Youth engagement and skills acquisition within Africa's transport sector: promoting a gender agenda towards transitions into meaningful work

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Acknowledging the importance of mobilising Africa's young women into the labour-force, this research addresses the specific impediments presented by a highly gendered transport and travel arena and the implications this has for girls' and women's current/future access to meaningful work. Women of all ages are discriminated against, both with regard to access and use of transport (which affects their access to skills acquisition and employment across all sectors) and with reference to their employment within the transport sector itself. Relevant skills acquisition at an early age, for safely navigating transport and more equitably seeking employment is essential if they are to break through such barriers. We aim to understand and address these challenges through in-depth participatory research with young women of low socio-economic status in peripheral locations of Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia (one city-region per country), including piloting of skills-based interventions. The research has three, interlinked strands: a)The User Strand comprises research into improving young women's use of transport to access training programmes and employment, built around the following questions: -What are the economic, social and infrastructural determinants of the transport ecology in which young women are located and how does it impact on their transport experiences and behaviours?-How is young women's physical access to meaningful work and associated skills building shaped by their travel potential and access to transport (i.e. especially travel safety and security for women resident in low income areas)? -What key skills do young women need if they are to travel safely to work and training opportunities (whether as pedestrians, as cyclists, or when negotiating public transport)? -How can appropriate safe travel skills training be provided? -What wider interventions are needed to support a safe travel skills programme [e.g. from government, transport unions, NGOs, private sector] i.e. with reference to the multiple layers of political, economic and socio-cultural decision-making processes?b)The Employment Strand comprises research into improving women's access to skills (e.g. commercial driving, vehicle repair/ maintenance) to enable them to obtain more meaningful employment within the transport sector, built around the following questions: - How have historical, social, political and economic legacies of planning and policy processes impacted on opportunities for women's employment in the transport sector? -How can young women's aspirations to work in this sector be expanded and enhanced? -What do young women perceive as the main barriers to skills acquisition and subsequent employment in the sector? -What skills training can be provided to enable young women to play a more prominent role in the sector? -What wider interventions are needed to support training programmes to improve women's employment in this sector [e.g. from government, unions, NGOs, the private sector]c)The Action Research Strand builds on User and Employment Strand findings. It will pilot transport-related skills training for young women, to improve their access to employment [both directly, through employment in the transport sector and indirectly, through travel safety skills to enable them to travel to diverse employment opportunities]. Ihere will be small pilot action research projects in each country: -One to assist women build skills as transport users [and thus access diverse employment opportunities within and beyond the transport sector] -Up to 3 to assist women build skills towards employment in the transport sector.Intensive monitoring and evaluation of this strand throughout its life will ensure key lessons are learned. Through this work we will produce gender-sensitive transport/travel skills guidance for govt, private sector, NGOs + academia at local, national + international levels.