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Paper short abstract

This paper draws on qualitative research undertaken in Amhara, Ethiopia, as part of the longitudinal Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) study to explore how social capital and community resilience is impacted by conflict and the implications for young people.

Paper long abstract

In Amhara region, Ethiopia, ongoing ethnic conflict is causing mass displacement, death, and community breakdown. Young people have been affected by school closures and economic impacts of the conflict, as well as significant trauma and loss. Evidence suggests that community resilience may protect young people from trauma, who encounter conflict at a point in the life course when social ties are particularly important for their identity, agency and socioemotional development. However, still under-researched as the different ways in which social capital may be sustained, built or eroded by conflict, the impact on community resilience, and the implications for young people.

This paper draws on qualitative research undertaken in Amhara, Ethiopia, as part of the longitudinal Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) study. 362 in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions were conducted between February and May 2025 in rural and urban areas with diverse adolescents, caregivers, community leaders, and service providers. Findings show that community cohesion is undermined by the breakdown of social capital, as people are less trusting and less able to help neighbors, community events are suspended, and people flee violence. Community and individual resilience are meanwhile built by religious faith and using cognitive coping mechanisms, but young people are also joining rebel forces for survival and in the hope of belonging somewhere. However, psychosocial distress among young people remains high due to a loss of optimism in the future, indicating the urgent need for holistic interventions which rebuild social capital as well as emotional resilience.