Contribution short abstract:

Drawing on research conducted in five African cities, this paper highlights the pivotal role education represents in breaking patterns of social, political and economic exclusion that disproportionately affect young women and girls in urban areas.

Contribution long abstract:

Despite youth representing a demographic majority in African cities, their needs for equal and uninterrupted access to quality education have not always represented a priority for the state. Low quality education and limited access to education for disenfranchised youth, including women, have prevented young people from realising their educational aspirations and pursuing school-to-work transitions on they pathway to social adulthood. For the most part, the ‘youth question’ has become a highly contentious and politicised subject, and young people in cities often face issues related to access and exclusion based on social norms and expectations. For young women and adolescent girls in particular, the needs to get by in cities often leads to interrupted educational pathways, which results in disenfranchising outcomes for their transitions towards adulthood. This paper presents findings from research conducted in Addis Ababa, Freetown, Kampala, Maiduguri, Mogadishu in 2022 and 2023 as part of the African Cities Research Consortium. Findings presented highlight the centrality of education in the lives of young people across the five cities, where youth navigate between formal and informal education provision, face issues in low quality and access, and confront issues around gender norms related to dropouts in response to early pregnancies. Fundings suggest that the pivotal role of education represents the key to breaking patterns of exclusion that disproportionately affect young women and girls in urban areas, while highlighting the role of programmatic interventions focused on young people’s education that have made an impact on access and integration across the five cities.