growing
parental appreciation for the value of formal education. An emergent
research question is how the difference in education achievement
will shape youth employment aspirations, engagement in livestock
production and marketing, and parental expectations.

The study has demonstrated that there are gender differences in how
men and women acquire livestock. The differences emerge in purchase,
gifting and inheritance. Ability to purchase is determined by availability
of the money to invest. A strategy adopted by women to circumvent
financial constraints is purchasing through merry-go-rounds. Through
combining savings from different people, an individual is able to afford
an animal that would otherwise have been difficult to buy. While men
can purchase cattle, sheep and goats without consulting their spouses,
women are required to declare their intentions beforehand. This opens
up a possibility that the resources planned for livestock purchase are
diverted to other purposes by the household head. Additionally, a
household head can block or encourage purchase of livestock based on
their considerations around land use. In the study area, women and girls
rarely own land. They can, however, access it through their spouses or
fathers but rarely have any decision-making capacity regarding its use.

Norms and practice around gifting of animals are interpreted flexibly,

influenced by personal choice, cultural norms or implied expectation of
reciprocity. A parent who feels that their child has excelled and deserves
a reward gifts the child voluntarily. The parent whose son successfully
undergoes a rite of passage is compelled by local culture to reward him
with cattle, sheep or goats depending on their livestock endowment.
When parents marry their daughters, the grooms family is expected to
pay bride price. When a brides parents share bride price with relatives,
it is with the expectation that they will also receive a similar gift in
future. It is clear that young people can benefit from gifting, but it is less
clear whether gifting constrains participation of particular social groups
such as young women.

On the other hand, only sons gain access to livestock and land through
inheritance, but of course this can only happen when parents have
livestock. By default, this practice excludes young women from sourcing
livestock through inheritances. Even in the case of sons, inheritance is
at the discretion of the parents: children have no control over the time

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when a parent decides to redistribute their resources and cannot with

certainty tell how redistribution will be effected amongst siblings.

The study suggested a clear delineation of the livestock species that can
be owned by men or women. Livestock assumed to be of higher value
such as cattle, sheep and goats are in the male domain, while chickens,
milk and eggs are in the female domain. While women do own cattle,
sheep and goats, this fact is usually kept hidden. Pursuit of livestock
ownership is a potential source of intra-household conflict because it
can be interpreted as a strategy to challenge the heads control over
household assets. Nonetheless, women still pursued livestock ownership,
an indication of the desire to be involved in production. While this
norm does not exclude women completely, it certainly constrains their
participation in large-animal activities. This constraint is probably even
greater for young women.

No matter who owns them or how they were acquired, with the
exception of female-headed households, decisions relating to
management, alienation, exclusion and withdrawal of cattle, sheep and
goats rest with men. This potentially inhibits womens participation in
production of large stock and by extension, limits their ability to pursue
livestock production as a means of livelihood. While women can claim
ownership of milk, the quantities produced are very low, and availability
is periodic (i.e. dependent on having a lactating animal).

Relatively few women are engaged in cattle, sheep and goat trading.
According to prevailing social norms, livestock markets and marketing
are predominantly male spaces and activities. Consequently, most of
the women that regularly traded in livestock came from outside Baringo
County, away from their home areas where cultural inhibitions would
be greater. Further, because the animals the female traders purchased
were either resold whole or as meat and were never considered as part
of the domestic herds, the women gainfully participate in the trade
and could exercise more decision-making powers over the gained
resources. That there was only a single female regular trader aged 34
or less indicated that livestock trading was either not an accessible or a
favoured livelihood activity among female youth, probably due to the
cultural inhibitions experienced in the county.

5 Conclusions and implications

Agriculture and livestock will remain important sources of income and
employment for many people in years to come, especially in rural areas
where youth under- and unemployment rates are higher than urban
areas (White 2012). Gainful participation in agriculture is determined
by an individuals ability to manage the barriers to entry (Coles and
Mitchell 2011). This study has demonstrated that coming from a
livestock-producing community does not necessarily result in gainful
engagement in livestock production. Participation can be inhibited
by social norms and micropolitics that affect the choice of livelihood
activities and access to other requisite resources such as land. While

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the Kenya national youth policy advocates for equitable provision of

employment opportunities for youth by creating enabling environments,
the current study shows a disconnect between this ideal and the reality
on the ground. This implies that programmes to promote livestock
production and marketing should be carefully designed so that they
do not perpetuate or deepen inequalities, particularly among the
young. The programmes might consider implementation strategies
that challenge existing barriers in ways that increase employment
opportunities for male and female youth without attracting backlash
from other groups. Further research should also be conducted to inform
policymakers as to how increasing education among the youth will
influence their employment aspirations and engagement in livestock
production and marketing.

Notes
* This research was carried out within a larger three-year study on
early warning systems for improved human health and resilience to
climate-sensitive vector-borne diseases in Kenya, funded through a
grant by WHO/TDR/IDRC Project ID B20278. The work was also
partly supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture
for Nutrition and Health led by the International Food Policy
Research Institute, Washington DC.
** The authors acknowledge the contributions of the veterinary
department, local administration and the people of Baringo County for
their generous non-financial support which made this study a reality.
1 Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African Studies, University
of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya; Food Safety and Zoonoses Team,
International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
2 Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African Studies, University of
Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
3 Food Safety and Zoonoses Team, International Livestock Research
Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
4 Research, Innovation and Outreach, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga
University of Science and Technology, Bondo, Kenya.
5 Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African Studies, University of
Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya, and Cooperative Development, Research and
Innovation, The Cooperative University of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya.
6 Version 6.1, United States Census Bureau, Washington DC.
7 Version 22, IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk, New York.
8 Version 10, QSR International, Melbourne.
9 The tropical livestock unit is a measure used to standardise across
a number of different livestock species. According to Chilonda and
Otte (2006), 1 cattle = 0.5 TLUs, 1 sheep and/or goat = 0.1 TLUs,
and 1 chicken = 0.01 TLUs.
10 Interview, 3 August 2015.
11 The numbers relate to the order of focus group discussions (FGDs)
conducted in an area; for example, Lorok1 means the first FGD
conducted in Lorok and Litein2 means the second FGD conducted in
Litein. The number is also used to distinguish between groups where
two male-only FGDs or female-only FGDs were conducted per location.

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12 Interview, 19 August 2015.

13 Interview, 31 July 2015.
14 Interview, 3 August 2015.
15 Interview, 31 July 2015.
16 Interview, 27 January 2015.
17 Interview, 18 November 2014.
18 Interview, 20 March 2015.
19 Interview, 13 November 2014.
20 Interview, 13 November 2014.
21 Interview, 20 March 2015.
22 Interview, 19 August 2015.

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22February 2017)

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Non-Farm Enterprises and

the Rural Youth Employment
Challenge in Ghana

Monica Lambon-Quayefio

Abstract Non-farm enterprises have generally been perceived as a silver

bullet solution for rural unemployment. This article therefore provides
someinsights on their potential to resolve the youth unemployment
challenge in rural Ghana. Non-farm enterprises in Ghana are
heterogeneous in nature based on type of enterprise, range of activities
and productivity. Evidence suggests that motivations for operating these
enterprises are mixed. Some households operate them as a coping
mechanism to deal with household or agricultural shocks, while others may
also be operated as business entities with the potential to grow sustainably
and offer employment to young people. In order to harness the full
potential of non-farm enterprises to address the rural youth employment
challenge, it is imperative for policymakers in Ghana to identify specific
sub-sectors that lend themselves to growth and have the capacity to offer
sustainable employment avenues, and to critically interrogate and examine
the primary reason of their establishment.

Keywords: Ghana, coping, policy, non-farm enterprise, rural,

unemployment.

1 Introduction
Despite impressive economic growth, Ghana, like many other
African countries, is confronted with a significant youth under- and
unemployment challenge. Although the Ghana Statistical Service
report on labour force (GSS 2013) pegged the unemployment rate of
Ghana at 5.2 per cent, the same document reveals that unemployment
among the youth (1535 years) is 32.2 per cent. Additionally, the report
indicates that urban unemployment is higher (6.3 per cent) than the
national average as well the rural unemployment rate (3.9 per cent). The
majority of youth who are employed in urban areas are engaged mainly
in wholesale and retail businesses, as well as very low productivity service
areas. In rural areas, many youth who are engaged in low productivity
agricultural activities seek the opportunity to migrate. Given the
relatively low levels of education and skills of most rural youth, a large
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Introduction is also recommended reading.
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

body of literature has hinted that non-farm enterprises have the potential
to create the much-needed employment opportunities in rural areas.

This article examines and critiques the efficacy of existing policies and
programmes in Ghana that are meant to promote non-farm activities in
rural areas. It draws on existing research literature and relevant policy
documents to evaluate the extent to which non-farm enterprises can
serve as a solution to the rural youth unemployment challenge. This is
important because non-farm enterprises are being promoted for their
perceived potential to absorb surplus labour in rural areas. This is
particularly important as the capacity for agriculture (in its current state)
to provide a sustainable source of livelihood is low, and prospects for
unskilled workers in urban areas have dwindled. The logic, therefore,
is that non-farm activities like agro-processing and services are the next
best alternative for rural youth.

The argument I present is that merely expanding non-farm activities in

rural areas may not resolve the rural unemployment problem because
in large part these are operated as coping mechanisms rather than
as businesses. Although some evidence suggests that achievement of
asset accumulation and upward mobility from diversification through
the operation of non-farm enterprises within the rural economy is
possible, this article suggests that such a benefit is not likely for most
rural households in Ghana whose goal of survival is a more probable
outcome of diversification.

The next section provides a description of non-farm enterprise in

Ghana, and in Section 3 the capacity of the non-farm sector to absorb
surplus labour in the rural economy is evaluated. Section 4 explores
the motivation for households engagement in non-farm enterprises,
and Section 5 reviews existing youth policies and programmes geared
towards the promotion of non-farm enterprises. Section 6 concludes
and provides a set of policy recommendations.

2 Characteristics of rural non-farm enterprise in Ghana

In the income diversification literature, the terms non-farm, off-farm
and non-agricultural activities are used interchangeably to refer to
all income-generating activities aside from those gained directly from
the farm. Nagler and Naud (2014) use the term rural nonfarm
enterprises to refer to small, informal household enterprises including
agribusiness, trade and retail, tourism, rural industrialisation,
construction and mining. Similarly, Haggblade, Hazell and Reardon
(2010) describe non-farm activities to include mining, agro-processing,
utilities, construction, commerce and financial services. Reardon
(1997) points to a body of evidence that shows the common non-farm
enterprises in most developing countries are mainly in commerce,
manufacturing and services. The World Bank (2008) reports that
8090per cent of these enterprises rely exclusively on family labour.
For the purposes of this article, I adopt the definition of rural non-farm
enterprises provided by Nagler and Naud (2014) which includes all

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income-generating activities excluding income generated directly from

traditional farming activities.

Data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GSS 2013) indicate
that about 44.3 per cent of households in Ghana operate non-farm
enterprises, of which more than half (50.4 per cent) are located in
urban areas, with about 36.8 per cent found in rural areas. The survey
report describes the main non-farm activities to include manufacturing,
trading and other economic activities such as mining, construction and
services such as education, hotels and restaurants. In terms of gender
differences, about 70.6 per cent of non-farm enterprises are operated by
women. The proportion of women operating these enterprises is slightly
higher in urban areas (71.4 per cent) compared to rural areas (69.1 per
cent). With respect to gender differences in non-farm activities in urban
areas, a slightly higher proportion of females (69 per cent) than males
(67 per cent) are engaged in trading activities. The reverse holds true
in rural areas, where a marginally higher proportion of males (32.9 per
cent) are engaged in trading activities than females (31 per cent).

With respect to people engaged in other economic activities, more

males (53.5 per cent) compared to their female counterparts (35 per
cent) are casual workers. For skilled workers who operate non-farm
enterprises, about 51.7 per cent of females are in trading activities while
46.9 per cent of skilled males engaged in other economic activities.
Contrary to expectations, relatively few skilled workers are engaged
in manufacturing activities: 24.8 per cent and 24.3 per cent of skilled
males and females, respectively, engaged in manufacturing activities
are skilled workers. More unskilled females (45.5 per cent) than males
(40.3per cent) are involved in trading activities.

Household savings are the primary source of capital for the operation
of non-farm enterprises in Ghana. According to GSS (2013), household
savings constitute about 73 per cent of capital required for non-farm
enterprises, followed by support from relatives or friends which make up
about 14.6 per cent of funds needed. Borrowing from formal financial
institutions constitute only 1.9 per cent. Other notable sources of capital
for non-farm enterprises include funds from family farms (4.6 per cent)
and informal money lenders (1.1 per cent). Some other minor sources
of capital also include non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well
as religious organisations and cooperatives. Disaggregating source of
capital by gender and activity, the data reveal that significantly more
males engaged in manufacturing activities rely on household savings
to finance their operations compared to females. A similar pattern is
apparent for trading and other non-farm activities.

The data show that the annual average expenditure on inputs for
households operating non-farm enterprise is very low at about
GH110.40 (approximately US$25.26). The highest average
expenditure is incurred on raw materials and is about GH641.7
(US$146.84), followed by purchase of articles for resale of GH387.8

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(US$86.68) and expenditure on fuel and lubricants, which is

about GH316.8 (US$72.49). The total revenue earned from all
nonfarm enterprises in the survey period was GH48,645.9million
(approximately US$11,131.78 million), of which the highest
contribution was from trading activities (GH31,134.3 million,
US$7,124.55million), followed by revenue generated from other
economic activities. Revenue received from manufacturing enterprises
was the least at GH7,897.5million (US$1,807.21 million).

As suggested by Nagler and Naud (2014), the majority of non-farm

enterprises in Ghana are found in the informal sector, where women
seem to be more engaged than men. These enterprises predominantly
create employment avenues for family members, employing an average
of five people. The sector is also characterised by relatively low skilled
workers with a large percentage of casual workers, especially in
manufacturing. Savings from households seem to be the main source
of capital for its operations, especially in the manufacturing sector. As
a result, these enterprises are less likely to have working relationships
with financial institutions. This therefore reduces the possibility of
good record-keeping of their business activities. The sub-sector that
seems to generate much revenue is trading activities, despite the general
perception that it creates relatively low employment opportunities
compared to the manufacturing sector.

