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.

1. www.theimpactinitiative.net/
Youth Creativity in the Face of Uncertainty
Presenters :
Vicky Johnson ( PhD )
PI for YOUR World research project
University of Brighton
vicky.johnson@brighton.ac.uk
Melese Getu ( PhD )
Country lead for YOUR World research
Addis Ababa University
melese88@yahoo.co.uk
Amid Ahmed (MSC)
Research Assistant
amidsoci@gmail.com
Milki Getachew
Research assistant and PhD student
milkannen@yahoo.com
Anannia Admassu
Head of partner organization
ananniaa@gmail.com
October 24,2017

2. Youth and Uncertainty Rights (YOUR) World Research
Funded by ESRC-DFID Poverty Fund
JULY 2016 – JUNE 2019
Partners: UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON, ActionAid Nepal, CHADET, ChildHope UK, University of
Tribhuvan and University of Addis Ababa
Insecurity and Uncertainty: Marginalised young
people’s living rights in fragile and conflict affected
situations in Nepal and Ethiopia
Including 1000 young men, women and young people of the third gender in analysing their complex lives
250 case studies in each country
Phase 1 Set up
Phase 2 Co-construction with youth
Phase 3 Detailed cases
Phase 4 Verification
Phase 5 Dissemination and take-up

3. PI Vicky Johnson
Co-I Ande West
RO Signe Gosmann
Research Leads
Melese Getu
Sumon Kamal Tuladhar
Research Ass/Officers
Amid Ahmed
Sabitra Neupane
PhD Students
Milki Getachew
Shubhendra Man Shresthra
Finance/admin
Partner Directors
Andrew Church
Anannia Admasu
Bimal Phnuyal
Mentor Juliet Millican
Programme Manager
Jodie Ellis

4. Uncertainty defining
factor in the
complex lives of
youth
Daily coping
strategies but
uncertainty not
necessarily
negative
How do
marginalized and
street-connected
youth perceive and
respond to
uncertainty as they
shape their rights?

5. www.theimpactinitiative.net/
Theory
Bauman’s theories of insecurity, community and autonomy
(2001, 2004, 2007, 2011)
How do young people developing their identities and understandings of autonomy and a sense of
belonging in response to uncertainty?
How far does uncertainty lead youth to reject traditional norms, form new social norms and seek
support and leadership in alternative groupings and forms of peer support?
Reconceptualisation of Child Rights (Hanson and Nieuwenhuys 2013)
Complexity – Living Rights, Social Justice and Translations
Relational agency/ vulnerability – Oswell 2013, Butler 2014, 2017, Mizzen
and Ofosu-kusi, Y. (2013)

6. www.theimpactinitiative.net/
Theoretical framework

7. Research sites and Study participants
Focus groups
NB until now- 50 WS & 50 cases
Additional workshops with 250 youth to be conducted in verification stage
Addis
Ababa
Hetosa Woreta
Urban Rural Urban Rural
80 youths 80 youth 40 youth 40 youth
Addis Ababa Hetosa Woreta
50 adults 50 adults 50 adults
12 stakeholders 12 stakeholders 12 stakeholders

8. Marginalised/
vulnerable
young people
and
uncertainty
Transitions
and
Growing Up
Self/ Others
and
Relationships
Mobility
and
Migration
Place
and
Space
Crisis
Conflict/
Fragility
Support
Changes over Time
Dimensions of Uncertainty
to be assessed in YOUR
World research

9. www.theimpactinitiative.net/
Participatory Research Methods
1: Open mapping
2. Youth led walk
3. Road and rivers of life
4. Physical map of mobility and migration
5. Photo narrative
6. Seasonal line of uncertainty
7. Relational mapping
8. Physical map of marginalization

10. www.theimpactinitiative.net/
Open mapping
Physical map of
marginalization
Physical mobility
map Rivers of life

11. Addis Ababa
Ketema sub-city
Case study
Addisu , Oromo, age 21
I hold my passport in my pocket every day. Rather than living in poverty
I am ready to take the risk of migrating illegally . I am always ready to
go(Mesfin, 24, Male, Addis Ketema )
Mapping and youth-led walks help explore
uncertainty in the places and spaces that
marginalised young people inhabit and to
explore structural inequalities in different
contexts

12. www.theimpactinitiative.net/
Preliminary…
• Due to high unemployment and underemployment many of the youth are feeling
powerless in decision-making
• Young women and men feel they are living in the certainty of poverty and want to
escape and seek alternatives even if their journeys are risky
• Young people don’t necessarily want to follow traditional transitions and move from
rural to urban situations and out to the Gulf
My family arranged a marriage with someone whom I don’t know. No one
helped me in this condition and my only way out was to run away and move
to the city (Taitu, 26, Female, Woreta town)
• They are not looking at education as a way out – their aspirations are changing
• They don’t see their solutions as education then to get a job, they want more
immediate solutions like informal businesses
• Due to growing landlessness there are family pressures and tensions

