This is a meta-synthesis of localized and universal lessons learned from youth-led research on youth economic opportunities in Kenya, Guatemala and the DRC. As part of Youth Excel Global Program, partners in these three locations have carried out Issue Based Collaborative Networks (ICONs) composed by different youth-led and youth serving organizations that have conducted local research under the theme of youth economic opportunities. You can learn more about the ICONs here.
This report is a meta-synthesis of the Implementation Research (IR) performed by four different ICON sites in Guatemala, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This meta-learning activity is centered around the themes of inclusion and exclusion in youth economic opportunities, themes identified by Youth Excel as areas of interest. This report highlights commonalities and differences across ICON groups as well as identifies contextualized learnings that are specific to certain ICON groups. The meta-learning activity focuses on technical learnings as well as process learnings within and across ICON groups.
It is important to make it clear that the content of this report is completely intersectional. We are using intersectionality here as described by Crenshaw (1989) in “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex” where she argues how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics “intersect” with one another and overlap and influence how society sees an individual and reacts to them. We also present the findings in this report using a positive youth development framework, which acknowledges that youth who hold certain identities are not at a deficit, but that societal institutions and structures have different impacts on different youth.
The first section highlights findings which are split into five main sections: structural barriers, identity barriers, opportunities for support and collaboration, entrepreneurship, and IR process learning. Findings are heavily focused on the intersectional barriers to economic inclusion rather than proposed solutions. Findings are followed by proposed next steps.