3 Coping strategy or a source of sustainable livelihood?

Ample evidence from Assan and Beyene (2013), Bryceson (2004),
Barrett, Reardon and Webb (2001), Ellis and Bahiigwa (2003), and
Hussein and Nelson (1998) suggests that income diversification is
an important strategy adopted by rural households in Africa. The
diversification options available to rural households include intensive
cropping and/or marketing of non-conventional commodities and
animal rearing (Aduse-Poku et al. 2003), commerce (Adi 2007),
migration (Lay, MMukaria and Mahmoud 2007) and non-farm
activities (Lay et al. 2007; Adi 2007). Others point to self-employment
versus wage labour as another diversification option (Hussein and
Nelson 1998; Ellis 2000; Barret et al. 2001).

Non-farm activities are clearly an important element of income

diversification and employment generation. Empirical evidence from
Haggblade et al. (2007, 2010) indicates that non-farm enterprises account
for about 35 per cent of rural income in Africa. Fox and Sohnesen (2016)
provide an optimistic projection of 38 per cent of new employment
avenues between 2010 and 2020. However, while there is some consensus
regarding the relative importance of nonfarm enterprises in income
diversification, there is debate about the incentives for participating in
these activities and their ability to create employment avenues to absorb
surplus labour from the agriculture sector.

The ongoing debate on rural livelihoods is inconclusive as to whether

diversification into non-farm enterprises results in sustainable wealth

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accumulation or is just a desperate strategy for survival within

resourcepoor societies (Assan and Beyene 2013). For example,
Warren (2002) argues that diversification may be occasional, where
the change in the household livelihood portfolio is temporary, or may
be more strategic, reflecting a deliberate attempt to take advantage of
changing opportunities and cope with unexpected constraints. Ellis
(1998) identifies diversification to be an accumulation strategy which
is likely to result in improvement in household incomes and assets.
However, Whitehead and Kabeer (2001) and Dercon and Krishnan
(1996) caution that accumulation through diversification may not be
equally available to all rural households. De Janvry and Sadoulet (2001)
report forms of accumulation in the rural non-farm service sector
such as tourism and wage labour activities, conceding that the rural
nonfarm service sector has a better potential to enhance accumulation
from diversification. These studies therefore suggest that the asset
accumulation motive of non-farm enterprises is not uniform, but rather
depends on other determining factors such as the initial wealth of the
household as well as the specific enterprise operated by the household.
Although Reardon (1997) agrees that diversification via non-farm
enterprises offers a pathway out of poverty, he notes that available data
are not clearly indicative of whether the strategy is about survival or
purely an asset accumulation strategy which has the potential to offer
the needed employment avenues for the rural labour force.

Some literature describes the diversification of rural incomes to be

a coping mechanism, creating the opportunity to respond to a shock
or contingency, and thereby spreading the risk associated with, for
example, small-scale farming. Empirical evidence shows that in rural
Africa, non-farm enterprise to a larger extent fulfils a risk management
and survival function (Nagler and Naud 2014; Rijkers and Costa
2012). In the same way, Whitehead and Kabeer (2001) and Ellis
(2000) argue that as a result of previous experience with poor crop
yields and food insecurity, households diversify in an attempt to spread
the perceived risk of shocks on household consumption and other
important household expenditure. Other push factors discussed in the
literature may include: limited availability of agricultural land and
environmental degradation. Neihof (2004) aptly describes diversification
into non-farm activities as a stopgap or filler strategy which merely
enables households to cope with economic gaps on a temporary basis.
Similarly, Davies (1996) argues that a households diversification into
rural non-farm enterprises serves as insurance against indebtedness and
borrowing, and boosts its ability to survive.

Specifically, evidence on Ghana from Ashong and Smith (2001) and

Canagarajah, Newman and Bhattamishra (2001) suggests that rural
households participate in non-farm enterprises mainly to escape
food insecurity and poverty. Using data from a peri-urban area in
Kumasi, Ashong and Smith (2001) note that during poor seasonal rains
households may deplete their assets through sale of cattle in order to
purchase food. However, relatively poorer households that are unable to

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afford cattle are forced into non-farm sources of livelihood. Descriptions

provided by the authors therefore hint that operating nonfarm
enterprises is the last resort for survival in most poor households. Assan
(2014) also provides empirical evidence from southern Ghana which
identifies diversification as a strategy for survival rather than asset
accumulation as the predominant reason. However, the author makes
an interesting observation with regard to households that operate
nonfarm enterprises. He observed that households operated more than
one enterprise with the particular reason of ensuring income security.
To achieve this, they engage in multiple enterprises with the ability to
switch between enterprises should one fail. Using more robust empirical
techniques and data from the northern part of Ghana, findings from
Owusu, Abdulai and Abdul-Rahman (2011) indicate that non-farm
work is a valuable source of income which helps in income smoothing,
which is in turn useful for household consumption smoothing. Fox
and Sohnesen (2016) disagree and suggest that these enterprises have
existed for long periods and are therefore sustainable in the solutions
they may proffer to the employment challenge. This argument may
be problematic in the sense that enterprises may have existed for
long durations but may still operate at the subsistence level, using low
productivity technologies and largely dependent on family labour.
Particularly for Ghana, despite the growth of the sector in the past
few years, the characteristics described in the previous section give an
indication of the low levels of investment by households as well as heavy
reliance on family labour.

Diversification has also been viewed as a process which takes advantage

of opportunities in the rural economy in order to maximise household
income and other household goals. For example, Warren (2002) suggests
that households may engage in non-farm activities to accumulate the
resources needed to educate the younger generation and increase
land holdings to assure prosperity and stability. Ellis (1998) supports
the finding that diversification can lead to improved income and asset
accumulation. Also, Whitehead and Kabeer (2001) and Dercon and
Krishnan (1996) contend that non-farm activities may be a source
of surplus income which can be invested in productivity-enhancing
methods on farms, and other forms of capital or asset accumulation.
Using data from Mozambique, Fox and Sohnesen (2016) argue that
non-farm enterprises offer a particularly unique opportunity for upward
mobility and consumption growth for households with relatively low
education levels.

This review suggests that engagement in rural non-farm enterprises

may be motivated by immediate need or may represent an active,
forward-looking strategy. The dichotomy of survivalist versus strategic
diversification may be of limited value. In most cases, households that
diversify their incomes are able to enjoy greater flexibility and resilience
compared to households that do not diversify (Warren 2002). In most
cases, diversification is more dynamic than static, involving continuous
rearrangement of the livelihood portfolios in response to changing

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constraints and opportunities (Bigsten and Kayizzi-Mugerwa 1995).

What starts off as a survivalist or a coping strategy may evolve into
something more strategic, and vice versa.

Overall, although livelihood diversification strategies such as the

operation of non-farm enterprises may eventually lead households
out of poverty, the outcomes may not be unidirectional. Outcomes
and effects may vary with geographical locations and type of activities
engaged in. In essence, outcomes of diversification are not uniform
with respect to derived benefits for households. Due to the diversity and
dynamism within non-farm activities as well as across countries, it is
imperative to have in-depth, sector-specific and country-specific analysis
based on good quality panel data, before any conclusive generalisations
may be put forward.

4 Capacity of non-farm enterprises to address the youth employment

challenge
Haggblade et al. (2010), Rijkers and Costa (2012) and Fox and Sohnesen
(2016) argue that non-farm enterprises play an important role in the
rural economy, and its relative contribution to household employment
and income continues to rise across the African continent. Estimates by
Fox et al. (2013) suggest that these enterprises are expected to employ
about 15 per cent of Africas labour force; they are also expected to
create millions of jobs in rural Africa over the next decade (Fox and
Pimhidzai 2013; Fox and Sohnesen 2016). But what does the literature
say about who is presently involved in the rural non-farm economy?

Evidence from Ackah (2013) and Dary and Kuunibe (2012) points to
declining participation in non-farm enterprises as people grow older:
younger people are more likely to take up opportunities in the nonfarm
sector than older people. This is in sharp contrast to findings from Nagler
and Naud (2014) who analysed World Bank data from Ethiopia, Malawi,
Niger, Nigeria and Uganda and found that older cohorts were more likely
to engage in non-farm activities, which might reflect the fact that many of
those who are less than 25 years old are still attending school.

Using data from the Upper West region of Ghana, Dary and
Kuunibe (2012) found that men were more likely to be employed in
formal nonfarm enterprises compared to women. This may be due
to the relatively low levels of education among rural women. Aside
from education, Gordon and Craig (2001) note that rural womens
concentration in informal non-farm enterprises may reflect factors
such as tradition, religion, childcare responsibilities and other social
expectations.

In general, the levels of education and skills required for gainful

employment in rural non-farm enterprises are not very high (Fox and
Sohnesen 2016). Dary and Kuunibe (2012) provide evidence from
Ghana that education increases the likelihood that people will engage in
formal, rural non-farm enterprises. Also, de Janvry and Sadoulet(2001)
show that even amongst educated people who participate in the

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nonfarm sector there is a significant association between level of literacy

and type of enterprise: operators with more education tend to use
more modern technology. Education may increase labour productivity
in non-farm enterprises and in turn increase employment potential
(Wennberg and Lindqvist 2010; Owoo and Naude 2014). Indeed, there
is ample evidence of a correlation between education and return to
nonfarm employment. In Ghana, Jolliffe (2004) shows that the returns
to education are higher in non-farm compared to on-farm activities.

Linking back to the discussion of survivalist and strategic diversification,

it is important to note the observation by Nagler and Naud (2014) that
the motive for starting a non-farm enterprise may have implications for
its productivity, and thus the potential to create employment.

Although the non-farm sector offers some potential to create jobs for the
rural labour force, and particularly the youth, assessment of the rural
investment climate reveals some significant challenges (Wang et al. 2006).
Constraints include poor access to and high cost of credit, poor quality
roads and infrastructure, as well as inadequate and unreliable supply of
electricity, and weak governance structures in rural areas (World Bank
2008). Another constraint is low market demand. In most instances, about
70 per cent of non-farm outputs go to satisfy local demand the rural
non-farm sector can only thrive if the economy delivers inclusive growth.
Resolving these challenges will improve the employment-generating
capacity of rural non-farm enterprises, particularly towards the youth.

5 Youth policies and programmes in Ghana1

Ghana, like many other African countries, faces a high youth
population growth rate and a serious employment challenge. Despite
this, Hoetu (2011) posits that with appropriate policies and interventions
the unemployment challenge could be transformed into opportunities
that could yield maximum benefit to the country at large. Due to the
enormity and the complexity of the challenges that confront the youth,
policymakers and government institutions that are responsible for
youth programmes are at a loss as to how to proceed (Hoetu 2011).
Policymakers therefore operate in an environment of despair and
desperation in a bid to find solutions to these problems. This may often
lead to a number of disjointed policies and programmes rather than
more carefully planned and complementary policies. The following
chronicles a number of youth policies that have turned out to be more
duplicative than complementary.

The National Youth Authority, formerly known as the National

Youth Council, was established in 1974 by an act of parliament to
coordinate youth development activities. This authority was located in
the then Ministry of Youth and Sports, but the ministry came under
heavy criticism for focusing its attention and resources on sports to the
detriment of youth development. The sense of neglect only deepened
when responsibility for youth was split across various ministries,
and programmes intended to benefit youth lacked coherence and

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coordination. To address this situation, the National Youth Policy was

formulated in 1999 and identified particular priority areas for action.
However, this policy was never implemented, and in 2008 it was
abandoned and replaced with a new National Youth Policy. Again,
even though the 2008 version was backed by an implementation plan,
the new government that took over in 2009 ignored the existing policy,
opting instead to launch a new policy framework two years after taking
office. The 2010 National Youth Policy for Ghana articulated new
priority areas which included youth employment.

Prior to 2006, a nationwide survey by the National Development

Planning Commission (NDPC) revealed the enormity of the youth
employment challenge and made recommendations which culminated
in the establishment of the National Youth Employment Programme
(NYEP). The main objectives of this programme were to provide the
youth with employability skills, offer work experience after mandatory
national service, and provide employment opportunities through various
modules such as the youth in agriculture module, the community health
module and others. While well intentioned, this programme provided
relatively few jobs, and then only for a period of two years, with a
possible extension of one year.

Under the new government in 2012, the NYEP was rebranded as the
Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA).
According to the new government, this repositioning was necessary
to address the youth employment challenge in a more systematic way.
After a few years of operation, the GYEEDA was mired in scandal:
due to the fact that there was no legislative instrument to regulate the
activities of the programme, implementation challenges were rife. In
2015, GYEEDA metamorphosed into the Youth Employment Agency
(YEA), and the age bracket shifted slightly to cover all young people
between the ages of 18 and 35, including those with disabilities. Among
all the modules created by the agency, only community health and
youth in agriculture are relevant to rural youth. Although the youth
in agriculture has not yet been clearly spelt out, the community health
module is somewhat geared towards absorbing educated rural youth.
These two modules are particularly relevant to the rural youth due to
the relatively low skillset they require and the demand for these services
within rural settings compared to urban settings. Data from GSS (2013)
show that the literacy rate in urban areas is higher than in rural areas.
Also, the report suggests that the youth in urban areas have higher
educational attainment compared to their rural counterparts. As a
result, the skillset of the urban youth is relatively higher than the skillset
of the rural youth. Given that agricultural activities in the context of
Ghana do not require highly skilled personnel, this module suits the
current skillset of the rural youth and has the potential to absorb them.

In order to improve on health indicators through improved access

to health care (especially in rural areas where indicators such as
maternal, infant and child mortality are high) the government of

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Ghana, in partnership with the Japanese government, introduced the

CommunityBased Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compounds.
As part of the policy, the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry
of Health were responsible for posting health personnel to these
communities. Uptake of posts in rural communities has over the years
been very low due to the absence of critical social amenities and
infrastructure required for the daily survival of the health workers. The
community health assistant module is therefore very relevant in tapping
into the relatively educated rural youth who can assist in providing
the needed assistance to the few health professionals in the delivery
of health care in rural areas. This is because these assistants hail from
rural areas and are thus able to cope relatively easily. This, combined
with the increasing demand for health professionals, creates a unique
opportunity for the rural youth in respect of employment opportunities.

In contrast, other modules such as the youth in community service

module, and the security services module, may not be relevant to the
rural youth. This is because the services of such modules are needed
more in urban congested areas where the youth in this module are
deployed to ease traffic. Other modules such as youth in trade and
vocation, and youth in entrepreneurship may seem to offer some
opportunity for rural employment. However, their sustainability may
be in question as the local rural demand to support these ventures in
the long run may be very low due to the relatively low income levels of
the rural population. Eventually, out of frustration, these ventures may
be abandoned altogether as the same youth may resort to migration to
urban areas as a livelihood strategy. Also, a major deficiency of the YEA
is that it provides employment opportunities for a period of two years
only, after which the beneficiaries are left on their own.

