Youth Inclusion and Violence Prevention in Nairobi – a Research Agenda
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Methodology document, June 2020 YOUTH INCLUSION AND VIOLENCE PREVENTION IN NAIROBI A RESEARCH AGENDA Mutuma Ruteere Patrick Mutahi Youth Inclusion and Violence Prevention in Nairobi: A Research Agenda i Methodology document, June 2020 ii © Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies Methodology document, June 2020 Youth Inclusion and Violence Prevention in Nairobi A Research Agenda Youth Inclusion and Violence Prevention in Nairobi: A Research Agenda iii Methodology document, June 2020 Acknowledgment This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of IDRC or its Board of Governors. ISBN: 978-9966-1864-6-1 Contact Information Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies P.O Box 23748 – 00100, GPO Nairobi, Kenya Tel: +254 20 527 0577 Email: [email protected] Web: www.chrips.or.ke Copyright © Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies (CHRIPS) 2020. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of CHRIPS, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. iv © Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies Methodology document, June 2020 Contents Acknowledgment iv Introduction 1 Research problem and justification 3 The National Youth Service 4 Objectives 6 Conceptual and Theoretical Framework 7 Research Questions 7 Youth 8 Inclusion 8 Individual economic and social improvement 9 Growth in participation in community governance 10 Reduced risk of involvement by youth in crime and violence 10 Study Approach and Design 12 Case study approach and case Selection 12 Study Sites 13 List of References 15 Youth Inclusion and Violence Prevention in Nairobi: A Research Agenda v Methodology document, June 2020 vi © Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies Methodology document, June 2020 Introduction Globally as well as in the Eastern Africa region, violence and crime have been linked to youth joblessness, and perceived socio-economic exclusion from economic opportunities. The “economic link” to crime and violence is an old argument in scholarly studies that have attempted to connect economic deprivation, increased risk and youth vulnerability to crime, violence and disorder.1 More recently, the growing youth population in Africa has often been cited by some scholars as an exacerbating risk factor for political violence and rebellions. In this respect, Paul Collier’s work on “greed and grievance” in fueling conflicts is well known and has made the case that lack of job and economic opportunities for both young men and women predispose societies to violence.2 This is especially dire for young women, who face many barriers including marginalization in access to education and subsequently from formal employment.3 In the Eastern Africa region, it is in Kenya where policy makers have most often and explicitly linked violence to youth unemployment.4 The National Youth Policy Sessional Paper No. 3, provides guidelines on how to address youth unemployment in order to prevent a descent into crime and violence. The Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation (KNDR) agreements that ended the 2007 post-elections violence, also acknowledged youth unemployment as one of the key factors behind the violence and underlined the urgency and importance of tackling it for Kenya’s social and political stability. Another, 2009,initiative, the Kenya Youth Empowerment Programme (KYEP) with its flagship programme Kazi kwa vijana (jobs for the youth) was aimed at providing low skills jobs for the youth in both rural and urban areas. Increasing and unplanned urbanization coupled with the lack of quality jobs has also been flagged as the harbinger of urban insecurity with young people living in unplanned settlements and urban slums increasingly resorting to illicit work.5 A 2010 World Bank study on urban violence concluded that there was the ‘strong perception in all of the communities studied that unemployment, especially of youth, is driving violence.’6 Due to lack of livelihood opportunities, young men and women in slum areas may also engage in illicit economic activities and young women are recruited into prostitution and or transactional sex7 . Studies on terrorism have also suggested that economic deprivation and lack of livelihood opportunities provide the context of vulnerability to recruitment of youths into extremist movements.8 Drawing from these assumptions therefore, the view that investment in empowerment projects that provide jobs, and incomes to young men and women is a way of ensuring their economic and political inclusion and ultimately, reducing their risk and actual involvement in 1 A dated study in this respect is, Gary Becker “Crime and punishment: an economic approach”, Journal of Political Economy, (1968). 2 Paul Collier, “Doing Well out of War: an economic perspective”, in Berdal, Mats and David Malone (eds), Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars, (London and Boulder, CO: IDRC/Lynne Rienner 2000). 