Promoting inclusion in decent work for Ugandan young people: will reducing violence help?

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In 2018, the Time's Up Movement declared "the clock has run out on sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the workplace". These demands also resonate with the world's major development goals: decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) and gender equality (SDG 5), and influence financial security and good health and well-being (SDGs 1 and 3). Intersections between violence, harassment and labour outcomes are particularly relevant for adolescents, because substantial proportions enter full-time work during adolescence and early adulthood; and global estimates indicate that abuse is prevalent before age 18, with 1 billion children and adolescents aged 18 and under reporting past year violence. However, there is little empirical evidence either globally or in Uganda on how experiences of violence in childhood and adolescence affect a) participation in skills programmes, entry into work, and decent employment; and b) about the extent and nature of physical, sexual and emotional violence experienced by young people in their workplaces. In this project, we will explore whether experiences of violence in childhood and adolescence lead to: inequalities in age at entry into work, retention in work, whether work is hazardous or non-hazardous; and the potential for these inequalities to be mitigated by skills training programmes and education. We will also explore the nature of workplace violence experienced by young people in employment. Our focus will be on Uganda but we will also use international data where relevant.To do this, we will conduct analyses of existing data and a new qualitative study, with input from a new network of stakeholders we will convene. We will map the current geographical coverage of skills training provision in Uganda, and describe how inclusive current skills programs are by sex, age, socio-economic status, disability status; how many existing programs address histories of violence in participants; and how many existing programmes contain any components to address workplace violence. We will conduct a systematic review of international longitudinal studies to explore links between childhood violence and employment outcomes. We will analyse data from 2 international datasets, the Violence against Children Surveys (VACS) from 8 countries, and the International Organization for Migration Trafficked Migrants Assistant Database for Uganda (TMAD). These analyses will tell us about whether and how experiences of violence are associated with working during childhood, and unaccompanied labour migration. We will use data from the Contexts of Violence in Adolescence Cohort (CoVAC) Study in Luwero District, Uganda, which follows adolescents over time. These unique data will provide information on whether previous experience of physical, sexual and emotional violence affect i) age at entry into the labour force, ii) retention in work, and iii) whether hazardous or non-hazardous work is undertaken. We will also document the prevalence of participation in skills programs, and whether this is related to the likelihood of hazardous work, and the prevalence of physical, sexual and emotional workplace violence.All of these analyses will inform questions for our new qualitative study. This study will examine people's experiences of being recruited into skills and employment programmes in Uganda, how programme recruitment mechanisms might in the exclusion of vulnerable young people, particularly those experiencing violence and/or child labour, and young people's views on the provision of violence prevention strategies within skills training programmes.Results from all of these analyses will inform network members about how best to make their skills programs more inclusive and relevant for people with histories of violence, and about how to use skills programmes as a platform to reduce workplace violence against Ugandan young people.