These efforts to address youth employment must be seen in the light

of efforts to liberalise the Ghanaian economy under the Economic
Recovery Programme (ERP). With the removal of subsidies, the ERP
had important implications for the viability of the agricultural sector,
and the privatisation of the mining sector resulted in a massive laying
off of workers. During this period, there was an economic and social
crisis in urban areas due to the inability of the rural economy to provide
employment opportunities for the rural labour force. Those who were
unable to move to urban areas resorted to other subsistence endeavours
in order to survive.

In response, in 1995 the government, in partnership with the

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), launched the
Rural Enterprise Project (REP). With an initial limited coverage in only
two districts, the goal of the first phase of the REP was to improve the
lives of the rural poor through increased productivity, with particular
focus on rural youth and women. In 2002, the project indicated its goal
to increase coverage to 66 districts by 2011. The enterprises supported by
this programme include rural non-farm activities such as soapmaking,
bead-making, textiles and clothing, artisanal services such as carpentry

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and hairdressing, as well as value-addition agro-processing activities such

as nut and oil processing, and juice processing among others. Due to
its success, the programme attracted additional funding which led to a
third phase, scheduled to run from 2013 to 2017, and intended to cover
161 out of the 171 rural districts. The goal of the third phase is to scale
up the outcomes of the first two phases, with a particular objective of
increasing the number of rural micro- and small-scale enterprises that
generate profit, growth and employment opportunities.

The REP included four main components: business development

services; technology promotion and dissemination; access to rural
finance and institutional building; and programme coordination,
monitoring and evaluation. The business development component
aims to upgrade the technical and entrepreneurial skills of rural
cottage, micro- and small-scale activities by providing access to business
development services. The main objective of the technology promotion
and dissemination component is to upgrade the technology used by
rural micro- and small-scale enterprises. Under this component, the
REP supports the rural technology facilities at the district level with the
particular aim of strengthening the basic engineering and technology
transfer capacity of the districts to improve product and service quality,
as well as the productivity and competitiveness of the rural enterprises.
Access to rural finance ensures that rural enterprises have access to
finance, while the sub-component, which is institutional capacity
building, ensures that they obtain the necessary support from institutions
which have the potential to contribute to the creation of a conducive
environment for the growth of rural enterprises.

The REP also supports other special initiatives to stimulate employment

creation. For example, since its inauguration in 2009, the Graduate
Apprenticeship Scheme has created about 12,000 new businesses.
Another such initiative is the Northern Rural Growth Programme
which began in 2009 and focuses on rural areas of the northern regions
with the specific objective of working with the rural poor to develop
incomegenerating activities to supplement subsistence farming.
Ultimately, the programme aims to strengthen the linkages among
actors in agricultural value chains. It makes use of District Value Chain
Committees.

Government has taken other steps to use enterprise development as

a tool for creating job opportunities for youth. The Youth Enterprise
Support programme is a multi-sectoral initiative that aims to provide
support to youth between the ages of 18 and 35 to transform creative
ideas into business enterprises. This support was to take the form
of interest-free loans to participating youth to be accompanied by
mentorship. In addition, the initiative has a regular training component
that is meant to upgrade the youth skillset so that their businesses remain
competitive. Soon after its inauguration in 2014, a major shortcoming
in the initiative was exposed namely that the requirements excluded
a large proportion of rural youth. The application process required

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

prospective beneficiaries to have a business plan and be able to effectively

communicate in writing. This quickly created a sharp disconnect
between educated urban youth and rural youth who might have good
business ideas but not the skills to communicate them.

In response, more tailored sub-components were designed and

implemented to support urban youth and rural youth. The rural
entrepreneurship programme was piloted in the Upper East region
with regular fora called business clinics to engage rural youth and to
provide basic skills and training on how to combine local resources and
knowledge about the market to create competitive business ventures.
This sub-component is focused on rural value addition and other related
ventures. A number of on-farm and off-farm activities are supported,
including production of crops such as pepper, rice and cassava, as well
as poultry and animal husbandry for the urban market. Other off-farm
value-addition processing activities such as shea butter production, palm
oil production, starch making, and fruit juice processing are supported.

As a publicprivate partnership which commenced in 2010, the Local

Enterprises Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) is implemented
by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in
partnership with the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.
Its main objective is to alleviate youth poverty through employment
creation, by providing youth with the necessary skills to be able to
own, start and operate their own income-generating enterprises. The
programme adopts a district-level service delivery approach, and
has offices in 170 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.
Various skill development modules are offered based on a nationwide
needs assessment of unemployed youth. Prospective beneficiaries are
given training which lasts from three weeks to three months or more,
depending on the module. After completion, they are given equipment
for their chosen trade which they are expected to repay in instalments
starting six to twelve months after commencing their business
activities. Programme areas include crop farming, animal rearing and
fishfarming, as well as value addition to the agricultural products
through agroprocessing.

In its relatively short lifespan, the LESDEP was reported to have

achieved a success rate of about 85 per cent, creating a substantial
number of new businesses across the country. Nevertheless, it became
non-operational in its third year of operation due to reduced budgetary
allocations, resulting in an inability to meet implementation targets.
Second, the financial woes were deepened because the programme was
unable to recover monies it had invested since 2011.

6 Conclusions and policy recommendations

Non-farm enterprises have been appraised as the next best alternative to
traditional agriculture as an employment generator in Africa, with the
capacity to absorb a large number of rural youth. This perception has
governments and development agencies investing in a cocktail of policies

120 | Lambon-Quayefio Non-Farm Enterprises and the Rural Youth Employment Challenge in Ghana
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and programmes in a bid to provide the necessary environment and

support for non-farm enterprises to develop and thrive.

Based on a review of research and policy literature relating to the rural

non-farm sector, and with a particular focus on Ghana, a number of
conclusions can be drawn and policy recommendations suggested. First,
rural non-farm enterprises in Ghana are characterised by a high degree
of heterogeneity based on location, range of activities, education of
owners and productivity. As such, any policy geared towards developing
the potential of this sector should be more targeted rather than a
general policy or programme which puts all non-farm enterprises in
the same category. For instance, given that all non-farm enterprises
do not enjoy the same level of sophistication in terms of technologies
employed, blanket policies such as the provision of interest-free loans
to enterprise owners made to cover all categories of agro-processing
enterprises may not yield the required impact as some of these
enterprises may require different kinds of assistance in order to grow in
a sustainable manner. Also, given the large proportion of females in the
industry, gender-specific policies may be apt. There is therefore the need
to disaggregate non-farm enterprises based on specific characteristics
this will allow more targeted and effective policy.

Second, if they are to be seriously considered as the solution to rural

unemployment, a better understanding of the motivation to establish
non-farm enterprises will be absolutely critical. Empirical evidence
available does not lead to a firm conclusion on the main motivation
for operating non-farm enterprises. In some cases, the motive is purely
survival and one of mitigation against shocks and other household
risks, while in other instances households operate these ventures for
capital and asset accumulation. It is therefore difficult to distinguish
which households are likely to operate under a particular motive. This
therefore creates the added challenge of accurately recognising which
enterprises to target as vehicles for growth. In effect, any policymaking
in this area warrants a careful and circumstantial analysis if effective
policy outcomes are desired.

Third, youth policies and programmes in Ghana are diverse and often
disjointed. A review of policies and interventions indicate a lack of
continuity, consistency and depth. Youth policies and programmes
have been reformulated with each change of government. The
resulting politics around them mean that consistent long-term
programming is impossible. Also, there is little coordination when it
comes to formulating policies and programmes to create employment
opportunities for youth. New programmes duplicate the efforts of
existing ones. In order to solve the problem of youth unemployment,
it must be recognised that this is a challenge that cuts across all sectors
of the economy and as such, a sustainable solution requires much more
effective coordination. Specifically, with respect to policies on non-farm
enterprises, despite the perceived potential to absorb the rural youth
there is a dearth of specific policies and programmes which targets the

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

rural youth based on their skillset. At best, some of the policies and
programmes offer accidental benefits to the rural youth rather than
providing benefits through carefully planned policies and programmes.

Lastly, the government of Ghana, and indeed all African governments,

should make concerted efforts to address the major constraints faced
by rural non-farm enterprises. Even though some progress has been
made in recent times with regard to rural infrastructure, more needs
to be done to speed up development of rural areas. In addition, given
the potential that it offers to the rural labour force and the rural
economy, it will be beneficial for policymakers to draft a comprehensive,
evidencebased policy in relation to the non-farm sector. This should
be based on highquality data, spanning a long period of time, which
will allow a more rigorous contextual analysis, and accounting for the
diversity in the sector. Such a policy would provide a road map for the
development of the sector in ways that create good job opportunities for
rural young people.

Note
1 Information for this section was obtained from the authors review
of referenced and non-referenced material as well as interviews with
officials from some of the youth agencies mentioned in this article.

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Does Kenyas Youth Enterprise

Development Fund Serve Young
People?

Maurice Sikenyi

Abstract This article analyses issues surrounding a state-supported

selfemployment and entrepreneurship programme in Kenya, the Youth
Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF). Analysis of secondary data in
addition to youth interviews suggest that although the YEDF generated
employment and income for some young people, the frameworks are
narrow and lack supportive implementation structures. In particular,
YEDF projects are marred by mismanagement of funds, corruption,
and ambiguous eligibility criteria. Moreover, young people lack social
networks, entrepreneurial skills and mentorship that would allow them to
effectively participate in the YEDF. Inadequate support structures exclude
young people from the YEDF. Future policies and programmes must
consider flexible and transparent eligibility criteria, stringent accountability
mechanisms to curb corruption, and development of business skills
andmentorship.

Keywords: Africa, unemployment, livelihoods, youth bulge, education,

entrepreneurship.

1 Introduction
The unemployment challenge is global and presents an economic and
social crisis that threatens the dignity and livelihoods of millions of
individuals, including young people (ILO 2010). Globally, over 75million
young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years are outside the formal
labour market, yet they are looking for work (ILO 2010). A study by the
International Labour Organization (ILO) found that over 75 per cent of
young people aged between 15 and 29 are involved in informal work as
their primary economic activity (Elder et al. 2015). Many of the under-
and unemployed young people are in the least developed countries
(LDCs) in the global South (ILO 2010). In sub-Saharan Africa, young
people constitute more than 50 per cent of the entire population (United
Nations 2012); furthermore, it is estimated that each year between 2015
and 2035, there will be half a million more 15-year-olds than the year
before (World Bank 2014: 2). While the high numbers of young people
2017 The Author. IDS Bulletin Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.131
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The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives; the
Introduction is also recommended reading.
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

present an opportunity for the continent, the youth bulge also presents
significant economic, social and political challenges.

With limited growth in opportunities for formal sector employment,

state-supported self-employment and entrepreneurship initiatives
have become increasingly common. As such, governments and
development partners have developed and advocated for national
youth policies, programmes and budgetary allocations aimed at
supporting selfemployment and enterprise development by young
people (Anyidoho et al. 2012; Burchell et al. 2015; GoK 2008; Muiya
2014). In sub-Saharan Africa, successive governments and agencies
have encouraged youth engagement in agricultural-related initiatives as
a means to counter youth under- and unemployment (Anyidoho etal.
2012; te Lintelo 2012; Ping 2011). Other policies and programmes
promote youth engagement with new technologies, vocational training
and entrepreneurship (GoK 2007; te Lintelo 2012).

In Kenya, the government sought to promote youth employment

and empowerment through the Youth Enterprise Development Fund
(YEDF) and Kazi Kwa Vijana (jobs for youth) initiatives. These aimed
to transform youth from jobseekers to job creators and employers
(GoK 2008). Despite these efforts to engage young people in the
labour market, the majority of the youth in Kenya are still under- or
unemployed, and vulnerable. The uptake of the YEDF is dismal among
young people in both rural and urban settings. This conundrum calls
for reflection on the efficacy of the YEDF in fostering self-employment
and enterprise development by youth. Understanding young peoples
experiences with the YEDF, particularly those in rural areas and urban
slums, and the extent that this programme shapes youth livelihoods is
important for future policy and practice relating to youth employment.

It is against this backdrop that this article analyses the contextual,

practical and policy-level issues surrounding and shaping state-supported
self-employment and entrepreneurship initiatives in Kenya, notably the
YEDF. The article argues that although the YEDF was established to
increase young peoples self-employment and entrepreneurship through
greater access to credit, the programme framework is too narrow and
the YEDF lacks supportive implementation structures. The inadequate
support structures contribute to the exclusion of young people, especially
in rural regions and urban slums.

The introduction of the YEDF moves the states focus from being a
direct employer, to a facilitator or enabler of employment opportunities
for youth. This shift, though promising, is also problematic because it
puts the central responsibility for youth employment on the shoulders
of the youth themselves. Although some might argue that young people
should be encouraged to shape their own destiny (including decisions
about forms of employment), this article argues that the social and
economic conditions that young people experience in rural areas and
urban slums necessitates greater affirmative action and supportive

128 | Sikenyi Does Kenyas Youth Enterprise Development Fund Serve Young People?
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policies to better youth uptake of state-supported initiatives. In the

wake of massive under- and unemployment in Kenya, access to credit
is not enough to better young peoples livelihoods. The YEDF is one
of the biggest state-supported initiatives on youth employment, and
commands an enormous budgetary allocation and elaborate legislative
framework. However, because of mismanagement and ineffective
implementation, it has done little to address young peoples vulnerability
and disillusionment.

The findings are based on a review of documentation, particularly

YEDF progress reports and case studies. In addition, a limited number
of interviews and a focus group discussion were conducted in October
and November 2016. The semi-structured interviews involved three
young people from Bumula, in Bungoma County, and the focus group
discussion with five young people in Dandora, in Nairobi.1 The young
participants had varied levels of education, half having completed
secondary education, and one having had tertiary-level training. While
this article does not claim a generalised view of youth experiences with
the YEDF, the document review raises important concerns about the
YEDF that call for immediate attention.

The article proceeds as follows. To understand the genesis of the

YEDF and issues surrounding it, I first provide an overview of youth
under- and unemployment in Kenya. I then discuss the emergence of
the YEDF and the issues surrounding this initiative. The last section
concludes and provides some recommendations for policy.

2 Overview of youth under- and unemployment in Kenya

Many factors have contributed to unemployment in Kenya including
the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), and the economic and
political reforms that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank spearheaded during the 1980s and 1990s (Kipkemboi 2002).
These institutions envisioned that SAPs would rapidly generate economic
stability through private ownership, free markets and price liberalisation,
and reduce government expenditure on social services including
education and health (ibid.). Despite these intentions, studies suggest that
the SAP in Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries resulted in
high-income inequalities, retrenchment and high unemployment rates
that carried over into the 2000s (Heidhues and Obare 2011).