3 Maloiy, L. (2018). African Women and Economic Development: A Tale of Contradictions?. In Handbook of Research on Sustainable Development and Governance Strategies for Economic Growth in Africa (pp. 443-454). IGI Global. 4 A recent report commissioned by UNESCO on violence prevention in the Great Lakes Region makes this point. Allan Korongo, “Regional Report on Youth Policies and Violence Prevention in the Great Lakes Region”, UNESCO at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002170/217098e.pdf 5 David Kilcullen, ‘The City as a System: Future Conflict and Urban Resilience’, The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2012. 6 World Bank (2010) Understanding and Supporting Community Responses to Urban Violence, Washington, DC: World Bank. xv 7 Oduro, G. Y., Swartz, S., & Arnot, M. (2012). Gender-based violence: Young women’s experiences in the slums and streets of three sub-Saharan African cities. School Field, 10(3), 275-294. 8 For a nuanced and critical examination of this assumed link, see, Corinne Graff “Poverty, Development, and Violent Extremism in Weak States” in Confronting Poverty: Weak States and U.S. National Security. Susan E. Rice, Corrine Graff and Carlos Pascual (eds), (Brookings Institution Press, 2010). Youth Inclusion and Violence Prevention in Nairobi: A Research Agenda 1 Methodology document, June 2020 violence. While these relationships and possible impact intuitively make sense, they remain largely untested through empirical data and research. This research addresses the theoretical and policy gap on the nexus between economic opportunities, youth inclusion and violence prevention through an in-depth and critical research study of the National Youth Service (NYS) Community Cohorts Programme, which aimed at reaching thousands of youth in poor urban areas by offering them jobs to improve their neighborhoods and provide them with a new sense of purpose in their life. Although not explicitly stated, there was always a policy inference that economic opportunities and jobs would potentially steer the youth away from vulnerability to crime and violence. The NYS was established in 1964 through an Act of parliament to train young people in various paramilitary and artistic skills.9 Until the late 1980’s those admitted to Kenyan universities were required to attend a mandatory pre-university training with the service. While it was not very active in the 90s and part of 2000s, this changed after Uhuru Kenyatta was elected president in 2013 and identified the NYS as a key mechanism for addressing youth unemployment and lack of livelihood opportunities. Consequently, the NYS was rebranded and launched in September 2014, with a new strategic plan and focus, which allowed for recruitment of community cohorts. By the end of the period in October 2017, the programme had engaged 236,250 community youth in 253 constituencies across all the 47 counties.10 Unfortunately, the NYS project in 2018 ran into problems of corruption leading to delays in its implementation and the prosecution of several senior officials. However, it remains the most ambitious jobs and economic opportunities project in Kenya that particularly targeted young people in poor urban and rural communities. The Kenya government has continued to allocate resources to the NYS project and has promised to reform it to deliver better results. Nevertheless, so far, no studies have been undertaken on the extent to which the project effectively included the youth as anticipated and the nature and terms of that inclusion; the extent to which the project reached the “at risk and vulnerable” youths.11 Given its scale and the resource commitment from the Kenya government, the NYS project will continue to be a policy reference point for other youth-focused initiatives and thus provides a useful case for the study of the economic opportunities-violence nexus. Academically, the study contributes to the broader scholarly discussions on youth (men and women) empowerment and inclusion in Africa and the extent to which economic incentives and motivations contribute to prevention and reduction of violence. It will also be a timely contribution to the growing literature on youth vulnerability and (in)security in Africa and beyond. 9 “How Kenya's National Youth Service has evolved through the years to be what it is” https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000167212/how-kenya- s-national-youth-service-has-evolved-through-the-years-to-be-what-it-is 10 “President directs NYS to commercialise, play key role in industrialization,” https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/2018/02/president-directs-nys- commercialise-play-key-role-industrialisation/ February 16, 2018. 11 A recent report by YEDF notes that little is known about this project, just like the previous government investments in addressing youth vulnerability and violence. Youth Enterprises Development Fund, Report Meeting on “Multi-Agency Youth Empowerment Interventions in the Informal Settlements” 22nd August 2017.