Gender and Youth Livelihoods Programming in Africa

This report looks at gender and youth livelihoods development programmes in Africa, and discusses the role that norms have in constraining and/or enabling programme success. The report highlights that young women are disproportionately affected by social norms leading to discrimination, care responsibilities, job segregation and violence which create barriers to education, financial inclusion, employment and business opportunities.

It finds that the key barriers –all underpinned by gender discriminatory norms – are: education and skills development, domestic and care responsibilities, access to key resources for effective entrepreneurship, gendered labour market segregation, mobility constraints, self-confidence and self-esteem and safety and violence. Programmes that successfully challenged gender norms and related constraints included one or more of the following measures: quotas for equal participation of young men and women; offering child care support and flexible training schedules; exposure to role models; challenging gender-based job segregation through community and individual sensitization; and promoting equal contracts and conditions for workers and equal treatment in the classroom.