Working children and young people
Promoting adolescent livelihoods: a discussion paper prepared for the Commonwealth Youth Programme and UNICEF
Adolescents and the Sustainable Livelihoods approach
Authors:
N. Brown
Publisher:
United Nations [UN] Children's Fund , 2001
How can adolescents’ livelihoods be made sustainable rather than exploitative? How can the demands of work be better reconciled with educational, health and social needs? This paper, prepared for the Commonwealth Youth Programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat and UNICEF, examines the implications of taking a livelihoods approach to development initiatives targeting adolescents. It challenges development strategies that assume work begins at aged eighteen, noting that adolescents perform both waged and unwaged work inside and outside the home. Adolescents are defined as between ages ten and nineteen. A livelihoods approach can help uncover some of the complexities of young people’s work, including that:
- although very many adolescents work out of necessity due to poverty, work can contribute positively to capacity building, life skills development, self-esteem and social integration
- work can be exploitative insofar as it precludes education, but frequently also funds education. Linkages between school curricula and adolescent livelihoods needs – like labour force skills – are often inadequate.
This approach has implications for development interventions for adolescents, including that:
- focusing on the adolescent in his/her livelihoods context provides opportunities for linkages between the sectoral policy areas of health, capacity building, economic needs and empowerment
- an integrated approach requires a supportive policy environment which considers adolescents needs from their own perspective, and advocacy which builds a positive picture of work as an affirming experience.
