Youth Exclusion, Violence, Conflict and Fragile States

This 50-page report examines existing evidence and analysis on the links between youth exclusion, violence, conflict, and fragile states. Prepared by Social Development Direct, it highlights factors which can contribute to youth exclusion and increase the likelihood of youth engagement in violence, and makes recommendations for the Department for International Development (DFID)'s work on youth exclusion and violence. The report complements work being conducted to develop a Youth Participation Guide for DFID staff, and is intended to inform a DFID Policy Briefing and a practical Guidance Note on addressing youth exclusion and unemployment.

The study involved a desk-based literature review and consultations with a small number of key informants from DFID, other donors, academia, and youth groups. It focuses mainly on people aged 15-24, but conceptualises "youth" as a transitional stage in life rather than as a rigid construct based on age. It recognises the diversity of youth by gender, class, and ethnicity, and focuses on the multiple dimensions of exclusion that systematically disadvantage youth. It also takes a holistic approach to violence - recognising that in practice different forms of violence (e.g. political, criminal, interpersonal, extremism) may overlap and that some of the same structural and proximate factors may drive youth engagement in different forms of violence.

The authors begin by stressing that, while a correlation between a high relative youth population and higher risk of violence supports a causal claim, it does not prove causality and reveals little about the processes at work and why certain young people engage in violence. Structural models which forecast these risks combined with early-warning systems that monitor known trigger factors can, thus, help identify countries with higher risks of violence. However, statistical relationships have their limitations, and it is also important that youth are not generally viewed as a security "threat".

A key factor driving youth involvement in violence is the structural exclusion and lack of opportunities faced by many young people. According to the authors, these factors block the transition to adulthood and can lead to frustration, disillusionment and, in some cases, participation in violence. Key findings on youth exclusion and violence include the following:

• Key structural factors underlying youth exclusion are: unemployment and lack of opportunities; unequal and inappropriate education; poor governance and weak political participation ("Where youth feel existing power structures marginalise them, violence can provide an opportunity to have a voice, lead and make an impact..."); gender inequalities and socialisation; and a legacy of past violence.
• However, structural factors alone are insufficient to explain youth violence. Proximate factors - e.g. recruitment, coercion, and indoctrination; identity politics and ideology; leadership and organisational dynamics; and trigger events - are also important.
• In any specific context, large numbers of youth often suffer the same conditions of exclusion, but do not get involved in violence. Factors that might foster resilience are migration opportunities and building "strong communities" and fostering young people's involvement in associations, which can build their social capital and sense of belonging and empowerment and act as an important deterrent to engagement in violence.

The analysis finds that a critical first step in addressing the links between youth exclusion and violence is for an organisation to recognise the importance of youth as both partners in and beneficiaries of development and conflict prevention and to reflect this via a high-level policy statement. Key programming-related recommendations:

• Base programmes on a context-specific analysis of the youth population and risk factors.
• Involve youth in programme design, implementation, and evaluation.
• Do not assume that general development programmes automatically benefit youth.
• Address both structural and proximate factors leading to youth exclusion and violence.
• Work on violence prevention at both the local/community and the national level.
• Consider multi- or cross-sectoral programming.
• Develop creative programming in unaddressed areas - e.g. identity, values/beliefs.
• Focus on both non-combatant and combatant youth.
• Address the under-representation of girls and young women in policy and programmes.
• Disaggregate data by age and gender to provide evidence of impact.
• Ensure that risk assessment and management are key components of programming.
• Pursue more systematic evaluation so that information on impact can be increased.

Key policy-level recommendations include:

• Be wary of employing a security framework towards youth: balance efforts to prevent the engagement of young people in violence with a focus on their positive role.
• Ensure that policies and programmes work towards the inclusion of youth, rather than containment or appeasement.
• Consider the linkages between different forms of violence (violent conflict, criminal violence, political violence, etc).
• Prioritise countries with a large relative youth population and countries with high youth involvement in violence.
• Look at the opportunities for addressing youth needs in urban rather than rural contexts.
• Ensure that DFID's Youth Participation Guide includes a thorough directory of resources on youth and violence prevention - e.g. youth assessments, literature, and case studies.
• Develop a "youth and violence prevention" guidance note alongside DFID's Youth Participation Guide.
• Commission a fuller review of different interventions to address youth exclusion and youth involvement in violence, what has worked and what has not, and best practice for working with youth via different aid instruments.

Key areas for follow-up work and further research include:

• Country-level, context-specific assessments of the situation of youth and particular risk factors;
• The linkages between different forms of violence (e.g. political, criminal, ethnic), whether there are any differences in the processes by which young people get involved, and whether they move from one group to the other;
• Proximate factors mobilising individual and groups of youth into violence - e.g. the role of identity politics, ideas, values, and beliefs - and how these might be addressed;
• The social characteristics of societies and communities that avoid major outbreaks of violence;
• Individual motivations for engagement in violence, including specific studies of the motivations, role, experiences, and consequences of young women's involvement in violence;
• The factors that prevent some excluded young people from getting involved in violence. How do they resist? What nonviolent alternatives do they find?
• How can resilience to violence be built at a community level and what community processes and mechanisms protect young people from becoming involved in violent groups; and
• The relationship between migration opportunities, including rural-urban migration, and youth violence.