Youth trajectories in Libya, Syria, and Iraq: Promoting pathways for livelihood, wellbeing, and political inclusion

This project will investigate how youth in Iraq, Libya, and Syria carve out opportunities for livelihoods and strategies for wellbeing in conflict and post-conflict contexts. It will also examine the contextual/environmental factors that influence their strategies and the longer-term implications for political inclusion and gender equality. The goal is to produce ground-up, evidence-based research to formulate policy recommendations for local authorities, donors, non-governmental organizations, and policymakers, as well as strategies for youth to promote their own livelihoods, wellbeing, political inclusion, and gender equality.

Coordinated by the Arab Reform Initiative, this project will work with youth and stakeholders who will implement youth policies and programming. The primary source of evidence will consist of approximately 250 semi-structured interviews with youth in the three countries and semi-structured interviews with external donors and civil society organizations that implement or prepare youth programming. Desk research on contextual/environmental factors and comparative case studies will identify best practices and successful models from other conflict and post-conflict contexts. Gender analysis will be included throughout the project and will systematically assess the different implications of conflict, post-conflict, and youth programming on young men and women.

South-South exchange will be promoted between youth to enable them to share inspiration, tips, and strategies to weather conflict and exert agency over their lives. The research will also promote South-South exchange through direct peer discussions and review processes between the project’s junior field researchers.