Over the course of 2020, with funding from UNICEF Ethiopia and DFID Ethiopia, a team of Young Lives researchers collaborated in the analysis of newly generated qualitative data to answer the following questions.

1. What different challenges do young men and young women face as they grow into adults?
2. What supports their efforts to pursue the adult lives they choose and value?
3. Which youth are most at risk of being left behind and how can they best be supported?

In 2019, researchers interviewed young men and women, aged 18 and 25, in ten rural and urban Young Lives communities to understand how gender, location, and poverty affected their diverging life paths. Five of these sites are part of Young Lives qualitative longitudinal research making it the fifth wave of data collection. We have interviewed the same group about their lives five times since 2007. The 2020 grants supported analysis of these data and UNICEF funded the 2019 data collection. 

The analysis explored eight inter-related aspects of their journey into adulthood and was written up into research papers and policy briefs on these topics: school to work transitions; work and employment; educational pathways; experiences of divorce and separation among youth; migration and mobility; young parenting; fertility decision-making; and gender and youth resilience. 

This project produced 8 working papers, 8 policy papers, a narrative report, short policy films and a series of illustrations.