10 research outputs found
Youth Engagement and Skills Acquisition Within Africa's Transport Sector: Promoting a Gender Agenda Towards Transitions into Meaningful Work, Qualitative Data Collection, 2019-2022
No full textYouth engagement and skills acquisition within Africa’s transport sector was a collaborative research project between Durham University, UK, the University of Sokoto, Nigeria, the South African Labour and Development Research Unit [SALDRU] at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and the UK-based NGO Transaid. The project’s core data set deposited with RESHARE comprises in-depth interviews focused on daily mobility and transport, conducted by project academic staff and young unemployed women we trained as peer researchers at the outset of the study; a small number of focus group discussions conducted by academic staff; and diaries focused on daily mobility, mostly written by peer researchers during the pandemic. Anonymised data sets are provided for each of the three study cities.
Note: The research team had also anticipated collecting quantitative data concerning the pilot trainings for transport users and transport workers led by Transaid. These were to have comprised baseline assessments, followed by post-intervention surveys after one month and six months to assess skills uptake among participating women. Although Transaid staff succeeded in implementing pilot training interventions in each city, in the final months of the project, COVID constraints limited recruitment numbers and the collection of baseline data amenable to statistical analysis. Collection of post-intervention data has not been possible due to COVID constraints and the requirement to end the project on 31st March 2022. Transaid’s reports on the pilot interventions will be made available on the project website: https://transportandyouthemploymentinafrica.comAcknowledging the importance of mobilising Africa's young women into the labour-force, this research addresses the specific impediments presented by a highly gendered transport and travel arena and the implications this has for girls' and women's current/future access to meaningful work. Women of all ages are discriminated against, both with regard to access and use of transport (which affects their access to skills acquisition and employment across all sectors) and with reference to their employment within the transport sector itself. Relevant skills acquisition at an early age, for safely navigating transport and more equitably seeking employment is essential if they are to break through such barriers.
We aim to understand and address these challenges through in-depth participatory research with young women of low socio-economic status in peripheral locations of Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia (one city-region per country), including piloting of skills-based interventions.
The research has three, interlinked strands:
a)The User Strand comprises research into improving young women's use of transport to access training programmes and employment, built around the following questions:
-What are the economic, social and infrastructural determinants of the transport ecology in which young women are located and how does it impact on their transport experiences and behaviours?
-How is young women's physical access to meaningful work and associated skills building shaped by their travel potential and access to transport (i.e. especially travel safety and security for women resident in low income areas)?
-What key skills do young women need if they are to travel safely to work and training opportunities (whether as pedestrians, as cyclists, or when negotiating public transport)?
-How can appropriate safe travel skills training be provided?
-What wider interventions are needed to support a safe travel skills programme [e.g. from government, transport unions, NGOs, private sector] i.e. with reference to the multiple layers of political, economic and socio-cultural decision-making processes?
b)The Employment Strand comprises research into improving women's access to skills (e.g. commercial driving, vehicle repair/ maintenance) to enable them to obtain more meaningful employment within the transport sector, built around the following questions:
- How have historical, social, political and economic legacies of planning and policy processes impacted on opportunities for women's employment in the transport sector?
-How can young women's aspirations to work in this sector be expanded and enhanced?
-What do young women perceive as the main barriers to skills acquisition and subsequent employment in the sector?
-What skills training can be provided to enable young women to play a more prominent role in the sector?
-What wider interventions are needed to support training programmes to improve women's employment in this sector [e.g. from government, unions, NGOs, the private sector]
c)The Action Research Strand builds on User and Employment Strand findings. It will pilot transport-related skills training for young women, to improve their access to employment [both directly, through employment in the transport sector and indirectly, through travel safety skills to enable them to travel to diverse employment opportunities].
Ihere will be small pilot action research projects in each country:
-One to assist women build skills as transport users [and thus access diverse employment opportunities within and beyond the transport sector]
-Up to 3 to assist women build skills towards employment in the transport sector.
Intensive monitoring and evaluation of this strand throughout its life will ensure key lessons are learned.