In 2009, the National Population and Housing Census found that there
were 13.5 million young people between the ages of 15 and 35 years,
constituting 30 per cent of the entire population (GoK 2010). With the
labour force constituting only 40 per cent of Kenyas population, over
78 per cent of the unemployed in Kenya are young people (IEA 2011).
The employment challenge weighs particularly heavily on youth.

The high population growth rate is not matched by the economic growth
rate (Njonjo 2011). The Kenyan economy is generating only 150,000
jobs per year, and cannot absorb the over 500,000 youth that graduate

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

from school every year (Muiya 2014). As a result, there is a large number
of young people seeking work, yet there are few opportunities for formal
employment. Other studies suggest that education and training are
not aligned with industry demands (Wambugu, Munga and Onsomu
2009), and that many college graduates lack the relevant skills and
knowledge that employers demand (ibid.). Moreover, an examination-
oriented curriculum that puts little emphasis on technical or life-skills,
and negative perceptions of agriculture, contribute to graduates seeking
employment as opposed to creating their own jobs (Njonjo 2010).

Youth under- and unemployment put enormous pressure on Kenyas

economic, social and political stability. Studies on the effect of
unemployment show that young people who undergo long periods
of unemployment are likely to experience decreased wages and more
challenges in future employment compared to others (Skans 2004).
In particular, a 1015 per cent wage scar is attributed to early
unemployment, and youth can experience wage losses for up to 20years
following early unemployment (Skans 2004; Vandenberghe 2010).
Youth unemployment has contributed to disillusionment, frustration
and despondency which have been linked to political instability. Some
observers have suggested that disillusioned youth are more likely to
engage in organised crime, political violence or join militant groups like
Al Shabaab (Collier et al. 2003; Kriegler and Waki 2009; Muiya 2014).
Similarly, prostitution, drug abuse and HIV/AIDs are prevalent in
areas with high rates of poverty, and under- and unemployment (Muiya
2014). It is essential to understand the major government initiatives to
address the youth employment challenge. The remainder of the article
focuses on state support for self-employment and entrepreneurship,
particularly the YEDF, and youth experiences with this intervention.

3 The Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF)

To address the challenges of under- and unemployment and poverty
affecting young people, the government established a broad national
youth policy framework (GoK 2002). A major initiative was the
formation of the YEDF in 2006 (GoK 2002, 2007; Muthee 2010). The
fund focuses on microfinance and enterprise development, with the aim
of ensuring that young people (ages 1835) have access to affordable
loans so that they can grow their small and medium businesses (GoK
2008). The operational framework and objectives of the YEDF entail
providing funds to financial intermediaries such as banks, microfinance
institutions (MFIs), savings and credit co-operative organisations, and
licensed non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to give loans to
youth-run enterprises. It also supports the development of commercial
infrastructure that can enhance youth enterprises, including the
establishment of market spaces, model businesses and incubators.
Additionally, the YEDF aims to introduce goods and services produced
by the young people into local and international markets, and develop
linkages between the youth-run small and medium enterprises with
large enterprises. Lastly, the fund was to facilitate employment of young
people in the international labour market (GoK 2007, 2011). As the

130 | Sikenyi Does Kenyas Youth Enterprise Development Fund Serve Young People?
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YEDF makes clear, national policy on youth employment has shifted

from education and training, and private and industrial partnerships, to
self-employment and enterprise development.

A report on the performance of the YEDF between 2007 and 2012

indicated that KSh94 million (US$940,000) had been allocated to the
47 counties (GoK 2011). The fund targeted slightly over 13 million
young people. However, by 2011, only 158,000 youth enterprises had
received YEDF loans only 1.2 per cent of the target. Almost half of
the funds had not been distributed to youth groups.

Access to the YEDF is low in rural compared to urban constituencies.

A study in Matungu Constituency showed that by 2015, only 83 young
people had received YEDF funds (Barasa and Githae 2015). The mode
of disbursement of loans to groups poses operational challenges. For
example, when a loan of KSh45,000 is given to a 15-member youth
group, each member receives only KSh3,000 (US$30) to support their
business. Such a limited sum cannot be expected to boost a business in
a significant way. In many constituencies, only a few young people have
received direct funds. In Bumula Constituency, for example, the direct
funding mechanism where an individual young person receives between
KSh100,000 and KSh2 million (US$1,00020,000) has not been made
available to any youth since the establishment of the fund. Many rural
constituencies experience low uptake of the YEDF and great disparities
in the amounts allocated among youth groups (Barasa and Githae 2015;
Mburunga 2014). Moreover, the sector-oriented loans require that
youth groups raise a deposit of 10 per cent of the loan amount (GoK
2012), which many groups find impossible.

Mismanagement and corruption are major issues. According to

investigations by the Criminal Investigation Departments and the Ethics
and Anti-Corruption Commission of Kenya (EACC), senior officials
diverted youth funds to their personal accounts (Agoya 2016; Kibet
2016). Furthermore, the EACC stated that senior leaders at the YEDF
have been trying to cover up huge losses of funds (Kibet 2016: 1). In
other cases, well-connected adults have registered companies and used
them to tender for youth funds. The Vision 2030 Youth Entrepreneurs
Associates claimed that YEDF money had been irregularly awarded
to family members (ibid.). A recent court proceeding established that
some YEDF managers conspired to defraud the Kenyan public through
unlawful payment of KSh180,364,789 (US$1.9 million) from the Youth
Enterprise Development Fund to Quorandum Limited for services not
rendered (Agoya 2016). Moreover, the directors of the YEDF were under
investigation for irregularly receiving Khs64,654,789, which the YEDF
channelled to their individual companies for services that they did not offer.

4 Does the YEDF serve young people?

4.1 Unclear eligibility criteria and stringent lending conditions
Analysis of primary documents, particularly YEDF progress reports and
case studies, in addition to some interviews, revealed that the lending

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

procedure is convoluted with unclear eligibility criteria, strict lending

conditions and inadequate support (Barasa and Githae 2015). The
intermediary financial institutions do not provide youth-friendly products
and services. In the focus group discussion, young people expressed
concerns that the demands for collateral, recommendation letters from
administrative units, and high interest rates make the YEDF inaccessible.
In particular, contracted financial institutions require that youth groups
raise at least a 10 per cent deposit of any loan, and the youth are also
required to meet all the criteria to open a bank account. For example,
one young woman who participated in the focus group stated:

Its hard for us to get loans, we do not have salary and items to give to secure the
loan. They want us to produce some money and yet we are looking for the money
our parents dont have money to lend us. (Female 003, November 2016)

This quote highlights the fact that many young people have not
accumulated assets that they can use as collateral. Moreover, youth
groups could hardly raise the 10 per cent deposit fees or provide
references. These factors make the YEDF inaccessible to young people.
Furthermore, in rural environments young people have challenges
completing the online applications, or developing their business plans
and proposal. A young interviewee said that I finished class seven, now
I am asked so many proposals that I cannot write. The officers at the
YEDF cant help us (Male 002, October 2016).

Moreover, the long waiting period for loan processing and approval
at the financial institutions and constituency offices is a major issue
affecting youth engagement in YEDF programmes. Young people have
to wait between six months and one year in order to receive the funds.
In some cases, they never receive any communication about the status
of their application. A youth group participant stated:

It takes so long for one to receive the funds. We applied for the funds as group ya
vijana hapa Dandora [youth in Dandora]. We gave them all the documents, the
group minutes. We kept on going back to ask about it, but we were told they could
not trace our application papers. (Male 002, November 2016)

4.2 Corruption
The unfriendly application process has opened up avenues for corruption
in the dissemination of YEDF funds, especially at the constituency level
offices. For example, programme officers and go-betweens extort funds
from young people in order to help them win the youth funds. The
corruption surrounding the management and disbursement of YEDF
funds has created a negative perception among young people to the point
that some are unwilling to apply for the funds. As one youth stated:

There are some cartels, because you know, I can help you get the funds and even
apply for tenders, but you have to give a percentage of funds to the cartels. They
will even say they help you in the application. But if you give them half the
money and you pay back the whole loan how do you make profit? (Male 003,
November 2016)

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Corruption has enabled well-connected individuals and some outside

the eligibility criteria to access the YEDF. Although the YEDF policy
states that the fund focuses on young people (ages 1835), it is known
that ineligible individuals have been awarded the funds and tenders.
These individuals often have connections to the political class or the
management of the YEDF at the constituency level. In the focus group
discussion with youth in Dandora, a participant stated that:

The rules say 30 per cent of procurement must go to youth people. That
the YEDF funds are for youth. But someone at 50 years gets the funds for
youth. So, if you do not know anyone you cant get the funds. (Female 003,
November 2016)

Another youth with a disability lamented that You do everything they

require, but some people get funds without merit (Male 001, November
2016). These sentiments concur with the findings of a report which
showed that young people with disabilities had little knowledge about the
YEDF application processes and some believed that the YEDF officers
had exclusive authority to award whomever they wished, irrespective of
any official criteria (Action Network for the Disabled 2012).

The YEDF eligibility policy is primarily based on age, following the

Kenyan constitution definition of youth as all persons who have attained
the age of eighteen years, but have not yet attained the age of thirtyfive
years (National Council for Law Reporting 2010: 65). However, this
fails to take into account the unique experiences among youth in
various geographical regions in the country. Young people in pastoral
communities, youth with disabilities, rural versus urban youth, or
youth with different levels of education all of these have implications
on work transitions and successful self-employment. Moreover, the
agebased definition of youth is inadequate because it does not account
for the cultural, sociological and functional forces that also shape youth
livelihoods in various contexts. For example, a teenage parent becomes
an adult and might not qualify for community-level programmes or
opportunities geared towards young people. An interviewee stated:
Igot a child after I finished primary school. I was 15 years. Now I am
a mother. People do not see me as a youth. The village elders will not
recommend me for the youth funds (Female 003, November 2016).

4.3 Business skills development and mentorship

Entrepreneurship and self-employment are risky endeavours that many
young people undertake due to the lack of alternatives. In some cases,
there is no aspiration to become an entrepreneur. These young people
may not have the entrepreneurial or business attitudes or skills to
enable them to establish or run successful businesses. In the focus group
discussion, young people stated that they need mentors to guide them
on how to successfully navigate the business environment, particularly
with knowing how to invest in the right products, increasing their sales
and learning how to save:

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I am teaching myself how to do business it gets hard; I didnt study any

business in primary or secondary school. Maybe it would be good to have an
established business man to mentor me. (Male 001, October 2016)

Although the YEDF identifies business skills development as one strategy

to enhance young peoples success in self-employment, few programmes
have been developed to train youth in proposal or business plan
development, or provide skills in identifying and running an enterprise.
Moreover, the education system at the primary and secondary levels
does not have compulsory studies in business or entrepreneurship.
Many young people start businesses that only act to exacerbate market
competition, subsequently reducing the incomes of other operators. A
young interviewee put it this way: I started a barber shop, but there were
so many barber shops, I was not making any profit. I sold the shop to pay
back the loan, I still owe them money (Male 002, November 2016).

Inadequate business and entrepreneurial skills have enormous

consequences for the youth enterprises as well as the repayment of any
loans. In particular, loan repayments are affected when young people
fail to effectively manage their enterprises and move towards growth
and profits. This is where mentorship programmes should come in.
Arandomised controlled trial on the effect of grants, business training
and mentorship on micro-enterprise development among women in
Dandora, Kenya showed that mentorship significantly contributed to
enterprise development (Brooks, Donovan and John 2016). Women
were able to develop social networks and grow their business as a
result of the mentorship that they received from established women
entrepreneurs. A mentorship programme for young people taking
YEDF loans might enable youth to learn about business opportunities
and risks, as well as develop the social networks that are essential for
running a successful business.

4.4 Social capital and social networks

Social capital refers to the set of resources and relations within families
and communities that can facilitate actions for the development of
individuals (Coleman 1988). According to Coleman, social capital is
identified by its functions, and how these functions become resources for
actors to use to achieve their interests and navigate social structures. He
argues that social capital has a productive or instrumental component
that results in the attainment of certain things that would otherwise
be unachievable. Although Coleman aimed to conceptualise how
individuals are socialised and their actions governed and shaped by
social norms and customs (ibid.: 95), and the ways that education
systems enable this form of socialisation, social capital has emerged as an
important consideration in youth enterprise development interventions.

Social capital plays a role in enabling young people to successfully

place an application for YEDF funds, as well as set up an enterprise.
Young people recognised that they need a social network to help
secure the required recommendations from local religious institutions

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or community-level officials. In other cases, social networks help in

providing the required collateral or directly assist in developing the
application materials. However, many young people in rural settings
have social networks that are not conversant with YEDF procedures, or
not powerful enough to influence the outcomes of the fund allocation
process. One young interviewee stated that, sijui mtu yeyote huko wa
kunizaidia kupata bisna au pesa ya YEDF [I dont know anyone to help me
in getting the business, funds or tenders from youth fund] (Female 003,
November 2016).

4.5 Politicisation of youth programmes

Programmes supporting youth enterprise are intertwined with party
politics. While in principle state engagement is positive, in Kenya
political parties propose policies on employment as a means to gain
legitimacy and support from young people. As such, youth perceive
the YEDF as a political project, a strategy to buy loyalty to a particular
political party or regime hii pesa ni ya politicians [this is money for
politicians] (Male 002, October 2016):

I have always been here mataani [in the community], nobody tells us about the
fund. We only hear it during campaign times. In fact, I will not apply because
we didnt vote for the regime. How can it give us funds for empowerment?
(Male 001, October 2016)

The links between youth funds, political parties and government reduces
the sustainability of state-funded youth initiatives. Creating a less
political policy, and legislative documents to guide the implementation
of national youth policies, is essential to ensuring both effective
accountability and sustainability.

4.6 The potential of youth enterprise in Kenya

Although much displeasure has been expressed by youth in
relation to the YEDF, there is clearly potential to develop successful
young entrepreneurs. This is not to mean that states should see
entrepreneurship programmes as the ultimate solution to youth under
and unemployment, but initiatives that enable selfemployment of
young people and financial independence can support youth livelihoods.
For example, one youth stated:

I started a poultry farm through a loan that I received from YEDF. I now have
tenders to supply eggs and chicken to schools and restaurants in town. It was
tough to start but now I am liking the business. It is better than working for
someone else. (Male 005, October 2016)

Other evaluations of youth and entrepreneurship in Kenya show that

secondary school graduates prefer working for themselves to working
for others (Nikoi et al. 2016). A five-year longitudinal study on youth
livelihoods indicated that youth who have received entrepreneurial
and life-skills training had self-confidence and the ability to start
an enterprise while also working for others (ibid.). This desire for
selfemployment among young people can be strengthened through

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providing an enabling policy framework that not only identifies young

entrepreneurs but provides both the funds and the support services
to enable them to thrive. While in principle this is exactly what the
YEDF seeks to do, in practice its effectiveness has been blunted by poor
implementation, mismanagement and corruption.

5 Conclusion
The YEDF was established in Kenya to respond to the problem of
access to credit, particularly the need for collateral and the inflexible
payment procedures that affected young entrepreneurs. The youth
fund was also viewed as part of a strategic national policy agenda to
introduce young people into the labour market, and thereby address
high under- and unemployment. However, the fund also suggests a shift
in state policy, where the state moves from being the primary employer,
to a facilitator or enabler of employment opportunities for youth. This
shift, though promising, is also problematic because it puts the central
responsibilities of youth employment and livelihoods on the shoulders
of the youth themselves. In other words, the state is not to blame for
rampant unemployment rather, the finger can be pointed at the
limitations of individual youth capabilities, aspirations and efforts.

Analysis of issues surrounding the YEDF revealed that the

implementation framework is too narrow and there is a lack of support
structures. In addition, YEDF suffers from unclear eligibility criteria,
mismanagement of funds and corruption. Further analysis indicates
that many young people lack the social networks, entrepreneurial skills,
and a supportive business environment, which would allow them to
benefit from credit. The weak support structures around the YEDF not
only contribute to the exclusion of many young people, but also reduce
the success of the loans that are made. Overall, young people appear to
have gained little from what is supposed to be a flagship programme.

What can be learned from this experience? Assuming the problems of

mismanagement and corruption can be addressed, and youth policy
can be depoliticised, the YEDF experience suggests three lessons for
policymakers. First, development of entrepreneurial and business skills
and provision of mentorship are paramount to the long-term success of
these kinds of programmes. In other words, young people require more
than access to credit through state-supported funds. If entrepreneurship
primarily entails the application of skills, knowledge, creativity and
innovation, as well as taking strategic risks with the aim of catapulting
success of an enterprise business risk, then youth can only make effective
use of YEDF funds when equipped with the relevant skills. As such,
programmes designed to promote self-employment through business
development must prioritise training and social network support, as
well as create an enabling business environment for start-up businesses
to flourish. Second, young people are key stakeholders who must be
continually engaged in the implementation of state-level initiatives.
In particular, state initiatives must pay attention to the pluralities and
unique challenges that various categories of young people experience,

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to avoid more homogenous national programmes that fail to address

the needs of the population they seek to assist. Youth in rural areas and
urban slums need specific policy initiatives that support their efforts at
livelihood building. Third, and perhaps most importantly, governments
and non-state actors must move towards a comprehensive, coordinated
approach to youth employment and livelihoods that incorporates
education and training, industrial partnerships and vocational
training. This kind of approach will help counter the limitations of
selfemployment and entrepreneurship programmes like the YEDF.

Note
1 Dandora is one of the urban settlements in Nairobi. It faces
significant challenges with its housing, water and sewerage system.
It also has major environmental problems as the primary dump
site for Nairobi County. Dandora has been cited as one of the
regions with high crime rates and drug abuse among youth, the
majority of whom attained minimal education. The main sources of
livelihood for young people in Dandora are self-employment through
entrepreneurship initiatives (Huchzermeyer 2008).

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Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship:

The Role of Mentoring*

Ayodele Ibrahim Shittu

Abstract The risks and rewards associated with mentoring young

people for entrepreneurship are attracting growing attention among
policymakers, development organisations and scholars. This article
examines entrepreneurship mentoring relationships from the perspective
of young people. Based on the model of youth mentoring, it explores how
entrepreneurship mentoring can influence the entrepreneurial intentions
of young people. Findings from the review of the literature show that
mentoring relationships are beneficial whether they are formal or informal.
The implications of mentoring relationships for the promotion of youth
entrepreneurship are discussed.

Keywords: youth, unemployment, employment, Africa, entrepreneurship,

group monitoring.

1 Introduction
Despite the dominant discourse that highlights the many inherent benefits
associated with youth entrepreneurship (Chigunta et al. 2005; Brixiov,
Ncube and Bicaba 2014), there can be issues and challenges which
discourage young people from embracing entrepreneurship. For example,
the short durations of youth empowerment initiatives, undue emphasis
on supply-side training, insufficient or non-existent financial support, the
tenuous linkage to viable market opportunities, and the strong focus on
bringing together young people as a group rather than as stand-alone
entrepreneurs can all be problematic (ILO 2012; Flynn et al. 2017). Yet,
economic uncertainties, and the limited supply in formal paid jobs and
other career opportunities, push young people into self-employment,
what some have called entrepreneurship by necessity. However, they are
neither prepared nor equipped with the requisite skills and knowledge
needed to establish and manage a business successfully.

In terms of benefits, Chigunta et al. (2005) argue that youth

entrepreneurship promotes employment opportunities, fosters innovation
and resilience among young people, and increases their social and
cultural identity. The suggestion is that these empower young people
to contribute positively to their own development and the economic
2017 The Author. IDS Bulletin Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.132
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0
International licence, which permits downloading and sharing provided the original authors and source are credited but
the work is not used for commercial purposes. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode

The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives; the
Introduction is also recommended reading.
 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

development of their local communities (Gilmore 2009). Through

employment creation, entrepreneurship can bring marginalised
youths into the mainstream of economic activities. While evidence
abounds that many young people, especially in developing countries,
are pushed into entrepreneurship due to lack of or limited options for
formal employment (Schoof 2006; Amin 2010), their motivations for
establishing micro-enterprises also shift over time (Williams and Williams
2014). Indirectly, it ameliorates the socio-psychological position of jobless
youths at large. The growth in the sense of community acceptance and
appreciation among these young people, therefore, shapes their cultural
and social identity, irrespective of their background.

Despite these benefits, there are constraints that impede young people
from starting businesses. A few of the common barriers include access to
information, access to credit, acquisition of relevant skills, access to market,
and relevant institutional supports. While these barriers are common in
both developed and developing countries, the perception of the severity
of each barrier varies among the young people (Chigunta 2002; Gilmore
2009). When they persist unabated, these barriers pose serious threats
to the promotion of youth entrepreneurship. The International Labour
Office (ILO 2012) identified five measures for promoting effective youth
entrepreneurship: (1) target specific barriers confronting the youth; (2) offer
a broad range of services including mentoring; (3) embed entrepreneurship
curricula in both secondary and tertiary education; (4) establish a
favourable regulatory environment for promoting business expansion; and
(5)undertake impact assessments for continuous improvement.

Three specific barriers that have received attention in the literature are:
fear of failure; disengagement with entrepreneurship; and diminishing
levels of awareness. Fear of failure is a personality trait that results in
the avoidance of the possibility of failure irrespective of the prevailing
circumstances. In relation to entrepreneurship, this has two broad
dimensions (Singh, Corner and Pavlovich 2007). The first is the problem-
focused dimension, which emphasises distress due to unemployment
and financial pressures. This is associated with the strong dislike of
shame, embarrassment, and loss of ones self-worth. The second is the
emotion-focused dimension, which emphasises emotional reactions such
as guilt, depression, anger and frustration. These set in when potential
entrepreneurs pay too much attention to what their immediate family
members, relatives, and other members of society think about their
performance. In addition, the feeling of having limited entrepreneurial
experience and skills, poor ability to plan and implement priorities, and
low self-esteem can trigger avoidance behaviour among young people.
When it persists, it becomes a potential barrier to youth entrepreneurship.

Young people can disengage themselves from entrepreneurship depending

on the extent to which they perceive the barriers confronting them.
Specifically, limited access to capital, loss of cultural identity, and weak
institutional support capabilities can influence young entrepreneurs
decision to abandon their start-up efforts. This is also known as uninformed

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entrepreneurial exit. Conversely, young entrepreneurs can exit the startup

process based on informed decision-making for example, that the
existing business is unlikely to succeed. This is also known as the intelligent
exit. Whether the disengagement is voluntary or not, the importance of
feasibility analysis as a learning tool cannot be overemphasised (Yusuf 2012).

Even though there are young people who have decided not to be
entrepreneurs in a business sense (Chigunta et al. 2005), it is not enough
to diminish the importance of entrepreneurial awareness in the pursuit
of youth entrepreneurship. There are three channels to promoting
entrepreneurial awareness: (1) improving entrepreneurial mindsets;
(2) creating a sustainable climate for inspiring people to embrace
entrepreneurship; and (3) raising motivation, and capacities to identify
and take advantage of economic and social opportunities. Despite
these, the paucity of information and limited access to professional
networks or mentoring programmes increase the difficulty young people
have in identifying, starting, growing and sustaining an enterprise.
Consequently, the level of entrepreneurial awareness is not only low,
but also the link between the realities and mentorship programmes is
characterised by ambiguity.

Against this backdrop, this article focuses on the role of mentoring in

the promotion of youth entrepreneurship, and specifically responds to
the growing call for systematic inquiry into the relationships between
entrepreneurship and mentoring from the point of view of young
people (Bisk 2002; ONeil 2005; Cull 2006; Tonidandel, Avery and
Phillips 2007; St-Jean and Audet 2013).

2 Mentoring
Nigeria provides a useful context for an exploration of entrepreneurship
and mentoring. The entrepreneurial attitude of young Nigerians is
generally considered to be high (GEM 2013) and many observers assume
that they are naturally ready to embark on an entrepreneurial journey.
In fact, the GEM report, Supporting Africas Young Entrepreneurs (2015), states
that 82 per cent of young Nigerians, irrespective of gender, are potential
entrepreneurs. Yet their entrepreneurial activities are heavily oriented
towards trading: 50 per cent prefer to invest in wholesale and retail
activities; 24 per cent in consumer services and hospitality; and less than
7 per cent invest in the agro-industry. Further, more than 23 per cent
struggle to develop a viable business (Amors and Bosma 2013). This
situation has led some to call for greater attention to entrepreneurship
mentoring (Herrington and Kelle 2012; Schtt, Kew and Cheraghi
2015). Mentoring is generally considered to be useful when starting a
new business venture (Waters et al. 2002; Smith and Perks 2006).

In the last four years, there has been a surge in the development of
formal entrepreneurship mentoring programmes. These programmes
are meant to provide young entrepreneurs with access to sponsorship,
exposure, visibility, coaching, protection, and challenging assignments
that are designed to enhance skills and improve the entrepreneurial

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mindset. Generally, such programmes are based on the premise that

mentoring is a purpose-driven channel for transferring entrepreneurial
knowledge, skills and ability to young entrepreneurs (Taylor and Bressler
2000; Rhodes 2002; Rhodes et al. 2006; Wilbanks 2013), and to develop
their entrepreneurial identity.

Nigerian commercial organisations have put forward a number of

justifications for investing in entrepreneurship mentoring. The Bank
of Industry, for example, suggested that mentoring is necessary to
improve the quality of life of aspiring young nascent entrepreneurs
(Punch Newspaper 2016), while the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
stated that mentoring can strategically help the nation to harness its
youthful resources for its economic development agenda (Onuba 2016).
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) argued that
mentoring is a means of investing in the future of Nigerian youths
(Okon 2016) and the SABMiller Foundation claimed that through
mentoring, the bright business ideas inherent in the teeming youths of
south-east Nigeria can be turned into reality (Ogunfuwa 2016). There
is clearly a belief that entrepreneurship mentoring can help nascent
entrepreneurs develop into successful business operators.

The academic literature around mentoring is significant. Crisp and

Cruz (2009) review this literature between 1990 and 2007 and conclude
that neither mentoring nor a mentoring relationship has an operational
definition. Tonidandel et al. (2007) discuss how to maximise returns on
mentoring. ONeil (2005) acknowledges that a mentoring relationship is,
indeed, a complex set of helping behaviours and suggests the need for
a distinction between the effects of formal versus informal mentoring.
Fagenson-Eland, Marks and Amendola (1997) suggest that more
research on mentormentee relationships is needed, particularly around
structural factors.

In relation to mentoring within the entrepreneurship domain, StJean

and Audet (2009) explore mentees satisfaction with a mentoring
programme for entrepreneurs in Quebec, Canada. Gimmon (2014) uses
the case study approach to investigate mentoring and its influence on
entrepreneurship within higher education. Turker and Sonmez Selcuk
(2008) wonder why entrepreneurship mentoring is hard to find in Turkish
universities. These studies focus more on formal entrepreneurship
mentoring relationships with little or no attention accorded to informal
relationships. Existing studies are yet to explore entrepreneurship
mentoring relationships from the perspectives of recent university
graduates. Schtt et al. (2015) assert that skill development and/or
market access is unlikely to produce a significant increase in youth
entrepreneurial activity without a concomitant investment in mentoring.

3 Conceptual framework
Mentoring is one of a variety of interventions for promoting
positive development of young people (Rhodes 2002; Grossman and
Rhodes2002). Despite its increasing popularity, the extant literature

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Figure 1 Model of youth mentoring

Mutual
trust and
empathy Socio-emotional
development

Positive
Mentoring Cognitive
entrepreneurial
relationship development
outcomes

Identity
development

Source Redrawn from Rhodes and DuBois (2008).

suggests that there is much ambiguity around the concept (Noe 1988;
Crisp and Cruz 2009). Scholars approach mentoring from a number of
organisational, educational and developmental perspectives.

Building on the work of Grossman and Rhodes (2002), Rhodes and

DuBois (2008) provide a useful model of youth mentoring (see Figure1).
This model is particularly relevant because it spells out in clear terms
the processes and conditions necessary for understanding the effects
of a mentoring relationship on young people. Specifically, it posits
that entrepreneurship mentoring can influence the entrepreneurial
intentions of young people through three processes: socio-emotional
development, cognitive development and identity development (see also
Rhodes et al. 2006).

The ultimate goal of socio-emotional development is improved ability to

relate to others. Following Eriksons (1950) eight stages of development
and Etzionis (1988) decision-making model, the socio-emotional
capability of both the mentor and the mentee can be developed
through shared value commitment and emotional involvement within
a social space. This implies that a mentoring relationship that is rich in
companionship, genuine care and proximal relationships can increase
the chances of learning how to communicate, act, react, interact, and
to interpret others feelings. Thus, when the mentee learns how to get
along with others, it increases his or her chances of making informed
business-related decisions. Consequently, the exposure of the mentee
to genuine care and companionship through a mentoring relationship
should have a significant impact on his or her intention to be an
entrepreneur, and indeed on subsequent outcomes.

