Investigating notions of employment and work for young people in Ethiopia
This was a Human Centred Design study that provided a unique opportunity to understand and challenge notions of what employment and work mean for young people. This work revealed a diverse set of factors which affect people’s work opportunities and choices across a few urban and rural communities across different regions in Ethiopia.
YEAR
2019
LOCATION
Ethiopia
ROLE
Senior Designer
CLIENT
Jobs Creation Commission, Ethiopia
Mastercard Foundation
APPROACH
HCD Research
Qualitative Research
COLLABORATORS
Prerak Mehta
Jasper Grosskurth
Through in-depth interviews, intercept interviews, small group discussions and observations, we engaged 62 people to gain a nuanced understanding of how people in Ethiopia perceive and experience dignified and gainful work, and the diverse set of factors that affect their work opportunities and choices. We clustered the people we met based on their access to work and access to resources, and the segmentation framework that emerged set the groundwork to match segments of people with the most relevant and prominent opportunities they can access to achieve dignified and gainful work.
To understand how underemployed and unemployed Ethiopian youth make choices/ perceive opportunities and obstacles with respect to employment and income generation.
To identify the key metrics to inform and complement the quantitative survey design, including exploration and unpackaging of the below topics for individuals (with a focus on unemployed and underemployed).
Snapshots of the research toolkit material that we developed to investigate the research questions through participatory activities, prompt cards and guides.
A snapshot of one of the sections from the research toolkit with guides on activities and question themes.
The full research worksheet in digital format.
Some sort cards on the printed digital worksheet.
A snapshot of one of the sections from the research toolkit with guides on activities and question themes.
"I want to do an office-based job after finishing college, then slowly save and start a cafe on the side, earn a lot, then start a factory or any business and then enter into politics. I am inspired by studying civics as a subject in college and want to serve my people."
Quote from a 20 year old research participant on work aspiration
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For most people, irregular work, low wages, and volatile income were common. For many people, work is just a means for survival to safeguard food, shelter and clothing for themselves and their families. For people across professions, self-identity and pride in work were important. But despite the daily struggles, resilience and belief in self, supported by faith, provided people with the internal motivation to keep going. Many saw education as the hope for children and youth to build a better life.
We also discovered many insights, among some of which revealed that:
Most people’s work journeys go through more lows than highs and are a mirror to the resource-scarce circumstances in which they operate.
Most people express resilience and belief in self as the most prominent mindset to overcome the odds to achieve stability in work.
In both urban and rural areas, multiple work opportunities were pursued to generate additional income sources to smooth earnings, as for most people a single income source, like smallholder farming or casual daily wage labour or street vending, was volatile and too low to make ends meet.
In both urban and rural areas, multiple work opportunities were pursued to generate additional income sources to smooth earnings as for most people a single income source, like smallholder farming or casual daily wage labour or street vending, was volatile and too low to make ends meet.
We mapped these insights to opportunity areas that were tied to the framework for user profiles to make them actionable. The detailed insights that emerged from this work informed the JCC’s State of Jobs 2019 Report, a comprehensive document on employment in Ethiopia, and the National Action Plan to address the unemployment crisis, and helped the Federal Commission influence policymakers and bureaucrats nationally.
Take a look at some of the visual assets that we used to capture the insights on different experiences and journeys related to work, employment and livelihoods.