Through this work we will produce gender-sensitive transport/travel skills guidance for govt, private sector, NGOs + academia at local, national + international levels.</p
Ethno-religious conflicts and gender in Nigeria’s middle belt
No full textThis thesis explores and analyses the impact of ethno-religious conflicts in the city of Jos and other parts of the Middle Belt and Nigeria on gender relations and the lives of women. The thesis addresses the question of the impact of conflict on women beyond loss of life and property as seen in other literature. It shows how ongoing conflictual relations that are not always violent, but include aspects of political competition disadvantage women.
The research locations covered by this research are urban areas. Data for this research was gathered through interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with 102 respondents, recruited through purposive sampling and willingness to participate in the interview.
This thesis argues that the conflict dynamics affect the life chances of women on different levels because women are associated with the transcendence or transgression of group boundaries in their private life. The growing importance of group boundaries means that women’s life choices, such as marriage, are increasingly subject to public comment and criticism. Beyond the private, the growing importance of group boundaries makes it increasingly difficult for women to participate in typically female activities such as trading and selling in local markets. At the political level, the desire for ever smaller groups to be recognised works against the representation of women, who are seen as being much less capable than men of representing group interests. And within the public sector, too, the fallout from the crisis means that women here are also subject to increasing control and scrutiny
Seeking Accountability, Nurturing Empowerment: Lessons from the BBOG’s Movement in Nigeria
No full textBoko Haram’s brutal abduction of 276 secondary school girls from Chibok, Northeast Nigeria in April 2014 was the catalyst for the formation of the Bring Back Our Girls Movement (BBOG). The incident was just one among several violent and ruthless attacks executed by Boko Haram, an internationally prescribed terrorist group (see Table 1). In each instance of violence, the Nigerian government has been accused of remaining silent (or at times even denying the occurrences) and failing to take any decisive action. Yet in a context of
sustained violence and conflict in Northern Nigeria, the Nigerian women-led BBOG movement has not only maintained its focus on demanding government action for achieving the girls’ release, but has achieved much success including the release of around 160 of the girls, and the establishment of a national missing
person’s register. Alongside these successes, it has enabled the empowerment of its membership through capacity building and by providing a strong support system.
The BBOG movement can provide valuable lessons on advocacy for accountability on critical issues effecting the safety of women and youth-, and for empowering citizens in conflict and violence affected settings. This policy brief highlights the ways the movement has organised for citizen empowerment
and government accountability. It draws on findings from a study commissioned by the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) as part of the Action for Empowerment and Accountability research programme (A4EA), an international research programme led by the Institute of
Development Studies in the UK. This study investigated new forms of social and political action with a focus on BBOG movement.
Data was obtained through key informant interviews with BBOG leaders, members of the Chibok community, and with Chibok indigenes in Maiduguri and Abuja. Additional data was obtained from field observation at BBOG protest marches and sit-outs, the use of a structured online questionnaire and tracking of the movement’s online activities
Everyday mobility practices and the ethics of care: young women's reflections on social responsibility in the time of COVID-19 in three African cities
No full textThis paper draws principally from COVID-19 diaries written by young women whom we had previously trained as peer researchers in a mobility study of low-income neighbourhoods in Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis. Some live with parents or older extended family members, others have children in their care, but concerns around avoiding contagion have forced all peer researchers to reflect on their everyday socio-spatial mobility practices. This includes whether/how much they need to travel or can substitute virtual for physical travel; which transport mode to take and when; what precautions they must take on the move; what strategies of engagement are required to cope with externally imposed rules and contingencies – and the potential impact of their negotiations, decisions and experiences on the health of those dear to them at home. Reflections on these pandemic-induced responsibilities range from social distancing and mask wearing to issues around handling cash, modes of greeting and travel to funerals. The personal interpretations of responsibility that are reported in individual diaries point to the complexity of entanglements between everyday mobility practices on city streets and negotiated relations of care within the household (and other relational settings) that have emerged and deepened as the COVID story unfolds
Dangers in the Third Place: Walking, Public Transport and the Experiences of Young Girls in Cape Town and Abuja
No full textEngaging citizens from low-income communities in transport planning: experiences from peer research studies conducted in three African cities
