51431 The Economic Empowerment of Young People in Zambia PREM Poverty Reduction Group 2008 1 Abstract 1 This report is a highly condensed version of the initial report, which contains much more case material. The longer version can be obtained by contacting the authors. This study seeks to shed light on the personal back and forth from degree or diploma and institutional factors that shape young courses to work (in order to earn some people`s trajectory toward economic money), then back to school again, in a empowerment in Zambia. It is based on in-depth process that could draw out the school-to- interviews with 60 young men and women work transition for years. between the ages of 23 and 30 in three provinces of the country, with the sample biased A significant number of interviewees towards urban areas and employed young managed to overcome very disadvantaged people. childhoods and significant adverse events (e.g., parental divorce and death) to achieve Study findings suggest that the most important a reasonable degrees of success, most as assets that build young Zambians` agency in self-employed entrepreneurs. However, the economic life are education, strong social absence of formal state support (with the support networks, and the psychological exception of schools) for young people resilience and competence nurtured by living in adverse circumstances was striking. consistent family support. The difficulties they The study concludes that efforts to assist encounter in obtaining formal employment and young people in Zambia must concentrate doing business are exacerbated by the notable on the informal sector, where the majority of deterioration of human capital in the country. opportunities for youth lie. Among the Young people in Zambia, for example, are now authors` recommendations are to: help less educated than their parents young people finish their educations, especially poor rural youth; scale up existing For the large majority of young social service support projects for youth in interviewees, key transitions within school difficult family situations; ensure that young and from school to work often took several people have access to well-trained mentors; years. Young people, especially those from create internships and/or apprenticeships poorer homes, moved in and out of school that provide young people work experience; depending on their ability to find sponsors and build programs for young entrepreneurs, who would pay for them, often graduating including access to finance. secondary school in their early twenties. After finishing school, many youth moved Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... v Acronyms .......................................................................................................................................vi Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... vii Purpose of study ........................................................................................................................ vii Methodology ............................................................................................................................ viii Principal findings ........................................................................................................................ix Conclusions and recommendations ........................................................................................... xii Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 Objectives of the study ................................................................................................................. 1 Background: Country context....................................................................................................... 2 Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 3 Structure of the report................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1. Young People at Work ................................................................................................ 7 Progress towards economic success ............................................................................................. 7 How young people obtain and experience work ........................................................................ 12 Economic empowerment ............................................................................................................ 21 Chapter 2. Parents, Childhood, and Family Circumstances .................................................... 24 Parental education ...................................................................................................................... 24 Economic circumstances during childhood ................................................................................ 26 Chapter 3. Different Pathways from Education to Work ......................................................... 30 Educational transitions: Opportunities and choices.................................................................... 30 Education-to-work transitions .................................................................................................... 32 Career transitions: Moving ahead and falling behind ................................................................. 38 Making sense of their own pathways ......................................................................................... 40 Chapter 5. Aspirations and Strategies ........................................................................................ 43 Success and how to achieve it .................................................................................................... 43 Observations on aspirations and strategies ................................................................................. 45 Chapter 6. Conclusions and Recommendations ........................................................................ 47 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 47 Recommendations ...................................................................................................................... 49 References ..................................................................................................................................... 52 Annex A: Circumstances of Respondents' Childhoods............................................................. 54 Annex B: Respondents' Educational Transitions ...................................................................... 62 iii Tables Table 1. Analytical categories of progress toward economic success viii Table 2. Employment of young Zambians interviewed for the study ix Table 3. Childhood economic circumstances of interviewees and their current degree of economic success, by survey category ix Table 4. Fathers` reported education and economic success of their children, by survey category x Table 5. Key informants 3 Table 6. Location of survey respondents by survey category 4 Table 7. Geographic composition of survey sample 4 Table 8. Survey categories of economic success 5 Table 9. Respondents` type of employment, by survey category 6 Table 10. Already successful survey category 7 Table 11. Going places survey category 8 Table 12. Solid start survey category 9 Table 13. May have potential survey category 10 Table 14. Little potential survey category 11 Table 15. Unable to find a job category 11 Table 16. Economically excluded survey category 12 Table 17. Formal sector employees and pieceworkers 13 Table 18. Informal sector employees and pieceworkers 14 Table 19. Self-employed in consistent businesses 15 Table 20. Self-employed respondents in inconsistent businesses 17 Table 21. Subsistence farmer survey respondents 17 Table 22. Student respondents 18 Table 23. Respondents looking for work and unemployed respondents 20 Table 24. Respondent marital status and economic independence 22 Table 25. Reported education of respondents` fathers by category of economic success 24 Table 26. Reported education of respondents` mothers by category of economic success 25 Table 27. Summary of economic circumstances in childhood 26 Table 28. Respondent levels of educational achievement by survey category 30 Table 29. Post-secondary education-to-work transitions 33 Table 30. Secondary school leavers 35 Table 31. Lower secondary school-to-work transitions 36 Table 32. The educationally excluded respondents 37 Table 33. Poor childhood circumstances 55 Table 34. Worsening economic circumstances in childhood 56 Table 35. Poor but improving economic circumstances in childhood 57 Table 36. Relatively advantaged circumstances in childhood 58 Table 37. Most advantaged childhood circumstances 60 Table 38. Respondents with post-secondary education 63 Table 39. Secondary school leavers 65 Table 40. Lower secondary school leavers 67 Table 41. Educationally excluded respondents 67 iv Acknowledgements This report has been prepared by Catherine Locke and Arjan Verschoor under the guidance of Nora Dudwick, task team leader, and Louise Cord, PRMPR sector manager. The research team included Darren Crimes (field research manager and interviewer), Huw Jones and Malunga Syacumpi (interviewers), Geraldine Houston (data analyst), and Dominique Lussier, who rewrote extensive portions of the report. Comments were provided by Mattias Lundberg, Pia Peeters, and Keith Rennie. The final version of the report was edited by Peggy McInerny. v Acronyms ACCA internationally recognized accountancy qualification AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome CBU Copperbelt University CCNA Certified Cisco Network Associate CRS Catholic Relief Services CSO Central Statistical Office, Zambia HIV Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome IT information technology LCMS Living Conditions Monitoring Survey NATECH Nationally recognized accountancy qualification NGO Nongovernmental organization STD sexually transmitted disease TB tuberculosis UNZA University of Zambia ZMK Zambia Kwachka, the national currency vi Executive Summary Purpose of study High youth unemployment has become an important issue for policy makers throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, who are concerned about the serious social and political implications of youth economic exclusion. It is during the critical years from puberty to adulthood that young people make the decisions that shape their lives and determine the kinds of contributions they will make to their societies. For this reason, public policies directed at expanding possibilities for youth can have positive impacts that ramify throughout an economy and society. By the same token, countries that fail to integrate young people neglect an important asset. Zambia is no exception to this picture: it has an increasingly youthful population with limited economic opportunities. Although poverty levels have declined and growth has increased in recent years, there is a sense among poor Zambians that they have become bystanders--excluded from the benefits of this growth. In this context, youth are at particular risk. In 2005, 76 percent of the population of Zambia was under 30 years of age, with 18 percent between the ages of 20 and 29. Even these substantial numbers don`t tell the whole story, however, since in Zambia, as in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, youth is not defined exclusively by biological age. Poor economic conditions currently limit young people's opportunities to secure reliable employment and acquire the resources to become social adults and fully enfranchised citizens. This study was undertaken in response to concerns about the marginalization of youth in Zambia. It seeks to shed light on the personal and institutional factors that shape young people`s trajectory toward economic empowerment, defined broadly as the capacity to adequately support oneself, establish a family, and fulfill social obligations. Focusing on transitions within the educational system, as well as those from school to work and one form of employment to another, the study is based on interviews with young people in the country. Particular attention was paid to the influence of individual and family characteristics on young people's choices and strategies, and to the social and institutional factors that influenced their outcomes. While the findings from this small, purposive sample cannot be generalized to the youth population at large, they complement survey data by providing a more nuanced picture of the aspirations, values, choices, and strategies followed by young Zambians as they move from school to work. The sample also shows how the constraints and opportunities encountered by youth shape--and often lengthen--their trajectories toward economic success. By contributing to a better understanding of the constraints to young people`s economic success (or lack thereof) and identifying some key entry points, the report is intended to be of use to policy makers concerned with youth. The study was conducted during a timely national debate about how to broaden the economic empowerment of marginalized citizens in general. It is therefore hoped that the findings can contribute to the operationalization and implementation of the recently enacted Citizen Economic Empowerment Act, as well as to ongoing discussions of the Private Sector Reform Program. vii Methodology This study is based on in-depth interviews conducted in 2007 with 60 young men and women between the ages of 23 and 30, who lived in urban Lusaka, Rural Eastern Province, and the industrialized Copperbelt.2 It included youth working in the formal and informal, public and private sectors, the self-employed and the unemployed. Life histories were complemented by discussions with employers, public sector officials, and staff of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working with or on behalf of young people, in addition to secondary data, including academic research, government and policy reports (e.g., census and survey data). Given the desire to understand how young Zambians found their way to different kinds of outcomes, the sample is biased towards urban areas and employed young Zambians. To facilitate analysis, youth were categorized according to their current level of economic success (see table 1), based on an overall impression of their earning power, the stability of their basic earnings, and the likelihood of their maintaining or increasing that earning power over time. Table 1. Analytical categories of progress toward economic success Category (no. of interviewees) Defining characteristics Already successful (5) Already earn high salaries and have strong prospects for the future 1. Going places (11) Earn good salaries. Although everyone in this group has completed high school, only some have tertiary education. The group appears likely to improve its economic position in the future. 2. Solid start (9) Earn fair salaries. While they have made a solid start in either employment, self-employment or business, they have yet to establish a secure position, complete their training, or realize their potential. 3. May have potential to Earn lower but reasonably secure salaries, either from skilled or supervisory positions, in increase their earnings informal or self-employment. This group has yet to get on the path to success, but has (10) aspirations and may yet be able to do so. 4. Little potential to increase Earn lower or variable salaries in low-skilled or low-paid jobs in the informal or formal sector earnings (13) or through self-employment. Given their low educational level and lack of social support, these young people demonstrate little potential to progress economically from where they are at the moment. However, they are working. 5. Unable to find a job (7) Unable to attain appropriate employment for long periods of time, this group describes themselves as unemployed. They may or may not be actively seeking work. Some do nothing, are subsistence farmers, or do piecework in the informal sector. Others earn more substantial income from irregular or informal activities unrelated to their career aspirations. These young Zambians have little or no job-relevant experience. 6. Economically excluded Earning nothing or very little; live in chronically poor households. This group is excluded from (5) mainstream society and trapped in severe poverty. 2 Lusaka Province accounted for 14 percent of Zambia`s population of 11.1 million in 2005, the Copperbelt, for another 16 percent (it also has the largest concentration of poor people in Zambia); and Eastern Province, for 13 percent (CSO 2007). viii Principal findings Each of the young people in this study achieved their level of economic success through an idiosyncratic combination of childhood circumstances and particular opportunities and constraints that emerged during and after they completed their educations (see tables 2 and 3). For the large majority, transitions within school and from school to work often took several years. The interviews made clear that young people in Zambia, especially from poorer homes, move in and out of school depending on their ability to find sponsors who will pay for them, often graduating from secondary school in their early twenties. After finishing school, many youth move back and forth from degree or diploma courses to work, earn some money, and then go back to school again, in a process that can draw out the school-to-work transition for years, especially for youth who start the process with less education and fewer financial resources. In terms of outcomes, youth tend to fall into one of three distinguishable groups, as outlined below. Table 2. Employment of young Zambians interviewed for the study Survey category Formal Informal Self- employment employment employed Students Farmers Unemployed Total Already successful 4 (2)a 1 5 (2) Going places 6 (2) 5 (3) 11 (5) Solid start 5 (3) 1 2 (2) 1 9 (5) May have potential 2 2 (2) 4 (2) 1 1 10 (4) Little potential 3 (2) 4 (3) 5 (1) 1 (1) 13 (7) Unable to find 7 (3) 7 (3) a job Economically excluded 1 1 (1) 3 (1) 5 (2) Total 20 (9) 8 (5) 17 (8) 3 (1) 1 (1) 11 (4) 60 (28) Note: aTotal interviewees, followed by number of females in parentheses. Table 3. Childhood economic circumstances of interviewees and their current degree of economic success, by survey category Childhood Unable economic Already Going Solid May have Little to find a Economically Number of circumstances successful places start potential potential job excluded cases Most advantaged 2 5 3 1 1 12 Relatively advantaged 2 2 1 4 3 2 2 16 Poor but improving 1 2 2 1 6 Worsening 1 2 2 4 9 Poor 3 3 2 2 10 Not categorized 1 1 2 2 1 7 Total 5 11 9 10 13 7 5 60 Although it is not surprising that young people with well-educated parents and financially secure childhoods were better able to achieve access, one cannot assume a mechanical relationship. Life histories suggested that in addition to the fact that the parents of successful young people could pay for their educations, other factors were also at work. Most of their ix fathers, and in some cases, mothers, worked as professionals, and thus provided important role models for their children. Table 4. Fathers' reported education and economic success of their children, by survey category Father's Already Going Solid May have Little Unable to Economically Number of education successful places start potential potential find a job excluded cases Degree or 2 (2) a 2 (2 ) 5 (3) 1 1(1) 11 (9) higher education Diploma or 1 4 (1) 2 (2) 3 (2) 1 1 12 (5) further education Secondary 2 2 (1) 1 2 2 (2) 5 (3) 14 (6) Incomplete 1 2 (1) 3 (1) 1 7 (2) secondary Primary 2 (1) 1(1) 3 (2) Unknown 2 1 2 (1) 5 (2) 1 2 (1) 13 (4) Total 5 (2) 11 (5) 9 (5) 10 (4) 13 (7) 7 (3) 5 (2) 60 (28) Note: aTotal interviewees, followed by number of females in parentheses. There is an obvious mismatch between specific skills and labor market opportunities for respondents' with post-secondary education. The work that such respondents found after their studies was not necessarily related to their field of training, and as a result, they more or less had to upgrade their skills in directions relevant to their existing jobs, rather than to their original career desires. Social capital is an important factor in success. While young people at every level of success received help or advice from social contacts, young people with educated, professional parents were likelier to receive help from similarly well-placed professionals able to find them internships or even a first job placement. The emotional and psychological dimensions of social capital should not be ignored or downplayed. Educated parents were likelier to provide strong support for their children, in several cases proactively seeking out alternative courses or other ways to help their children after youthful missteps (e.g., poor grades or unplanned pregnancy). Their strong, positive support figured significantly in the life histories of more successful youth, and contrasted with a reported lack of such support by young people who failed to achieve success. Youth who fell into the economically excluded or little potential categories overwhelmingly experienced childhood in families that were chronically poor or moving in and out of poverty. Not one of these interviewees came from highly advantaged backgrounds. Of the economically excluded, only one had a parent who had completed secondary education. Some--but not all--also had to contend with adverse childhood events, such as divorce or the death of a parent, sometimes followed by a move to another household. x Box 1. Making one's way through multiple households As has been noted in many studies of Zambian (and other African) households, it is very common for children to move In out of households. Poorer or less successful households may disappear as members die and/or dependents are dispersed among more successful relatives. Children often have subordinate status in their new households, as reflected in work obligations and lower social indicators. A stepmother may treat them poorly, for example, or a father reject them. By contrast, a child may be welcome in a relative`s household until he or she completes secondary school, but asked to leave thereafter if they cannot find work and contribute to the household. Another practice common in Africa consists of lending and borrowing children, whereby wealthier families take over responsibility for feeding and clothing a child, in return for which they gain the child`s labor and an obligation to assist the poor family during periods of hardship. While many of these practices are most common in agricultural areas, survey interviewees reported that such practices were most frequently a response to divorce or parental death. In their new households, young people do not necessarily end up with guardians who have their best interests at heart. Such movements often interrupt their educations and, equally important, deny them emotional and psychological support and guidance at critical periods in their lives. A significant number of young people among the overall sample managed to overcome very disadvantaged childhoods and significant adverse events (e.g., parental divorce and death) to achieve a reasonable degrees of success. Others have thus far failed to demonstrate much progress despite advantaged childhoods and well-educated, professional parents. Completing secondary education was virtually a prerequisite for economic success. The only exceptions in the sample were two young people who acquired solid formal skills training (in carpentry and tailoring, respectively), which enabled them to move quite quickly into jobs. Thus, young people who had parents or guardians willing and able to support them financially through secondary school had a good chance of succeeding. A sizable portion of the young people who fell into the survey categories of some potential, solid start, or higher economic achievement became entrepreneurs (all but one in the informal sector). Most started their own business after working with a parent or relative (sometimes as unpaid labor), where they acquired necessary skills and experience to start their own businesses. For this group, social capital played an important role, generally in the form of relatives who provided experience and in some cases, start-up capital. Indeed, young people whose relatives were in business may well have had a significant advantage over youth whose parents were public sector employees. Young people who started out in advantageous but circumstances failed to achieve success often experienced specific adverse circumstances in their families, including divorce. According to Zambian customary law, assets acquired during matrimony belong to the father and his tribe; thus divorce often impoverishes a woman and her children (if they remain with her). In many cases, fathers failed to support their children or even maintain contact with them after a divorce. Not surprisingly, children who remained with their fathers after a divorce tended to fare better, while--with some exceptions--most children who remained with their mothers experienced destitution. The absence of formal state support (with the exception of schools) for young people living in adverse circumstances was striking. There were no reported interventions, for example, in the lives of young people who experienced destitution or abuse as children, or who were forced at numerous points in their schooling to drop out due to poor grades or lack of finances. xi Finally, all but one of the young entrepreneurs interviewed worked entirely in the informal sector; none had received money from any formal credit institution. Non-governmental institutions did play a small role in promoting positive outcomes for a few young people. Several women received training and small grants from the Catholic Church, another earned some start- up capital by participating in an income-generating activity sponsored by the YMCA, and another was volunteering at an NGO with the hope of graduating into a paid position. Conclusions and recommendations Findings from Latin America, where a number of national as well as smaller-scale youth programs have been rigorously evaluated, throw into doubt the assumption that youth unemployment will take care of itself if an economy grows sufficiently fast (Fawcett 2003). Recent studies have found that even the fastest-growing economies had failed to reduce unemployment rates for low-income youth, who tend to be less educated and less skilled than their peers. The conclusion is that while flexible wage and workforce policies may remove market barriers, training programs, labor-market services, and self-employment programs remain necessary to reduce uncertainty and increase skills matching in the market. The fundamental objective of youth labor market policy must be to address the long-term employability and productivity of young people, rather than provide short-term job placements. Efforts to assist young people in Zambia must take into account that the majority of opportunities for youth lie in the informal sector; efforts to link training and placements solely in the formal sector are unrealistic. Every effort should be made to help young people complete their educations, whether in formal or non-formal settings. The views of young people themselves should also be sought in the design of programs and policies designed to affect them. As the U.N. High-level Panel on Youth Employment has urged, it is important to move beyond seeing youth as a burden, threat, or, more benignly, tomorrow`s asset. Rather, they should be seen as partners in development whose voices must be heard today. Finally, given the high failure rate of youth-targeted programs, interventions should be carefully monitored to ensure that they reach and help the young people who most need them. The links between poor or relatively poor family backgrounds, parents with limited educational achievements, and in some cases, significant levels of neglect and abuse, on one hand, and young people`s level of economic achievement, on the other hand, are not surprising. These links point to the desirability of greater public intervention (whether by the state or non-state actors) into the lives of children. Recommendations include: Provide more social protection in divorce cases. At the very least, proactively enforce existing family law in Zambia be proactively enforced so that women receive their portion of family property. The media, which has covered cases relating to women`s rights after divorce, could play a supportive role by expanding women`s awareness of their legal rights. Scale up existing social service support projects for youth in difficult family situations (e.g., aid to orphans and vulnerable children sponsored by CARE/Zambia and funded by USAID) to address the needs of adolescents who have lost their parents. Provide greater material support to families suffering from AIDS-related deaths to ensure that surviving dependents can afford expenses related to primary education and complete secondary education (e.g., fees, school xii supplies, transport). Pilot programs in Kenya, for example, found that assistance in paying for textbooks and uniforms improved primary school attendance. Improving secondary school attendance will entail a more fundamental approach, including expanding the number of school placements nationwide. Ensure that young people have access to well-trained mentors, in the form of school or guidance counselors, who can provide sound advice about education and work opportunities. This advice needs to be based on knowledge of the market and current labor demands. Facilitate NGOs to provide support on several fronts at once. They could, for example, offer concrete assistance in the form of a savings club or access to microcredit within a support network framework. At the same time, such organizations could provide adult mentors and thus help build the social capital of young people, especially vulnerable youth who lack supportive family networks. An example of such an approach is the Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) program for vulnerable female youth in Kenya, pioneered by the Population Council and the K-Rep Development Agency (Kenya`s oldest and largest microfinance institution). Eight years` experience and an impact evaluation found that expanding the social capital of girls needed to precede more targeted livelihood assistance. Target support to rural youth to complete their educations. Despite increased primary-school enrollment, there are still high dropout rates between primary and secondary, and lower and higher secondary, schools. In addition, there are inadequate school places--no new public secondary school has been built in Zambia since 1970. Improving school retention, particularly in rural areas, is an area of emphasis for the World Bank Country Assistance Strategy. This goal is clearly critical for improving the chances of rural young people to achieve economic independence and security. Create opportunities for internships or on-the-job training and/or apprenticeships that would give young people work experience. Such opportunities could help them access their first job (currently difficult, since employers prefer to hire workers who already have experience)--even if the placements don`t turn into permanent employment. Using funding from the Empowerment Fund established by the Citizen Empowerment Act, it may be possible to subsidize businesses that are willing to provide on-the-job-training, using independent testing and certification as a way of ascertaining that training actually took place. Foster a supportive institutional framework that broadens young people's access to (and use of) market information and links them to high-value markets, skills training, and access to finance. Create programs for young entrepreneurs that target specific age groups, differentiated by their different capabilities and needs. The likelihood is that younger cohorts (in their early 20s) will need more attention and assistance than older youth. Thought should be given to examining the relevance of best practices from youth enterprise support programs worldwide. One possible example is the Prince`s Trust, a business start-up program that has launched tens of thousands of youth entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom and established a pilot in Zambia (through the Business Leaders Forum). xiii Facilitate young people's access to finance. Financing is particularly important, as not one youth interviewed for this study who was involved in running a small business had received start-up funds from formal credit sources. The success of microcredit schemes targeted at youth will, however, depend on careful design, including assessment of creditworthiness and incorporating other forms of support along with financing. xiv Introduction Objectives of the study High youth unemployment has become an issue of concern to policymakers throughout Sub- Saharan Africa, who are concerned about the serious social and political implications of the economic exclusion of young people. It is during the critical years from puberty to adulthood that young people make the decisions that shape their lives and determine the kinds of contributions they will make to their societies. For this reason, public policies directed at expanding possibilities for youth can have positive impacts that ramify throughout an economy and society. By the same token, countries that fail to integrate young people into social and economic life neglect an important asset. Zambia is no exception to this rule: it has an increasingly youthful population with limited economic opportunities. Although poverty levels in the country have declined and growth has increased in recent years, there is a sense among poor Zambians that they have become bystanders excluded from the benefits of this growth. In this context, youth are at particular risk. In 2005, 76 percent of the population was under 30 years of age, with 18 percent between the ages of 20 and 29. Even these substantial numbers don`t tell the whole story. In Zambia, as in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, youth is not defined exclusively by biological age, but by the ability to sustain an independent livelihood, establish a family, and fulfill a range of social obligations. Poor economic conditions in the country currently limit young people`s opportunities to secure reliable employment and acquire the resources to become social adults and fully enfranchised citizens. This study was undertaken in response to concerns about the marginalization of youth in Zambia. It seeks to shed light on the personal and institutional factors that shape young people`s trajectory toward economic empowerment, defined broadly as the capacity to adequately support oneself, establish a family and fulfill social obligations. Focusing on transitions within the educational system, from school to work, and from one form of employment to another, the study is based on interviews with 60 young men and women between the ages of 22 and 30. The interviewees lived in urban Lusaka, the industrialized Copperbelt, and rural Eastern Province. Particular attention was paid to the influence of individual and family characteristics on young people's choices and strategies, and to the social and institutional factors that influenced their outcomes. The report incorporates detailed descriptions of the pathways taken by each respondent to show how diverse characteristics and experiences interact to produce specific outcomes. While the findings from this small, purposive sample cannot be generalized to the youth population at large, they complement survey data by providing a more nuanced picture of the aspirations, values, choices and strategies followed by young Zambians as they move from school to work. The report also shows the constraints and opportunities that youth encounter shape--and often lengthen--their trajectories toward economic success. By contributing to a better understanding of the constraints that shape young people`s economic success (or lack thereof) and identifying some key entry points, the report is intended to be of use to policymakers concerned with youth. The study was conducted at a timely moment: during a national debate about how to broaden the economic empowerment of marginalized citizens in general. It is therefore hoped that the findings can contribute to the operationalization and implementation of the recently enacted Citizen Economic Empowerment Act, as well as to ongoing discussions of the Private Sector Reform Program. 1 Background: Country context Zambia became independent in 1964 as one of the wealthiest of the newly independent countries. Economic decline began in the mid-1970s, however, and only started to reverse in the 1990s. During this period, macroeconomic reform resulted in massive retrenchments and loss of jobs due to closure of many companies (Kalinda 2004, 9) with declines in health, education and economic indicators (Duncan, Macmillan, and Simutanyi 2003). By 1998, 73 percent of the population (78 percent in rural areas, 53 percent in urban areas) were living below the poverty line. According to the national statistics office, this number had dropped to 68 percent by 2004 (Government of Zambia 2005); however, 53 percent of the population still considered themselves extremely poor and 95 percent considered themselves poor (World Bank 2007b, 35).3 Rural areas have suffered in particular, with the consequence that many young people are migrating to urban areas. In today's Zambia, youth are at risk of economic and, consequently social exclusion, in both rural and urban environments. Although rural youth are likelier to be economically active, if only in subsistence agriculture, they have notably poorer access to education (especially good education), employment, and productive resources (UNECA 2005). If they migrate to urban areas and lack a supportive social network, they are likely to end up in informal settlements, where a culture of poverty is said to be developing, characterized by high rates of teenage pregnancy, broken marriages, and incomplete schooling. A study of young people in several informal settlements in Lusaka in 2001, for example, found that a few such youth were employed in the formal sector, about 25 percent ran informal enterprises, and the majority (almost 75 percent) relied on short-term survival strategies. Among the latter group, about 74 percent said they were doing nothing, with the remainder doing casual work, helping out in a family business, or helping a friend. A worrying 11.5 percent were engaged in other activities, which most likely included stealing, selling prohibited substances like marijuana or fuel, and prostitution (Chigunta 2001). Young people in Zambia are now less educated than their parents (World Bank 2007b). Until the late 1970s, Zambia was distinguished among African nations for its easy access to and generous public funding of good-quality primary through tertiary education in both rural and urban areas. This funding was part of a deliberate government policy to educate and empower citizenry for economic development (Kalinda 2004, 6). Since then, public disinvestment in education, together with a rising youth population, has reduced educational quality and access (Chigunta 2001). Although over 70 percent of children were enrolled in primary or secondary education in 1994, standards of educational achievement are alarmingly low, while the severe undersupply of secondary and tertiary education frustrates the progress of young people. And despite a diminishing gender bias in schools, young women are still likelier to drop out or be pulled out of school, develop fewer skills, and receive less support for their education (Government of Zambia 2007). Widespread poverty, compounded by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, has undermined traditional age-based social relations and institutions, such as schools and families. In this environment, young people must be highly mobile to improve their prospects. The absence of support outside of kin-based social networks means that young people who move far away to pursue economic advancement may end up in informal urban settlements or on the streets. Chigunta (2001) studied youth in such settlements in Lusaka and found evidence of declining expectations among older as 3 Data from the Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) conducted in Zambia in 2004 show that 40 percent of the population considered themselves very poor, 48 percent, moderately poor; and 12 percent, not poor. The World Bank figures above are based on the LCMS, but cite different figures from those reported by the CSO. 2 compared to younger youth, raising concern that the difficulties faced by young Zambians in accessing productive resources are disenfranchising them from full citizenship in Zambian society. He concluded that Zambian youth have become the victims of . . . the crises and disintegration of educational and other social institutions that are supposed to facilitate the entry of youth into socially defined adulthood (2001). Methodology In-depth interviews were conducted in 2007 with 60 young men and women between the ages of 23 and 30, who lived in urban Lusaka, Rural Eastern Province, and the industrialized Copperbelt. The survey sample included youth working in the formal and informal, public and private sectors, the self-employed and the unemployed. Life histories were collected from the interviewees, with particular attention to: young people`s starting position in terms of gender; the socioeconomic status, occupation, and education of their parents; and their place of birth;4 the choices they have made along the way (e.g., regarding education, migration, employment, and family); and the opportunities and constraints confronted by them (e.g., social norms, cultural values, family and other social support networks, educational and job opportunities). Interviewees were asked to describe the financial background of their families and to select a category drawn from the typology developed by the Chronic Poverty Research Institute (based at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom), namely: chronically poor, moving into poverty, moving out of poverty, or not poor. Respondents found these categories restricting, however, and some created hybrid categories to answer the question. Their life histories were complemented by interviews with representative Zambians from youth organizations and youth projects, bilateral and multilateral donors, government agencies, NGOs, and the private sector. Secondary data included academic publications and government and policy reports, including census and survey data. Table 5. Key informants Type of informant Number Notes Youth organizations/ projects 6 Black Zambians, two female Bilateral and multilateral donors 4 Black Zambians, one female Government-led national 1 Black Zambian coordination body Researcher 1 Black Zambian Consultant 1 White Zambian Private sector employer 1 White Zambian, female employer with a staff of around 100 International NGO 1 Black Zambian Religious organization 1 Black Zambian 4 Questions were also asked about ethnicity, but since analysis of the responses did not detect any significant patterns, ethnicity does not figure in study findings. 3 Survey sample Respondents were purposively sampled to capture a wide range of youth experience of economic empowerment and/or disempowerment.5 Purposive criteria included gender (male and female), location (urban Lusaka, rural Eastern, and industrialized Copperbelt provinces,, and type of employment (seven categories, including the unemployed).6 Lusaka Province accounted for 14 percent of Zambia`s population of 11.1 million in 2005, the Copperbelt, for another 16 percent (it also had the largest concentration of poor people in Zambia); and Eastern Province, for 13 percent (Government of Zambia 2007). See table 6 below. Table 6. Location of survey respondents by survey category Survey category Lusaka Copperbelt Eastern Total Already successful 5 (2)a 5 (2) Going places 7 (3) 3 (2) 1 (0) 11 (5) Solid start 7 (5) 2 9 (5) May have potential 7 (3) 2 1 (1) 10 (4) Little potential 6 (2) 6 (4) 1 (1) 13 (7) Unable to find a job 1 (1) 5 (2) 1 7 (3) Economically excluded 3 (1) 2 (1) 5 (2) Total 36 18 6 60 (28) Note: aTotal interviewees, followed by number of females in parentheses. Table 7. Geographic composition of survey sample Lusaka Copperbelt Eastern Province (urban) (urban) (rural) Total Employment status Male Female Male Female Male Female Employed Public formal sector 3 3 - - - - 6 Private formal sector 3 3 3 3 - - 12 Informal sector 3 3 - - - - 6 Self-employed Employ others 3 3 - - - - 6 Work alone 3 3 3 3 - - 12 Semi-subsistence farmers - - - - 3 3 6 Unemployed 3 3 3 3 - - 12 Total 18 18 9 9 3 3 60 The intention of the study was to explore how young Zambians find their way to different outcomes in terms of economic empowerment. The sample was therefore biased towards urban areas, that is, 5 Young people were identified at work and in public places by two interviewers, who avoided clustering interviewees by selecting them from different locations at each research site. Interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide and were recorded, transcribed (translated when necessary), and analyzed using Nvivo 7, software used for analyzing qualitative data. 6 The sample contained no Asian or white Zambians, only black Zambians from different ethnic groups. 4 toward young Zambians who were employed, particularly those who were formally employed. The sample is thus skewed towards those that could be expected to be more economically successful and over-represents young people working in formal employment (30 percent of the sample as opposed to approximately 17 percent of all Zambians over 12 years of age) and under-represents young people in the informal sector (who comprise 81 percent of all Zambians over 12 years of age). The bias is greater for women. To better identify the factors responsible for the differences between youth who had achieved economic success and those who had not (at least, not yet), respondents were clustered according to their current level of economic success (see table 8 below). The decision as to the most suitable category for each respondent was based on the research team`s overall impression of an interviewee`s earning power, stability of basic earnings, and the likelihood of maintaining or increasing their earning power over time. Table 8. Survey categories of economic success Category Defining characteristics Already successful Already earn high salaries and have strong prospects for the future Going places Earn good salaries. Although everyone in this group completed high school, only some have any tertiary education, and they are likely to improve their economic position in the future. Solid start Earn fair salaries, but while they have made a solid start in either employment, self- employment, or business, they have yet to establish a secure position, complete their training, or realize their potential. May have potential Earn lower, but reasonably secure salaries, either from skilled or supervisory positions, in informal employment or through self-employment. These young Zambians have yet to get on the path to success, but have aspirations or are otherwise unproven and may yet be able to achieve success. Little potential Earn lower or variable salaries in low-skilled or low-paid jobs in the informal or formal sector or through self-employment. These young Zambians have little potential to progress economically from where they stand at the moment, but they are working. Unable to find a job Unable to attain appropriate employment over considerable periods of time and describe themselves as unemployed.a They may or may not be actively seeking employment. Some do nothing, some do subsistence farming or take piecework in the informal sector; others earn more substantial incomes from inconsistent or informal activities unrelated to their career aspirations. These young Zambians have little or no relevant experience. Economically Earning nothing or very little and living in chronically poor households. This group are excluded highly excluded from mainstream society and trapped in severe poverty. Note: a Unemployed here is a self-definition. Since the study focused on how youth perceived themselves, this category is not equivalent to standard ILO definitions of unemployment. Indeed, only some in the analytical category, unable to find a job, were actually idle. Most such respondents were involved in some income-generating activities, but unlike youth in other categories, were unwilling to define their occupations in terms of their income-generating activities, which they viewed as secondary or not professionally relevant. Rather, they saw themselves as seeking or waiting for proper work or business opportunities. 5 The purpose of the categories above is simply to facilitate disaggregated analysis. They do not imply a linear progression or single path to success or how success may be achieved. In fact, a key aim of the research was to understand how young people themselves define and conceptualize the path to success. Table 9. Respondents' type of employment, by survey category Formal Informal Self- Survey category employment employment employed Students Farmers Unemployed Total Already successful 4 (2)a 1 5 (2) Going places 6 (2) 5 (3) 11 (5) Solid start 5 (3) 1 2 (2) 1 9 (5) May have potential 2 2 (2) 4 (2) 1 1 10 (4) Little potential 3 (2) 4 (3) 5 (1) 1 (1) 13 (7) Unable to find a job 7 (3) 7 (3) Economically excluded 1 1 (1) 3 (1) 5 (2) Total 20 (9) 8 (5) 17 (8) 3 (1) 1 (1) 11 (4) 60 (28) Note: aTotal interviewees, followed by number of females in parentheses. Structure of the report The report uses the above analytical categories throughout the discussion. Chapter 1 begins by describing the current situations of the 60 young people who were interviewed, fleshing out their different levels of economic success. It then looks at how young people actually experienced their work, with particular reference to their experiences and views of formal versus informal employment, and finally, considers how their experience and earnings actually translate into economic empowerment. Chapter 2 examines the ways in which childhood and family circumstances shaped young people`s trajectories through education and their transition to work, as well as influenced their economic outcomes. Chapter 3 hones in on some of the key school-to-school, school-to-work, and work-to-work transitions in order to understand what factors guide or constrain the choices of youth. Chapter 4 discusses young people`s views of success, their personal aspirations, and how they perceive their opportunities. The conclusion then summarizes the findings of the survey and makes some recommendations. 6 Chapter 1. Young People at Work This chapter examines the present-day situations of the 60 young men and women interviewed for the study, categorizing them into six categories according to their engagement in economic life and their likely prospects for the future. The sections that follow examine the kinds of work that young people do, including how they obtain and experience it; the text highlights the fact that many youth combine multiple income-generating activities, in some cases as part of a strategy to finance further education. The chapter goes on to consider the relationship between different kinds of work and economic empowerment. Progress towards economic success Table 10. "Already successful" survey category Highest educational Name Sex Age Location Main job Sector achievement Zulu M 30 Lusaka Mining engineer Private, Degree self-employed Aaron M 30 Lusaka University lecturer Public, employed Masters degree Goodwill M 29 Lusaka Accounts assistant Public, employed Diploma Tabitha F 29 Lusaka Senior parliamentary Public, employed Masters degree counsel Rita F 29 Lusaka Business development Private, employed Degree representative Young people who were in advantageous positions had already followed the path laid out by their parents--all of them came from comfortable, well-educated homes. Everyone in this group was employed (self-employed in one case) in Lusaka. All had reached tertiary education: one had completed a diploma; two, overseas master`s degrees; three were still studying for further qualifications. All of these respondents came from families where the father also reached tertiary education and all had matched or exceeded their fathers` education level. All grew up in households that were not poor,7 with parents working in either high- or lower-level professional occupations. Individuals in this group were also at the upper end of the age range in the sample. 7 Most successful respondents chose not poor, but went on to describe a mix of material circumstances. 7 Table 11. "Going places" survey category Highest Sector, educational Name Sex Age Location Main job employment status achievement Isiah M 29 Lusaka Secondary school Public, employed Degree and post- teacher graduate teacher training diploma Agnes F 24 Copperbelt Businesswoman, Informal, self- Grade 12 importer (clothes, employed foodstuffs, and hardware) Moses M 28 Copperbelt Graphic designer Private, self-employed Diploma Sanakonda M 22 Lusaka Bank clerk Private, employed Grade 12 Rebecca F 29 Lusaka College lecturer Public, employed Diploma Tepson M 23 Eastern Fuel trader Illegal, self-employed Grade 12 Beauty F 23 Copperbelt Bookshop keeper Semi-informal, self- Grade 12 employed Rogers M 25 Lusaka Customer support Private, employed Degree engineer Mary F 25 Lusaka Businesswoman Informal, self- Grade 9 (clothes imports) employed Joseph M 26 Lusaka Accounting and Private, employed Degree administrative assistant Brenda F 25 Lusaka Human resource officer Private, employed Diploma Respondents in the going places category engaged in a wide range of activities, from employment in the formal public sector to illegal fuel trading. Everyone in this group had completed secondary school (grade 12) but one (Mary), who completed grade 9. Four of the employed were also studying for further qualifications, including diplomas, advanced academic degrees, and information technology (IT) and accounting qualifications. Eight grew up with fathers who had at least completed secondary school. Three young women had not (yet) matched their fathers` education level, although Beauty was studying for a diploma. 8 Table 12. "Solid start" survey category Highest Sector, employment educational Name Sex Age Location Main job status achievement Tembo M 24 Lusaka Administrative and Private, employee Advanced diploma accounts officer Prudence F 27a Lusaka Research supervisor Informal, self-employed Degree Helen F 23 Lusaka Policewoman Public, employee Grade 12 Phileas M 24 Lusaka Businessman selling Informal, self-employed Grade 12 electrical and computer goods on the street Naaliah F 24 Lusaka Sales executive at Private, employee Grade 12 Internet cafe Christina F 30 Lusaka Audits assistant Private, employee Accounting diploma Abraham M 26 Copperbelt Field officer Private, employee Degree Namwene F 30 Lusaka Shopkeeper Semi-informal, self- Degree employed Levy M 23 Copperbelt Student Student Grade 12 Note: a Asking a person`s age was a sensitive issue. Ages given by informants need to be interpreted with caution. Prudence`s age was calculated by working backwards, from her periods of employment and unemployment since graduation, as well as the age she gave for her graduation. Everyone in this group had completed secondary school. Three had university degrees; two, a diploma; one also had an advanced diploma and a NATECH (national accounting) qualification. Only Levy was currently studying. The childhood household circumstances of these respondents were diverse compared to those of respondents in the going places or already successful categories. Four respondents said that they were not poor; two, chronically poor; and three, either moving into poverty or moving in and out of poverty. With the exception of Christina, all respondents that had completed post-secondary education grew up in households that were not poor. All fathers of the remaining respondents in this category had completed tertiary education; including two with master`s degrees, three with undergraduate degrees, and one with a diploma. 9 Table 13. "May have potential" survey category Highest Sector, educational Name Sex Age Location Main job employment status achievement Everlasting M 29 Lusaka Market trader Informal, self- Grade 9 employed Sophie F 24 Eastern Nursery school teacher Private, self-employed Grade 12 and nursery teachers certificate Iris F 25 Lusaka Hair dresser Informal, self- Grade 9 employed Cornelius M 22 Lusaka Carpenter Private, employed Grade 9 and carpentry certificate Lucy F 24 Lusaka Tailor Private, employed Grade 9 and tailoring certificate Jones M 23 Copperbelt Security site supervisor Private, employed Grade 11 Acton M 23 Lusaka Student Student Grade 12 Tamara F 25 Lusaka Runs own market Informal, self- Grade 9 restaurant employed Aubrey M 23 Lusaka Unemployed Unemployed Degree Simon M 23 Copperbelt Cook Private, employed Grade 12 Four respondents in this group were self-employed. Acton was a full-time diploma student while Aubrey had completed his degree a month prior to the interview and had not yet found work. Their educational achievements varied. One had an undergraduate degree, three had completed high school, and one was in training as a nursery teacher. The rest had completed lower secondary school (Grade 9), one of whom subsequently trained in business management, tailoring, and computers, and another in carpentry. Their fathers were literate, but the education level of their fathers varied, from one degree holder to several who did not complete secondary school, to one who completed the standard five years of primary school. Four of these young Zambians were less educated than their parents. 10 Table 14. "Little potential" survey category Sector, Highest educational Name Sex Age Location Main job employment status achievement Temwani F 26 Copperbelt Market trader Informal, self-employed Grade 9 Lungowe F 23 Copperbelt Cleaner Private, employed Grade 12 Natasha F 23 Copperbelt Student Student Grade 12 Jeremiah M 23 Lusaka Garden boy Informal, employed Grade 7 Best M 23 Lusaka Block maker Informal, self-employed Grade 5 Mercy F 23 Eastern Shop assistant Informal, employed Grade 12 Julius M 23 Copperbelt Car washer Informal, self-employed Grade 2 Stephen M 23 Copperbelt Gas station Private, employed Grade 12 attendant Wenceslas M 25 Lusaka Artist Informal, self-employed Grade 9 Tapelwa F 25 Lusaka Bar worker Private, employed Grade 12 Malaika F 23 Lusaka Shop assistant Informal, employed Grade 12 Fred M 25 Lusaka Clothes wholesaler Informal, self-employed Grade 5 Dorice F 23 Lusaka Maid Informal, employed Grade 9 Only six respondents in this group had completed secondary school (grade 12). In three of the seven cases for which data was available on the father`s educational level, fathers were more qualified than their children. Four respondents in this group grew up in households they described as not poor, otherwise the majority described their families as chronically poor, poor, moving into poverty, moving in and out of poverty, and in one case, moving out of poverty. Table 15. "Unable to find a job" category Sector, Highest educational Name Sex Age Location Main job employment status achievement Crispin M 23 Copperbelt Unemployed Unemployed Diploma Lily F 24 Copperbelt Unemployed Unemployed Grade 9 Noah M 28 Copperbelt Unemployed student Unemployed Degree Febian M 23 Eastern Unemployed farmer Unemployed Grade 12 Damaris F 23 Lusaka Unemployed Unemployed Grade 12 Joyce F 23 Copperbelt Unemployed Unemployed Grade 12 Iwomba M 27 Copperbelt Unemployed Unemployed Grade 12 Febian was 23 years old and had only completed secondary school at age 22. He had not been unemployed for long, but his very late educational achievement might well undermine the labor- market value of his secondary school certificate. Those who described themselves as unemployed were not necessarily idle or without incomes. Crispin earned a good income teaching salsa classes in the evenings at a dance club, but since he aspired to a professional job, he saw this activity as secondary. A similar case held for Damaris, who plaited hair at home. Educational achievements in this group varied either matching or exceeding the educational levels of respondents` fathers8 and, with one exception (Joyce), of their mothers as well. 8 No information was available about Iwomba`s father. 11 Table 16. "Economically excluded" survey category Sector, Highest educational Name Sex Age Location Job employment status achievement Margaret F 23 Eastern Farmer Informal, self-employed Grade 9 Rose F 23 Lusaka Unemployed Unemployed Grade 12 Boniface M 23 Lusaka Porter Informal, piece worker Grade 2 Moffat M 25 Eastern Unemployed Unemployed Grade 3 Bernard M 25 Lusaka Unemployed Unemployed Grade 5 The five respondents in this category all described their household situations as one of chronic poverty. Bernard was homeless; Boniface did piecework;9 Moffat was a subsistence farmer, but his family had been evicted from their land. Rose--the only one in the group to have completed secondary school--had been rejected by her family. Margaret had completed her lower secondary education, but the others were likely functionally illiterate. How young people obtain and experience work This section presents a closer investigation of how young people surveyed for this study obtained their current employment, how they perceived their work, and what they considered their priorities. Several kinds of employment are examined: formal employment in the public and private sectors; informal sector employment; self-employment in consistent businesses; self-employment in illegal or less consistent businesses; semi-subsistence farming; studying; and finally, being unemployed. Formal employment Employment in the formal sector is not necessarily conducive to economic success. The 20 young Zambians in the sample who were formal employees (see table 17) were employed in a range of jobs, from professional or white collar positions through unskilled manual labor. The two top professionals were already successful women earning in excess of ZMK 5 million10 per month: Rita, with five years` previous experience in the same business, responded to an advertisement for someone to open up a Zambian office for a foreign-owned freight company in Lusaka; Tabitha worked her way up the Ministry of Justice, which sponsored her lawyer`s practicing certificate. Five of the six other professionals employed in the formal sector earned more than 1MK per month: one was already successful three others were going places. Interestingly, two found jobs through their training: Rebecca, a college lecturer, was recruited by the college where she trained, and Joseph, an accounts assistant, was offered a job by the company where he did his internship as a student. Both generally enjoyed their work, finding it interesting, rewarding, and found that it gave them a sense of achievement. Yet everyone in this group either felt the need to develop additional income- 9 Piecework is a category of employment in both the formal and informal sectors that is widely used by young people; it also figures in official statistics, such as the LCMS (Government of Zambia 2005). It refers to a most casual form of employment where payment is not per hour but in relation to output. Young Zambians use this category to describe what we might regard as service transactions. 10 As of January 7, 2009, the Zambian Kwacha (ZMK) was the equivalent of US$ 0.0002 (US$1 = 4,880 ZMK). XE Web site, http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi (accessed January 2009). 12 generating activities. Rita and Isiah did occasional consultancy work; Isiah owned an unlicensed vehicle with a driver. In addition, three respondents in this group also studied part-time. Table 17. Formal sector employees and pieceworkers Name Survey category Main job Monthly earnings (ZMK)a Aaron Already successful University lecturer 5,800,000 Rita Already successful Business development representative 10,000,000 Tabitha Already successful Senior parliamentary counsel 7,000,000 Goodwill Already successful Accounts assistant 9,200,000 Isiah Going places Secondary school teacher 2,000,000 Sanakonda Going places Bank clerk 1,700,000 Rebecca Going places College lecturer 900,000 Rogers Going places Customer support engineer Min. 2,000,000 Joseph Going places Accounts and administrative assistant 1,950,000M Brenda Going places Human resources officer 1­1,500,000 Tembo Solid start Administrative and accounts officer 500,000 Helen Solid start Policewoman 645,000 Naaliah Solid start Sales executive at Internet cafe 700,000 Christina Solid start Audits assistant 500,000 Abraham Solid start Field officer 148,000 Jones May have potential Security site supervisor 345,000 Simon May have potential Cook 325,000 Lungowe Little potential Cleaner 450,000 Stephen Little potential Gas station attendant 350,000 Tapelwa Little potential Bar worker 400,000 Note: aThese reported monthly earnings are presented for comparison purposes. All earnings are reported averages and should be treated with caution. Many young people`s earnings varied and many, particularly lower earners, often reported their income by different time periods (i.e., weeks or days) or by units that related to work completed. The evidence on the importance of secondary employment, even for well-paid professional workers, confirms Chigunta's (2001) assertion that economic crises and restructuring have impacted professional classes in most African countries. As a result they, together with their less- educated peers, are compelled to engage in multiple activities in the urban informal sector. The LCMS of 2004 estimated that 2 percent of local government employees, 16 percent of central government employees, and 9 percent of private employees in Zambia have secondary jobs. Secondary jobs were not confined to employees; an estimated 15 percent of those who were self- employed also had secondary jobs (Government of Zambia 2005). While none of the respondents reported using their own connections to obtain good jobs, youth at every level of economic success considered the practice endemic. As Tapelwa (little potential category) said,: [W]hen you go to the big companies like ZAMTEL, ZESCO, TAZAMA, they want relatives unless you pay someone--that`s when you get good employment. Joseph (going places category) concurred, Most people that get good jobs or business opportunities. . . it is not because they have the skills or the necessary education, it is because they know someone in some strategic position or perhaps they have corrupted someone or have some good money to corrupt someone. So 13 if you are straightforward, morally up, and you don`t have money to corrupt, you will basically get nowhere. The six lower-level professionals in this group grossed between ZKM 500,000 and ZMK 1.7 million per month. They enjoyed their work to varying degrees, with Brenda, a human relations officer, and Helen, a police officer, enjoying the interpersonal relations that their jobs required, while others in this cluster either felt underpaid relative to their qualifications or intimidated by their employers. Only Tembo had an additional source of income: he ran a bar in which he employed a worker. The lower-level formal sector jobs held by survey respondents were not particularly secure. Lungowe, for example, knew her employers would dismiss her before she had completed six months in order to avoid labor regulations relating to longer-term employees. This practice was confirmed by a private sector employer interviewed for the study, who referred to the archaic and somewhat onerous labor laws in Zambia as a major brake on the ability of companies to streamline, upgrade, update their workforces--for the simple reason that they cannot afford to pay the required terminal benefits. Tapelwa supplemented her bar income by sewing (mostly duvet covers) in her spare time and was trying to study for a diploma in social work at night school, even though she could only attend class on her night off. Simon earned extra money as disc jockey for special events on his night off, making around ZMK 250,000K each time he worked. Another of these employees, who had a family farm, funded a market stand that sold groceries; the stand was run by his brother with help from his mother. The bottom end of the formal sector is piecework employment. Iwomba lives with relatives who feed him, but is forced to look for piecework to buy decent clothes and mix with people without shame. He is not choosy about casual work and has previously packed and loaded crates of beer for a brewery company. The terrible 12-hour shifts without eating breaks brought him ZMK 469,000 per month, the highest monthly wage of the less-skilled private sector workers who participated in the survey. Securing this sort of work is, however, very difficult; there are few alternatives for people without post-secondary qualifications in Copperbelt, and Iwomba repeatedly had to enquire for vacancies at this workplace before getting a chance. Once he has raised sufficient funds, he gives up the job since the work is so physically damaging. Informal sector employment Table 18. Informal sector employees and pieceworkers Reported approximate Name Survey category Main work monthly earnings (ZMK) Cornelius May have potential Carpenter 200,000 Lucy May have potential Tailor 250,000 Malaika Little potential Shop assistant 200,000 Mercy Little potential Shop assistant 100,000 Jeremiah Little potential Garden boy 50,000 Dorice Little potential Domestic maid 170,000 Julius Little potential Car washer 700,000 Boniface Economically excluded Wheelbarrow porter Max. 400,000 The young people in this group tended to work long hours in jobs that were physically demanding and had difficulty saving money from their small wages to fund additional activities. Despite low wages, only Lucy and Mercy were involved in secondary income-generating 14 activities. Two respondents in this group were pieceworkers. Boniface regarded himself as unemployed, but earned money to keep his wife, her two younger brothers, and his child driving a wheelbarrow (known locally as a zamcab). He hired the wheelbarrow for ZMK 4,000 per day and kept earnings beyond the rent. On a good day he made ZMK 15,000­20,000K; his nephew, who does the same work, initially encouraged him in this job. Julius washes cars--mostly taxis--outside a lodge. He makes around ZMK 30,000­50,000 a day working 10 hours. Despite the negative stereotyping of urban unemployed youth and the fact that young people doing these sorts of jobs are widely perceived as having criminal tendencies (Chigunta 2001), both Boniface and Julius are able to make money similar to what lower-skilled or manual jobs in the formal sector would bring them. Their wages far exceeded what they would get from jobs in the informal sector. Self-employment in consistent businesses Many survey respondents ran their own semi-formal or informal businesses, but only one ran a business in the formal sector. Zulu (already successful category) was running a company in partnership with another mechanical engineer and an accountant; the company supplies electrical and mechanical parts and does engineering projects. Zulu enjoyed the challenge and derived both satisfaction and a sense of achievement from his work. He identified the difficulties of working in the formal sector as bureaucratic, specifically, regulatory and financial constraints that cause delays, involve substantial costs, and limit economic dynamism. Despite his economic success and long hours, Zulu, like several other successful young people interviewed for the study, engaged in other income-generating activities. He ran a bar with one employee, in which his brother is a partner, and also did some subsistence farming. Table 19. Self-employed in consistent businesses Name Survey category Main job Earnings/gross* Zulu Already successful Mining engineer 10,000,000Kpm Moses Going places Graphic designer 1,000,000Kpm Beauty Going places Bookshop keeper 4-600,000Kpm Prudence Solid start Research supervisor 2,000,000Kpm Namweme Solid start Shopkeeper Min 2MKpm but at times much higher Everlasting May have potential Market trader 240-720,000Kpm* Sophie May have potential Nursery school teacher 400,000Kpm Iris May have potential Hair dresser 250- 350,000Kpm Tamara May have potential Runs own market 1,200,000Kpm restaurant Temwani Little potential Market trader 72-240,000Kpm* Best Little potential Block maker 300,000Kpm Fred Little potential Clothes wholesaler 800-1,200,000Kpm* Three respondents in table 19 were self-employed lower-level professionals: two were freelance consultants and one was a private nursery teacher. All would rather be formally employed. Three survey respondents in this group had small market businesses. Temwani and Everlasting ran their own stands. Both enjoyed their work, Temwani because . . . from it I support my children and Everlasting because he preferred to work for himself. Although both reported that their incomes 15 were variable, Temwani stressed that she could find profit in it and money for food for home, while Everlasting emphasized the importance of having ready access to cash for contingency purposes. He recounted the financial problems he had faced when he dealt his late mother`s ill health and had to wait to the end of each month for his salary. This experience motivated him to start his own business so that he would have his own money to take his mother to the hospital whenever she needed to go. Everlasting contributes 4 to 6 hours a day to running a family grocery shop in the same market, which is run by his elder brother. The family shop is used to meet household expenses; Everlasting can either keep the profit from his own stand or use it for shortfalls in household income. Fred also had a small, settled business in the market: he bought truckloads of second-hand clothing and sold it in sacks sorted into specific types of clothing. His weekly earnings of around ZMK 200,000­300,000 showed that he had the potential to earn greater income as a wholesaler. Fred was formerly be a street hawker and had managed to become a businessman by working for a friend who was wholesaling ladies shoes. This very low-paid employment (ZMK 150,000 per month) allowed him to learn the ropes of the business and, since he was single and living with relatives, set aside savings for start-up capital of his own. Box 2. Self-employment often the result of family connections, especially for women For many Zambian youth, working in family businesses lays the groundwork for their own successful self-employment. This finding appeared especially true for young women in the survey sample. Among respondents who were self- employed in consistent businesses, eight ran established businesses in the informal or semi-formal sector. Two young women--Namwene and Tamara--had the most established businesses: a general store at the University of Zambia (UNZA) and a restaurant in Chilenje market, respectively. Both women had taken over their businesses from relatives, Namwene from her mother and Tamara from her sister. Similarly, Beauty ran a small educational bookshop, the premises of which she had taken over her from an aunt. Before opening the shop, she had managed to save ZMK 600,000 from selling cakes made to order in her mother`s shop, then asked her parents to help her by giving her another ZMK 1 million. Agnes and Mary were traders. Both bought clothes (in the case of Agnes, hardware as well) from abroad to sell in Zambia. They paid customs duty, but had neither registered their businesses nor their premises. Although their businesses were similar, they had started very differently. Mary had worked for her brother-in-law, buying clothes for his business, and eventually started on her own. Agnes was helped financially by her sisters and received much practical advice from experienced traders whom she met en route to Tanzania. Yet her first job had been assisting a sister in a small business, which she began while she was still in school. Best ran a block-making business in a roadside workspace. He bought truckloads of quarry dust and cement and made blocks that he sold at this site. He employed two pieceworkers. His monthly income was roughly ZMK 1.2 million, which put him on par with the lower-level professionals working in the informal sector who were interviewed for this study. He had very little education (grade 6), which meant that little chance of finding better employment and little capacity to develop his business; he also had a family to support and could not accumulate savings.11 11 Best was classified as having little potential since he can only maintain his earnings through long hours of hard manual labor. 16 Self-employment in illegal or inconsistent businesses Table 20. Self-employed respondents in inconsistent businesses Gross monthly earnings Name Survey category Main job (other) (ZMK) Agnes Going places Clothes and hardware import trader 200,000-2,000,000Kpm (plaits hair) (400,00-1,000,000Kpm) Mary Going places Imported clothes trader 2,000,000Kpm Tepson going places Illegal fuel importer 200,000-1,200,000Kpm Phileas Solid start Electrical and computer goods trader Not clear Crispin Unable to find a job (Salsa lessons) (560,000Kpm) Damaris Unable to find a job (Hair plaiting from home) (600,000-1,200,000Kpm) Noah Unable to find a job (Collects fares on uncles minibus and does Unclear freelance bookkeeping) The 2004 LCMS estimated that 1.1 percent of 20­24-year-olds and 2 to 4 percent of 25­29-year- olds who are unemployed engage in some sort of income-generating activity (CSO 2005). Young people with illegal or inconsistent businesses are relatively free from constraints with respect to the number of hours they work per day. They can be regarded as opportunistic and some of their businesses are of dubious legality. Their income can, however, be surprisingly good (see table20). Consider Agnes and Mary, who imported goods for resale; or Tepson, who illegally imported fuel; and Phileas, who traded electrical and computer goods on the street. Respondents with inconsistent businesses also included three young people who were classified as unable to find a job, however, two of them earned more than expected. Two young people who defined themselves as unemployed also engaged in casual, low-paid work: Damaris, who had never had a formal job, had been plaiting hair at home for two years. She was not in a position to save for further investment in this activity. Noah, who had a degree in Business Administration and was a qualified accounts clerk, helped his uncle by collecting fares on his two minibuses and by doing some freelance bookkeeping. Other narratives revealed the diverse strategies of the unemployed, which involved them in inconsistent informal work, such as helping out friends in their businesses. These jobs fell far short of employment, but could be interpreted as an investment (in labor) in shoring up social networks that might provide some support when needed, or perhaps a way of learning a business or getting in line for a business opening. Iwomba (unable to find a job category) had at various times tried to earn money by hawking items on the streets. His experience showed that street hawking at this level produces so little return as to be without value. Selling one box of crisps (52 packets) took him nearly a week and earned him only ZMK 7,000 in profit. Subsistence farming Table 21. Subsistence farmer survey respondents Name Survey category Main job (other) Gross earnings (ZMK)* Mercy Little potential Shop assistant (farmer) 100,000/mo. (none) Febian Unable to find a job Farmer (ganyu ploughing) None (20,000­30,000 per day) Margaret Economically excluded Farmer 350,000 last season 17 Of the three young Zambians who farmed, Mercy12 and Margaret saw themselves as farmers, while Febian described himself as unemployed. Mercy and her husband farmed land that the headman had given for usufruct to their families, as did Febian`s family. They grew only for consumption, did not sell, and relied on local recycled senga seed. Both spent about five hours a day farming and therefore were underemployed, as well as under-resourced. In contrast to Febian and Mercy, Margaret was given her own portion of land on a family farm because she dropped out of school and was not married. The scale of her own and her family`s farming was constrained by the supply (not the cost) of fertilizer (We don`t farm on a large scale because fertilizer is very hard to get). The implication was that farming works best for young people when they are able to finance agricultural inputs from other employment or businesses. Mercy described farming as difficult, Febian didn`t like it, but Margaret enjoyed it. Studying part-time or full-time Table 22. Student respondents Name Survey category Main job Subject Rita Already successful Business development MBA representative Zulu Already successful Mining engineer Diploma in Project Management Goodwill Already successful Accounts assistant ACCA II Sanakonda Going places Bank clerk B.S., Business Economics Beauty Going places Bookshop manager Diploma in Business Administration Brenda Going places Human Resources Officer Diploma in Human Resources Joseph Going places Accounts and ACCA administrative officer Rogers Going places Customer services Certified Cisco Network engineer Associate Agnes Going places Imported clothes trader 1-year certificate in Hotel and Catering Isiah Going places Secondary school teacher French evening classes Levy Solid start Student A-level exams Acton May have potential Student 6-month IT certificate Natasha Little potential Student Diploma in Social Work Tapelwa Little potential Bar worker Diploma in Social work Noah Unable to find a job Unemployed student ACCA Fifteen young people in the study sample were currently studying, but only three identified themselves primarily as students. The fragility of their educational aspirations was marked. Levy was studying for his A-level exams with the hope of getting a foothold to do medical studies 12 Although farming is her principal occupation, the study identified Mercy`s main job, or employment, as a shop assistant in a local drug store, since she and her husband earn nothing from farming. 18 overseas, but he did not generate any income and was likely sponsored by parents or relatives. Acton was studying for a six-month certificate in IT as a foundation for doing a diploma. He had financed his studies so far by selling cosmetics for two months (his elder sister provided the initial capital), but as a result of his poor management, he did not know if he would be able to enroll for the next semester. Natasha was doing a two-year diploma in social work at night school because it was cheaper. She hoped to find work in a hospital or for an organization afterwards; her parents were paying her fees and she also earned a little money for herself by helping run the café at the YMCA (a youth income-generating project), as well as by baking and selling cakes with her sister. The more secure students were in the economically successful category and in a stronger financial position to upgrade already good educations. Additionally, having already made the transition into career-relevant employment, they could be more certain of deriving payoffs from future investments in education. Rita needed additional knowledge to move ahead in her career, hence her motivation for doing a three-year MBA from the Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institute. Sanakonda was studying for a degree in Business Economics part-time by correspondence from an American University (Tenfoster). He paid US$50 a month and intended to complete the two-year course ahead of time. Four students were studying for diplomas; three saw their studies as stepping-stones to further qualifications: Zulu, Beauty, and Brenda all aspired to complete degrees, the first two specifically hoped to do MBAs. All studied part-time, Zulu over the Internet with a U.K. institution, and Beauty and Brenda in local evening classes. Tapelwa viewed her studies as the path to decent employment; she hoped to work in an orphanage where her aunt was employed. She paid ZMK 1 million in fees each year, but despite her brother`s encouragement, it was hard to see how she could effectively take evening classes when she worked nights. Goodwill, Joseph, and Noah were studying for internationally recognized accountancy qualifications. It is standard practice even for accountancy graduates from Copperbelt University (CBU) to upgrade their degrees this way. Goodwill saw the ACCA qualification as vital for giving him other options and independence from his government employment in the long run. He managed the costs of obtaining the ACCA qualification by taking advances on his salary. However, the government had started paying his subscription and he was only going have to meet exam fees. Noah could no longer afford tuition and had to drop out of regular classes. He could just afford the exam fees, so he copied lecture notes from friends and studied by himself. Joseph`s company was paying his fees, so he was tied to it for a contractual period. Rogers was studying for a CCNA (Certified Cisco Network Associate) certificate, a prerequisite to be confirmed as permanent in his job as an IT customer services engineer. The certificate would also give him the freedom to work elsewhere, but must be renewed every three years because of the pace of change in IT. Finally, Isiah, a secondary school teacher, was studying French at the Alliance Française. He planned to go to a French-speaking country to work and study. Looking for work This group included respondents assigned to the unable to find work category, as well as young people who had been unsuccessful in finding acceptable work, and thus perceived themselves as unemployed. 19 Table 23. Respondents looking for work and unemployed respondents Highest educational Name Sex Age Survey category Main job (other) achievement Prudence F Solid start Research supervisor Degree Aubrey M 23 May have potential Unemployed for one Degree month Crispin M 23 Unable to find a job Unemployed (salsa Diploma teacher) Lily F 24 Unable to find a job Unemployed housewife Grade 9 Noah M 28 Unable to find a job Unemployed student Degree (helps on minibuses; piecework bookkeeping) Febian M 23 Unable to find a job Unemployed farmer Grade 12 Damaris F 23 Unable to find a job Unemployed (hair plaiting) Grade 12 Joyce F 23 Unable to find a job Unemployed Grade 12 Iwomba M 27 Unable to find a job Unemployed (two months Grade 12 since last piecework) Rose F 23 Economically excluded Unemployed Grade 12 Moffat M 25 Economically excluded Unemployed Grade 3 Boniface M 23 Economically excluded Piecework portering Grade 2 Bernard M 25 Economically excluded Unemployed Grade 5 Three respondents with college or university qualifications had been unable to find secure employment after lengthy periods of job searching. To find professionally relevant work, they looked for job advertisements, checked with potential employers, and followed up leads from their social contacts. All three felt that they had the right qualifications for the jobs they applied for, but lacked experience and the opportunity to gain experience. Three women respondents who had completed grade 12 were looking for work to finance their college educations. Damaris, who lived in Lusaka, was responding to job advertisements, but Joyce, who lived in Copperbelt, did not mention advertisements--she had found her two previous jobs through friends or relatives, again suggesting the importance of social contacts in Copperbelt. Rose, who lived in Lusaka, found that even when she sought low-level employment (for instance, in a cafeteria), employers asked for experience and trade qualifications. Moffat and Iwomba were also looking for any kind of work they could get, but simply to earn money in the short term without any strategy to finance education. 20 Box 3. The importance of social networks The young Zambians interviewed for the study found social contacts essential for finding work. The importance of these networks seemed to vary by region, however, with youth living in Copperbelt appearing to rely on them to a much greater degree. For example, whereas Mary and Agnes were both importer-traders, Agnes relied more heavily on her social contacts to make sales in Copperbelt, where she visited possible customers in their homes or places of work. By contrast, Mary didn`t seem to have the same difficulty in Lusaka, where she found new customers easily in supermarkets and the street. Crispin earned a good income teaching salsa classes, but had not been able to find professional employment in Copperbelt. Although he had a diploma that qualified him for work in shipping and clearing, he lacked experience. He felt at a disadvantage, convinced that access to work in Copperbelt was more dependent on social contacts than was the case in Lusaka. His father, moreover, would not use his own contacts to help Crispin get started. Joyce also lived in Copperbelt and had found two previous jobs through her social network; she did not appear to consult want ads when looking for work. Although social networks appeared more necessary in Copperbelt, young people in virtually every category of economic achievement and community considered them essential. Virtually all youth who had not gone further than secondary education, for example, had found work by relying on their contacts. Economic empowerment Assessing the actual economic situations of young people interviewed for the study was not straightforward, given the way in which youth balanced absolute and relative judgments about their situations. Contrary to the view in the literature that everyone in Zambia sees themselves as poor,13 even respondents from the poorest households were reluctant to describe themselves as poor, using instead the word average. Most young people in the sample considered a poor person to be someone who couldn`t afford to eat three meals a day; they could generally point to people worse off than themselves. Those from the most difficult situations preferred to present themselves as striving, searching or looking to improve their situation. Overall, assessing whether or not these young people were economically empowered depended a great deal on complex family circumstances, including whether the individual was the sole household earner, one of several earners, or a dependent (see table 24). As Kalinda (2004) notes, given decades of economic decline in Zambia, plus the impact of HIV/AIDS, [M]any people find themselves in situations of responsibilities at an early age due to circumstances beyond their control. What economic empowerment means in practice also depends on the number of people a young person supports or assists. Dependents can include, but are in no way limited to, their own children, retired parents or older siblings, younger siblings, and more distant relatives, including their own cousins or those of their spouse. Some obligations, of course, are more negotiable while others (such as caring for the orphaned children of a sister) are less negotiable. 13 See footnote 5. 21 Table 24. Respondent marital status and economic independence Inde- Main Sole Single Survey category Dependents pendent earners earners Married Divorced Widows parent Total Already successful 1 3 1 3 1 5 Going places 4 5 2 2 1 11 Solid start 1 2 4 2 1 1 9 May have potential 2 6 2 3 1 10 Little potential 3 2 4 4 4 13 Unable to find a job 5 2 1 7 Economically 3 1 1 1 1 5 excluded Total 18 11 19 12 15 2 1 2 60 Box 4. Family obligations Aaron (already successful), the only earner in a household of five, noted that although his household was doing fine economically, he had to finance his brothers` education. He hoped that the brother who had just completed his education would start earning income so that . . . maybe we can reach a stage where we start investing. Goodwill (already successful) supported his sisters, financially assisted his retired parents, and paid for the education of his wife`s two younger brothers. If not for his wife`s job, he acknowledged that it would be difficult for him even to support his own family. Isiah (going places) and his wife, who ran a small shop, supported their child, his stepchild, his two younger brothers, and his wife`s nephew. Christina (solid start) supported her retired older brother and his three children; she struggled financially and although the family managed to eat three times a day, her brother could not afford to send his children to school. Stephen (little potential) took on the sole financial responsibility for his family as soon as he completed school because his father had retired. He was responsible for his younger sisters` school fees, household bills, and necessities, including food. Iwomba (unable to find a job) periodically accepted casual work in harsh conditions for limited periods in order to earn money for personal expenses. Although this work had led in the past to physical injury, his failure to contribute to the household of his relatives threatened his ability to remain there. He had been asked to move out to make way for another relative who was employed. Margaret (economically excluded) lived with her elderly parents, three sisters, a brother, and the four orphaned children of her late sister. They lived off the proceeds of a family farm and her brother`s earnings as a petty maize trader. The study shed light on the varied household arrangements of young people and revealed the complexity of defining economic dependence in the Zambian context. Of respondents who were economically dependent, some were still in full-time education and receiving social and financial support, others did not have jobs or businesses that were sufficiently remunerative to sustain independent living. In these cases, economic dependence could provide ongoing support and social security until they were able to increase their incomes, upgrade their educations, or save more capital for their businesses. Young people who engaged in informal activities often did so to fund their studies, contribute something to the house in which they lived, or to fund personal necessities that their sponsors could not afford.14 The disdain for those who just sit and do nothing or do not 14 These findings are similar to those from a study of 400 households in Chiwama, an informal urban settlement (Chigunta 2001). The study found that non-proprietor youth (those who did not run their own enterprises) with more regular incomes, which accounted for slightly over half of the sample, relied on others. More than 22 help came through clearly when respondents described unemployed household members. The problems of being not free in the places where they lived or of having to squeeze themselves in betrayed young people`s desire (and the expectations of others) to provide for themselves or contribute more to the household economy. Around half of the (non-representative) sample of young people interviewed for this study were either the main or the sole earners in their households, a finding that broadly true across all categories of economic success.15 Roughly equal proportions of the more and less successful groups were married. If anything, the age of more successful youth was on the whole greater than that of their less successful counterparts. The meaning of economic independence and responsibility varied across the survey categories. For more economically successful respondents, economic independence often involved considerable responsibility and in some cases, hardship, whether in the form of living alone, sharing with friends, or an increasing number of dependents. Less successful respondents were also economically independent and solely or primarily responsible for others in more adverse circumstances, often because their parents were elderly, retired, dead or absent. Such young people faced serious financial difficulties. For those with economic responsibility for others, the burden of obligations--paying school fees especially--was a major drain on their capacities to use their income to develop their own educations, careers, or income-generating activities at a crucial stage in their lives. The responsibility for school fees in particular extended beyond the immediate household and even encompassed those who are themselves dependents. Individual fortunes were affected not only by events within the immediate household, but events within the extended family network, which could suddenly increase the dependency ratio of the immediate household or call on its finances. It is striking that all but the most successful young people in the study experienced a pervasive insecurity in which family relationships played an ambiguous role. On the one hand, relatives constituted an important social safety net; on the other hand, they could make substantial claims on a young person. The ambiguity of family relations was further emphasized by the evident desire of young people to be able to fulfill family obligations: this ability is central to their notions of what it means to be economically successful (see chapter 5). one-third (34.1 percent) of respondents relied on their parents and relatives for their income, and almost a quarter (23.2 percent) were dependent on their parents, while 10.5 percent depended on other relatives. Only 33.7 percent of young people in the study relied on piecework employment as a major source of income, while 29 percent (mostly female) were dependent on a spouse or boyfriend. The remaining few relied on friends (3.9 percent) and other sources (Chigunta 2001, 6). 15 Chigunta`s (2001) study also found that of non-proprietor youth (those not running their own enterprises), less than a quarter (18.5%) contribute to household income and less than 10% are household heads (2001:13). In contrast, more than a third of proprietor youth lived with a spouse or alone, the majority make contributions to household income and almost half are household heads (2001:13). 23 Chapter 2. Parents, Childhood, and Family Circumstances This chapter tries to assess how early childhood circumstances influenced the pathways of the young Zambians who were interviewed. This analysis is challenging and partial because it relies on their recollections and testimony. Their judgments reflect both relative and absolute poverty, so their categorization of economic circumstances in childhood needs to be treated with caution and with close reference to what they actually said about these circumstances. Given the strong association made by policy makers between parental, particularly maternal, education and a child`s education, it is telling that one-fifth of the respondents were uncertain about their parents` education level. Details of parent occupations during early childhood were also often vague and lacking in detail. It is clear from respondents` recollections that factors other than economic considerations, such as love and affection or the number of relatives, could play a greater role in their lives. Indeed, many children lived in different kinds of households at different points in their lives, sometimes, but by no means necessarily, as a result of problems in their natal homes. Parental education In this analysis, parental education is used as one of several proxies for the socioeconomic status of the childhood households of study respondents. Chapter 3 explores how far parents` education is a predictor of their children`s educational success. Table 25. Reported education of respondents' fathers by category of economic success Survey Already May Unable Economi- category success- Going Solid have Little to find a cally Number Father's ful places start potential potential job excluded of cases education level Degree or higher 2 (2)a 2 (2 ) 5 (3) 1 1(1) 11 education (9) Diploma or further 1 4 (1) 2 (2) 3 (2) 1 1 12 education (5) Secondary 2 2 (1) 1 2 2 (2) 5 (3) 14 (6) Incomplete 1 2 (1) 3 (1) 1 7 (2) secondary Primary 2 (1) 1(1) 3 (2) Unknown 2 1 2 (1) 5 (2) 1 2 (1) 13 (4) Number of cases 5 (2) 11 (5) 9 (5) 10 (4) 13 (7) 7 (3) 5 (2) 60 (28) Note: aTotal interviewees, followed by number of females in parentheses. 24 A father`s lack of education appeared to be an important factor explaining the current level of success of respondents, at least for those who knew about their parents` education. Neither men nor women whose fathers failed to complete secondary school currently showed any definite potential for economic success, while those whose fathers failed to complete primary education were currently either economically excluded or in low-income or low-skilled occupations. The only exception was Tepson, whose relatively high earnings were derived from illegal trade. His father did not complete primary school (he was a soldier in the Zambian army), and his mother had a post- secondary education and worked as a secondary school teacher. On the other hand, fathers' educational achievements did not necessarily guarantee success for their children. It is striking that the children of fathers who completed secondary education (but did not progress to further or higher education) were found right across the spectrum of the survey categories of economic success: from already successful to unable to find a job. While young people whose fathers proceeded to further or higher education were more likely to show potential or actual economic success, or to be in full-time education, two were unable to find a job and had dealt with varying degrees of adverse circumstances in their lives. Although the study sample was small and non-representative, it is worth noting that the two most successful young women interviewed had fathers who were highly educated professionals. Table 26. Reported education of respondents' mothers by category of economic success Survey Already Unable Economi- category success- Going Solid May have Little to find a cally Number Mother's ful places start potential potential job excluded of cases education level Degree or higher 1(1)a 1 (1) education Diploma or further 3 (2) 3 (3) 3 (1) 1 (1) 1 11 (7) education Secondary school 1 1 1 2 1 6 Incomplete secondary 1 5(1) 2 (1) 4 (1) 3 (2) 4 (2) 1 (1) 19 (8) Primary 1 (1) 1 (1) 2 (1) 4 (3) Less than primary or 1 (1) 3 (2) 4 (3) none Unknown 2 (1) 2 (2) 2 (1) 3 (1) 1 4 (1) 13 (6) Number of cases 5 (2) 11 (5) 9 (5) 10 (4) 13 (7) 7 (3) 5 (2) 60 (28) Note: aTotal interviewees, followed by number of females in parentheses. The educational level of mothers also showed some correspondence with their children`s success in life. Fewer mothers of the youth interviewed were highly educated, reflecting the gendered nature of access to secondary and, particularly, higher education in their parents` generation. Thus, the number of young Zambians in the sample whose mothers had at least completed secondary education was about half that of those with fathers who completed secondary educations. The large proportion of respondents with mothers who had incomplete secondary education may well reflect a gendered pattern of dropping out of education that prevailed in their parents` generation. 25 Respondents with well-educated mothers had made a solid start or were already showing some economic success, with three exceptions: Natasha, who was still a full-time student, and two young people who had faced adverse circumstances. Those whose mothers had completed secondary school had also done well or were in the may have potential category, with the exception of Iwomba, who faced severe poverty during his early childhood as a result of his parents` divorce. Of those whose mothers did not complete primary education, only one seemed to have made a solid start towards economic success. The extent of respondents' ignorance about the education level of their parents was unexpected. Three young people did not know their father`s level of education because the men had either died when they were young or had been absent from the family. Two others knew their father was literate, but were unsure about his highest level of education (in one case, this issue was not probed). This ignorance suggests that a father`s educational achievements may not necessarily be seen as an important educational model. Four respondents were also uncertain about their mothers` level of education for similar reasons (death or separation), but claimed that their mothers were literate, or at least able to read. Key informants were unanimous in saying that the socioeconomic status of parents dramatically influenced young people's access to education and their chances of accessing decent work. In less privileged cases, aside from financial constraints, many stressed attitudes towards education that were linked to family backgrounds and the disadvantages arising from poor social connections. As an informant from a government-led national coordination body said, Parents who are ill-educated will have fewer social contacts; poor social resources restrict them to those social circles which have fewer resources and contacts. Economic circumstances during childhood Table 27. Summary of economic circumstances in childhood Unable to Number Already Going Solid May have Little find a Economically of Survey category successful places start potential potential job excluded cases Most advantaged 2 5 3 1 1 12 Relatively 2 2 1 4 3 2 2 16 advantaged Poor but improving 1 2 2 1 6 Worsening 1 2 2 4 9 Poor 3 3 2 2 10 Not categorized 1 1 2 2 1 7 Number of cases 5 11 9 10 13 7 5 60 Although a relatively advantaged background did not necessarily result in a successful outcome for young people in the sample, respondents with the most advantaged backgrounds benefited from a significant measure of protection. The already successful group came from families that were not only financially secure, but also supportive and encouraging. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that they showed more resilience in the face of potentially damaging life events. For example, Rita`s father and brother died when she was 5 years old, and Tabitha had a child out of wedlock before 26 completing her degree when she was already 22, circumstances that did not prevent either from attaining the category of already successful. Half of the young people in the sample made reference to adverse family circumstances during childhood or while growing up, including the death of one or both parents, divorce, and neglect or abuse. The impact of such events varied, depending on whether alternative sources of support were available. Other respondents were affected by changing family circumstances, such as early marriage and childbearing, frequent shifts of residence, parental retirement, or the impact of HIV/AIDS on extended family networks. The impact of parental death was strongly gendered. The death of a father could dramatically alter the financial situation of a family. Families were often forced to leave their home when a father`s relatives claimed his property, mothers were under pressure to remarry for economic reasons, and siblings were often split up among relatives. Forced to move and left alone to raise their children (and in some cases, the children of the husband`s previous marriages), mothers struggled to provide for their children and often had to cut short their educations (the case of Everlasting, Best, and Christina). When a mother died, respondents often lost contact with and support from their fathers, as when they were placed in the care of relatives elsewhere. Children not brought up by their parents were subject to being exploited or rejected by those in charge of them. The worst instance of the impact of parental death was the case of Bernard (economically excluded), who had lived on the streets for 14 years. His mother died when he was 5 years old and his father (an accountant) when he was 11 years old. Bernard`s aunt and uncle took him to Lusaka, only to discriminate against and neglect him. Within a year he was on the streets. Six respondents lost a parent when they were at least 16 years old and several who were orphans early in life lost a second parent or stepparent in early adulthood. The death of a parent in late adolescence can have significant consequences for their potential life course. Having no one to help you through college or find a contact who may help you get a job, finding yourself responsible for younger siblings, cousins and nephews/nieces, or simply lacking sufficient attention from a more experienced and loving senior relative were all circumstances reflected in the narratives. Divorce could have equally disastrous consequences. The very poor childhood circumstances of Iwomba (unable to find a job) and Fred (little potential) were precipitated by their parents` divorce when they were aged 4 and 1, respectively. The father of Joyce (unable to find a job) provided no support after divorcing her mother. She had a degree (making her the best-qualified mother of all female respondents) and got a job with an NGO. Yet despite her job, she was still unable to finance Joyce`s university education, forcing her to turn down a place. The impact of divorce depended on how well the subsequent family setting provided for a young person's emotional and economic security. Jones (may have potential) lived with his father after the latter remarried, but his stepmother treated him so harshly that he moved in first with an uncle, and then with an aunt. This aunt subsequently died and he was sent to his father`s elder brother. Rebecca (going places) also lacked financial support from her economically successful father after her parents divorced. Her mother (a secretary) chose not to remarry, devoting herself to raising Rebecca instead. Rebecca highly valued her mother`s support, even though she cannot afford Rebecca`s college expenses. The mother of Stephen (little potential) separated from his father when he was very young. He seemed the least affected of this group, perhaps because his mother was able to remarry a man with a secure job. Things subsequently became more difficult in his family when his stepfather took early retirement due to ill health, resulting in Stephen`s own premature assumption of the breadwinning role in the family. 27 The impact of early pregnancy and early marriage was visible in the lives of respondents, their parents, and their children. Girls were vulnerable to social stigma, with early and especially, out- of-wedlock, pregnancy often temporarily or permanently derailing their education and future job prospects. Rose, mentioned in the previous paragraph, became pregnant at the age of 13. Under pressure from her father to get an abortion, she refused, was beaten by him, and then excluded from the household. She married out of desperation, had three children with her husband, and worked to earn money to go back to school--against her husband`s wishes--and managed to complete her secondary education against the odds. When Rose`s marriage collapsed, she took her children to her mother, who now takes care of them. The mother of Febian (unable to find a job) got pregnant with him when she was a schoolgirl and his father ran away; he was raised by his grandparents. The parents of Cornelius (may have potential) were still full-time students when he was born, and because they could not support him, he was raised by an aunt. Mary (going places) left school in grade 9 when she became pregnant. The father of her child is in prison. She took care of her son for two years before getting a job; her son now lives with her brother in Malawi. After a difficult childhood marked by divorce, abuse from his stepmother, and periods living with three other relatives, Jones (may have potential) says that he made a mistake impregnating the woman who is now his wife. This early pregnancy signaled the end of his education (at grade 11). On the other hand, Tabitha's out-of-wedlock pregnancy did not prevent her from earning a degree or successfully entering a career due to strong parental support. Frequent moves between different relatives and households, as well as changes in the composition of households figured prominently in the life of respondents. Economically successful households tended to foster dependents, as did well-positioned households in urban locations that were better served by educational and employment opportunities. Changing geographic location (moving out of rural areas in particular) may have been beneficial for some children, giving them access to educational opportunities and sponsorship. Key informants were unanimous in saying that outside of kin-based social networks, support for the mobility of young people seeking employment was non-existent. Many migrants to cities in Zambia end up in shanty towns or on the streets where they become vendors, often the only means they have to earn an income; they cannot feed themselves through agriculture the way they would be able to do in rural areas. The government has cracked down on vendors; who can be fined. Some find no alternative but to turn to criminal activity, others are driven back to their villages. Unless they live with relatives or friends, migrants often lack established social networks in their new locations; such networks, which take time to develop, are crucial for work opportunities. Given the prevalence of HIV, its stigma, and other evidence from respondents' accounts, it is likely that some, possibly many, of the family deaths of which they spoke were HIV/AIDS related.16 It was not, however, mentioned by any of the young respondents in their personal accounts. The prevalence of HIV rose sharply in Zambia from 0.8 percent of the population in 1985 to peak at 16.7 percent a decade later, before falling slowly to an estimated 13.1 percent in 16 Zambia has a high rate of HIV/AIDS infection. Adult prevalence rates for 2005 were estimated to be 13.9 percent (CSO 2005). The number of AIDS deaths in 2005 was projected at 95,400, and cumulative deaths then exceeded 900,000. In 2005, 25 percent of women aged 25­29 years and 15 percent of men in the same age group were estimated to be infected, as were 16 percent of women aged 20­24 years and 4 percent of men in the same age group. Prevalence rates among young women aged 15­24 years were three to four times higher than for men the same age (Government of Zambia 2004, 9). Kalinda (2004, 20) has pointed out that the epidemic has resulted in household compositions with fewer productive adults in each household and increased child- or grandparent-headed households. 28 2007 (Government of Zambia 2005,10). At the same time, the number of AIDS orphans rose from 842 in 1985 to 175,157 in 1995 and an estimated 881,149 in 2007 (Ibid., 89). By 2007, cumulative AIDS deaths in the country stood at around 1 percent of the total population and were more concentrated in the productive cohorts of the population. As a key informant noted, Child- headed households are often the result of loss of parents through HIV. Many of them do not have the means to look after themselves. Girls go on the streets for sex; boys go on the streets to beg. Another informant noted, Children assume adult roles, they are ill-prepared for this and do not have the finances to support the household. They drop out of school. They become vulnerable to abuse and many go into the sex trade. They do whatever they can to provide for their siblings. The study sample was strongly biased towards cohorts with greater economic success in life, yet 22 (37 percent) of the 60 youth interviewed had experienced the death of one or both parents while growing up. HIV/AIDS was likely to be the cause of death where parents died within a small number of years of one another or after prolonged sicknesses. In sum, a number of factors seemed to disrupt the intergenerational transfer of specific parental advantages, such as education, occupation, and even economic situation. These factors included loss of employment or retirement (so that the economic advantages derived from parental education or employment were no longer available to be passed on), as well as separation through death, divorce, or simple absence. In these circumstances, the availability of alternative sponsors to finance children's educations and, no less importantly, provide a loving and supportive environment, appeared critical to childhood experiences. Respondents who faced difficult events, but who found adoptive homes that conferred advantages (e.g., financial security, educational continuity, loving support) were insulated against severe repercussions, while others who were not so fortunate faced extreme difficulties (e.g., financial hardships, educational disruption or truncation, neglect, discrimination, and abuse). Indeed, the narratives of the young people who were interviewed show that parental death in and of itself was not necessarily disastrous; rather, the impact depended largely on the emotional and financial security that remaining family networks were able to offer. 29 Chapter 3. Different Pathways from Education to Work This chapter attempts to trace the pathways that lead young people in Zambia towards economic success or failure. It first examines educational experiences, then education-to-work transitions, and finally, respondents` progression or regression in work. Educational transitions: Opportunities and choices Table 28. Respondent levels of educational achievement by survey category Total Highest Unable number educational Already Going Solid May have Little to find a Economically (% of achievement successful places start potential potential job excluded sample) Degree or higher 4 3 4 1 1 13 (22%) Post-secondary 1 3 1 1 1 7 (12%) Secondary 4 4 2 6 4 1 21 (35%) Lower secondary 1 6 3 1 1 12 (20%) Primary 1 1 (2%) Less than primary 3 3 6 (10%) Total 5 11 9 10 13 7 5 60 (100%) Four broad groups of educational achievement could be distinguished from the analysis of respondent interviews: post-secondary education, upper secondary education, lower secondary education, and exclusion from education (functional illiteracy). For more detailed information on educational transitions, see annex B. Study data confirms that the education of the young people interviewed was lower than that of their fathers (see Chigunta 2001). The timing of the decline in the levels of tertiary education was a consequence of the restructuring of the education sector, which began in 1991. This effect was, however, more pronounced among young people who had already achieved the middle ranks of success. Respondents who were already successful had matched or exceeded their fathers` educational levels, as had most of the group in the going places category. The advantaged backgrounds of these two categories allowed them to pursue their educational trajectory in the face of a deteriorating economy, with their very economic success enabling them to finance their continuing educations. Some young people at the very bottom end of the economic success ladder came from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds and had less to match in terms of their parents educational levels; others had matched or exceeded their fathers` educations, but had not yet managed to translate this achievement into economic success. Young people who had a middling degree of economic success tended to face difficulties. Among the solid start group, for example, nearly all had completed secondary education and on the whole, intended to continue their educational development. This aim was less likely, however, for the may have potential group, 30 given their current economic success and educational level (few had completed secondary education). Several respondents had incomplete educational pathways. Among the 60 respondents, 22 were delayed in starting their educations for age reasons; another 7 simply started late. The reasons for their delayed starts and their resulting late completions may well have affected their chances and willingness to further their educations. Periods of inactivity throughout the educational trajectories of the young people in the study, including the most highly qualified youth, were pervasive. This fact is worrying in economic terms, particularly in view of the shortening average lifespan in Zambia and the relative scarcity of skills in the wider economy. These periods of inactivity were construed differently by youth in different circumstances. Those who are still on an educational pathway described themselves as taking a gap year. Others, whose circumstances were more ambiguous, remained vague about interruptions in their schooling. All respondents in the already successful category had taken a gap year, which did not necessarily mean economic inactivity and might even have gained them work experience. University closures, which are not unusual in Zambia, can delay studies for a whole year and sometimes more. Among already successful respondents, the average time to complete a four-year tertiary degree was five to seven years. Students with diplomas and certificates17 generally met difficulties when they first graduated, which they overcame as they grew older, sometimes encouraged by their good performance at school. However, some of these respondents wished they held a university degree instead. Their post- secondary experiences included difficulties in getting access to desired courses, especially financial difficulties. Respondents could become easily discouraged when told, for instance, about the level of competition regarding a particular profession that they would have liked to pursue. The fear of losing the job they had at the time prevented some respondents from embracing the opportunity of further studies abroad, even when those studies were fully funded. Secondary school leavers stressed the importance of parental support and encouragement in their educations. For some respondents who did not enjoy school initially, this support was the major driving force that led them to carry on with their studies. Students in this group were keen to contribute towards the expense of their studies. They saw their parents striving to find the means to send them to school and when financial hardships struck (for instance, when a father died), they found ways to earn money through casual employment (such as agricultural labor). Some worked without pay to help their families and there is no suggestion that this interfered with their schoolwork. Young people with only lower secondary educations tended to follow paths laid out by their parents. Cornelius (may have potential) followed in his stepfather`s footsteps and became a carpenter like him. Wenceslas (little potential) became an artist, like his father. Everlasting (may have potential) began helping out in his mother`s shop before she gave him the capital to start his own stall in the market. These respondents interrupted their educations for such reasons as financial hardship in their families, failing exams, and pregnancy. The interviews of young people with lower secondary educations showed them to be highly motivated to work, doing menial tasks in adverse circumstances. Education came to an end for respondents in the educationally excluded category when they had to run away from abusive or difficult domestic situations. For three others, it became too 17 This group includes only respondents who had professionally recognized certificates or one- or two- year certificates that were recognized as a foundation for diplomas. 31 difficult to attend school for a combination of reasons, including distance and the cost of uniforms. However, these young people had not yet renounced education, as they were aware it would make life easier. Overall, respondents' narratives confirmed the importance of financial assistance (scholarships or bursaries) to enable young people to access higher education and the impact of the declining proportion of costs covered by such scholarships. Their narratives also showed that educational interruptions and delays were endemic, with virtually all young people forced to take a year off (a gap year) after secondary school. Strikes during the early part of this decade also extended the time needed to complete higher education. The hurdle of both getting a scholarship and being accepted for entry proved a major barrier for secondary school leavers. Those unable to complete secondary education cited financial reasons, although delayed starts, poor grades, and the need to retake grades undoubtedly curtailed the likelihood of sponsorship (i.e., financial support from a relative). Early pregnancy also played a role. For the educationally excluded, disruptions occurred either as a result of severe poverty or serious adverse circumstances. In Zambia as a whole, it is estimated that a quarter of young people who leave education between grades 5 and 9, i.e., before completing secondary school, do so because they were not selected, failed, or could not get a place, while over 40 percent leave for financial reasons (Government of Zambia 2006a,15). The narratives showed a determination to go on with education in the face of overwhelming obstacles. With the odd exception, all young Zambians interviewed for this study shared the desire to further their educations; which they saw as having intrinsic benefits beyond its economic potential. Education-to-work transitions Educational achievements clearly have a strong differential impact on young people`s transition to work. In some cases, respondents were doing interim jobs or were engaged in businesses merely for financial reasons, so as to finance further studies or simply to pass time while waiting for results or a desirable job. This section assesses the relationship between education and the ability to access employment in Zambia. Although personal contacts often explained the transitions to work of young people in the already successful category, this did not mean that these transitions were necessarily successful. Rita`s transition to work was successful largely because she used personal contacts to gain work experience in the company that now employed her, combined with her good track record. Tabitha (already successful) completed her law degree and found an opportunity to work in the legal firm of a friend of her father. The terms and conditions were never properly spelled out, however, and she was never paid and left after less than two months. Law is an established career path and Tabitha consequently decided to do her lawyer`s practice qualification with the Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education. The Ministry of Justice was looking for students to sponsor. Her desire to become independent of her parents led her to join the Ministry of Justice, which paid her fees and housing costs; she was also automatically taken on as a learner legal practitioner-- actually a position in the government--and was subsequently employed permanently. This was a rare case of institutional, even governmental, structural assistance. 32 Table 29. Post-secondary education-to-work transitions Highest Name educational level First job How obtained Zulu Degree BRESSA engineering Student placement through university (already successful) Aaron Masters degree Agricultural field officer Applied to advertisement (already successful) with CRS Tabitha Masters degree Ministry of Justice Applied to advertisement for trainees (already successful) trainee program Goodwill Diploma Accountant at Ministry Applied to recruitment call, but (already successful) of Tourism parents helped push through application Rita Degree Management trainee in Obtained job through friend`s mother (already successful`) private company Isiah PG Teaching Secondary school Applied to advertisement (going places) Diploma and degree teacher Moses Diploma Informal graphic Hanging out` at graphic designer (going places`") designer, helping here friend`s business and roaming the and there` streets Rebecca Diploma Casual teaching at her Recruited by her teacher (going places) old college Rogers Degree Customer support Applying to advertisements while (going places) engineer for private holding a rival job offer company Joseph Degree Accountant at private Offered job by company where he (going places) company did his student work placement Brenda Diploma Debt collector at Bank Asking around (going places) of Zambia Tembo Advanced diploma Employed in uncles firm Recruited by uncle (solid start) Prudence Degree Newspaper editor Recruited by managing director she (solid start) knew as fellow student at UNZA Christina Diploma Audits assistant Applied to advertisement (solid start) Abraham Degree Volunteer field worker Father`s friend (solid start) Namwene Degree Shopkeeper Took over mother`s shop (solid start) Sophie Nursery teachers Set up her own nursery Followed encouragement of a (may have potential) certificate school relative Aubrey Degree Unemployed (may have potential) (just graduated) Crispin Diploma Unemployed (unable to find a job) Noah Degree Unemployed (unable to find a job) 33 A mismatch of specific skills and labor market opportunities for respondents' with post- secondary education was obvious. The work that the such respondents found after their studies was not necessarily related to their field of training, and as a result, they more or less had to upgrade their skills in directions relevant to their existing jobs, rather than to their original career desires. Rita (already successful) was employed as a marketing representative (thanks to personal contacts), while her degree in economics would allow her to work in a financial institution or on macroeconomic development issues. For the time being, her initial university training was of little use. She was doing an MBA at the time of the study interviews. A graduate in mining engineering, Isiah (going places) was a field worker for USAID for eight months while waiting for his university results (the gap year phenomenon). He saw no prospects of a job in mining at the time and started training as a teacher, specializing in geography. He had been teaching at a government village school and had been helped in that direction by a friend of his father--it was not his initiative. Malaria put an end to this phase of teaching after two months, but it led him to embrace an entirely different career than the one he had initially planned. The education-to-work transitions of diploma and certificate holders showed no particular patterns and revealed varied experiences. A combination of factors must be taken into account, but undoubtedly luck accounted for a great deal. Relatives and friends also played a prominent part in helping several respondents secure work. Some were more determined than others to get on with their professional life because they cared about their field of expertise; others were content to find anything financially rewarding. Some went in all sorts of directions, and once again luck, even in the guise of a chance encounter, determined the outcome. 