Bandura (1993: 144) posits that individuals with a high sense of efficacy
see difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered, and attribute failure to

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Table 1 Differences between formal and informal mentoring relationships

Type of mentoring relationship

Property Formal Informal

Formation Put together deliberately by the organisation Develops on the basis of mutual identifications,
perceived competence, and interpersonal comfort
Requires intention to demonstrate interests by
means of application
Formal mentors are formally invited to perform the
mentoring functions

Intensity Weak emotional attachment Very strong emotional attachment

Generally professionally managed Natural and intrinsic commitment

Visibility Visible to the organisation Generally less visible

As such, they cautiously interact with the mentees Relationship with mentees driven by impunity
Strong tendency to stretch mentees to achieve more

Focus The organisation designs the focus of the Generally focuses on the career and psychosocial
relationship development of the mentee
Socialises mentees into a given culture Goals of this mentoring type evolves with time
Lowers attrition Goals built around the long-term career needs of
the mentee
Project coordinator drafts the goals and objectives

Durability Generally time-bound Generally lacks time frame

Often lasts 612 months Often last 36 years

Source Compiled by the author.

insufficient effort, knowledge, and skills that are acquirable. This implies
a positive correlation between perceived self-efficacy and cognitive
development. Albert and Luzzo (1999) add that outcome expectations
and goals can also make any given career option seem unattainable. So,
when a mentoring relationship focuses on building both cognitive and
affective capacities, it empowers the mentee with new skills and new
approaches to effective problem-solving and decision-making (Rhodes
et al. 2006). Consequently, higher cognitive development should have a
positive impact on the intention of a mentee to be an entrepreneur.

Identity development helps to shift young peoples order of consciousness

(Komives et al. 2006), leading to a generational shift in aspirations
towards a dream career (Fernndez-Kelly and Konczal 2005). With
respect to entrepreneurship, development of an entrepreneurial identity
is viewed as a dynamic process of self-identification (Jones, Latham
and Betta 2007), self-definition (Vesala, Peura and McElwee 2007),
or self-picturing (DeFillippi and Arthur 1994) that is associated with
either the category of entrepreneurship or the role of entrepreneurs.
The determinants of entrepreneurial identity include know-how
competencies (ibid.), self-awareness (Komives et al. 2006), experience
(Donnellon, Ollila and Middleton 2014), and social bonds and networks

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(McKeever, Jack and Anderson 2015). On the one hand, a mentoring

relationship impacts entrepreneurial identity (Rhodes and DuBois 2008);
while on the other hand, entrepreneurial identity has a strong influence
on the outcome of nascent entrepreneurship (Jones et al. 2007).

The relationships displayed in Figure 1 are indications that the path of

influence between mentoring relationships and positive entrepreneurial
outcomes may not necessarily be linear. For instance, the Rhodes
and DuBois (2008) model of youth mentoring acknowledges that for
mentoring relationships to have a significant effect on socio-emotional,
cognitive and identity development, both the mentor and the mentee
must share a strong sense of mutual trust and empathy. In addition,
the model emphasises that when the odds of interaction between
socioemotional and cognitive development, as well as cognitive
and identity development are high, the chances that the mentoring
relationship will positively influence the expected outcome is also high.

Mentoring relationships have been broadly categorised into two

types: formal and informal. While the former are often initiated by
an organisation or programme, the latter arise through a variety of
circumstances. Formal and informal mentoring relationships can be
differentiated in relation to five properties: formation, intensity, visibility,
focus and durability (Table 1).

Mentoring relationships within organisations can also reflect an element

of formal supervision. Three specific forms of supervisory mentoring
relationship are acknowledged in the literature: the traditional
relationship with the mentor multiple levels away from the mentee; peer
mentoring with the mentor occupying a similar level to the mentee;
and step-ahead mentoring with the mentor one level ahead of the
mentee (Tonidandel et al. 2007: 106). On the other hand, informal,
non-supervisory mentoring relationships are often based on a personal
relationship or commitment between the mentor and the mentee.

4 Evidence from the literature

This section reviews literature relating to different aspects of mentoring,
with the objective of identifying insights relevant to the use of
mentoring in youth entrepreneurship programmes.

4.1 Mentoring process

A mentoring process defines the various stages in the development
of a mentoring relationship. Kram (1988) showed that a mentoring
process is systematic, differentiated and complex. Its systematic nature
is attributed to the developmental needs surrounding the evolution of
a mentoring relationship. As seen previously, according to Rhodes and
DuBois (2008), developmental needs include socio-emotional, cognitive
and identity development, and these require different levels of structure,
direction and support. As such, the differences in the ability of mentors
to manage the inherent challenges associated with the developmental
needs of mentees are critical. The mentoring process is also believed to
be complex because the channel of leading mentees through levels of

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dependency to autonomy and self-reliance is non-linear (Rhodes and

DuBois 2008). Besides, understanding of the relational processes that
underpin the mentormentee bond is relatively limited (Spencer 2006).

4.2 Mentoring functions and roles

Evidences from classical studies show that mentors perform a number
of functions within a mentoring relationship. According to Schockett
and Haring-Hidore (1985), mentors perform eight different functions
in a mentoring relationship: as role model, motivator, counsellor,
friend/colleague, educator, consultant, sponsor and protector. They
also function as transitional figures. In their discussion of how adult
relationships with peers offer opportunities for personal and professional
growth in a work setting, Kram and Isabella (1985) highlight nine
mentoring functions: sponsorship, coaching, exposure and visibility,
protection, challenging work assignments, acceptance and confirmation,
counselling, role modelling and friendship. They suggest that these
functions can be categorised as either career-related or psychosocial.
An empirical study of Noe (1988) lends support to the proposition
that mentoring supports these two groups of functions. On the other
hand, Jacobi (1991) proposes 15 mentoring functions that are broadly
divided into three dimensions: emotional and psychological, career and
professional, and role modelling. Scandura (1992) proposes three slightly
different groupings of mentoring functions: vocational, role modelling,
and social support functions.

Crisp and Cruz (2009) critically review and synthesise emerging empirical
literature on mentoring with the broad objective of reframing and
updating Jacobis (1991) characteristics of mentoring. They show that
for college students, the provision of support, role modelling, friendship,
empowerment and career advice top the list of mentoring functions.

4.3 The mentoring relationship

Empirical evidence comparing the effect of formal versus informal
mentoring relationships on mentoring outcomes is relatively scarce.
Chao, Walz and Gardner (1992) conducted a field study with a view to
comparing three measures of outcome (i.e. organisational socialisation,
job satisfaction and salary) between individuals with and without
a mentoring relationship. Their findings suggest that mentees in
informal mentoring relationships enjoy more favourable outcomes than
nonmentored individuals. Outcomes for mentees in formal mentoring
relationships are not significantly different from: (1) mentees in informal
mentoring relationships, and (2) individuals without mentors.

A comparative study of Ragins and Cotton (1999) shows that mentees

who are in informal mentoring relationships are more satisfied than
those in formal relationships. They are also more effective and earn
more than those in formal mentoring relationships. Compared to
nonmentored individuals, those in informal mentoring relationships
also benefit more in career outcomes because they are more responsive
to a mentors career development capabilities. The duration of

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relationship between the mentor and the mentee also accounts for the
accrued benefits from informal mentoring relationships. Consequently,
mentees in informal mentoring relationships enjoy improved
commitment, motivation, trust, and communication with their mentors.
In spite of these findings, the authors warn that formal mentoring
relationships have inherent values that cannot be overemphasised.

Evidence suggests that individuals who engage in mentoring relationships,

whether formal or informal, benefit one way or the other (Chao et al.
1992; Ragins and Cotton 1999). But formal and informal mentoring
relationships are not equally beneficial: empirical evidence shows that the
odds of a significant effect are higher for informal mentoring relationships
than formal mentoring relationships. For instance, the findings of Noe
(1988), Ragins and Cotton (1999), Scandura and Williams (2001) and
Allen, Day and Lentz (2005) support the argument that organisations that
expect mentees to have the same benefits from both formal and informal
mentoring relationships will be disappointed.

5 Implications for the promotion of youth entrepreneurship

The results of this review suggest that mentoring can influence
entrepreneurial intentions among young people. However, the literature
that specifically addresses mentoring of young people in developing
countries is limited, and does not provide a very clear picture of what
kind of mentoring works, and for whom. This lack of clarity is a major
constraint to policy and programmes promoting youth entrepreneurship.

Over 15 years ago, Chigunta et al. (2005: 15) noted that even though
the benefits of youth entrepreneurship are visible to all, there is little
empirical data to show how the perceived benefits are realized in reality
in Africa. In the intervening period, the situation has not changed
significantly, and the need for rigorous research into entrepreneurship
mentoring among young people is even greater now.

One objection to investment in mentoring as a development intervention

arises because of the potential expense of scaling up what are most
often conceived of as intensive one-to-one relationships. It is one thing
to identify and organise mentors for tens or even hundreds of young
people, and quite another to try to address Africas youth employment
challenge in this way.

Future research around young people and mentorship might focus on

competing motivations for starting a business venture, and the relationship
between mentorship and temporally fluid motivations (Williams and
Williams 2014). The gender dimensions of entrepreneurship mentoring
in Africa also deserve attention. Future research might also explore
the social and economic benefits and costs of mentoring initiatives for
young people with different levels of education, and in rural and urban
settings. Besides exploring the situations in which group mentoring can
be successful, it is now imperative to situate the challenges of youth
entrepreneurship training and mentoring within different African contexts.

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Note
* The author wishes to acknowledge that the research was funded in
partnership with The MasterCard Foundation. He is also grateful to
the anonymous reviewers for their stimulating comments.

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Programme-Induced
Entrepreneurship and Young
Peoples Aspirations

Jacqueline Halima Mgumia

Abstract This article unpacks the experiences of 52 young men and

women from relatively poor households who received a grant of US$125
from a research project to start a business. Only 26 per cent aspired to
be entrepreneurs while the remainder were either interested in business
as a side activity or as a stepping stone towards employment. Using the
concept of programme-induced entrepreneurship, the article explores
interventions aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in contexts where
young participants have a diversity of career aspirations, only some of which
involve entrepreneurship. It argues that for those young people whose
career aspirations do involve entrepreneurship, these interventions may
be important gateways, whereas for youth whose aspirations do not, they
are at best stepping stones and at worst distractions. As such, programme-
induced entrepreneurship can fragment youth aspirations. The article calls
for a more holistic approach to the promotion of entrepreneurship that
takes explicit account of youth aspirations and family dynamics.

Keywords: Africa, Tanzania, unemployment, poverty, waithood,

uncertainty.

1 Introduction
The general framework that informs most research on youth
entrepreneurship in developing countries posits that the lack of capital
(Chigunta and Mkandawire 2002; de Gobbi 2014) and business
knowledge (Kourilsky, Walstad and Thomas 2007; DeJaeghere and
Baxter 2014) explains, to a large extent, why innovative business
ventures are not successful among poor people. As a PhD student
in 2012, I participated in a microfinance research project known
as Mechanics of Microfinance, which was designed within this
framework. Specifically, it offered entrepreneurship training to youth
coming from poor families who were likely to fail their secondary school
final examinations. Its overall aim was to prepare them for careers as
entrepreneurs once their academic paths closed. It is important to note
that in Tanzania the term entrepreneurship (i.e. ujasiriamali in Kiswahili)
2017 The Author. IDS Bulletin Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.133
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0
International licence, which permits downloading and sharing provided the original authors and source are credited but
the work is not used for commercial purposes. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode

The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives; the
Introduction is also recommended reading.
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is generally used to refer to starting and operating a small business; it is

not used to imply innovation (see Schumpeter 1934). In the remainder
of this article, therefore, entrepreneurship and starting, or operating, a
small business are used synonymously.

It is also important to highlight that the Mechanics of Microfinance

research project was rooted in a simple observation made by a
beneficiary of Femina, a non-governmental organisation (NGO)
working on reproductive health, who stated, Its all good that we
get information about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS, but we
need jobs! (Sekei 2011: 6). To address the challenge, in 2011 Femina
collaborated with the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) to design
a reality TV entrepreneurship competition, with 11 episodes aired over
three months. The show offered entrepreneurship training by bringing
six entrepreneurs together to compete around issues of finance, business
skills, entrepreneurship knowledge and related attitudes (Sekei 2011).
To measure the impact of the show, a randomised controlled trial was
conducted with a sample of 1,918 students who were about to graduate
from 43 public secondary schools. A treatment group (drawn from
22schools) was provided with information and incentives to watch the
11 episodes of the Ruka Juu show, while a control group (drawn from
21 different schools) was encouraged to watch 11 films that were aired
at the same time. One of the immediate outcomes was that 12 per cent
of the treatment group and 8 per cent of the control group expressed
willingness to pay money to attend future training on entrepreneurship.
From these individuals, 60 were randomly selected and invited for two
weekend training sessions on entrepreneurship at the University of
Dares Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC) in November 2011.

My study was thus designed to test whether the provision of capital to

youth who had received entrepreneurship training would enable them
to start and run small businesses successfully. To measure the impact of
the training, capital was also provided to youth who did not receive any
training. The capital injection, however, became an intervention in its
own right as it incentivised youth to start up in business.

As I engaged with these youth in the initial stages of starting and

running their business, I realised that there was a need to revisit the
training + capital framework because other factors seemed to be
critical in determining success. For example, it appeared that family
dynamics and participant aspirations were important in shaping their
engagement with the entrepreneurship intervention and emergent
outcomes. By family dynamics, I mean the give-and-take interactions
between youth and other members of their families as the young
people sought to access money and the family sought to meet basic
household needs. In poor families, these dynamics can involve difficult
trade-offs. Iuse the term youth aspirations to refer to what youth were
anticipating they would be and do in the future. I argue that aspirations
and family dynamics impacted on the ways that young participants
used the capital and training that they had received. As they engaged

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in business, their aspirations and family situations interacted with, and

played as important a role as the entrepreneurship intervention.

The body of this article is divided into three main sections. In the
next section I present the Social Lab as a site and methodology for
studyingwhat I conceptualise as programme-induced entrepreneurship.
Following this, I unpack the career aspirations of the youth participants
in relation to family dynamics by looking at how they interacted with
the entrepreneurship intervention. In the final section, I present a
youth-centred framework for entrepreneurship promotion that puts
family economic status and youth aspirations at centre stage.

2 Background
I use the notion of programme-induced entrepreneurship to refer to
entrepreneurial behaviour that was stimulated by programmes such
as the training + capital intervention that was at the heart of the
Mechanics of Microfinance project. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa
there are now many programmes funded by government, NGOs and
others with an explicit objective to induce entrepreneurial behaviour
among under-resourced, and unemployed youth. The idea that
entrepreneurial behaviour is or can be induced or stimulated among
the poor is not new, as indicated by terms such as necessity-induced
entrepreneurship, recession-induced entrepreneurship, opportunity-
induced entrepreneurship, university-induced entrepreneurship and so
on. The value of the concept of programme-induced entrepreneurship
is that it brings into focus development interventions that are specifically
designed to stimulate entrepreneurial behaviour and subjectivity among
unemployed or disadvantaged young people, regardless of whether they
had previously had any interest in entrepreneurship. Again, it is important
to remember that in this context the key indicator of entrepreneurial
behaviour is starting and running a small business in contrast to
risk-taking or innovation. This means that much of the literature on
stimulating entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behaviour, which puts
innovation and risk-taking at centre stage, is not particularly relevant.

In the Foucauldian sense of objectification and subjectification,

programmes that seek to induce entrepreneurship are governed by
discourses, i.e. practices that systematically form objects of which
they speak (Foucault 1972: 49). The process starts with identifying
the lack of something that is followed by identifying those who lack
entrepreneurship skills, and culminates in encouraging and empowering
them to acquire skills and support their entrepreneurial ventures. In
collaboration with other actors, the Tanzanian government has created
a framework for promoting entrepreneurship that seeks to produce an
entrepreneurial subject through training and capital injection. It also
promotes active research engagement. Although such interventions vary
across actors and institutions, they all tend to present youth with only
one possible future career that of an entrepreneur. As such, they can
run roughshod over other youth subjectivities and aspirations.

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For my study, I selected 52 individuals, half women and half men, out
of the 1,918 youth who participated in a randomised controlled trial to
be part of an ethnographic study, using a method I refer to as the Social
Lab. However, I only selected them from among those who were willing
to pay for entrepreneurship training. Using a phone survey, I identified
youth who had limited opportunities to continue with school and had
shown an interest in starting a business. Individuals were selected to yield
four equal groups, each having 13 young people: Group 1 had watched
the entrepreneurship entertainment-education (edutainment) programme
on TV, i.e. Ruka Juu Training; Group 2 had classroom entrepreneurship
training, i.e. UDEC Training; Group 3 watched both the TV programme
and attended the classroom training, i.e. Ruka Juu and UDEC Training;
and Group 4 received no training. All participants in the study were
between 18 and 23 years old, and all came from relatively poor families.

The project provided a grant of US$125 to each of the 52 youth to

enable them to start a business in urban Dar es Salaam. I observed
their businesses from January 2013 to January 2014. Their ventures
involved selling vegetables, snacks, second-hand clothes, electronics and
beauty products. Some worked as street vendors, others set up at home
or by the roadside, while a few managed to rent shops or other business
premises.

My study used the ethnographic method to observe this economic

experiment of how young people utilised a business grant. To do
this, Iset up a Social Lab, a methodological space that combines
experiment with ethnography to capture how the participants
interacted with reallife situations. Since one generally needs a lab to
conduct an experiment and a field situation to do ethnography, I had
to come up with a space that had some of the characteristics of both.
Ethnographically, I thus used this Social Lab as a way to study the
everyday lives of young people, tracking the money they received as it
entered their businesses and households, as well as observing how these
young people engaged with the microfinance project.

3 Aspirations and family dynamics

3.1 Setting the scene
In early January 2013 I was in Dar es Salaam to observe the young
people starting their businesses. Within a period of two months, more
than 40 businesses were up and running. The young people spent
between 40 and 70 hours a week working. The profit they generated
ranged from US$1 to US$3 per day, which is in line with expected
earnings of small businesses in Tanzania (URT 2012). With these
businesses, they generated pocket money and some financial support for
their families. Yet when questioned about their employment status more
than half of the youth responded I am just around, whereas less than
a quarter said they were doing business. While some continued to run
their businesses, others soon left them behind for low wage or salaried
jobs as they promised a regular income, and still others went on to
explore opportunities for further education.

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It was then that I became curious about how these young people
interpreted their engagement with entrepreneurship and, more critically,
why only a few of them seemed to identify with entrepreneurship.
How could it be that most of these participants in an entrepreneurship
programme wished to stop being entrepreneurs or reduce
entrepreneurship to a secondary activity?

3.2 Aspirations
Among the youth who participated in my study, I identified three groups
in terms of their career aspirations. The first group, which accounted
for 26 per cent of the study participants, were entrepreneurial youth
for whom doing business was the first and perhaps only career choice.
Although all the youth in my study came from poor families, relatively,
the individuals in this first group tended to come from lower income
families and had fewer other opportunities. They were more likely to
start and run a business venture despite the challenges this entailed. For
them, the provision of a business grant was an additional impetus that
enabled them to realise their dreams. Hence, they were more likely to
invest their money carefully to create a stable and profitable business. If
their businesses failed, they tended to start another. One young woman
who fitted into this group shared her aspirations:

After five years, I expect to have expanded my business by owning a large food
store and as part of my plan I am saving for this. And I will buy another
fishing vessel in the next five years and within the next ten coming years buy a
boat with an engine.

In regard to the anticipated obstacles, she said:

The main challenge is that my parents might force me to get into marriage before it
reaches that time, but in six to seven years to come if someone will be interested in
marrying me I will accept as long as we both agreed to it. (FD, Dar, S1, 20121)

In fact, this young woman was married in 2014. However, prior to the
wedding she agreed with her family and the spouse-to-be that she would
marry only if she was able to keep her business, and her future husband
agreed to hire someone to assist her. She was apparently successful in
negotiating an arrangement that did not constrain her future business
aspirations.

For three other participants who fitted into the first group, their
businesses played a central part in their imagined futures:

In ten years, I expect to have more than Tsh30,000,000 and a manufacturing

company. My income will be Tsh50,000,000 and my plan is to become a
famous food producer in the world. (MD, Dar, S1, 2012)

In five years to come I believe I will be owning a business with a capital of

Tsh7 million and in the next ten years I will be owning various business [sic.]
that will round to a total of Tsh40 million in terms of capital. I have chosen to
do business in my life. (MD, Dar, S1, 2012)

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In five years time, I will be having my own skills of making childrens clothes
and I think I will be married and with a child in my own house. In ten years
time, I think my business will have made a good capital and I will be running
my life smoothly. (FD, Dar, S1, 2012)

While their current operations are on a small scale, they all imagine that
their businesses and their capital will grow. They see the present as a
time to gain the skills and experiences that will enable them to scale up
their business and realise their aspirations.

In the second and largest group, 48 per cent of the participants

were youth who thought they had multiple career options, with
entrepreneurship being only one. They were more likely to come from
households with parents who were employed. It was a sense of security
and of having options that probably explained their willingness to
abandon their business when another employment opportunity opened
up, even if it paid less money. Stability and security of employment,
and the assurance of regular pay, were particularly important for them
and the risks inherent in running a business were acceptable only if they
already had a job to meet basic needs.

One young woman in this group had a strong interest in being

employed. In the first two months of running her business she hired
someone to look after it while she attended nursing school. After six
months of training, she started working as a nursing intern. While she
earned less than what she would have earned from her business, she
argued it was the beginning of her career and she hoped to make more
money later. At the same time, she did not dismiss the possibility of
running a business in the future in ten years if things do not go well
on the employment side I will then be a big businesswoman in Dar and
other regions (FD, Dar, S1, 2012).

A young man in this group said: I will be a soldier as that is what

my parents want me to be but once I get my salary I will start a
business (MD, Dar, S1, 2012). This illustrates how family can shape
young peoples futures. His father pointed out to me that business was
not a reliable form of employment, so he preferred his son to become
a soldier like him so he can get government benefits. Reluctantly, the
youth agreed, believing that it would help him get a permanent job
and later assist him to start a business. Another young man imagined
that in the future he would also combine employment and business:
In five years to come I will be a procurement officer and will be paid
Tsh500,000. In ten years, I see myself as a manager in a certain office.
Later I will open a business (MD, Dar, S1, 2012).

In the third group, 25 per cent of the participants were young people
who were already employed and whose interest was to be employed
in other jobs after attaining further academic credentials. They
were continuously searching for opportunities or financial resources
to continue with education. For them, doing business was only a

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Table 1 Gendered aspirations of potential young entrepreneurs

Group Young women Young men

1 Aspire to be entrepreneurs 9 5

2 Aspire to be employed 14 11

3 Aspire to first continue with school 3 10

Total 26 26

Source Authors own.

temporary measure or a stepping stone towards their imagined futures

as salaried employees. Specifically, it might help meet the cost of further
education. Because they prioritised education and employment they
were not likely to invest sufficient time in their businesses, and likely to
drop out of business when other options arose.

Young people in this group were categorical about their priority being
something other than business:

I will have acquired a diploma in five years to come and in the next ten years to
come I think I will fight to acquire a degree that will help me in future life. To
me education is the way through a good life for my family and me. (MD, Dar,
S1, 2012)

My goal is to go back to school. So, I will do business until I get enough money
to pay for school fees. I will study up to university. (FD, Dar, S1, 2012)

Well, I might have a diploma in the mentioned years to come. My plan is to

apply for a position in the army and during my service time I can apply for
studies as other students. (MD, Dar, S1, 2012)

All three of these young people left their businesses after a couple of
months and went to school. Today, one of them is in her second year in
law college. Another abandoned his business a couple of times to pursue
educational opportunities that did not materialise, and the business
eventually died. The third was finally admitted to the army after three
years of applying.

The fact that 73 per cent of the participants were only interested in
business as a side activity or as a stepping stone towards employment
raises serious questions about the appropriateness of interventions that
aim to induce entrepreneurial behaviour. In relation to young people in
groups 2 and 3, are such interventions misdirected?

As indicated in Table 1, young women were more likely to be in groups

1 and 2, while young men dominated Group 3. Out of 52 youth, only
14 aspired to be entrepreneurs, nine of whom were young women.
However, the imagination of entrepreneurship among these nine was
largely confined to small-scale business in the informal sector: only three
aspired to build a medium-scale, formal business. All the five young

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men who aspired to be entrepreneurs were thinking of medium-scale

businesses. As for the 25 youth who aspired to be in formal employment
while running a business on the side, 14 were women and 11 were men.
It is striking that of the 13 youth who aspired to continue with school
and later be employed, only three were women. These differences
underscore well-established gender patterns in relation to education and
employment opportunities open to young women in sub-Saharan Africa
(Bertrand and Crepon 2014).

Marriage also figured in the imagined futures of the participants and in

this case, it was the young women who were more likely to think of getting
married and having children within three years, while young men were
thinking on a timescale of five to ten years. Over the 12 months of my
study, four young women gave birth, four others became pregnant, and five
got married (making a total of 13 out of 26 young women 50 per cent).
All of these moves had negative impacts on their business. For those who
were doing well, their business declined and for those who were struggling,
their business failed. With their new roles of wife and/or mother, these
young women had to dedicate most of their time to domestic duties and
they consequently had very little time for their businesses.

For young men, marriage aspirations were generally linked to their

anticipated business success. During the fieldwork, two young men got
married, two got engaged and two others were planning to have children
with their girlfriends. Those who got married or engaged were among
those whose businesses were doing really well. However, their new roles
as husband or/and father also had negative impacts on their businesses.
One business failed because the young man used most of his resources to
care for his sick wife. Marriage slowed down the growth of another young
mans business because he spent time caring for his wife when she got
pregnant. Instead of investing money in his business as he normally did,
this young man was supporting his expanding household. For the young
men who were engaged, their businesses also experienced difficulties
as they had to save money to finish paying bride price and prepare for
marriage. After weighing the financial demands associated with marriage,
one of them decided to postpone it until his business stabilised.

3.3 Family dynamics

The youth who participated in my study were still dependent they
lived with parents or guardians and depended on them for support
(URT 1996; Mlama 1999). The parents and guardians worked in the
informal sector, were employed in private firms, owned small businesses
or were unemployed. According to the URTs (2000) Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper (PSRP), people who work in the informal sector in urban
areas tend to be poor. During the initial stages of my study, most of the
youth said their families had limited resources to support their further
education. So, what does this mean for a microfinance project that
interfaced with these families by providing young adults with business
start-up capital? And what factors influence the ways in which those
youth used the money provided?

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Although it was expected, in line with the Foucauldian notion of object

and subject formation, that a person who attained business knowledge
would apply it in practice, I found that this was not necessarily the
case. During the early fieldwork, I observed that the youth who were
participating in the study made no clear demarcation between business
and private transactions. Some used money from the business grant to
pay for school fees or health bills, and others used it to cater for basic
needs such as transportation, communication and food for themselves
and their families. Operating in the context of scarcity and extended
families, youth were faced with the difficult choice between investment
and spending. I thus argue that, when resources are scarce, capital and
business knowledge are necessary but not sufficient conditions for the
success of new small business ventures.

Initially, I thought youth had limited knowledge of business principles.

To establish the level of their understanding, I conducted a baseline
survey. The survey revealed that, of the 52 participants, 22 had a solid
theoretical grasp of business principles as they scored between 90 and
100 per cent; 8 scored between 70 and 80 per cent; 11 scored between
50 and 60 per cent and the remaining 11 scored between 40 and 30 per
cent. However, on the question of the challenges of separating business
transactions from personal transactions, only ten said it was easy. The
difficulty was not based on a lack of business knowledge but, rather, on
the financial constraints of their families that meant that they had to use
their business money to meet personal and family needs.

3.3.1 Meeting family needs through business

Most of the youth in the study were living in under-resourced
households, which made their businesses a potential source of family
income. For instance, when one received a business grant, her mother
was struggling to pay school fees for a younger son who had just started
Form 1. With no income herself, his mother relied heavily on her late
husbands siblings to raise the funds. The youth and his older brother
had to survive on the one meal a day that their mother could afford.
During my preliminary field visit in December 2012, she seemed to be
relieved by the fact that the programme would provide her son with
money to start a business. I am so grateful, she said, that you have
decided to assist this young man for I was totally stuck At least now
he will be able to sustain himself and help me here and there. Even
before he had started his business, the young man was aware of the
familys expectations: You see, my mother is not doing well financially,
he stressed, and her health is not good. My brother is struggling with
school fees just like I did. He then shared his aspiration: I hope, when
I start my business, and make profit, I will be able to help at least with
transportation money.

Indeed, only a week after he started his business, this participant took on
the main responsibility for providing transport, and later, he frequently
paid for the familys food as his mothers income was not stable.

