Today’s Nigerien youth is perceived as being worse off than their parents in terms of labor stability and poverty dynamics. Despite the fact that the majority of young people work, these are often informal or precarious employment opportunities. As a consequence, young workers reshape their adaptive strategies to escape poverty across factors such as migration spells, acquired education, possibilities of training and apprenticeships, as well as through the development of social networks, all which are further combined with changes and negotiations in gender and generational norms.

This project identifies the factors that limit and those that enhance young adults labor inclusion in the regions of Tahoua and Zinder in Niger, by focusing on gender-streamlined poverty trajectories of livelihoods, and the effect of different forms of training, education and migration experienced. The researchers explore what are the barriers to youth inclusion in these regions, inspecting how aspects like income insecurity and gender norms in and out of the labor market influence young adults engaging in various employment activities.

The main article thoroughly studies some dynamic factors that affect the Nigerien youth inclusion in labor markets, via a gendered analysis of poverty dynamics. It inspects areas like the quality of education, typologies of livelihoods, and changes experienced by the youth in relation to gender and generational norms. Specifically, by conducting separate analyses across gender, generations and area of residence, the project aims to answer the following questions:

• How intersecting macro, meso and micro vulnerabilities affect the quality of youth inclusion in labor markets and their adaptive ability and their capacity to remain out of poverty over time.
• How do different forms of local training (formal school, Quranic education, NGO-based and other training) affect youth inclusion?
• How does migration affect the integration of young people into the world of work in ways that are conducive to (sustained) poverty escapes?

The project adopts a mixed methods research design, combining a quantitative analysis with qualitative methodologies from the Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local (LASDEL) and from the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN) at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). The combination of the two qualitative approaches is explained in detail in a methodological paper. The fieldworks took place in peri-urban and rural Zinder and Tahoua regions as well as Niamey in 2020. Two rounds of field surveys involved focus group discussions, life history interviews and Key Informant interviews (KIs), which were used to analyze the evolution of youth inclusion in these regions of Niger. Moreover, a final round of KIs was completed between December 2020 and January 2021 to deepen the understanding of the project main results. The quantitative method used relies on regression analysis based on a nationally representative longitudinal survey in rural and urban areas of Niger that took place in 2011 and 2014.

Two restitution events took place on:

• June 14, 2021 in English.The event was facilitated by the ODI-CPAN team with presentations by Andrew Shepherd, Lucia Da Corta, Vidya Diwakar and Cecilia Poggi.
• June 21, 2021 in French-Hausa. The event was facilitated by the LASDEL research team with presentations by Aïssa Diarra (Socio-anthropologist LASDEL) and Tahirou Ali Bako (researcher LASDEL).

Read our research publications:

• Youth inclusion in labor markets in Niger: gender dynamics and livelihoods
• Youth of Niger: migration as a double-edged sword for labor inclusion
• Youth of Niger: schooling and training as useful tools for inclusion
• Youth of Niger: entrepreneurship between struggles and norms renegotiation

• Aïssa Diarra, Socio-anthropologist and Project Co-coordinator, LASDEL Niger
• Andrew Shepherd, CPAN Director and Project Co-coordinator, ODI
• Cecilia Poggi, Research Officer, AFD