No full textThis paper draws on experience from a series of transport-focused studies built round peer research with community members resident in low-income neighbourhoods at the periphery of three major cities: Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis. These were conducted firstly with young women aged 18–35 in all three cities over a four-year period (2019–2022, i.e. spanning the pandemic), followed by a recently completed pilot with young men in the same age group (but in this case restricted to Cape Town). The paper reflects firstly on the peer research methodology employed (including training procedures, ethical issues and context specific challenges/barriers) and the significant field outputs achieved by the groups concerned through their in-depth interviews, participant observation and mobility diaries. It then moves on to consider the engagement of the community peer researchers with city transport professionals and practitioners at our project stakeholder consultative group meetings and their potential for promoting the design of more inclusive, accessible and sustainable transport systems. While peer researchers' direct field evidence offers rare insights into the transport and mobility challenges that many marginalised residents of these low-income neighbourhoods experience in the everyday – perspectives that could be crucial to effective user engagement around transport issues in an Urban Living Lab - the actual patterns and potentialities of engagement within each city that might promote a more socially just travel environment are strongly shaped by a range of locally specific factors. These extend from resource and policy contexts set within distinctive local urban geographies, to the personalities and positionality of all actors involved
Dangers in the Third Place:Walking, Public Transport and the Experiences of Young Girls in Cape Town and Abuja
No full textThis chapter explores how girls between the ages of 10 and 17 in Cape Town and Abuja conceptualise dangers during their daily experiences of travelling, particularly when walking or taking public transport to school or an after-schoolclub. Within particular areas of these cities, girls fear various dangers when travelling to school, such as rape, gun violence, traffic accidents, human trafficking or theft, and sometimes are exposed to severe insecurities on those journeys
Dangers in the Third Place:Walking, Public Transport and the Experiences of Young Girls in Cape Town and Abuja
No full textThis chapter explores how girls between the ages of 10 and 17 in Cape Town and Abuja conceptualise dangers during their daily experiences of travelling, particularly when walking or taking public transport to school or an after-schoolclub. Within particular areas of these cities, girls fear various dangers when travelling to school, such as rape, gun violence, traffic accidents, human trafficking or theft, and sometimes are exposed to severe insecurities on those journeys
The lived experiences of women workers in Africa's transport sector: Reflections from Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis
No full textThis paper draws on ethnographic research conducted 2019–2022 in three quite diverse city regions - Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis - to understand women's lived experiences of work in the road transport sector. The strength of connection between male identity and motor-mobility in Africa is ubiquitous and has rarely been questioned by transport sector actors. Women are still largely absent from the story, constrained at least partly by hegemonic norms of femininity and an ‘affective atmosphere’ that deters female entry. However, there are occasional cases across Africa where women have dared to disrupt this masculinist enterprise, either as employees or entrepreneurs. This study explores and compares women transport workers' everyday experiences, drawing principally on in-depth interviews with those in customer-facing roles (taxi and bus drivers, bus conductors). Relevant public sector organisations and major transport employers were also consulted, while focus groups with community groups of men and women explored their attitudes to women employed as transport workers, and with school-girls investigated their career aspirations and views regarding employment in the sector. A final section looks to the future, post-COVID-19. Although new opportunities occasionally emerge for women, they need much more support, not only in terms of skills training, but also through flexible working opportunities, union recognition and action, microfinance and financial management training. This support is essential in order to expand the visibility of women transport workers and thus make the wider transport milieu less overwhelmingly male and more welcoming to women transport users
Young women’s travel safety and the journey to work: reflecting on lived experiences of precarious mobility in three African cities (and the potential for transformative action)
No full textThe relationship between women's everyday lived travel experiences as daily commuters and their employment history and potential has not been adequately researched and documented in African contexts. This multidisciplinary study, utilising an innovative action research methodology, compares experiences of young women (18-35y) resident in low-income neighbourhoods of three diverse African cities - Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis. It examines the challenges they face when undertaking travel to income-earning opportunities, the tactics necessary to enable travel with a modicum of safety and dignity, and the ongoing implications for women's employment trajectories and wider well-being. Two (often inter-related) themes occupy a central position in the discussion: mobility scheduling (as a response to domestic/care responsibilities and trip-chaining requirements) and experiences of harassment
