Africa: Negotiating child and youth livelihoods in Africa’s urban spaces

CODESRIA Child and Youth Studies Institute

Theme: Negotiating Child and Youth Livelihoods in Africa’s Urban Spaces

Date: 7th September to 2nd October, 2009

Venue: Dakar, Senegal
Call for applications for the 2009 Session

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce its 2009 Child and Youth Studies Institute and invites interested scholars to send applications for consideration for selection as laureates’ resource person and director in the session scheduled for September 2009. The Institute is an offshoot of the Child and Youth Studies programme and is designed to strengthen analytic capacity on all questions affecting children and youth in Africa and elsewhere in the world. The impetus for the introduction of the Institute was strengthened by the critique emanating from African researchers of the content and context of the developmental crises facing the continent. In addition, the link between these problems and what is designed as an annual interdisciplinary forum where participants can reflect together on a specific aspect of the conditions of children and the youth in Africa provided further support for this kind of Institute. It is hoped that this Institute will contribute to the advancement of the frontiers of knowledge and policy.

Each session of the Institute is held over a period of four weeks under the leadership of a designated director.

Objectives

The main objectives of the Child and Youth Institute are to:

1. encourage the sharing of experiences among researchers, activists and policy makers from different disciplines, methodological and conceptual orientations and geographical/linguistic zones over an extended period of time;

2. promote and enhance a culture of democratic values that allows to effectively identify and tackle Children and Youth issues confronting the African continent; and

3. foster the participation of scholars in discussions and debates about the processes of child and youth development taking place in Africa.

Organisation

The activities of all CODESRIA Institutes centre on presentations made by resident researchers, visiting resource persons and the participants whose applications for admission as laureates are successful. The sessions are led by a scientific director. With the help of invited resource persons he/she will ensure that the laureates are exposed to a wide range of research and policy issues. Open discussions drawing on books and articles relevant to the theme of a particular institute or a specific topic within the theme are also encouraged. Each selected participant is required to prepare a research paper to be presented during the course. Laureates are expected to produce a revised version of their research papers for consideration for publication by CODESRIA. For each Institute, CODESRIA Documentation and Information Centre (CODICE) prepares a comprehensive bibliography on the theme. Access to a number of documentation centers in and around Dakar is also facilitated.

The 2009 Session: Negotiating Child and Youth Livehoods in Africa’s Urban Spaces

African urban spaces are contested spaces in terms of character. The classical sociological concepts of “the rural” and “the urban” do not fit the current situation in most African cities. From a conventional point of view, the urban space in Africa is neither completely urban nor completely rural. Does this fact make it necessary to adapt the concepts to the African setting or to develop a genuine concept of African Urbanity? Is classification of the urban environment enough for understanding livelihood strategies of children and young people?

The situation in urban Africa is an outcome of high rates of urbanization (mainly due to internal migration) not being paralleled by economic growth nor the provision of adequate infrastructure for the new comers. The urbanization of poverty and the impacts of structural adjustment programmes have lead to a situation in which for many of Africa’s poor, urban spaces provide opportunities and hopes as well as fears and economic hardship in livelihood provision. The absorption capacity of the formal labour market is by no means sufficient to provide income opportunities for the majority of Africa’s urban poor. Informality is a main characteristic of the continent’s urban environment.

Because of the youthful demographic make-up of the African continent, more and more children and young people are caught up in this environment in search of viable livelihoods. Children represent the future of each society, but in urban Africa the youth is especially vulnerable and prone to livelihood insecurity and risks.

What are the chances and challenges? Does the urban environment create sufficient livelihood opportunities for children and young people? Or does the need to cope with their vulnerability push the children and young people to the margins of urban society - and at what future costs?

The HIV and AIDS pandemic, with its burden of morbidity and mortality, has clearly worsened the situation of Africa’s urban children and youth. Much research explains why children and young teenagers may end up in the role of providing livelihood. A large number of orphans who end up in the streets in search of livelihoods are without effective adult support. Increasing poverty and unemployment among adult people leads to households needing supplementary incomes, much of which has to be provided by children and young people.

In order to cope with their situation of livelihood vulnerability, children and young people are engaging in activities ranging from begging, petty trading, selling of cooked foods, selling flavoured water, theft, prostitution, and sometimes serious criminal activities. Some of these activities are with the support of the family, others are clandestine. Much research has also identified and explained the various work activities that children and young people engage in, in various African settings.

What is lacking, however, is an exploration and examination of urban Africa itself as the spatial and social environment for a large percentage of the continent’s most vulnerable groups: the children and the youth. The 2009 session of the Child and Youth Institute will focus on this and the way this environment facilitates or inhibits children and young people’s sustainable livelihood security. Among some of the questions that the Institute might address are the following:-

1 What are the unique social, economic and cultural characteristics of various African urban spaces? We need to consider different kinds of home, different kinds of formal and informal work-place, and different kinds of open environment. How do they compare with parallel institutions outside Africa?

2 What kinds of child and youth livelihood strategies are likely to be initiated and facilitated by these various kinds of urban spaces? How do urban facilities help in the short and long term?

