Youth poverty, employment and livelihoods: social and economic implications of living with insecurity in Arusha, Tanzania

Nicola Banks

doi:10.1177/0956247816651201

Abstract

The youth employment crisis in sub-Saharan Africa’s towns and cities is among the region’s top development priorities. High rates of youth under- and unemployment create significant obstacles to young people’s ability to become self-reliant, a crucial first step in the transition to adulthood. It is important to explore how local and global structures and processes create the hostile economic and social environment in which urban youth search for livelihoods. Only then can we identify the ways in which urban poverty brings insurmountable constraints on youth agency. We must understand the multitude of obstacles facing urban youth in their quest for decent work and secure livelihoods, how these differ by gender and educational status, and the implications of this for their longer-term social and economic development. This paper attempts such an exploration in the context of Arusha, Tanzania.

Highlights

Africa’s population is increasingly urban and increasingly young
By 2035 the majority of Africans are projected to be living in cities.(7) Since it is rarely driven or accompanied by economic growth founded in industrialization and urban-located investment,(8) urbanization has not been accompanied by sufficient job creation across the continent, leaving residents reliant upon their own devices to secure their livelihoods in oversaturated labour markets.(9) Informality characterizes all aspects of urban living across the continent, and is closely correlated with urban poverty.(10)
Vanek et al compiled these data regionally, showing that between 2004 and 2010, informal employment accounted for 66 per cent of nonagricultural employment across sub-Saharan Africa, with rates high for women.(16) Yet we have to be cautious about generalizing; the sample for this covers only 10 sub-Saharan African countries and 27.9 per cent of the continent’s working age population.(17) Country-level statistics show that regional estimates may mask as much as they reveal; informal employment ranges from 33 per cent in South Africa to 82 per cent in Mali, for example.(18) As Table 1 reveals, countries in Southern Africa have significantly lower rates of informal employment

Summary

Introduction

Africa’s population is increasingly urban and increasingly young. This is evident in both striking demographic estimates(1) and rich ethnographic work that highlights towns and cities as “main stages” for young lives across the continent.(2) Yet young Africans are not finding that urban “promises” – of dynamism and modernity and better access to education, wages and services – are translating into better social and economic mobility for their generation. Keywords employment / livelihoods / school-to-work transition / sub-Saharan Africa / Tanzania / urban poverty / youth

Results

Conclusion