Suchergebnisse

Despite the fast-growing body of literature on education and empowerment, young people's perception of their own educational setting has not received adequate attention in advancing our understanding of the empowering but also di sempowering elements of education. This is especially the case for the sub-Saharan African context. Addressing this gap, this study lets 497 Ugandan youth speak for themselves in the scope of a questionnaire. The diversity of young people's responses shows that experiences of empowerment through formal education differ significantly among individuals. By drawing on the work of Stromquist, this paper broadly relates young people's responses to cognitive (e.g.: critical understanding of one's reality), psychological (e.g.: feeling of self-esteem), political (e.g.: awareness of power inequalities and the ability to organize and mobilize) and the economic (e.g.: capacity to generate independent income) dimensions of empowerment through education. While the majority of youth indicated that they feel psychologically empowered th rough formal education, perceptions differed significantly in regard to economic empowerment. Besides, political or cognitive aspects of empowerment appear to happen outside and not in schools. A notable majority (75 %) feels disempowered by the many political, economic andsocial barriers they are facing outside their education, suggesting that education alone is not the magic bullet for systemic change at large.

Over the past three decades, there has been a steady increase of funds by the international community to support civil society organizations (CSOs) in fragile states. Surprisingly, this growing attention has not strengthened local civil society landscapes in a way that it would lead to processes of social transformation. On the contrary, civic freedom and space is shrinking around the globe. In analyzing prominent international aid-effectiveness frameworks and donor strategies towards civil society, this paper will put forward one central argument. The way in which civil society actors and functions are currently appropriated threatens deep-rooted social transformation thereby impeding processes of structural and political change—necessary for the transition from conflict to sustainable peace. In delineating, how actors and functional approaches informed peacebuilding and development policy and practice, their strengths and limitations will be examined. Doing so, we draw on different case studies and examples from the literature. We find that existing frameworks for fragile states operate on a presumed model of a public sphere and civil society that may or may not exist. Such an approach disregards an organic formation of a civil society landscape thereby impeding processes of structural, social, and political change in times of fragility.

AbstractUganda had the longest period of school closures worldwide as a response measure during the Covid‐19 pandemic. Drawing on longitudinal qualitative data from the Contexts of Violence in Adolescence Cohort Study (CoVAC) (2018–2023), we examine how this has affected the lives of adolescents in Uganda. Our analysis showcases how intersecting inequities based on socioeconomic circumstances, gender and location have intensified, with detrimental effects on young people's educational paths and life circumstances. Strategies that take the intersections of these inequities into account are urgently needed to help the most disadvantaged and marginalized young people return to school.