Making group social capital work for youth unemployment in Tanzania: the case of rural areas in Iringa region
| dc.contributor.author | Manyerere, David James | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-04-15T07:40:15Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-04-15T07:40:15Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016 | |
| dc.description | Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF HM708. T34M36) | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | This study examined how and the extent to which Group Social Capital (GSC) works to reduce youth unemployment in rural Tanzania, focusing on the experience of the Youth Economic Group (YEGs) in Iringa region. The four specific study objectives were to: find out the extent to which features of GSC available in YEGs contribute in reducing youth unemployment; determine the relationship between socio-economic backgrounds of youth in YEGs and the capacity of GSC in reducing youth unemployment; assess how GSC in YEGs is nurtured and sustained; and assess problems and challenges emerging from youth related employment interventions such as YEG. Probability and non-probability sampling designs were used to sample a total of 231 respondents, including state and non-state officials, youth and village residents. The data were collected through interviews, Focus Group Discussions, questionnaires and an observation checklist. The study used a mixed approach to analyze the data, whereby both qualitative and quantitative analysis was performed using the Nvivo V7 and SPSS V16 computer programs respectively and employed an exploratory and descriptive research designs and case study method. The findings revealed contradictory evidence. By staying together in groups and undertaking various Income Generation Activities (IGAs) and mutual cooperation with external agents, the YEGs were unveiled to have had various forms of GSC. Some of those include trust, networks, group norms and values, and civic engagement. However, contrary to the expectations of forming the YEG programme, several YEGs displayed poor performance due to the relatively low level of GSC, as manifested by the members’ deviant behaviours. These included untrustworthiness and a lack of respect which, in turn, hindered the successful accomplishment of the YEG programme’s intended objectives. Parenting and socialization processes influenced youth behaviour; religious institutions played a more significant role in guiding and shaping the positive youth behaviour that led to improved GSC. Yet, even though the collected evidence established existence of positive relationship between youth’s socio-economic background, GSC in YEGs and creation of employment opportunities, overwhelming majority of YEGs failed to reduce rural youth unemployment given poor economic profile of YEGs. The unique contribution of the study to new knowledge generation is that, when cognitive and structural social capital features are effectively nurtured and sustained by the group members’ efforts and stakeholders’ support is provided in the context of rural areas in developing countries, such as Tanzania, these provide the potential energy to facilitate GSC among Income Generation Group (IGGs) members to reduce youth unemployment. From the study, several recommendations for actions and policy issues that might improve YEGs’ performance emerged. These include: creating youth training centres and sustainable structured programmes to install multiple socio-economic skills and knowledge to address multi-faceted challenges and problems; advocating for policy review that insist on a parenting and socialisation process at an earlier growth stage for easy moulding and mentoring of potential behaviours, such as a spirit of hard work, self-efficacy and persistence; insisting on the bottom-up approach to support youth to take part in decision-making, that facilitates access to and the effective and efficient utilization of local resources in the given rural context. For further research, similar studies with inclusion of other aspects or marginalised groups in different geographical settings are recommended. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | Manyerere, D. J. (2016) Making group social capital work for youth unemployment in Tanzania: the case of rural areas in Iringa region, Doctoral dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://41.86.178.5:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/9422 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | University of Dar es Salaam | en_US |
| dc.subject | Social capital (socialogy) | en_US |
| dc.subject | Youth, Unemployment | en_US |
| dc.subject | Iringa region | en_US |
| dc.subject | Tanzania | en_US |
| dc.title | Making group social capital work for youth unemployment in Tanzania: the case of rural areas in Iringa region | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |