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1. Tunisian Youth and Political Life: From Stagnation to Revival?

Author:
Zied Boussen and Mohammed Islam Mbarki
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Tunisian youth are no different from their peers across the world when it comes to their indifference to public life. This apathy towards politics is not new; it goes back before 14 January Revolution. A 2008 national survey of youth showed that around 83% of Tunisian youth were not concerned with politics and 64% were not concerned with elections or joining civil society associations. Nonetheless, the Tunisian youth surprised observers and played an essential role in the revolution that led to the fall of Ben Ali. Immediately after, however, they returned to their position of indifference. The political tensions and episodes of instability that accompanied the democratic transition disappointed the youth greatly and led to apathy towards politics in all its forms. Successive elections were the most glaring example of this attitude: the youth abandoned the ballots and stopped taking initiatives of political work, either as candidates or as voters. The rise of Kais Saied as a presidential candidate seemed to have reignited the Tunisian youth’s interest in politics. They walked with him through all the stages of his elections. They led his most unusual campaign at the smallest cost; they confronted media attacks against him and provided him with alternative and new media platforms that improved his image. This support brought the youth and Kais Saied closer together. Saied also showed great understanding of the youth’s economic and social demands and gave them priority. He shared their anger at the political establishment, so they decided to stand by him to punish the establishment that they see as the source of their successive disappointments. The results of the presidential elections, in which one candidate won the bulk of the votes of the youth participating in the elections, generated many questions about the reasons for the youth’s support of Kais Saied, and the hopes that they hanged on him. What can we infer from this experience that can benefit the youth political participation generally? How does this experience help us understand the actual needs that push young people to participate in public life?
Topic:
Political Activism, Elections, Youth, and Participation
Political Geography:
Africa and Tunisia

2. Trash Sorters: Entrepreneurs in Africa

Author:
Carl Manlan
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:
School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:
Africa is on the cusp of a community-led socioeconomic transformation, but this cannot happen without fully integrating the informal economic dynamos of young trash sorters.
Topic:
Economics, Youth, and Social Services
Political Geography:
Africa

3. Opportunities and Pitfalls in Practical Translation of Youth Inclusivity for Sustainable Peacebuilding in Africa

Author:
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA)
Abstract:
The share of Africa’s youth in the world is expected to increase to a staggering 42 percent by 2030 and is projected to continue to grow throughout the remainder of the 21st century, more than doubling from current levels by 2055. Data on direct conflict casualties suggests that more than 90 percent of all deaths occur among young adult males. Today, some 50 percent of the 1.4 billion people living in countries impacted by crises and fragility are under the age of 20. The Security Council has recognized that an estimated 408 million youth (ages 15-29) reside in settings affected by armed conflict or organized violence whereby 1 out of 4 youth globally are affected by armed conflict. These figures are gut-wrenching but indispensable for our understanding of peacebuilding in today’s age. With a global population of over 1.8 billion, young people— though disproportionally affected by armed conflict and organized violence—could potentially employ the unique capacity and ability to take on our planet’s most deep routed conflicts. Their inclusion and leadership are therefore imperative to the successful pursuit of peacebuilding.
Topic:
Population, Peacekeeping, Youth, Peace, and Casualties
Political Geography:
Africa

4. Tackling terrorists’ exploitation of youth

Author:
Jessica Trisko Darden
Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Young people serve as a vital source of support for terrorist groups. Extensive youth participation creates an intergenerational terrorism problem and lays the foundation for future conflicts. Youth end up in terrorist groups through forced and voluntary recruitment. They perform a range of roles that vary according to age and gender, with girls and young women often being subject to gendered social roles and sexual and domestic violence. To effectively counter terrorists’ exploitation of youth abroad, governments should adopt a data-based approach to improve the targeting of terrorism prevention programs, move beyond a traditional focus on young men, address the potential for radicalization within the family, and emphasize attitudinal and behavioral change among those most vulnerable to recruitment.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Terrorism, Radicalization, Islamic State, Youth, and Boko Haram
Political Geography:
Africa and Middle East

5. Twin peaks: the seasonality of acute malnutrition, conflict, and environmental factors

Author:
Helen Young, Anastasia Marshak, and Aishwarya Venkat
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
Abstract:
This report highlights major new findings on the seasonal patterns of child malnutrition and their links to climate variability, conflict, and livelihood systems in Chad, Sudan, and South Sudan. Contrary to long-held assumptions about acute malnutrition escalating in the lean season, our data show that there are two peaks of acute malnutrition. The first and larger peak occurs at the end of the dry season, followed later by a second, smaller peak after the lean season. Our analysis demonstrates a significant relationship between acute malnutrition, conflict trends, and environmental factors. The findings underscore the importance of environmental variability and the persistence of climate, conflict, and other shocks in relation to livelihood resilience and transformation over time. The findings raise specific considerations for data collection, future research, programming, and policy, which are detailed in the report and briefing paper.
Topic:
Food, Children, Food Security, Youth, and Conflict
Political Geography:
Africa, Sudan, Chad, and South Sudan

