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The youth employment crisis in sub-Saharan Africa’s towns and cities is among the region’s top development priorities. High rates of youth under- and unemployment create significant obstacles to young people’s ability to become self-reliant, a crucial first step in the transition to adulthood. It is important to explore how local and global structures and processes create the hostile economic and social environment in which urban youth search for livelihoods. Only then can we identify the ways in which urban poverty brings insurmountable constraints on youth agency. We must understand the multitude of obstacles facing urban youth in their quest for decent work and secure livelihoods, how these differ by gender and educational status, and the implications of this for their longer-term social and economic development. This paper attempts such an exploration in the context of Arusha, Tanzania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As urbanization changes the face of poverty in Bangladesh, endemic insecurities within the urban environment force low-income households to deploy new strategies of labour mobilization that challenge traditional patriarchal ideologies, and in the process, gender dynamics. The research reveals the complex balance male household heads face in meeting economic and social priorities. While the majority of households depend on female labour mobilization as a short-term means of survival, this comes at the cost of displacing longer-term goals of household advancement, given that status, prestige and social networks are dependent on the ability to uphold patriarchal norms that forbid women from working. While most men hold on to patriarchal beliefs – viewing the mobilization of female labour as a “necessary evil” that dampens household honour and prestige and threatens masculinity – women are aware of the importance of their work and the centrality of their contributions to income. These opposing perspectives generate tensions within the household, leaving women to face a complex balance between managing the household, their jobs and the marital relationship. A wife’s labour is often viewed as a threat to male dominance and authority and can lead to various negative behaviours by the household head, including reducing working hours and income contributions or taking a second wife. A paradox is visible, in which men are aware of these negative tendencies but do not associate them with their own marital problems, instead blaming wives for their “disobedience”. This may be one reason for the persistence of patriarchal social norms that frown upon sending married women to work while, at the same time, it has become widely acceptable to send young, unmarried daughters, who do not offer the same challenge to authority, to work in Bangladesh’s thriving export-oriented garments sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Bangladesh, urban poverty is neglected in research, policy and action on poverty reduction. This paper explores the underlying reasons for this relative neglect, which include national identity and image, the political economy of urban poverty and the structuring of knowledge creation. It argues for more comprehensive policy and programmes for the urban poor given Bangladesh’s increasingly urban future and the growing magnitude of urban poverty. The impact of climate change will accelerate Bangladesh’s ongoing urbanization as well as deepen the scale and severity of urban poverty. The fact that reducing urban poverty will be increasingly important in meeting national goals for poverty reduction means that policy and action must pay more attention to the urban poor. This is contingent upon two factors: first, a better understanding of the scale and nature of urban poverty and vulnerability; and second, the confrontation of powerful interests necessary to secure a national commitment to urban poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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