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In the field, I saw participants spending between Tsh1,000 and

Tsh3,000 per day or even per week to buy food for their families. This
money was coming from their daily sales. During our evening walks to
their homes, one of the young women regularly bought fruits to take
home and sometimes responded to requests from her mother to bring
something home to eat. This could be rice, maize flour, beans or oil.
Another young woman, who was selling fruits in a market space had to
bring some back to her family every day. Similarly, a young woman who
had a vegetable stand nearby her house often offered vegetables worth
Tsh1,0002,000 to her family at least four times in a week. Moreover,
there were youth who contributed money to cover siblings school fees
and sometimes even assisted parents in paying rent.

Most of my participants felt obligated to contribute something because

they were still dependent. To illustrate this situation, one of them said:
It might be true that I make money nowadays but I depend on my
family for most things. Even the shack for my chickens belongs to my
parents. Now, how do I refuse their request? Others said there is no
assurance in business but relatives tend to help in good and bad times so
one cannot just ignore them if they are in need. There were also those
who argued that since family members help to run the business in their
absence, contributing money to meet their needs is just a way of paying
them back. But most of all, they did so because everybody felt they had
also become co-breadwinners.

3.3.2 Costs of transiting to adulthood through business

In the context of unemployment, having a business is conceived of
as self-employment and hence a way of becoming an adult. For my
research participants, this required them to abruptly transition to
adulthood. This transition, however, comes with financial costs, not only
to youths as individuals, but also to their nascent business.

In my analysis of their financial diaries, it was evident that there had

been a significant decrease of the income the participants received from
parents and relatives since they started their businesses. At the beginning,
they would contribute between Tsh1,000 and Tsh3,000 per month, but
from February 2013 their contributions to the basic daily needs of their
family decreased to zero and the young people seemed to be financing
their basic needs themselves. At this point their spending became
constant, that is, there was a pattern in how much they were spending on
basic needs and the amount varied little from week to week.

Basic needs included transportation, communication, food and clothing.

In the field, I observed them financing their lunches at work places,
paying for their transport and buying vouchers for their phones.
Trying to understand these spending patterns, I conducted focus group
discussions on cash flows and personal costs. Keywords coming from
the discussions included najisimamia meaning I watch over myself ,
najikimu (I meet my basic needs), and mambo madogomadogo (small basic
needs). In using these keywords, my participants were arguing that

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Table 2 The costs of basic needs that young entrepreneurs incur

Item Description Cost

Food Most youth have their meals while they are running Tsh1,0007,000 per day
their businesses or are out of the house between two
and seven days a week

Transport Movement in the city is by public transport Participants pay between Tsh1,000 and
Tsh8,000 per week

Communication Communication with clients, friends and family is mainly Tsh500 per day
via family. However, to keep up with youth trends and
information, ones mobile phone becomes a connection
to the world of which they seek to be a part

Health The common diseases are headaches, malaria and This happens at least once a month and the
stomach upset. The common treatment is self- cost is between Tsh100 and Tsh2,000
medication using painkillers and/or antimalarial tablets

Clothing All youth are responsible for buying their clothes. Participants purchased at least one of these
Keeping up with the trend is costly but seems to be items every month: clothes, shoes, socks,
central to youths outlook and self-esteem vests, t-shirts, etc., spending between
Tsh2,000 and Tsh15,000. The majority
spend Tsh8,00010,000

Beauty and hair All youth use a salon to manage their hair Males spend Tsh2,000 per month for
a haircut; female costs vary between
Tsh5,000 and Tsh15,000 per month

Source Authors own.

since they had received the business grant the financial responsibility
of meeting their basic needs fell into their own hands, even before
their business started making a profit. Recalling their financial situation
before receiving the grant, one of the young women proudly said: I was
depending on my mother for everything and when my mother did not
have resources, I was asking support from relatives or friends.

Hence once they started a business, things changed as they began

to cater for their own needs: first, when they asked parents for
support, they were asked What is the use of doing business if one
cannot support oneself ?; and second, because they found a sense
of selfactualisation by financing their daily needs. In my talks with
their parents, they argued that cutting child support is not only the
act of teaching them about living costs, but it also helps the child to
learn about taking responsibility for her/his life. For instance, one
of the mothers argued: If you make money without knowing your
responsibility, you might forget the reason why you are working; but if
you know you must eat and dress out of your business, then you take it
seriously. Most parents also argued that their economic situation did
not allow them to continue supporting all their children. So, a young
person having a business eases the financial responsibility of parents.

The youth, on the other hand, felt the transition from childhood to
adulthood was too abrupt. Narrating her experience, one said the

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transition was a confusing time: One day I got up sick, she recalls, and
told my aunt that I suspected I have malaria. Her aunt responded: It
could be, go to the hospital and test. Knowing that she normally gets
money to go for check-ups, she prepared herself and waited for her aunt
to provide the money. But no money was provided. After a long wait,
she decided to knock at her aunts door to tell her she was ready to leave,
expecting she would give her money for the check-up. To her surprise, the
aunt did not provide any money, saying: OK, make sure you came back
early. She then asked for money directly: Aunt, what about money? Her
aunt responded with a question: Arent you doing business?

This experience was not unique to this young woman who, by then,
had been running her business for less than two weeks. Among the
participants, transition to adulthood was generally marked by an
income-generating activity that made one capable of supporting both
oneself and ones family. Table 2 details the costs that the participants
incurred in catering for family and personal needs.

4 Rethinking youth entrepreneurship

My research points to a disjuncture between (1) young peoples
aspirations that are rooted in a neoliberal imaginary that education can
provide the route to a successful career and a good life, and (2) policy
and programme objectives of promoting youth entrepreneurship. At
the centre of this disjuncture is the fact that for many young people,
establishing and operating a small business is not recognised as decent
employment. Rather, it is a signifier of an inability to continue with
further education and/or secure formal employment, and of low status.
Business is acceptable as a temporary means of survival, but it is not
what they imagine themselves doing into the future. Young people in the
process of establishing and nurturing their businesses used the phrase
Iam just around, indicating that business was a temporary measure to
be used to re-join the pathway to a salaried, middle-class future.

These observations are in line with and contribute to literature from

anthropology and other fields on how the neoliberal economy has
created uncertainty around youth futures (Honwana 2012; Cole and
Durham 2008; Guyer 2007; Mains 2007; Hansen 2005; Comaroff and
Comaroff 1999). As a response to social and economic exclusion, young
people develop strategies to navigate the constraints and uncertainties
of a precarious economy (Comaroff and Comaroff 1999; Cole 2004).
There is also an emerging literature on the lives of unemployed youth
and the strategies they use to deal with time, using various concepts
such as teatime (Masquelier 2013), waithood (Honwana 2012), timepass
(Jeffrey 2008, 2010), and killing time (Ralph 2008).

But what does this disjuncture mean for youth employment policy and
programmes, and specifically for the current emphasis on the promotion
of entrepreneurship and self-employment? Over the last decade, there
has been a mushrooming of entrepreneurship training, capital schemes
and policy frameworks meant to build an entrepreneurial culture among

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young people. However, these initiatives seldom start with, or take any
account of, young peoples family situations or what they imagine as
their futures. Rather, they assume those futures can, should and will be
based on entrepreneurship.

As I found during the course of my study, for many young people

this assumption is simply not sustainable. The family demands put on
youth from poor families are such that it is difficult for them to get a
business up and running. On the other hand, while youth from relatively
better-off families do not face the same demands, the work futures that
the majority of them and their families imagine are based on salaried
employment, not entrepreneurship. They are only interested in starting
and running a small business to the degree that it furthers their progress
along the pathway to education and salaried employment.

This implies that any programme that seeks to induce entrepreneurship

among young people should take account of both their aspirations and
the economic status of their families. Such an approach might entail
providing cash transfers to poor families so that they no longer need to
depend on the businesses of their young people. Recent studies indicate
that poor families are capable of using cash transfers responsibly
to cater for their basic needs (Aizer et al. 2016). Similarly, such
programmes may focus on providing health insurance for poor families
or scholarships so that the youth who are establishing a business do
not have to pay school fees and medical bills for their siblings. Further
research needs to be done to systematically ascertain the social support
needed to enable youth entrepreneurship.

5 Conclusion
Throughout this article, I have attempted to show how youth who opted
to be in an entrepreneurship programme did so while attempting to
realise a range of aspirations. Their engagement with the programme was
mediated by their family situations, which affected both their ability to
manage business capital and how they imagined their future employment.
In other words, success in inducing entrepreneurial behaviour was
dependent more on the participants family situations than on the finer
points of the intervention. To date, however, the links between young
participants in entrepreneurship programmes and their families have
not been acknowledged. There is clearly a need for more contextualised
approaches to entrepreneurship promotion among young people. If
programmes are to be effective in inducing entrepreneurial behaviour
among young people, they must start with them and their families.

Note
1 FD = female participant of the focus group discussion, MD = male
participant; Dar = Dar es Salaam; S1 = Seminar Room 1, where the
focus group discussions took place.

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Glossary

ACGS African Centre for Gender and Social

Development [US]
ACODE Advocates Coalition for Development and
Environment [Uganda]
ACTS African Centre for Technology Studies [Kenya]
AERC African Economic Research Consortium [Kenya]
AfDB African Development Bank [Abidjan]
AGRA Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
CBN Central Bank of Nigeria
CBO community-based organisation
CEDLAS Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y
Sociales [Argentina]
CGIAR Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research [France]
CHPS Community-Based Health Planning and Services
[Ghana]
CIDA Canadian International Development Agency
CIDI Community Integrated Development Initiatives
[Uganda]
CIS Commonwealth of Independent States
CODESRIA Council for the Development of Social Science
Research in Africa [Senegal]
CSO civil society organisations
CYF Canadian Development Foundation
DFCU Development Finance Company of Uganda Bank
Limited
EACC Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission of Kenya
EPRDF Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front
ERP Economic Recovery Programme [Ghana]
ESL Economics School of Louvain [Belgium]
ETF European Training Foundation [Italy]
FAC Future Agricultures Consortium [UK]
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization [Italy]
FDI foreign direct investment
GDI Global Development Institute [UK]
GDP gross domestic product
GEM Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
GERA Global Entrepreneurship Research Association
GoK Government of Kenya
GSS Ghana Statistical Service
GTP Growth and Transformation Plan [Ethiopia]
GVF Graduate Venture Fund
GYEEDA Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial
Agency
ICT information and communications technology

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 Vol. 48 No. 3 May 2017: Africas Youth Employment Challenge: New Perspectives

IDRC International Development Research Centre

[Canada]
IEA Institute of Economic Affairs [Kenya]
IEG Independent Evaluation Group [US]
IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development
[Italy]
IFAU Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation
[Sweden]
ILO International Labour Office/Organization
[Switzerland]
IMF International Monetary Fund [US]
JHS junior high school
KYA Kayayei Youth Association [Ghana]
LCCI Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry
[Nigeria]
LDC least developed country
LIC low income country
LESDEP Local Enterprises Skills Development Programme
[Ghana]
LRA Lords Resistance Army [Uganda]
LSP Livelihood Support Programme
masl metres above sea level
MENA Middle East and North Africa
MFI microfinance institution
MIF Multilateral Investment Fund
MoALF Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries
[Kenya]
MoFED Ministry of Finance and Economic Development
[Ethiopia]
MoLD Ministry of Livestock Development [Kenya]
MoYA Ministry of Youth Affairs [Kenya]
MSE micro and small enterprise
MYSC Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture [Ethiopia]
NDPC National Development Planning Commission
[Ghana]
NEET not in education, employment, or training
NGO non-governmental organisation
NHH Norwegian School of Economics
NYEP National Youth Employment Programme [Ghana]
NYP National Youth Policy [Ethiopia]
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development [France]
OER open educational resources
PASDEP Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development
to End Poverty [Ethiopia]
PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
PWP public works programme
RAPID research and policy in development
REP Rural Enterprise Project [Ghana]

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REPOA Research on Poverty Alleviation [Tanzania]

S4YE Solutions for Youth Employment
SAP Structural Adjustment Programme
SDG Sustainable Development Goal
SHS senior high school
TDR Special Programme for Research and Training in
Tropical Diseases [World Health Organization, US]
TLU tropical livestock unit
UCL Universit Catholique de Louvain [Belgium]
UDEC University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship
Centre [Tanzania]
UIA Uganda Investment Authority
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development
UNDP United Nations Development Programme [US]
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation [US]
URT United Republic of Tanzania
VCP Vagrancy Control Proclamation [Ethiopia]
VET vocational education and training
YDP Youth Development Package [Ethiopia]
YEA Youth Employment Agency [Ghana]
YEDF Youth Enterprise Development Fund [Kenya]
YES Youth Entrepreneurial Scheme [Uganda]
YLP Youth Livelihood Programme [Uganda]
YVCF Youth Venture Capital Fund [Uganda]

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 Africas Youth Employment Challenge:
AFRICAS YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
New Perspectives CHALLENGE: NEW PERSPECTIVES
Editors Seife Ayele, Samir Khan and James Sumberg

Volume 48 | Number 3 | May 2017

Introduction: New Perspectives on Africas Youth Employment Challenge

Transforming Development Knowledge
Seife Ayele, Samir Khan and James Sumberg
Youth Employment in Developing Economies: Evidence on Policies and
Interventions
Nicholas Kilimani
The Politics of Youth Employment and Policy Processes in Ethiopia

Transforming Development Knowledge

Eyob Balcha Gebremariam
The Side-Hustle: Diversified Livelihoods of Kenyan Educated Young Farmers
Grace Muthoni Mwaura
Gambling, Dancing, Sex Work: Notions of Youth Employment in Uganda

Volume 48 | Number 3 | May 2017

Victoria Flavia Namuggala
Navigating Precarious Employment: Social Networks Among Migrant Youth
inGhana
Thomas Yeboah
Youth Participation in Smallholder Livestock Production and Marketing
Edna Mutua, Salome Bukachi, Bernard Bett, Benson Estambale and
IsaacNyamongo
Non-Farm Enterprises and the Rural Youth Employment Challenge in Ghana
Monica Lambon-Quayefio
Does Kenyas Youth Enterprise Development Fund Serve Young People?
Maurice Sikenyi
Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship: The Role of Mentoring
Ayodele Ibrahim Shittu
Programme-Induced Entrepreneurship and Young Peoples Aspirations
Jacqueline Halima Mgumia

Transforming Development Knowledge

Youths aspirations and imagined potential are
the most important basis on which young
people can engage with policy and programmes
concerning their working futures.
ISSN 0265-5012 (print), 1759-5436 (online) DOI: 10.19088/1968-2017.121 Volume 48 | Number 3 | May 2017