Putting Children First: Identifying solutions and taking action to tackle poverty and inequality in Africa. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 23-25 October 2017 This three-day international conference aimed to engage policy makers, practitioners and researchers in identifying solutions for fighting child poverty and inequality in Africa, and in inspiring action towards change. The conference offered a platform for bridging divides across sectors, disciplines and policy, practice and research.

2. Gaining Ground with Gatekeepers: Leveraging the Proximal Enabling
Environment to Support Youth Livelihood Development

3. Addis Ababa, October
2017
“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”
3
Introduction
• Increasing investment in labor-supply side
programming by governments and non-
governmental organizations
• Evidence on success of these interventions is
mixed
• Existing evidence: focus more on proximal
enabling environment, particularly in supply-
side programming
Topic of this paper: Emerging evidence about the
importance of proximal enabling environment
from a rural youth livelihoods program
implemented in Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia,
Malawi and Uganda.

4. Evidence on Labor Supply and Demand-side Interventions
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“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”
Addis Ababa, October
2017
• Labor supply-side programs focus largely on building employment and livelihood
skills in individual youth: education, training, entrepreneurship promotion, micro-
insurance and microcredit schemes;
• Labor demand-side interventions include micro and macro-economic growth
programming: national youth employment policies, value chain development,
public works, cash for work, wage subsidies, etc;
• Balance between the two is important, but most programming over the last two
decades has focused on supply-side.
• Evidence on both sides is mixed, and need to reconsider programmatic approaches
for youth livelihood development.
Sources: Olenik et al, 2013.; Butler, Taggart & Chervin, 2012; Kluve, 2016

5. Focusing on the Proximal Enabling Environment
Supply-side Programming:
• Seek to increase youth knowledge and
skills, but do not always result in youth
participation in decent work.
• Generally focus on the individual skills
building.
• Often include a secondary focus on
proximal enabling environment: peer
groups, families and immediate
community; however, it is limited and not a
principle strategic focus.
5
Demand-side Programming:
• Seek to ensure that youth are met with a
favorable labor market and tend to focus
on macro or micro-economic policy.
• Less common to intentionally and
strategically intervene with peer groups,
families and communities.
Bridging Strategies
“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”
Addis Ababa, October
2017
Sources: Butler, Taggart & Chervin, 2012; Kluve, 2016; France, Pelka & Kirchner, 2016.

6. 6
Youth in Action (YiA)
YiA is a six-year program implemented by Save
the Children in partnership with Mastercard
Foundation.
YiA aims to improve the socio-economic status of
40,000 out-of-school, rural girls and boys, ages
12 to 18, in Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia,
Malawi, and Uganda.
YiA implements and tests innovative, gender
sensitive, age-appropriate learning and
livelihoods approaches for vulnerable adolescent
girls and boys.
“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”
Addis Ababa, October
2017

7. Youth in Action (YiA) & the Proximal Enabling Environment
7
“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”
Addis Ababa, October
2017
Engagement Strategies:
encourage active participation of
family and community members in the
program beyond introductions and
orientation
Reflective Strategies: paired
with engagement and
demonstrative to provide
different YiA stakeholders
an opportunity to reflect on
how youth were maturing
and they could best support
youth livelihood
development (includes
youth reflections).
Demonstrative Strategies:
provide youth with
opportunities to display their
engagement with families
and communities as well as
appreciation for their
support

8. Research Questions & Study Design
Research Questions:
• What is the status of family and community support for youth livelihood
development in the YiA communities during the early stages of program
implementation?
• What differences by sex do we uncover in this status?
• How did family and community support for youth livelihood development change
over the period of YiA implementation?
• To what do youth, family, and community members attribute this change in family
and community support?
Study design:
The evidence that we draw on for this paper come from multiple sources, from multiple
countries, over five years.
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“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”
Addis Ababa, October
2017

9. Finding #1: Limited family & community support for youth livelihood
development
.
9
43
30
19
57
70
81
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Egypt Ethiopia Uganda
Percentofyouth
Levels of family and community
support for self-employment
Low family and community support for self-employment
Sufficient family and community support for self-employment
Low levels of family and community support:
• family and community helped youth learn the
skills they could use in decent work.
• supported their ideas on how to earn money.
• helped them plan for decent work that could
help in the future.
Very few youth reported receiving money from
family to start a business.
95% of girls & boys reported that they did not
have sufficient access to material assets,
credits, or savings to develop a decent
business.
“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”
Addis Ababa, October
2017

10. Finding #2: Family and community are gatekeepers
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Youth training on
work force skills
Self-employment
Opportunities
Family and
Community members
Families are the first and most important gatekeepers to youth participation in both training
programs and in the market.
Youth participation in a training program like YiA was dependent on parental approval and
that parents tend to be far less willing to provide approval for their daughters than for their
sons.
Community members help youth build market-relevant skills.
Family and community members are the potential employers that youth contact when they
need a job, and are the supports that youth draw on when starting a business. These
opportunities are different for girls and boys.
“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”
Addis Ababa, October
2017

11. Finding #3: Negotiated reputation is important in youth livelihood
development
11
Building a
reputation
Use of
time
Training
Indepen
dence
Youth training on
work force skills
Self-employment
Opportunities
Family and
Community members
Work-specific training
seen as opportunity for
youth to (a) build
knowledge, (b)
demonstrate a dedication
to a specific livelihood,
and (c) create a
reputation that is
different from their peers.
“…my neighbor’s daughter,
she messed around with
some boda boda
[motorcycle taxi] man and
she got pregnant…I was
actually very sad when she
got pregnant. She is a good
girl, and her poor mother
relied on her for help with
her siblings. At least now
when you see her going to
[YiA], you know that maybe
she can do something for
her family.” (Parent
Uganda)
“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”
Addis Ababa, October
2017

12. Finding #4: Evidence of increased support through participation in Youth in
Action
12
61
80
38
44
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Burkina Faso Egypt
Percentofyouth
Percent of Male and Female youth you
received monetary support from
parents post-YiA
Male Female
~50% of youth reported receiving some
monetary support from their parents post-YiA.
Average of 30 USD in Burkina Faso and Egypt.
Families provided space for youth business,
land, tools, materials, and/or emotional
support.
Adults or siblings reported taking on
additional income generating activities to
replace lost income.
Family members more likely to provide
childcare or take on additional household
tasks for female youth starting business.
“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”
Addis Ababa, October
2017

13. Discussion and Implications
• Improve family and
community perceptions of
youth.
• Increase parental and
community-wide
engagement.
• Promote recognition of
proximal environment.
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Addis Ababa, October
2017
“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”

14. Conclusions
14
“Putting Children First: Identifying Solutions and Taking Action to
Tackle Child Poverty and Inequality in Africa”