34 Table 30. Secondary school leavers Highest Name qualification First job How obtained Agnes Grade 12 Assisting her sister Had helped sister while still at school (going places) in small businesses and continued afterwards Sanakonda Grade 12 Bank clerk Applied to the bank (going places) Tepson Grade 12 Subsistence (going places) farming Beauty Grade 12 Shop assistant Worked in mother`s grocery shop after (going places) failing to find work Naaliah Grade 12 Cashier at take- Through her sister-in-law, who knew the (solid start) away supervisor Helen Grade 12 Trainee Applied to advertisement (solid start) policewoman Phileas Grade 12 Worker in sandwich (solid start) bar Levy Grade 12 Still a student (solid start) Simon Grade 12 Volunteer Through mother`s friend (may have potential) Acton Grade 12 Office assistant Elder brother works in the same (may have potential) company and told him to apply Lungowe Grade 12 Cleaner (little potential) Natasha Grade 12 Pulling customers Sister`s salon (little potential) into hair salon Mercy Grade 12 Subsistence Family land (little potential) farming Stephen Grade 12 Filling attendant Told about job by a friend; applied to (little potential) advertisement Tapelwa Grade 12, hotel In hotels For two years during and after certificate (little potential) and catering certificate Malaika Grade 12 Shop assistant Aunt`s shop (little potential) Febian Grade 12 Subsistence farmer Family land (unable to find a job) Damaris Grade 12 In bakery at a Asking the manager (unable to find a job) supermarket Joyce Grade 12 Sales assistant to Through a cousin (unable to find a job) mobile phone wholesalers Iwomba Grade 12 Volunteer (unable to find a job) Rose Grade 12 Receptionist at During school breaks (economically excluded) telephone center 35 Among secondary school leavers as a whole, respondents found work largely through personal contacts. They often found their first jobs in family businesses (Natasha, Acton), were helped by relatives who had direct contacts with employers, or simply by friends already in place. As table 30 shows, in the going places category, only Sanakonda managed to get a job--he was a bank clerk. In only two cases were jobs advertised and application procedures used. The time respondents spent to find work varied, but was short when personal contacts were used. Five from this group had no stable or secure employment. Two managed to get work of some sort before leaving school, but found it harder to get work afterwards. Several did subsistence farming for lack of any employment opportunities. Table 31. Lower secondary school-to-work transitions Name Highest qualification First job How obtained Mary Grade 9 Shop assistant at a Asked directly (going places) supermarket Everlasting Grade 9 Ran a home shop Mother provided initial (may have potential) capital Iris Grade 9 Plaiting hair Friend (may have potential) Cornelius Grade 9, carpentry Carpenter (may have potential) certificate Lucy Grade 9, tailoring Tailor Student placement (may have potential) certificate Jones Grade 11 Municipal council policeman Uncle (may have potential) Tamara Grade 9 Plaiting hair (may have potential) Temwani Grade 9 Selling saluala (little potential) Wenceslas Grade 9 Sculptor Sponsored by an (little potential) individual donor Dorice Grade 9 Maid Asked directly (little potential) Lily Grade 9 Selling clothes on credit Sister provided initial (unable to find a job) credit Margaret Grade 9 Subsistence farming Allocated land of her (economically excluded) own The only lower secondary school leavers who found employment easily without recourse to relatives were Cornelius and Lucy (may have potential), because of their skills in carpentry and tailoring. Wenceslas (little potential) left school to develop his art work. Everlasting (may have potential) was helped by his mother to start a shop and the uncle of Jones (may have potential) found him a job. 36 Table 32. The "educationally excluded" respondents Name Highest qualification First job How obtained Best Grade 5 Selling cigarettes Funded by uncle (little potential) Jeremiah Grade 7 Trading maize Helping his elder brothers (little potential) Julius Grade 2 Washing cars (little potential) Fred Grade 5 Selling on the street Last resort (little potential) Boniface Grade 2 Subsistence farming Family land (economically excluded) Moffat Grade 3 Subsistence farming Family land (economically excluded) Bernard Grade 5 Begging On the streets (economically excluded) No one in this group found employment after stopping their educations. Three began some kind of low-value trading that required little capital: one started washing cars, two relied on subsistence farming. General observations: Transition to work The ease with which the most educated in the sample made the transition to work contrasted starkly with the hopelessness of the least educated when they attempted to do the same. For many, relatives and social contacts were central to getting work or starting a business, either directly by giving them jobs or capital, or more indirectly by alerting them to openings or encouraging them to try self-employment. Family businesses are significant inasmuch as they provide direct opportunities for work experience and learning how to run a business. The small businesses of young Zambians are usually created by relatives--they start helping out n these businesses as children. The severe difficulties of finding work faced by secondary school leavers and the harsh conditions of the work they manage to get was marked. Even young people who did subsistence farming started without any external inputs save for a little local seed. Their access to land was mostly through family entitlements allocated by local chiefs and they attempted to recoup some cash for fertilizer and improved seed in future years. The least desirable employment option was piecework or hard manual casual work. Respondents who were secondary school leavers, lower secondary school leavers, and the educationally excluded took such jobs for short periods of time when they were desperate. Marketing jobs for large companies, which paid on commission only, were also considered piecework. There was a great deal of competition even for such undesirable work in the formal sector, but respondents did not mention similar competition in the informal sector. It was clear from the accounts of secondary school leavers, however, that extensive periods of unemployment did not necessarily mean that these young people would not be able to find work or set up their own businesses. Delays in the transition to work represented a further, second, delay in their educational progression, since many rely on employment to fund further education and training. The desire to take on work to achieve some measure of independence is also one of their 37 concerns. The only young people with lesser educations who were swiftly employed were the two lower secondary school leavers with certificates in carpentry and tailoring. At this level, and that of higher education, the integration of work placements in programs of study seemed to be a key factor that helped graduates find a ready entry into employment. The overwhelming fact is that young people in Zambia meet with very few opportunities to prove themselves. Career transitions: Moving ahead and falling behind Positive moves were not relevant for respondents who were unemployed and forced into low- paid and low-skilled work, often on piece rates. More often, these jobs often reflected a worsening of their financial situations rather than an improvement, as it typically marked the end of their economic dependence. Dorice`s (little potential) decision to work as a maid is a case in point. Positive transitions for the unemployed involved moves to either formal employment, like Rebecca (going places), who was recruited to become a lecturer after a year`s unemployment; Christina`s (solid start) success in landing a job as an audit assistant after being unemployed for three years; or Mary`s (going places) successful switch to self-employment as a clothes importer after being unemployed for two years. Agnes (going places) was also starting to import clothing after being unemployed for six years and Beauty (going places) started her own shop after three years of unemployment. Downward transitions were usually precipitated by circumstances beyond a young person's control, problems at work, or a mistaken hope of moving to a better position that could result in a failed or unprofitable businesses. In some cases, downward shifts were from successful self- employment to informal employment. In others, the shifts were from formal to informal employment. For example, Jones (may have potential) was fired as a council policeman and had to take up general piecework; Prudence (solid start) was made redundant at her job as a newspaper editor and became a freelance research supervisor, a situation she regarded as being unemployed. Such shifts could also take the form of a change from one kind of informal employment to another with less pay or more difficult conditions, or to being unemployed. Shifts from unemployment to low-skilled and piecework labor were often prompted by desperation, such as not having decent enough clothing or sitting idle at home (and the possible stigma attached to this behavior). Looking at individual transitions may give a false picture of the paths to economic success followed by the respondents, as many experienced both ups and downs in their circumstances. The fact that some young people found reasonable employment or started successful businesses after extended periods of unemployment also cautions against seeing their current level of economic success as a sure indicator of their future. Already successful respondents who already held a degree either climbed through the ranks or used each job as a stepping-stone to the next. Tabitha, for example, progressed from state advocate (for three years) to senior state advocate (two promotions) and was working as a senior parliamentary counsel (a transfer) at the time of the study; she had been very proactive in taking advantage of opportunities inside the Ministry of Justice. She negotiated a paid study leave, left her son in her parents` care, and went to do a Master`s in International Law in the Netherlands. Upon her return, she found other opportunities at the Ministry to promote her career. Joseph (going places) was taken on by the company where he did his student work placement, which was prepared to pay for his further studies. Only two degree holders in the sample experienced a difficult path. Prudence (solid start) was made redundant four months after she found a job in her field (journalism), when the venture 38 collapsed. For two years she had been unsuccessfully applying for formal employment. Noah (unable to find a job) had been unemployed since graduating, save for a very short trial period with a company. Among secondary school leavers, three did farming--which they regarded as a secure foundation-- after leaving school. (Some families expected their children to farm as a means of continuous support.) Paid employment elsewhere (e.g., working in a drugstore) when farming could bring enough capital for further agricultural inputs and help these youth move towards commercial farming, a possibility that was easier for married couples. Naaliah (solid start) and Phileas (going places) were the only secondary school leavers to have made a positive transition between two jobs. Naaliah first worked as a cashier in a take-away eatery and was a sales executive at an Internet café at the time of the study interview (she got the job by responding to a newspaper advertisement). Phileas was approached by the owner of a rival sandwich bar to change jobs for better pay. He then managed to put enough money aside to start selling computer and electrical goods on the streets. It became increasingly clear that the psychological make-up of individuals played an important role in their career paths, especially for secondary school leavers. For example, Natasha worked on commission in her sister`s salon, pulling in customers from the street, but left after eight months to go back home. Asked about job applications, she volunteered, Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don`t, because it is like I am fed up. I am tired... The career transitions of lower secondary school leavers mostly involved opening small businesses after working to gain experience and save money. Even when respondents in this group had established skills, social capital remained important. Cornelius (may have potential), for example, moved to Lusaka, where he invested his time in unpaid work to establish the social networks necessary to become known or identified as a potential carpentry employee. He found an employer through this social networking, which was a useful strategy to access non-advertised jobs. The career transitions of the educationally excluded were indicative of the insecurity of their occupations and their lack of resilience. Their personal accounts were often permeated by a feeling of hopelessness. The business dealings of these respondents were fragile. The experience of Fred (little potential) was somehow more robust. He appeared marginally more secure than other respondents in this group, although without possibilities for expanding or developing his business. After Fred ran away to his uncle`s, he started selling things on the street for friends. He managed to save two-thirds of his meager salary, which allowed him to become a saluala wholesaler--he had premises at the market, where he purchased truckloads of second- hand clothing and sold them in plastic bags sorted into specific types. Although he was not comfortable financially, he saw no point in applying for another job. Other forms of support used by young people included nongovernmental organizations. Respondents reports that NGOs, including churches, played some role in the economic pathways of young people. Everlasting (may have potential) mentioned that many young people went to NGOs because, in his words, They give good advice, unlike just going to any other person. A few youth had been assisted in starting an enterprise by the Catholic Church, or by the YMCA`s provision of income-earning opportunities. The overall view of career guidance was that it was either nonexistent or inadequate. In the words of one key informant, There is no career guidance available. The country needs geologists, particularly now that the mines are opening up. Last year there were only six graduate geologists in the whole country, but the country churns out hundreds of accountants and there are few accounting 39 jobs available. People who have money get training, but they do not go for the training that suits their abilities, the guidance is not there. Informants made it clear that such guidance was available under former President Kaunda. Making sense of their own pathways In spite of a pervasive sense of disappointment that they had not been able to live up to their aspirations, many respondents showed a clear sense of pride in their achievements, however limited. Youth who had achieved greater success were better able to make sense of their pathways, voicing more competitive and ambitious sentiments. Those in the already successful category were, however, aware of their extreme advantage in a difficult and scarce work environment. (It was obvious and well understood that a university degree in Zambia was the key that led to success beyond any other avenue.) Less successful youth were often reluctant to draw definite negative conclusions about their pathways. Respondents who worked in less desirable jobs, for example, alluded to their work ethic and contrasted their efforts favorably with the stereotype of idle/ dissolute/ dependent youth, to whom they felt morally superior. There was also a reluctance to engage in negative statements about others. Some accounts were strongly informed by a pragmatic, realistic assessment of the social and economic context. There has been much concern about building resentment among educated youth in Zambia and, more widely, in Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. The evidence of the study suggests that an increasing number of secondary school leavers are competing for a declining pool of employment, which has led them to work in jobs that only require basic numeracy and literacy, or do unskilled labor--neither of which puts their modest educations to use. That said, no one in the sample expressed regret about time spent in education. On the contrary, nearly all respondents wished to further their educations, or wished they had completed it or had worked harder to get better grades. The overwhelming feeling was one of frustration at not being able to afford the kind of educations they had in mind. The pathways under scrutiny in the sample suggest a strong correlation between good employment and educational achievement in Zambia. For the most well-educated with degrees and diplomas, access to good employment was straightforward on the whole. For many at the post- secondary level, social contacts played a significant role in accessing work. The best jobs were accessed by respondents through advertisements or by being recruited by employers impressed by them during their work placements. Social contacts were equally been useful for some respondents to gain access to work experience prior to graduation. In several cases, graduates who found good jobs had acquired work experience before graduation and as a consequence, accessed jobs after graduation directly through their student work placements. Businesses set up by university graduates had all been established on a formal basis and rested on skills acquired during higher education. Work experience in a similar business environment, whether gained as part of a course or through prior work experience or through helping out friends running their businesses, also played a role. Only two graduates in the sample were unemployed in their field of expertise; these young people lacked supportive contacts due to circumstantial or personal reasons. Young Zambians with degrees are high achievers with strong capabilities and good grades. The remainder of youth in the study sample were able and ambitious and had well thought-out plans for their career development. Those with higher educations tended to remain in their first job 40 after finishing their educations, usually climbing through the ranks; only in two cases did they leave their first jobs for better positions or to start their own companies. The career problems faced by secondary school leavers in Zambia were exacerbated by poor grades. Most advertised jobs require further qualifications and even jobs aimed at school leavers discriminated in terms of the grades sought (Sanakonda`s unusual position was a positive case in point). The sorts of jobs sought by second school leavers were in sales, marketing, debt-collecting, meter-reading, cleaning, and so on--jobs that did not require extra qualifications. Job seeking for this group involved going from one workplace to another, following up on leads or contacts, and when a situation arose, responding to advertisements from large companies looking to employ school leavers (usually for marketing work paid on commission). Those who left school at the lower secondary level faced similar problems, but their lack of a grade 12 certificate meant that the majority had not seriously tried looking for jobs. Only two respondents experienced no difficulty in finding work due to robust skills-based training in carpentry and tailoring, respectively. Yet both these young people remained very low earners and recognized that they would be better off on their own. Otherwise, lower secondary school leavers worked as salon workers, maids, or security guards. Maid`s work is a very low-paid occupation and security work has hazards. Salon work ranges from pulling in customers into a shop on commission, to hair dressing based on the self-taught experience of plaiting hair at home. Social contacts were essential for both secondary and lower secondary school leavers. Getting a job often meant being in the right place at the right time, being recommended, or in some way making an application stand out (either by having a contact or by talking up relevant experience and minor qualifications). Many respondents in this category saw their employment as demeaning, judging it to be for people without education or just for money (to pay for further education). Their jobs were generally hard work, not secure and/or low paid, and most critically, did not leave young people with enough income to take them back to school. The value of their already small earnings was further eroded by the common practice of deducting shortages from wage packets. Such workers are also at risk of unfair dismissal. Given this situation, some young people who had been employed subsequently left the job market. For youth who did not complete secondary school, working in a family business was an alternative to formal or informal employment. While in most cases such employment involved only nominal pay or allowances, others worked in partnership with siblings or parents and learned valuable business management skills in the process. They stood a chance of taking over the business, its premises, or its customer base in the future if it for some reason it became available. Secondary school leavers who went into business did so because they failed to find employment. These businesses tended to be informal, or even illegal, and were worked on an inconsistent basis. In each case, young people had to raise their initial capital through some other lower-return income- generating activity (e.g., baking, plaiting hair, subsistence farming, piecework, marginal trading) and where possible, got relatives to help them. None reported using any institutional or formal sources of credit. Going into business for oneself now stands as the only real alternative to scarce employment opportunities for many young people. The pathways of the respondents all showed how prior experience in business, either as an unpaid family worker or as a paid worker, fed into setting up individual business, including getting advice and accessing initial capital and essential business contacts. It is therefore possible that young Zambians whose parents were formal employees may be disadvantaged or even disposed against going into business. This disinclination may be a real 41 problem in the current environment, where a large proportion of parents were formal employees in the past. 42 Chapter 5. Aspirations and Strategies This chapter explores how respondents and key informants themselves think about success (in social and cultural terms), how it is achieved, and what they consider key obstacles. Success and how to achieve it Both key informants and the young Zambians who were interviewed appeared to view young people as a group at risk, unable to set or pursue realistic goals. They also considered youth as a group to lack initiative and boldness. Rogers (going places), who studied in India, said that people in Zambia are too relaxed. . . the way they walk, the way they talk. . . It`s just in the bones, it`s the culture. A private sector employer informant linked the short-term perspective of young people indirectly to the socially disruptive effects of the AIDS pandemic, as well as to the culture of conspicuous consumption, saying, Rarely are young employees nowadays prepared to take a long- term career-building view; acquiring their knowledge on the factory floor and at the bottom rung of the ladder--rather, they aspire to instant managerial positions and the perks that go with it: the clothes, the cell phone, the car. In a country where life expectancy is now between 35 to 40 years of age, this fast-track attitude is not surprising! It is exacerbated by the desire to get ahead ­ too often defined by external/material signs of wealth and impressive job titles. Many key informants (who tended to be older than sample respondents) emphasized the deterioration of social culture since the Kaunda period. One observed, The country went from one of the highest literacy rates in Africa to one of the lowest. They linked the overall deterioration in the quality of and access to education and other services to the current confusion of young people. Others, however, felt that the media offered possibilities for challenging stereotypes and stimulating dialogue around difficult social issues. Wealth, property, higher education, security of income, and being in a position to provide schooling to children or siblings were indicators of success in the eyes of already successful respondents. In their view, successful Zambians were either professionals--doctors, lawyers, bankers, engineers, teachers, bank clerks--or people doing well in business, including commercial agriculturalists, particularly those in senior management or directorial roles. They saw possibilities for success in the both private and public sectors. Some saw the successful in Zambia as a narrow category. Others had more inclusive definitions of success. For instance, Aaron said, If you are able to afford three meals, to make ends meet, able to take your children to school--basically, [if] you are able to afford to pay for your financial constraints, like paying for your electrical bills--then in Zambia you are financially successful. Rita, as did others in her category, said that the reason why people were successful because of how hard they work, the type of vision that they have for themselves. That`s what comes to mind: hard work is very important. Interestingly, only one respondent (Rita) out of five mentioned contacts as a factor of success--success in her eyes was merit-based and underpinned by drive, hard work, and education. Yet interviews showed how these ideas contrasted with reality: young Zambians had to change their plans and their hard work was not always a guarantee of success. Respondents who were going places were less clear, more ambivalent, and more diverse in their opinions about what constituted success in Zambia and how to achieve it. Like the 43 already successful category, these young people articulated personal visions of success that were not primarily economic. For Rebecca, [Success is] setting to a place where you will be happy and content to still want to work hard, but be happy where you are and not really complain so much; but if you complain you won`t be happy, maybe you will die that same day or the following day. Their attitudes towards those who were economically successful were also morally ambivalent. As Isiah said, [The economically successful] would like to hold on to their money, they wouldn`t want to help others [at large], because they fear that they will lose. Moses said he didn`t know how people were economically successful and Sanakonda said simply, [There are] people you can look up to, though you probably have no idea how they get it. People likely to succeed were seen by the going places category as those who had the drive to be so. Education was not universally mentioned by this group as a requirement for success. This finding may well reflect their more varied educational backgrounds and the fact that in spite of it all, they were going places. Mary had only completed grade 9 and four others in this group had only completed grade 12. However, one in the group was studying for their A-level exams, while three had diplomas and two, degrees. Being focused, determined, setting one's priorities right, and not getting carried away by initial success were, in their eyes, essential to economic success. Others in this group referred to the importance of developing a business mind (i.e., becoming entrepreneurial), making connections, getting exposure and access to information, and managing income. Sanakonda pointed out the need to develop social contacts once one was in a good position, not simply to use such contacts for unfair advantage. Respondents in the solid start group defined success largely in terms of what people were doing, rather than the material wealth associated with their jobs. Success for them was more about employability or being able to run a successful business within reasonable limits. Said Levy, You don`t really get to like have a lot of credit, at least just manageable, a reasonable kind of credit, at least then you are kind of successful. For Namwene, economic success was the ability to be in a position to support not only one`s immediate family, but needy relatives as well. She was particularly concerned by the growing gross inequality in contemporary Zambia. Alongside the usual interpretations of success, may have potential respondents often denied having any knowledge of what success was. Jones said, I think what I can say . . . me, I have never stayed with such people, so I can`t know about them. The people I have been seeing are poor. Successful people, said Sophie, eat well, they help their friends and relatives, they dress well, have jobs [and] look good. For Aubrey, a newly graduated student optimistic about his prospects, [Successful people] are able to drive one of those vehicles out there and I think they are able to support themselves between the salaries. Several such respondents perceived success in terms of the distance separating them from the successful. Successful people for this group included people who ran their own businesses, traders, people who worked in banks, importers, doctors, and government ministers. Just being employed meant being relatively successful. Yet as Simon explained, It is not just a matter of an opportunity coming your way, but it is also about how you utilize that opportunity as well. Regarding role models, this group tended to point to people they knew personally who rose from similar circumstances and with whom they could identify. They described success in terms of comparisons. In other words, their ideas of success were not cast in absolute, but in more relative, terms. Half of this group could point to people they knew who were successful, but these were generally older people with whom they had very loose or unequal relations. Only three in this group knew people their own age on their way to success. 