13. www.theimpactinitiative.net/
Preliminary…
Drought in Hetosa
• Seasonal uncertainty due fragile environment and drought
• School drop-out and seasonal migration
• Intersect with boys and girls mobility differently
In the drought season I dropout as my brothers move with
the cattle's to other places and the burden of the house lay
on my hand (Chaltu, 15, Female, Hetosa rural )
• The drought shaped youth transition
• When it rained and productivity was up they still migrated

14. Seasonal line of uncertainty

15. www.theimpactinitiative.net/
Support networks
- peer group support
• peers influencing education, migration decisions, delinquency
If you are unemployed person you are most likely to be pulled into a
peer group of drug users and create a problem for yourself and the
community at large (Daniel, 20, Male, Addis Ketema)
• But they also share in a positive way experience, information, resources,
strategies especially amongst boys to migrate
• Girls want to maintain relationships with family although some are rejected
when they return from migration without resources or money

17. Overview of CHADET’s work
- Operational areas
o Addis Ababa – ‘Merkato”
o Amhara
o Oromiya
- Projects:
o HIV/AIDS, Prevention and rehabilitation project for children exposed
to sexual exploitation, Alternative Basic Education,
o Urban
o Research about the migrant boys and girls

18. The Rural Project
Implementation strategy
Places of origin
Transit Towns
Destination Cities
Refocusing its direction into:
• Helping children avoid risky migration
• Enhancing community engagement,
CBOs
• Girls Education

19. CHADET’s Music and Drama Group:

20. How CHADET’s work is informed by research
• Research taken as one of its CHADET’s strategic objective,
• Part of the initiative of CRPF
• Collaborates with research and Higher learning Institutions (in
and out of the country)
• Serving as a local partnering organization for YOUR world
Research in Ethiopia;
• The National Reference Group

21. How does the outcomes of the research IMPACT on
our work
1) Its impact on young people’s lives and for understanding the local context, i.e.
adult attitudes, local practices, change local practices and design new
interventions-
2) Informs CHADET’s policy and practice- develop programs that would build on the
learning;
3) National level: the National reference group – MoWCA, Ministry of Youth and
Sports, Population Counsel, YL, media
4) International: Advisory policy group, YL, academic discourses, International NGOs,
DFID – inviting the government and other funders.

22. My Research
My Background
• The charity experience
• Tension b/w the rights-based approach and the socio-cultural practices on childhood
and children’s education/migration
• Provide an autobiographical section
reflexive position, changes in my own experience
Title:
Conceptualizing Childhoods: Perceptions and Practices of childhood migration and
education among communities in North eastern Ethiopia

23. Research questions
1. How do the cultural environment, context and issues of globalization
influence perceptions and practices of childhood migration and education?
1. How do intergenerational and peer relationships affect perceptions and
practices of education and migration?
1. What are the prospects of the current educational, social protection and
children’s policies for children and the challenges in their implementation?

24. Argoba Woreda ‘District’
• Relatively isolated and remote
• Identity- Homogeneous ethnic group
• Predominantly followers of a similar religion
• Special Administrative structure

26. www.theimpactinitiative.net/
Thank you!
Vicky Johnson ( PhD )
PI for YOUR World research project
University of Brighton
vicky.johnson@brighton.ac.uk
Melese Getu ( PhD )
Country lead for YOUR World research
Addis Ababa University
melese88@yahoo.co.uk
Amid Ahmed (MA)
Research Assistant
amidsoci@gmail.com
Milki Getachew
Research assistant and PhD student
milkannen@yahoo.com
Anannia Admassu
Head of partner organization and PhD student
ananniaa@gmail.com
October 24,2017

28. Review of the literature
• Theoretical framework
(new sociology of childhood-Different childhoods, The UN convention, national laws, constructivist
approach )
• Intergenerational relations (changing overtime, children’s agency, the influence of peers,…)
• Migration and Globalization (effects of global processes of transport, internet,
telecommunications, influence on remote communities)
• The educational policies (changing over time, ESDP, prospects and challenges of
implementation…)

29. Preliminary Findings:
• Improved interest on the part of the community to send their kids to school;
• Since most of the primary schools are located in rural areas, many children
are not able to go to high school;
• Children are expected to start working at younger ages (starting from five yrs.
on),
• There is a changing tendency on the intergenerational relations as children
tend to decide for themselves, e.g. decisions to migrate,

30. Preliminary Findings …(cont’d)
• Limited space for children to participate in decisions, more serious on girls
– but are given the opportunity to go to school for those living near
schools,
• Child marriage is considered as normal – expected at 15,
• Seeing the impact of globalization, Mobile phones, Movies on TV – at least
in semi-urban centers – Contesting existing cultural and religious values;
• Young boys and girls migrate to Djibouti and Saudi – they invest in buying
houses in an emerging town that is currently serving as administrative
center;
• Other young people in the community tend to migrate as they see others
supporting their parents.

31. www.theimpactinitiative.net/
Thank you.
Vicky Johnson ( PhD )
vicky.johnson@brighton.ac.uk
Melese Getu ( PhD )
melese88@yahoo.co.uk