Young people’s urban lives are often riddled with inequalities and everyday obstacles inhibiting their full societal participation, to negatively affect their health and wellbeing. Findings from a study in intermediary cities in six countries show that programming interventions that support adolescents contain much tacit knowledge in on how inequity and exclusion challenges may be overcome, that is worth sharing. Yet, these initiatives also face and must strategically respond to important trade-offs.
Today, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion has become a dirty word in some political circles. US presidential action ostensively seeking to curtail ‘illegal and immoral discrimination’ has involved the immediate termination of federal government policies, programs, and activities towards advancing equity and inclusion. Simultaneously, a sledgehammer has been put to USAID, creating havoc in countless international development projects globally, and causing real, immediate and enduring harm to people’s livelihoods, lives and health, with children and adolescents being amongst those hardest hit.
This hostility towards equity and inclusion stands in sharp contrast to what young people and adults supporting them in health and wellbeing projects in intermediary cities in Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Senegal and Vietnam have recently told us.
Introducing the Healthy Cities for Adolescents II programme
Today, we launch a report that captures lessons from the Healthy Cities for Adolescents – II (HCA-II) programme, supported by Fondation Botnar and managed by Ecorys. HCA-II comprises 10 projects in six low and middle-income countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, implemented by diverse civil society partners, including NGOs, INGOs, UN bodies and universities. Aiming to enhance the health and wellbeing of adolescents in intermediate size cities, all projects seek to work closely with local state authorities. IDS acts as the Global Learning Partner for HCA-II, conducting research and offering advice and learning activities. This year, learning activities focused on Equity and Inclusion (E&I).
Together with in-country affiliate researchers, insights on E&I were gathered through participatory focus group discussions with adolescents, and key informant interviews with project staff. The recommendations of the report will be used to help projects decide how to enhance E&I for the remainder of the programme.
Working in intermediary cities
Intermediary cities, having populations less than 1 million people, are the predominant focus of the HCA-II programme. Such cities contain most of the global urban population though typically receive less attention in studies and development programming than large, mega, and capital cities. Across the six countries, project staff noted that intermediary cities offer important opportunities: here they have greater ease of access to local government authorities; are able to cover all areas/neighbourhoods in an inclusive manner and have to deal with less institutional density and complexity.
Navigating norms that inhibit youth participation
The findings show that all nine projects studied encountered multiple equity and inclusion (E&I) challenges. It was also evident that young people and project implementing partners care deeply about E&I. Indeed, they do so, despite there being no dedicated E&I strategy for the overall programme. Many projects adapted activities to accommodate emerging needs, thus adopting a ‘learning by doing’ approach that generated many good practices, captured in the report.
Young people’s participation was shaped by socio-cultural norms like age, gender, race, caste, religion, disability, and class. For instance, adolescents from impoverished backgrounds lacked time to engage in project activities as they were expected to do chores or paid work or lived in areas away from where project activities took place. Projects adjusted by organising transport and meals, or by arranging ‘mobile labs’ to take activities to where they live.
In other instances, parents were more reluctant to have girls, as compared to boys, participate in projects as the result of restrictive gender norms. They feared societal opprobrium regarding ‘promiscuous behaviour’ by girls when they mingle in project activities. Then again, socio-cultural norms could also intersect with territorial insecurity. Sometimes, parents feared that project initiatives, such as improving parks and public spaces meant that their children could be exposed to male violence, including from local youth gangs. However, careful communication with parents, community leaders and local authorities could dispel miscomprehension and mistrust, to support young people’s participation in activities.
Addressing trade-offs
Projects constantly need to consider trade-offs in terms of addressing E&I challenges. The paper identifies four types:
- Depth vs breadth of youth participation in consortia
- Securing buy-in from local authorities vs risk to meaningful participation
- Engaging the most disadvantaged adolescents and neighbourhoods vs scope and impact
- Youth ownership vis-a-vis project sustainability.
Activities that facilitate interactions between adolescent participants and city authorities are meant to overcome social norms that disqualify youth voices and help realise the implementation of adolescent priorities. However, this is not simply achieved by including local authorities in consortia. Discussions highlighted the importance of gaining a sound understanding of the political economy of local authorities to make collaborations work for the projects. This involves an understanding of the different governance actors, their interests, and their official and actual modes of operating. In some instances, local state actors claimed events as their own to boost their reputation, while these were initiated and organised by youth and projects.
Trade-offs between reaching more marginalised participants and achieving other goals were recognised across all projects. The trade-offs were particularly clear for reaching those from poorer backgrounds, PWDs, and marginalised youth in informal settlements and in relatively harder to reach areas. Reaching these groups has significant budget implications, demands more time from staff, and may require different professional skill sets.
Findings also note that projects must account for historic relations between local authorities and (young) people in marginalised urban informal neighbourhoods, which have created enduring prejudice and mutual distrust. Trade-offs were also deemed to exist between working in neighbourhoods where socio-economic needs are highest, yet neglected by policymakers, and an ability to influence public policy.
Conclusion
To conclude, equity and inclusion of young people remains a critical development issue in intermediary cities, and beyond. In a context of severe aid cuts, and noisy political hostility to E&I initiatives in some quarters, it is striking to observe the ways in which ordinary community members, young people and project staff show an acute awareness of everyday inequities and continue to learn from their efforts seeking to address these. This new report seeks to share these lessons more widely.
Download the Equity and Inclusion Formative Learning Paper