44 Respondents with little potential had a realistic understanding of how young people can get on the road to success: having a financially secure family, which ensures a good education and good social contacts, which in turn ensure access to employment. It may thus be argued that this group was more perceptive than those who were successful or on their way to success. Temwani, however, believed that young people could still make their own success through persistence and hard work. She said of young people on their way to success, From the time they are young, they look for work everywhere and find it. They don`t take long to be out of work, they work here, they work there, then you know someone will be successful. Stephen also believed that young people needed "self-discipline and self-motivation in order to succeed. Education, especially tertiary education, was regarded as a key factor in achieving success. In general, young people in the little potential category viewed success in terms of what people had and were able to do. They saw successful people in Zambia as those who worked for big private companies or the government, or had their own businesses; as well as doctors, nurses, and teachers. Yet this group found it hard to identify role models and were notably unlikely to spontaneously identify public figures, with one exception (a woman who identified a successful woman, in this case, a television presenter). Four named people they knew who were economically successful, but volunteered nothing practical about why or how these people were successful. Four were able to identify friends they regarded as role models, but these were simply people who had been able to do better than them or do things they had not. Interviewees in this group didn`t offer any analysis of how they were able to do these things. Unable to find a job respondents tended to see young people on their way to success as those who benefited from financial help from their families or those who engaged in trading activities, which reflected the kind of employment they were able to access, which was generally poorly paid and exploitative. This group did not see employment as a route to success, but as a way to save in order to build initial capital. Yet some still valued education highly. As Noah said, Without education, one cannot even succeed in business, a view shared by Crispin and Iwomba. Although social contacts were seen as equally essential, hard work and self-help also came into the picture. Damaris explained, Like myself, I help myself by plaiting hair and don`t wait for someone else to take care of me. I even use that money to help out at home. Economically excluded respondents did not know other young people on their way to success or what such people did, but they had a notion of what was required for success: a combination of schooling, doing business, self-discipline, and hard work. As Boniface said, [A role model is] someone who sells shoes in Kamwaka. Other than this case, respondents in this group did not mention much in the way of a role model. Observations on aspirations and strategies Attitudes towards success, how it is achieved, and the availability of role models seemed to vary widely by respondents' level of economic success. Many articulated faith in education as a route to success, but few saw it as sufficient in itself. The notion that access to good work was based on merit only was expressed only by the most successful youth, with the rest seeing it as a matter of luck, birth, contacts, and educational opportunities. The less successful the young person, the less likely he or she was to see employment as a route to economic success and the more likely he or she was to perceive business as the only viable way to make money. 45 Evidence from the study supports the argument that young people's attitudes towards self- employment in Zambia are much more positive than previously recognized. There were, of course, nuances and differentiation among respondents at different levels of economic success. The most successful respondents viewed self-employment as an eventual alternative to formal employment, aiming to set up a private sector business themselves in the long run. In the short term, many of these young people had set up informal sector businesses on the side, but these businesses were perceived as extras rather than central career strategies. Formal employment for them was a place to get professional experience and credibility, save capital, and build business know-how; it was not the place where they aspired to end up. Choices between public and private sector employment were informed by the relative difficulty of obtaining public sector employment, its relative security, poorer pay, and lack of dynamism with respect to ideas, rewards, and promotions. The private sector employer who was a key informant noted that employers were still regarded as the surest safety net, expected to help with housing loans, allowances for transport, funerals, and advances for school fees and so on, as well as to provide onerous redundancy and retirement packages. These benefits have become even more important than before, given the collapse of many state-provided social safety and insurance programs. Young people in the going places category predominantly preferred to work in the private sector, where conditions were better than in the public or informal sectors. This group was generally confident about their business and employment prospects and saw their long-term plans for self- employment as positive. Unlike more successful Zambians, a number of respondents in the solid start category thought it preferable to work in the public sector, a preference that quite possibly reflected their current comparative lack of job security. Another four in this group believed that after the public sector, private sector employment was best. Whereas the majority of respondents in the may have potential category preferred self-employment to employment, young people in the little potential category preferred to work in the public, not the private, sector because of its benefits, support, and continuity. Young people in the latter category, however, believed their prospects for improving their employment status were dim. Overall, less successful respondents desired employment less and for shorter periods of time; many of the reasons for this preference were related to unattractive employment relations that characterized less-skilled work and informal sector employment. For this group, self-employment was generally preferable to having, in the words of one respondent, to to hand over the money you have made to the boss in return for nothing but a poor salary, as well as being exposed to arbitrary and often unfair criticisms, accusations, and pay deductions. Less successful respondents who did aspire to formal employment saw it as a means to finance further education or to save some capital for business, but were unable to access jobs that paid them enough to save. Although many respondents who were less successful also had less education, this finding was by no means universal. Young people at virtually all levels of economic success viewed the informal sector as the least desirable place to work. Those who had no choice but to work in this sector or who did piecework in the formal sector were often hopeless about their prospects, particularly those in the unable to find a job and economically excluded categories. 46 Chapter 6. Conclusions and Recommendations This report set out to explore the opportunities and constraints that affect the economic empowerment of young people in Zambia. Sixty young men and women, between the ages of 22 and 30--from urban and rural backgrounds, and with different kinds of families and educational credentials--were asked why and how they made the choices that had led them to the kind of work they were now doing. Empowerment was thus operationalized as the outcome of agency (using the proxy of assets) and opportunity structure (the institutional context). The research focused on school-to-school, school-to-work, and work­to-work transitions of respondents as a way of honing in on the factors that seemed to play the greatest role in helping or hindering them to realize their work goals. Conclusions Study findings suggest that the most important assets that help build young people's agency in economic life in Zambia include education, strong social support networks, and, not surprisingly, the psychological resilience and competence nurtured by consistent family support (usually but not always parental) through adolescence. All of the young people in this study achieved their level of economic success through an idiosyncratic combination of childhood circumstances and particular opportunities and constraints that emerged during and after they completed their educations. For many, key transitions took much longer than would have been expected. Youth from the most prosperous and supportive homes, however, were likelier to progress smoothly, with each work experience leading logically to the next. But for the large majority, transitions within school and from school to work often took several years. In terms of outcomes, young people tended to fall into one of three distinguishable groups, described below. At one end of the continuum were young people who came from relatively advantaged backgrounds and had, unsurprisingly, already achieved a degree of economic success and security. Their fathers had all completed secondary, and in many cases, tertiary educations and were engaged in professional occupations. Successful young people had either found formal sector jobs or were self-employed. At the other end of the continuum were young people who had been unable to find a job, appeared to have little potential for economic success, or were already locked into dead-end jobs and destined for economic exclusion. Most of these respondents had poor childhoods and few had fathers with a higher education. Young people in this group worked predominantly in the informal sector; if they worked in the formal sector, their jobs tended to be fairly menial. Given the small size of the purposive sample for this study, these correlations must be considered suggestive, rather than robust, but they were not unexpected. It was the young people in the middle of the spectrum whose outcomes were more puzzling. This group included two clusters of young people, one of whom who had achieved economic success despite disadvantaged backgrounds, raising the question of how they were able to overcome their early disadvantages. The other cluster of youth began life in comfortable circumstances with well-educated parents, but now appeared to have little potential or were unemployed, posing the question of what derailed them. 47 Although it is not surprising that young people with well-educated parents and financially secure childhoods were better able to achieve access, one cannot assume a mechanical relationship. Life histories of the respondents suggested that in addition to the fact that the parents of successful young people could pay for their educations, other factors were also at work. Most of their fathers, and in some cases, mothers, worked as professionals, and thus provided important role models for their children. There is an obvious mismatch between specific skills and labor market opportunities for respondents' with post-secondary education. The work that such respondents found after their studies was not necessarily related to their field of training, and as a result, they more or less had to upgrade their skills in directions relevant to their existing jobs, rather than to their original career desires. Social capital was an important factor in success. While young people at every level of success received help or advice from social contacts, young people with educated, professional parents were likelier to receive help from similarly well-placed professionals who were able to find them internships or even a first job placement. Such findings confirm research carried out in the United States and the Caribbean that the presence of a consistent and supportive adult figure is a strong predictor for positive youth behavior and outcomes. Youth who fell into the economically excluded or little potential categories overwhelmingly experienced childhood in families that were chronically poor or moving in and out of poverty. Not one respondent in these categories came from a highly advantaged background. Of the economically excluded, only one had a parent who had completed secondary education. Some, but not all, also had to contend with adverse childhood events, such as divorce or the death of a parent, sometimes followed by a move to another household. Three of the four youth who lived in rural areas and were engaged in farming also fell in to this group. Both for this group of youth, as well as certain other respondents who managed to achieve some success, unstable family backgrounds affected their early chances. Divorce or a parental death often resulted in children moving to new households, where they often had subordinate status and guardians who did not have their best interests at heart. Such moves frequently interrupted their educations and just as importantly, denied them emotional and psychological support and guidance at critical periods in their lives. A significant number of young people in the economic middle managed to overcome very disadvantaged childhoods and significant adverse events to achieve a reasonable degree of success. Others had thus far failed to demonstrate much progress despite an advantaged childhood and well-educated, professional parents. Completing secondary education was virtually a prerequisite for economic success. The only exceptions in the sample were two young people who acquired a solid formal skills training (in carpentry and tailoring, respectively), which enabled them to move quite quickly into jobs. Thus young people who had parents or guardians willing and able to support them through secondary school had a good chance of succeeding. A sizable portion of the young people who fell into the some potential, solid start, or higher categories of economic success, became entrepreneurs--all but one in the informal sector. Most of them started their own businesses after working with a parent or relative (sometimes as an unpaid worker), where they nevertheless acquired the necessary skills and 48 experience to start their own business. For this group, social capital also played an important role, in the form of relatives who provided experience, and in some cases, start-up capital. Young people who started out in advantaged circumstances but did not achieve success often experienced specific adverse circumstances in their families, including divorce. According to Zambian customary law, assets acquired during matrimony belong to the father and his tribe. Not surprisingly, the children who remained with their fathers after a divorce tended to fare better, while--with some exceptions--most of the children who remained with their mother experienced destitution. The absence of formal state support (with the exception of schools) for young people living in adverse circumstances was striking. There were no reported interventions in the lives of young people who experienced destitution or abuse as children, or who were forced at numerous points in their schooling to drop out because of poor grades or lack of finances. Likewise, in almost all cases, relatives and friends were the only source of educational or career guidance. In only one case did a youth report using a government labor exchange office. All but one young entrepreneur worked entirely in the informal sector; none had received money from any formal credit institution. Nongovernmental institutions did play a small role, however, in promoting positive outcomes for a few young people. Several women received training and small grants from the Catholic Church, another earned some start-up capital participating in an income-generating activity sponsored by the YMCA, and another youth was volunteering at an NGO with the hope of graduating into a paid position. Findings from Latin America, where a number of national as well as smaller-scale youth programs have been rigorously evaluated, throw into doubt the assumption that the youth unemployment will take care of itself if an economy grows sufficiently fast (Fawcett 2003). Recent studies have found that even the fastest-growing economies had failed to reduce unemployment rates for low-income youth, who tend to be less educated and less skilled than their peers. The conclusion is that while flexible wage and workforce policies may remove market barriers, training programs, labor-market services, and self-employment programs remain necessary to reduce uncertainty and increase skills matching in the market. The fundamental objective of youth labor market policy must be to address the long-term employability and productivity of young people, rather than provide short-term job placements. Efforts to assist young people in Zambia must take into account that the majority of opportunities for youth lie in the informal sector; efforts to link training and placements solely to the formal sector are unrealistic. Every effort should be made to help young people complete their educations, whether in formal or non-formal settings. The views of young people themselves should also be sought in the design of programs and policies designed to affect them. Recommendations The links between poor or relatively poor family backgrounds, parents with limited educational achievements, and in some cases, significant levels of neglect and abuse, on one hand, and young people`s level of economic achievement, on the other hand, are not surprising. These links point to the desirability of greater public intervention (whether by the state or non-state actors) into the lives of children. Recommendations include: Provide more social protection in divorce cases. At the very least, proactively enforce existing family law in Zambia be proactively enforced so 49 that women receive their portion of family property. The media, which has covered cases relating to women`s rights after divorce, could play a supportive role by expanding women`s awareness of their legal rights. Scale up existing social service support projects for youth in difficult family situations (e.g., aid to orphans and vulnerable children sponsored by CARE/Zambia and funded by USAID) to address the needs of adolescents who have lost their parents. Provide greater material support to families suffering from AIDS-related deaths to ensure that surviving dependents can afford expenses related to primary education and complete secondary education (e.g., fees, school supplies, transport). Pilot programs in Kenya, for example, found that assistance in paying for textbooks and uniforms improved primary school attendance. Improving secondary school attendance will entail a more fundamental approach, including expanding the number of school placements nationwide. Ensure that young people have access to well-trained mentors, in the form of school or guidance counselors, who can provide sound advice about education and work opportunities. This advice needs to be based on knowledge of the market and current labor demands. Facilitate NGOs to provide support on several fronts at once. They could, for example, offer concrete assistance in the form of a savings club or access to microcredit within a support network framework. At the same time, such organizations could provide adult mentors and thus help build the social capital of young people, especially vulnerable youth who lack supportive family networks. An example of such an approach is the Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) program for vulnerable female youth in Kenya, pioneered by the Population Council and the K-Rep Development Agency (Kenya`s oldest and largest microfinance institution).18 Eight years` experience and an impact evaluation found that expanding the social capital of girls needed to precede more targeted livelihood assistance. Target support to rural youth to complete their educations. Despite increased primary-school enrollment, there are still high dropout rates between primary and secondary, and lower and higher secondary, schools. In addition, there are inadequate school places--no new public secondary school has been built in Zambia since 1970. Improving school retention, particularly in rural areas, is an area of emphasis for the World Bank Country Assistance Strategy. This goal is clearly critical for improving the chances of rural young people to achieve economic independence and security. Create opportunities for internships or on-the-job training and/or apprenticeships that would give young people work experience. Such opportunities could help them access their first job (currently difficult, since employers prefer to hire workers who already have experience)--even if the 18 Erulkar, Annabel, et al. 2006. Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) provides social support, savings, and microcredit opportunities for young women in areas with high HIV prevalence (Population Council, 2006, Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive Transitions to Adulthood, Brief No. 15, Population Council, New York). 50 placements don`t turn into permanent employment. Using funding from the Empowerment Fund established by the Citizen Empowerment Act, it may be possible to subsidize businesses that are willing to provide on-the-job-training, using independent testing and certification as a way of ascertaining that training actually took place (see Adams 2007). Foster a supportive institutional framework that broadens young people's access to (and use of) market information and links them to high-value markets, skills training, and access to finance.19 Create programs for young entrepreneurs that target specific age groups, differentiated by their different capabilities and needs. The likelihood is that younger cohorts (in their early 20s) will need more attention and assistance than older youth. Thought should be given to examining the relevance of best practices from youth enterprise support programs worldwide. One possible example is the Prince`s Trust, a business start-up program that has launched tens of thousands of youth entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom and established a pilot in Zambia (through the Business Leaders Forum). Facilitate young people's access to finance. Financing is particularly important, as not one youth interviewed for this study who was involved in running a small business had received start-up funds from formal credit sources. The success of microcredit schemes targeted at youth will, however, depend on careful design, including assessment of creditworthiness and incorporating other forms of support along with financing. 19 Surveys of young entrepreneurs in Zambia find that they rely mainly on friends and family for market information, work in low-income markets, and lack marketing strategies (Chigunta 2002). 51 References Adams, Arvil V. 2007. The role of youth skills development in the transition to work: A global review. Human Development Network, World Bank, Washington, DC. Ansell, N. 2004. Secondary schooling and rural youth transitions in Lesotho and Zimbabwe. Youth and Society 36 (2):183­202. Berry, Sara S. 1989. Social institutions and access to resources. Africa 59 (1):41­55. Bryceson, D. F. 2000. Rural Africa at a crossroads. In Disappearing peasantries? Rural labour in Africa, Asia and Latin America, ed. D. Bryceson, C. Kay, and J. Mooij (London: Intermediate Technology Publications). Chigunta, Francis. 2002. Youth entrepreneurship: Meeting the key policy challenges. Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom. ------.2001. Understanding exclusion and creating value: A look at youth livelihoods in informal urban settlements in Zambia. Study Report II. Centre for International Development, Oxford University, United Kingdom. Duncan, A., H. Macmillan, and N. Simutanyi. 2003. Zambia: Drivers of pro-poor change: An overview. Oxford Policy Management, Oxford, United Kingdom. Erulkar, Annabel, et al. 2006. Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive Transitions to Adulthood, Brief No. 15, Population Council, New York). Fawcett, C. 2003. Building a bridge for the road too far: Policy analysis for the school-to-work transition in Latin America. In Youth explosion in developing world cities: Approaches to reducing poverty and conflict in an urban age, ed. Blair Ruble, Joseph Tulchin, and Diana Varat with Lisa Hanley. (Washington, Woodrow Wilson International Institute for Scholars), 63-88. Ferguson, J. 1999. Expectations of domesticity: Men, women and the modern family. In J. Ferguson, Expectations of modernity: Myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian Copperbelt (Berkeley: University of California Press), 166­206. Grant, M. 2006. I have been patient enough: Gendered futures and mentors of female youth in urban Zimbabwe. Social Dynamics 32 (1):21­46. Government of the Republic of Zambia. CSO (Central Statistical Office). 2007. Labour Force Survey Report. Lusaka: CSO. ------. CSO. 2006a. Selected socio-economic indicators, 2004­2004. CSO, Lusaka. ------. Ministry of Sport, Youth, and Child Development. 2006b. National Youth Policy 2006. Ministry of Sport, Youth, and Child Development, Lusaka. ------. CSO. 2005. Living conditions monitoring survey (LCMS) report 2004. CSO, Lusaka. 52 ------. National HIV/AIDS/STD/TB Council. 2004. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia: Where are we now? Where are we going? National HIV/AIDS/STD/TB Council, Lusaka. Guyer, J.I. 2004. Marginal gains: Monetary transactions in Atlantic Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hansen, K.T. 1996. Keeping house in Lusaka. New York: Columbia University Press. Kalinda, R. 2004. The gender dimensions of the impact of economic performance on the youth in Zambia in the 1990s. University of Zambia, Lusaka. http://fiuc.org/esap/ZAMB/ZAMB7/General/gender.pdf, Accessed 2.10/09. Keune, M., and R. Monitcone. 2004. Improving prospects for young women and young men in the world of work: A guide to youth employment. Genvea: ILO. Population Council. 2006. Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive Transitions to Adulthood. Brief No. 15. Population Council, New York. Schuster, I.M.G. 1979. New women of Lusaka. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co. UNECA (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa). 2005. Meeting youth unemployment head-on: Addressing unemployment of young people in Africa. UNECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Verschoor, A. 2007. The economic empowerment of citizens in Zambia: Research plan. University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom. World Bank. 2007a. World development report 2007: Development and the next generation. Washington, DC: World Bank. ------. 2007b. Zambia: Poverty and vulnerability assessment. World Bank, Washington D.C. 53 Annex A: Circumstances of Respondents' Childhoods Ten respondents identified their childhood homes as chronically poor, poor, or moving in and out of poverty.20 Despite these difficult circumstances, three had been able to make a solid start towards economic success. However, most had unfavorable economic prospects, two were unable to find a job, and two were economically excluded. Tapelwa (little potential) lived with her grandmother, who was able to clothe her but could only provide one meal a day. Iwomba (unable to find a job) lived with his mother after her divorce when he was four years old. As he recalled the hardships of his childhood, We had no proper clothes or shoes and maybe had one meal a day. The three young people who had managed to make a solid start all had fathers (in Levy`s case, a stepfather) who had completed tertiary educations and had good jobs, but had faced poor childhood circumstances as a result of the death of a parent in early childhood. Cornelius (may have potential category) and Febian (unable to find a job category) may well also belong to this group, but the economic circumstances of their early childhood were not probed. Fred said that the economic circumstances of his childhood were very poor, but he didn`t know what education his parents had and their occupations were not probed. These three respondents were thus not included in this group. 54 Table 33. Poor childhood circumstances Childhood Name (Survey economic Father's Father's Mother's Mother's category) situation education occupation education occupation Adverse circumstances Naaliah (solid Chronically Not probed Good job in Completed Housewife Went to live with aunt start) poor mines primary when 6 years old; parents died soon afterwards Christina Chronically Post- Senior Not known Peasant Father died when 3 (solid start`) poor secondary farmer years old, leaving policeman mother to raise her own and his first wife`s children Phileas (solid Poor Degree Diplomat Post- Nurse Mother died when 2 start) secondary years old, sent to live with maternal grandparents Tapelwa (little Chronically Not known Miner Incomplete Not probed Father died when 5 poor primary years old, sent to live potential) with grandmother as mother could not cope with all 5 children Precious (little Poor Incomplete Artist and Incomplete Housewife Father died when he secondary carpenter secondary was 19 years old potential) Dorice (little In/ out of Incomplete Farmer Incomplete Farmer Mother died when 8 secondary secondary years old, father potential) poverty remarried and lived with him Joyce (unable Poor Post- Inferior job at Degree Worked for Parents divorced when to secondary brewery NGO after 5 years old, father then divorce refused to support find a job) Iwomba Chronically Not known Not known Completed Typist and Parents separated (unable to poor secondary cleaner when 4 years old; mother raised him to 15 find a job) years and then could not cope, when he was sent to father and step- father. Mother subsequently died Margaret Chronically Incomplete Farmer None Farmer No (economically secondary poor excluded) Moffat Chronically Not known, Foreman at Not known Unemployed No (economically poor but educated grain but educated excluded) marketing board 55 Table 34. Worsening economic circumstances in childhood Name (Survey Father's Mother's Father's Mother's category) education education occupation occupation Adverse circumstances Rebecca Degree Post- Governor Secretary Parents divorced in early childhood; (going secondary lived with mother, no support from places) father Helen Degree Completed Doctor Housewife Father retired in grade 2 and family primary faced financial difficulties thereafter (solid start) Levy Not known Not known Died Tailoring Father died when he was 1.5 years from home old, Mother remarried and stepfather (solid start) was head teacher. Stepfather died when he was 19 years old Acton (may Not known Incomplete Carpenter, Not probed Father died when 16 years old have secondary builder, and potential) plumber Tamara Incomplete Not known Not known, Not known, Tamara was widowed 4 years ago (may have primary at at potential) UNZA UNZA Lungowe Incomplete Incomplete Ran a Housewife Father died and stepfather was (little secondary secondary stationery abusive, so he left home shop potential) Jeremiah Completed Completed Businessman Selling No (little primary primary groundnuts potential) Mercy (little Not probed Not Farmer Farmer No potential) probed Julius (little Not known Completed Zambian Unemployed Father died when 14 years old; other potential) primary army officer relatives also died at this time Nine respondents described their families as moving into poverty during their early childhoods. 21 Of these nine, one was now going places, two had made a solid start, and two were classified as may have potential. The rest had little potential. In most cases, the claim that families were moving into poverty reflected a worsening of economic circumstances, precipitated by either adverse events in the family, including divorce, death, and retirement, or a worsening wider economic situation, lost jobs, to an increasing economic burden of dependents. 21 Stephen (little potential) may belong to this group because his father divorced his mother; however, the economic circumstances of his childhood were not probed. 56 Table 35. Poor but improving economic circumstances in childhood Name (Survey Father's Father's Mother's Mother's category) education occupation education occupation Adverse circumstances Rita (already Degree Government Post- Administrator Father and brother died successful) lawyer secondary at UNZA when she was 5 years old Sanakonda Completed Worked in Incomplete Housewife Tonga`s father took a (going secondary hatchery for primary second wife when he was places) hybrid poultry 11 years farm old (semi-broken home) Brenda Post- Good job in Post- Accountant No (going secondary insurance secondary places) Sophie (may Post- Headmaster Incomplete Selling No have secondary secondary groundnuts potential) Iris (may Not known Accountant None Not probed No have at college potential) Natasha Degree School Not known Teacher High burden of dependents (little inspector potential) A further six respondents experienced their early childhood households as moving out of poverty. Although Rita, Sanakonda, and Brenda described their childhood situations in those terms, they were in relatively more financially secure homes. The families of Sophie, Iris, and Natasha experienced more financial difficulties during their childhoods. All three had parents who were educators and whose incomes were badly affected by the deteriorating economy; in two cases, they also had to support many dependents. 57 Table 36. Relatively advantaged circumstances in childhood Name (Survey Fathers Mothers Fathers Mothers category) education education occupation occupation Adverse circumstances Zulu (already Completed Completed Electrician Rose through No successful) secondary secondary ranks at an international bank Aaron Completed Incomplete Worked at Sold saluala No (already secondary secondary bank successful) Agnes (going Completed None Miner Died Mother died when very places) secondary young, raised by older sister with nice job; father absent, working in mines and on a farm Mary (going Completed Not known Vehicle hire Housewife Mary got pregnant in grade places) secondary business 9 and dropped out of school Prudence Currently Incomplete Not known Businesswoman Never knew father until very (solid start) studying law secondary recently; mother died when degree she was 12 years old--she then lived with aunt, then with grandparents Everlasting Completed Incomplete Tailor for Businesswoman Both parents died when he (may have secondary secondary private was 10 years old potential) company Lucy (may Incomplete Incomplete In a laboratory Selling things No have secondary secondary from home potential) Jones (may Completed Not known Policeman Businesswoman Sent to uncle`s house after have secondary parents divorced; sent to potential) father when aunt died; dropped out of school when he got girlfriend pregnant Aubrey (may Post- Incomplete Foreman in Housewife No have secondary secondary mine potential) Temwani Completed Incomplete Soldier Businesswoman Mother died when she was (little secondary secondary 20 potential) Malaika (little Not known Not known Miner Housewife Raised by aunt and uncle potential) from age of 3; father died when she was 5 and mother, when she was16 Best (little Incomplete None Farmer Farmer Father died when he was 9, potential) secondary after which he moved and stopped school for a few years; mother died when he was 12 Lily (unable Completed Incomplete Farmer Farmer Parents divorced when she to find a job) secondary secondary was 17; lives with mother, financial problems 58 Damaris Completed Incomplete Employed as Selling saluala No (unable to secondary secondary engineer find a job) Rose Incomplete Incomplete Businessman, Not probed Parents divorced when she (economically primary, secondary stationery shop was 2, father forbade excluded) semi-literate contact with mother, stepmother was abusive; thrown out when she became pregnant at age 13, after refusing an abortion Boniface Not known Not known Job with local Selling in the No (economically council market excluded) Sixteen young Zambians in the sample said that their childhood circumstances were not poor.22 These respondents felt that their childhood homes provided the necessary sustenance and support for schooling, even those who did not live with their parents. One respondent`s father had a post- secondary education and another was presently studying for a degree. Only one mother had completed a secondary education; in six cases, the mother`s education was not known or not probed. The occupations and educational achievements of the parents of respondents in this group suggest relatively advantaged childhood circumstances. For some young people in this group, however, the initially good economic position of their early childhoods did not last. The diverse economic outcomes for children coming from relatively advantaged backgrounds were striking. In the cases of Everlasting, Jones, Best, Chilifya, and Rose, circumstances changed dramatically as a result of death and divorce. Rose had a bad relationship with her abusive father. The retirement of Boniface`s father to the village meant a serious downturn in both his family`s economic circumstances and his access to education. 22 Noah`s father completed secondary school and worked as a boilermaker, and his mother had some secondary education, but her occupation and their economic circumstances were not probed. He was therefore excluded from this part of the analysis. 59 Table 37. Most advantaged childhood circumstances Name (survey Father's Father's Mother's Mother's Adverse category) education occupation education occupation circumstances Tabitha Post- Accountant Post- Zambian High No (already secondary secondary Commission successful) Goodwill Post- Ministry of Justice Post- Nurse No (already secondary secondary successful) Isiah Not known Zambian Not known Used to work for Father (a paramount (going Information the cabinet of chief) died when he places) Services the prime was 10, family faced minister? financial problems; mother got sick and died when he was 22 Tepson Incomplete Zambian army Post- Secondary Father died when he (going secondary secondary school teacher was 7 places) Beauty Degree Good job in Post- Secretary No (going insurance secondary places) Rogers Post- Farm manager for Completed Clerk/ nurse No (going secondary Zambian secondary places) Agricultural Development, Ltd Joseph Post- Good job in post Incomplete Businesswoman After parents forced (going secondary and telecommuni- secondary to divorce by places) cations grandfather; sent to be raised by grandfather at age 5. Mother died when he was 8 Tembo Higher degree Good job at Post- Not probed No (solid Choma milling secondary start) Abraham Post- Senior lab Incomplete Stock supervisor Parents divorced (solid secondary technician secondary for a while when he was 10, start) lived with father and extended family Namwene Higher degree Lawyer/ politician Post- Nurse/businessw No (solid secondary oman start) Simon Degree Transport Completed Businesswoman After parents (may have manager for ZRA secondary divorced, lived with potential) father and stepmother; father died recently Crispin Post- Accountant Post- Secretary Mother died when he (unable to secondary secondary was 10;. father find a job) unemployed for 3 years and has no time for him 60 Twelve respondents who described their families as not poor in childhood had at least one parent with post-secondary education and at least one parent who did some sort of white collar or professional job.23 In most cases, their advantaged childhood circumstances appear to have provided a solid foundation for moving towards economic success. Everyone in this group came from good family backgrounds. While they had not all been able to achieve the highest levels of education or employment, they were not trapped in low-skilled or low-paid work. It is also worth noting that most in this group were younger than those who were already successful and still had time to improve their prospects. 23 Bernard and Moses most likely belong to this group, but since the economic situation of their early childhoods was not directly probed, they were excluded. 61 Annex B: Respondents' Educational Transitions Delayed starts and delayed progressions A number of respondents who attended government schools were delayed in starting their educations for a number of reasons, such as a limited number of primary school places. For most, this circumstance was simply a reflection of wider conditions and older policies on school entry, rather than an individual disadvantage. But for some young people, the delay was the direct result of +financial hardship and physical distance from school (only a 7- or 8-year-old can walk long distances). For example, Lucy (may have potential) started school at age nine and completed lower secondary at 21; afterwards, she went on to do a tailoring course. The other 15 respondents either interrupted their schooling or saw their progress blocked by poor achievement, poor teaching, limited home support, or lack of aptitude. All respondents in the already successful category had taken a gap year, which did not necessarily mean economic inactivity and ,might even have gained them work experience. Nevertheless, it remained an enforced pause in their educational pathways, largely due to a bureaucratic inefficiency: waiting for exams results. But for many young people, access to higher education was delayed by problems in attaining entry and raising the necessary funds. Post-secondary educational transitions The post-secondary education group included respondents who obtained a degree, a diploma, or a certificate (see table 38). Among degree holders, support from parents in the form of gifts, was a strong incentive to become immersed in their studies. But some young people in rural areas went to primary school because everyone else did and received encouragement only from teachers. Thus Joseph (going places) saw a connection between his rural environment and educational apathy, in contrast to what he perceived as a link between urban life and motivation: Moving from a rural setting to an urban setting, you see people driving cars not because of farming, but because of having been to school. So they have a constant flow of income coming every month, so you begin to appreciate. Joseph was not alone in this view. The sense of discovery, of living in a different environment, the company of friends with a similar aim in life--all these factors contributed to motivating students in their studies. At lower educational levels, it was quite a different story, as explored later in this chapter. Christina (solid start category) suffered from the fact that she lived far from her primary school and was often late, for which she was excluded from the class for half a day. She never had time to study and as a result, got poor grades. She recounted the humiliation of arriving at school sweating, her shirt all wet, being teased for it, wondering if there would be a meal for her that day, of damaging her eyes trying to study at night by candlelight, being swept away by a flood on the way to school during the rainy season, and her fear of rape during the long walk. The degree holders in this group included four of the five respondents in the already successful category, all of whom attended school without delays and progressed age-appropriately throughout their studies. Their paths had been laid out for them by the typical expectations of their backgrounds. Older youth who were already successful had also all benefited from going to university at a time when the government covered nearly 90 percent of the costs. Rita, for example, enjoyed a scholarship that covered her fees and her study expenses, plus a monthly allowance. But government policy was even then beginning to change. Scholarships were diminished and parents began to have to cover part of the cost of their children's university studies. Some students still managed, however, to win scholarships to study overseas. 62 Table 38. Respondents with post-secondary education Name Highest educational level Current job Original household Zulu (already Degree Mining engineer Relatively advantaged successful) Aaron (already Master`s degree University lecturer Relatively advantaged successful) Tabitha (already Master`s degree Senior parliamentary counsel Most advantaged successful) Goodwill (already Diploma Accounts assistant Most advantaged successful) Rita (already Degree Business development Most advantaged successful) representative Isiah (going places) PG teaching diploma and Secondary school teacher Most advantaged degree Moses (going places) Diploma Graphic designer Most advantaged? Rebecca (going Diploma College lecturer Worsening places) circumstances Rogers (going places) Degree Customer support engineer Most advantaged Joseph (going places) Degree General accounts and Most advantaged administrative assistant Brenda (going places) Diploma Human resources officer Poor but improving Tembo (solid start) Advanced diploma Administrative and accounts Most advantaged assistant Prudence (solid start) Degree Research supervisor Relatively advantaged Christina Diploma Audits assistant Poor (solid start) Abraham Degree NGO field officer Most advantaged (solid start) Namwene Degree Shopkeeper Most advantaged (solid start) Sophie Nursery teacher certificate Nursery school teacher Poor but improving (may have potential) Aubrey Degree Unemployed Relatively advantaged (may have potential) Crispin Diploma Unemployed Most advantaged (unable to find a job) Noah Degree Unemployed Relatively advantaged (unable to find a job) Goodwill (already successful) wanted to go to CBU to do accountancy studies, but failed to do so because of his grades. Instead, he went to college to get a certificate in accountancy and spent two further years at the same college getting his Accounting Technician`s Diploma (ATD), which is 63 certified by the National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA). His family struggled to pay for his education. He started his ACCA qualification by taking an advance on his salary to pay his tuition and exam fees. Since he now works in the public sector as an accountant, the government pays his tuition, but he still has to pay for his exam fees. He also benefited from much guidance and encouragement from an aunt who was employed in the public sector. 64 Secondary school transitions Table 39. Secondary school leavers r Highest qualification Current job Original household Agnes Grade 12 Businesswoman Relatively advantaged (going places) Sanakonda Grade 12 Bank clerk Poor but improving (going places) Tepson Grade 12 Fuel trader Most advantaged (going places) Beauty Grade 12 Bookshop keeper Most advantaged (going places) Naaliah Grade 12 Sales executive Poor (solid start) Helen Grade 12 Policewoman Worsening (solid start) Phileas Grade 12 Businessman Poor (solid start) Levy Grade 12 Student Worsening (solid start) Simon Grade 12 Cook Most advantaged (may have potential) Acton Grade 12 Student Worsening (may have potential`) Lungowe Grade 12 Cleaner Worsening (little potential) Natasha Grade 12 Student Poor but improving (little potential) Mercy Grade 12 Shop assistant Poor (little potential) Stephen Grade 12 Filling attendant Worsening (little potential) Tapelwa Grade 12, Bar worker Poor (little potential) Hotel and Catering certificate Malaika Grade 12 Shop assistant Relatively advantaged (little potential) Febian Grade 12 Unemployed Not probed (unable to find a job) Damaris Grade 12 Unemployed Relatively advantaged (unable to find a job) Joyce Grade 12 Unemployed Poor (unable to find a job) Iwomba Grade 12 Unemployed Poor (unable to find a job) Rose Grade 12 Unemployed Relatively advantaged (economically excluded) All the young Zambians in this group wanted to pursue their studies, but most could not reach the university level or apply for funding because of insufficient grades; the cost of studying for a diploma was also prohibitive. Some members of this group had been able to access certificates--a much cheaper and shorter option. For the majority, their educational choices were constrained by 65 available financing. Five were currently financing their own studies: one for a degree, three for diplomas, and one for a certificate. Sanakonda (going places) applied to Evelyn Hone College, a vocational college offering certificates and diplomas in Lusaka, and was accepted. He claimed it was not expensive, but his father still could not afford the cost because of too many responsibilities--he had two wives and more children. A scholarship was not an option, he explained, In Zambia you only get a bursary [scholarship] in situations where you are already in the university or in college studying, or if you know someone who knows someone at the University of Zambia. It is funny that bursaries are for poor people, but you see ministers` children going to school with a full bursary. Sanakonda wanted to study economic administration first rather than work in a bank, as he was presently doing. Nevertheless, he found his work gratifying and was working on a part-time correspondence degree in Business Economics Administration with an American university. Agnes (going places) had a comfortable childhood. Having completed secondary school, she chose tourism as her area of studies. She started courses in computer maintenance and in hairdressing in Botswana, sponsored by her cousin, but came back to Zambia without completing her exams. She is now importing goods for resale and financing a one-year certificate in Hotel and Catering, not her preferred choice of program, but the cheapest available. Naaliah (solid start) obtained short certificates in computer literacy because of pressure in that direction when she applied for jobs. Prior to this, she had been unsuccessful in gaining entry to a three-year degree course in Environmental Health Technology at Chinama College in Lusaka, for which she blamed her lack of connections. In contrast, Helen (solid start) was admitted to the Zambian Police force thanks largely to her connections: her sister and brother-in-law work in the police force. Lower secondary education transitions These respondents interrupted their educations for such reasons as financial hardship in their families, failing exams, and pregnancy. Pregnancy had an impact not only on the careers of the women who gave birth, but also on the fathers. The education of Jones (may have potential) was interrupted on account of migrations, first from his father`s home to that of his aunt, then to his own place to live with the girl he impregnated. Migration actually helped him pursue his studies--when his aunt became terminally ill, he migrated to work on a commercial farm during school holidays to pay for his fees. Eventually, he took a one-month course to become a driver. Three women from this sample embarked upon a tailoring course offered by the Roman Catholic Church on the advice of their parents. The interviews of young people in this group showed them to be highly motivated to work, doing menial tasks in adverse circumstances. 66 Table 40. Lower secondary school leavers Name (survey category) Highest qualification Current job Original household Mary (going places) Grade 9 Businesswoman Relatively advantaged Everlasting Grade 9 Market trader Not probed (may have potential) Iris Grade 9 Hair dresser Poor but improving (may have potential) Cornelius Grade 9, carpentry certificate Carpenter Poor (may have potential) Lucy Grade 9, tailoring certificate Tailor Relatively advantaged (may have potential) Jones Grade 11 Security site Relatively advantaged (may have potential) supervisor Tamara Grade 9 Runs market Worsening (may have potential) restaurant Temwani Grade 9 Market trader Relatively advantaged (little potential) Wenceslas Grade 9 Artist Poor (little potential) Dorice Grade 9 Maid Poor (little potential) Lily Grade 9 Unemployed Relatively advantaged (unable to find a job) Margaret Grade 9 Farmer Poor (economically excluded) Educational transitions of the educationally excluded Table 41. "Educationally excluded" respondents Name Highest qualification Current job Original household Best Grade 5 Block maker Relatively advantaged (little potential) Jeremiah Grade 7 Garden boy Worsening (little potential) Julius Grade 2 Car washer Worsening (little potential) Fred Grade 5 Market trader Poor (little potential) Boniface Grade 2 Piecework porter Relatively advantaged (economically excluded) Moffat Grade 3 Unemployed Poor (economically excluded) Bernard Grade 5 Unemployed Most advantaged (economically excluded) The young people in this category had not yet renounced education, as they were aware it would make life easier, but their circumstances made it virtually impossible for them to continue their studies. 67