Youth employment and Peacebuilding

 Youth employment programmes are frequently used as a strategic tool to promote peacebuilding in developing countries particularly in many post-conflict and fragile environments. However, despite the attractiveness and popularity of these programmes, evidence of impact is limited. These disappointing efforts cannot be attributed only to implementation challenges and contextual factors. Youth employment programmes have for decades been based on the assumptions of a direct relationship between employment and security. It is more and more obvious that a limited focus on employment situation is reductive, and that there are several factors at play. For instance, the quality of employment may be a more significant variable weighed against the employed/unemployed dichotomy. This article explores this assumption regarding Ghana, with the goal of ascertaining whether a stronger stress on decent work in youth employment programmes can be fairly presumed to have more impactful outcomes than it has been the case so far.

 Suggested Research Questions

• RQ1: Can a focus on decent work to improve the impact of youth employment programmes on peacebuilding?
• RQ2: How does the quality of work influence the employment/peacebuilding relationship?

Preliminary Observations

• The problem for many young people in Ghana (developing economies) is predominantly one of ‘low-wage jobs’ rather than idleness. Quality of work is therefore a critical variable to explain the link between employment and peacebuilding.
• While violent behaviour increases in places that are relatively poor, this does not explain a person’s decision to take part or not take part in hostility. Macro-level factors have narrow analytical and predictive power at the individual level. This presents a fundamental challenge for programmes that are focused on selecting beneficiaries based on individual qualities such as risk and vulnerability.
• There is an obvious difference between employment impact and peacebuilding impact. The two concepts are neither the same, nor are they necessarily mutually reinforcing. Employment for Peacebuilding programmes are a qualitatively different programme and need to navigate exchanges between employment and peacebuilding impact.
• It is crucial to differentiate between impact on programme participants and impact for society. Even if a social intervention is successful in improving the situation of its participants, this may not automatically translate into benefits for the whole of society, and non-participants may even suffer. The logical gap between ‘employment for some’ and ‘peace for all’ is perhaps the greatest puzzle facing employment for peacebuilding agendas.