3 What is it about African urban spaces that make children and youth livelihoods possible or vulnerable? - (exploration of social and economic networks)

4 Are children a “means for coping” for the urban households or do they cope themselves? What are the variables that hinder or help coping? How do concepts of childhood in relation to the family relate to access to, and utilization of, various urban spaces?

5 In what ways do African children and young persons use the various urban spaces? (Case studies)

6 Who gains from the different natures of the African urban spaces? In what ways do they gain, materially and socially? Who pays the price of these gains?

7 What are the roles and responsibilities of governments? What government responses contribute to meeting children and youth livelihoods needs and to what extent do government actions, at both local and national levels, make their situation worse?

8 What are the future prospects for child and youth livelihoods in Africa’s urban spaces?

9 Case studies - children and youth livelihood strategies linked to the “ruralization/villagisation” of the urban or the “urbanization” of the rural. (case studies)

10 Alternatives to the negatives - African urban spaces as places of opportunity for alleviating vulnerability (case studies)

The Director

For every session of its various institutes, CODESRIA appoints an external scholar with a proven track-record of quality work to provide intellectual leadership. Directors are senior scholars known for their expertise on the topic of the Institute and originality of their thinking on it. They are recruited on the basis of a proposal which they submit and which contains a detailed course outline covering methodological issues and approaches ; key concepts integral to an understanding of the object of a particular Institute and the specific theme that will be focused upon; a thorough review of the state of the literature designed to expose laureates to different theoretical and empirical currents; a presentation on various subthemes, case studies and comparative examples relevant to the theme of the particular Institute they are applying to lead; and possible policy questions that are worth keeping in mind during the entire research process. Candidates for the position of Director should also note that if their application is successful, they will be asked to:

- identify resource persons to help lead discussions and debates;

- participate in the selection of laureates;

- design the course for the session, including the specific sub-themes

- deliver a set of lectures and provide a critique of the papers presented by the resource persons or laureates;

- Submit a written scientific report on the session.

The Director is also expected to (co)-edit the revised versions of the papers presented by the resource persons with a view of submitting them for publication in one of CODESRIA’s collections. The Director also assists CODESRIA in assessing the papers presented by laureates for publication by the Council.

Resource Persons

Lectures to be delivered at the Institute are intended to offer laureates an opportunity to advance their reflections on the theme of the programme and on their research topics. Resource persons are therefore senior scholars in their mid careers who have published extensively on the topic, and who have a significant contribution to make to the debates on it. They will be expected to produce lecture materials which serve as link pieces that stimulate laureates to engage in discussion and debate around the lectures and the general body of literature available on the theme.

Once selected, resource person must:

- submit a copy of their lectures for reproduction and distribution to participants not later than on week before the lecture begins;

- deliver their lectures, participate in debates and comment on the research proposals of laureates;

- Review and submit the revised version of their research papers for consideration for publication by CODESRIA not later than two months following their presentations.

Laureates

Applicants should be African researchers who have completed their university and /or professional training, with proven capacity to carry out research on the theme of the Institute. Intellectuals active in the policy process and/or social movements /civic organizations are also encouraged to apply. The number of places offered by CODESRIA at each session of its institutes is limited to fifteen (15) fellowships. Non-African scholars who are able to raise funds for their participation may also apply for a limited number of places.

Applications

Applicants for the position of Director should submit the following:

1. an application letter

2. a proposal, not more than 15 pages in length indicating the course outline and showing in what ways the course would be original and responsive to the needs of the prospective laureates, specifically focusing on the issues to be covered from the point of view of concepts and methodology , a critical review of the literature and the range of issues arising from the theme of the Institute;

3. a detailed and up to date curriculum vitae

4. Three writing samples.

Applications for the position of Resource Persons should include:

1. an application letter;

2. two writing samples;

3. a curriculum vitae;

4. a proposal of not more that five (5) pages in length, out lining the issues to be covered in their proposed lecture.

Applications for Laureates should include;

1. an application letter;

2. a letter indicating institutions or organizational affiliation;

3. a curriculum vitae;

4. a research proposal (two copies and not more than 10 pages) including a descriptive analysis of the work the applicant intends to undertake, an outline of the theoretical interest of the topic chosen by the applicant, the relationship of the topic to the problematic and concerns of the theme of the 2009 Institute and

5. two reference letters from scholars and/or researchers known for their competence and expertise in the candidate’s research area (geographic and disciplinary), including their names, addresses and telephone, email and fax numbers.

An independent committee composed of outstanding African social science researchers will select the candidates to be admitted to the Institute.

The deadline for the submission of applications is set for 31st July, 2009. The Institute will be held in Dakar, Senegal from the 7th September to 2nd October, 2009.

All applications or requests for further information should be addressed to:

CODESRIA Child and Youth Institute
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop x Canal IV
BP 3304, CP 18524,
Dakar, Senegal.
Tel: (221) 33 825 98 21/22/23
Fax : (221) 33 824 12 89.
Email: [email][email protected]
Website: http://www.codesria.org