Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract

Collectively produced videos share lessons about the challenges and strategies used by youth groups to engage in urban governance and housing struggles, developed by young leaders from informal settlements in Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, Benin, India, Nepal, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Paper long abstract

As cities in Africa and Asia grow, young people hustle to find pathways for a flourishing life. In sub-Saharan Africa, 70% of people are under the age of 30. Over 60% of the world's youth live in the Asia-Pacific region. These regions have also the highest number of people living in informal settlements, facing not only inadequate housing and infrastructure, but also constant criminalisation and exclusion.

Young people in informal settlements are often invisibilised, but they are finding ways to organise, exchange knowledge and learn, produce media, mobilise and bring about changes in their neighbourhoods and cities. This presentation will share the outcomes of an audiovisual exchange conducted with young representatives from Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, Benin, India, Nepal, Indonesia and the Philippines, showcasing their experiences of renewing future leadership in housing and urban movements.

The videos and discussion will reflect on the challenges young people face to engage in housing and urban governance, including institutional exclusions that operate at the intersection of gender and other forms of inequality, the lack of tools and formal spaces, and the economic and social hardship they face. Then, it offers some reflections on the key strategies they are mobilising, including: exchanging knowledge and learning, to train and become trainers of others; collecting data and producing knowledge about their communities; collectively mobilising within and beyond their communities; changing narratives, finding their own voice through media production to challenge official perspectives about marginalisation; and becoming expert-activists, engaging with and beyond formal processes of decision-making.