6. Examining Alternative Livelihoods for Improved Resilience and Transformation in Afar

Author:
Daniel Temesga, Amdissa Teshome, and Berhanu Admassu
Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
Abstract:
Traditional pastoral livelihoods have continued sustainably for generations using flexible adaptive responses to the climatic variability in Ethiopia’s Afar region. Recently, however, multifaceted driving forces such as demographic and policy changes, more extreme climate events, market changes have affected the capacity of the pastoral system to adapt. The study established that the traditional pastoral system has evolved into three major livelihood pathways, depending on the wealth status of the household: (1) pastoralism with commercialization of livestock; (2) livestock keeping along with income diversification; and (3) non-livestock alternative livelihoods. The report reviews the different types of alternative livelihoods in the region and makes recommendations for interventions.
Topic:
Climate Change, Gender Issues, Children, and Youth
Political Geography:
Africa and Ethiopia

7. ‘She told me that life here is so easy’: Urban migration of Acholi youth, Uganda

Author:
Elizabeth Stites, Teddy Atim, and Ayee Flora Tracy
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
Abstract:
This working paper presents findings on the migration of youth (aged 15–35) from Acholi, Uganda to the urban areas of Gulu and Pabbo in northern Uganda, and to the Acholi Quarter neighborhood in Kampala. Key findings include: Acholi youth migrate into urban areas for a diverse range of reasons; top among these are the lack of economic opportunities in rural areas, inadequate land access, and family disputes. Female migrants in particular also cited being pushed off land and physical and sexual abuse as reasons for migrating, in addition to economic reasons. Many migrants maintain strong economic, livelihood, social, and emotional ties to their rural places of origin, with split-household models being extremely common. Those who did not maintain such ties—mostly women— were among the most vulnerable. The findings of this report have important implications for national and international programming and interventions, especially given the expanding role urbanization plays in Uganda and across the developing world. The provision of urban services, especially education, must meet the needs of the continuing influx of migrants, many of whom prioritize education. Decision making about migration involves not only concerns for the migrant, but also their family, whether or not family members also move.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Immigration, Children, Youth, and Urban
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

8. Antinomies of Globalization in Contemporary African Migration: The nexus of Gender, Youth, Health, Remittances, Social Media, and Higher Education

Author:
Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration
Abstract:
Contemporary African migration continues unabated. It increasingly attracts media, state, expert, popular, and scholarly attention. The focus of most of the attention tends to respond to media reports of atrocities, tragedies, conundrums, xenophobic pronouncements and policy responses by powerful international actors, including decision makers in the most popular destinations of migrants. Today, the goings on in Europe, the United States of America (US), the countries of the European Union, the Gulf states, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Niger, and South Africa attract the most attention. Due to the catastrophic casualties and calamities experienced by migrants, the routes favored by migrants such as those through the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea, are also the subject of such focus. Youth migration and the health of African migrants are a big part of the story. Gender and migration is receiving more scholarly interest but not to the same extent as other aspects of migration.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Health, Migration, Social Media, and Youth
Political Geography:
Africa

9. July 2019 Issue

Author:
Matt Bryden, Premdeep Bahra, Paul Cruickshank, Graham Macklin, Joana Cook, Gina Vale, and Robin Simcox
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
CTC Sentinel
Institution:
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Abstract:
In our cover article, Matt Bryden and Premdeep Bahra trace the evolution of the jihadi terrorist threat in East Africa over the last three decades. They argue that al-Shabaab’s January 2019 attack on the Dusit D2 luxury hotel compound in Nairobi, Kenya, “brought together three strands of al-Shabaab’s organizational DNA: its Somali provenance, its ideological affiliation with al-Qa`ida, and its growing cohort of trained, experienced East African fighters. The successful combination of these traits in a single operation suggests that al-Shabaab’s longstanding ambition to transcend its Somali origins and become a truly regional organization is becoming a reality, representing a new and dangerous phase in the group’s evolution and the threat that it poses to the region.” Our interview is with Catherine De Bolle, the Executive Director of Europol, who previously served as Commissioner General of the Belgian Federal Police between 2012 and 2018. Graham Macklin outlines what is now known about the Christchurch terrorist attacks. He writes: “In the space of 36 minutes on March 15, 2019, it is alleged that Brenton Tarrant, an Australian far-right extremist, fatally shot 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch in the deadliest terrorist attack in New Zealand’s history. What was unique about Tarrant’s attack—at least insofar as extreme-right terrorism is concerned—is that he livestreamed his atrocity on Facebook and in doing so, highlighted the Achilles heel of such platforms when faced with the viral dissemination of extremely violent content.” Joana Cook and Gina Vale provide an updated assessment of the numbers of foreign men, women, and minors who traveled to or were born in the Islamic State, examine the proportion that have returned ‘home,’ and outline the continuing challenges foreign women and minors affiliated with the Islamic State pose to the international community. Robin Simcox assesses the terrorist threat from “frustrated travelers” in Europe by examining the 25 plots (eight of which resulted in attacks) by such individuals since January 2014.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Terrorism, History, Counter-terrorism, Women, Internet, Islamic State, Youth, and Jihad
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Middle East, New Zealand, and East Africa

10. Reforming Kenya’s Security Sector: Policing Culture and Youth

Author:
Agatha Ndonga
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Abstract:
Between April 15 and May 3, 2019, ICTJ held a number of consultations with Kenyan youth from several informal settlements in Nairobi and Mombasa to reflect on their understanding of security sector reforms and their connection to the ongoing national dialogue process, particularly as it relates to inclusion. This briefing paper presents the key issues of concern raised by these young people and based on them offers recommendations for reforming the policing culture in Kenya.
Topic:
Security, National Security, Youth Culture, Culture, Reform, and Youth
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa