One of the key priorities of ongoing nationwide education reforms in Ethiopia is the promotion of girls’ education through the establishment of Girls’ Clubs. These Clubs aim to support girls’ education by addressing restrictive socio-cultural practices and improving the accessibility and safety of schools. This paper explores the role of Girls’ Clubs in challenging gender norms that influence girls’ education in primary schools in Ethiopia. The paper draws on data from interviews with Girls’ Club focal teachers and focus group discussions with student members across four regions. Findings reveal that while Girls’ Clubs have made some progress in challenging restrictive gender norms, their impact is limited by financial, institutional, and structural constraints. Overcoming these constraints requires a collaborative approach involving school leadership, communities, and external governmental and funding organisations. We recommend that future national education reforms prioritise increased financial support for Girls’ Clubs and integrate their initiatives into broader community-level strategies.

Relocation from inner cities and rehousing in suburbs is becoming an increasingly prevalent issue in developing countries. However, there is limited evidence about the perspectives of adolescents and most studies are from western contexts. In addressing this gap this study tracked adolescents before and after they were relocated over an eight-year interval from the centre of Addis Ababa to the outskirts, mainly to government-sponsored condominium housing. The paper also compares the views of those who were relocated with those who stayed behind. The paper argues that condominium housing enabled low-to-middle-income households to become house owners, while the poorest could not afford the costs, and the richest preferred building their own houses. From the perspective of adolescents who were relocated the move led to better housing and improved sanitation. However, students faced difficulties in the first year commuting, and schools and health centres were considered better quality in the previous locations; markets and shops were initially less well developed in the condominium areas, and there were fewer recreation options, though pollution and safety were greater concerns in the old neighbourhoods. A significant majority of the adolescents (79%) felt that the changes were positive or mainly positive and soon adapted to the new social environment, though social ties were less strong than in their previous neighbourhoods. Those who moved had better internet access and there were gender differences in decision-making, leisure activities and spending, with girls having less freedom, somewhat compensated for by mobile phones and social media.

Over the past two and a half decades, significant progress has been made in relation to girls’ education in Ethiopia. However, challenges remain, particularly in terms of girls’ progression, completion, and learning, with girls in more rural and remote areas facing the greatest difficulties. Drawing on data from the RISE Ethiopia qualitative study, we explore the factors at the individual, family, school, and community levels that impact girls’ education and learning from the perspectives of girls themselves. Specifically, we include the views of 15 female students enrolled in Grades 4 and 5 of primary school and of their parents/caregivers from five different regional states in Ethiopia, and across both rural and urban locations. We situate our analysis within the context of the government’s large-scale quality education reform programme (GEQIP-E) that has a specific focus on girls’ education. Our findings highlight the importance of taking account of the heterogeneity of girls’ experiences, including the varied challenges that diverse groups of girls face, and the different challenges they may encounter at distinct stages of their educational journeys. Our findings also highlight the importance of including the perspectives of girls and their families, within the context in which they are located.

In this chapter we consider why education systems have not yet achieved equitable access and learning for all girls, despite high-level government commitment. Taking Ethiopia as a case study, we refer to the 'domains of power' framework (Hickey & Hossain, 2019) to explore the influence of politics on progress in girls' education, focusing on the interaction between the political settlement and the education policy domain. The analysis draws on data from the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) Ethiopia programme, including analysis of government documents, actor mapping and interviews with 150 key government stakeholders across seven regions and city administrations in Ethiopia. Adopting a gender lens, we take account of the influence and interaction of informal institutions within the education domain. We find that the education system cannot be considered to be a gender-neutral site given that women continue to be absent from positions of power. In addition, stakeholders' ideas about the nature of gender roles influence their attitudes, behaviour and actions, holding back progress towards the high-level commitments.

This working paper draws on data from Young Lives and focuses on 29 young families. The paper addresses two main issues: the roles of the young mothers and fathers in parenting, and the health services available to them. The findings suggest that parenting is almost exclusively the role of young mothers, in addition to other domestic work, helping husbands with agricultural work, and, for some, engaging in income-generating work outside the home. Because of patriarchal norms, this division of labour is accepted by almost all. The role of fathers seems to be limited mainly to income provision, and they were not expected to be actively involved in childrearing, apart from playing with their children in their spare time. There were some exceptionally supportive fathers who helped their wives even with what is culturally considered to be women’s domestic work. However, there were also others who were unsupportive or who spent the money they made on alcohol and were not providing for their family as expected. The role of the extended family was found to be of paramount importance, especially for first- time mothers. This was especially true of grandmothers and sisters- in-law, and to some extent grandfathers. Neighbours also played a key role, but their involvement was found to be diminishing in some cases. Access to health services has improved as a result of the expansion of the health extension service and its staff, for which the young people in the study were mostly grateful. Community-based health insurance, involving small annual contributions that enable access to services, was also appreciated by most. However, young people expressed concern that the insurance did not cover all essential medication, requiring them to pay additional costs they could not afford.

In the past decade, Ethiopia has distinguished itself among other countries in Eastern and Southern Africa for the progress it has made in reducing its national levels of child marriage. UNICEF (2018: 8) estimates that the percentage of women aged 20-24 years who were first married or in a union before age 18 has decreased from 75 per cent in 1980 to 40 per cent in 2015. 1 This progress is testament to Ethiopia's commitment to reducing child marriage, witnessed also in a series of formal agreements. It is a signatory to both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and part of the African Union’s ‘Campaign to End Child Marriage in Africa’. As recently as August 2019, the Ministry of Women and Children launched the ‘National Costed Roadmap to End Child Marriage and FGM/C (2020-2024)’(Ministry of Women, Children and Youth 2019). Ethiopia is one of 12 countries supported by UNFPA, UNICEF and their Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage. 2Despite these efforts, Ethiopia still has among the highest prevalence rates of child marriage in the region, with 15 million girls and women having married in childhood (UNICEF 2018: 3). The Ethiopian government made a commitment at the 2014 London Girls Summit to end child marriage by 2025, five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goal target. However, according to different projection scenarios, progress will need to be ten times faster than it is today to fulfil this commitment (UNICEF 2018).

In Ethiopia, agricultural development, industrialisation and private sector investment, along with government job creation initiatives, have brought about radical changes in the employment landscape. This working paper contributes to understanding the work of young men and women in different contexts, both in paid employment and when generating their own income. Few young people found well-paid jobs related to their qualifications. Younger men and women were often still in education, though some worked part time. Wage labour included work in irrigated agriculture, on flower farms and in factories. However, pay was low and work conditions were hard and involved health risks, so young people tried to move on to better-paid employment or their own businesses. Most young women and men were engaged in their own income generating activities. However, only a few had successful businesses, often relying on family support and remittances from female relatives. Youth micro and small-scale enterprise (MSE) cooperatives in agriculture and cobblestone production were dominated by men. Despite some successful examples, the MSEs faced many challenges and most young people preferred to undertake their own work. Community contexts and opportunities, family circumstances, and age, gender and education explain most of the variation and success in jobs and income generation. However, individual determination and ambition also made a difference.

This article explores the changing place of ‘motherhood’ in the lives of girls and young women in Ethiopia, from a generational, life course perspective. It focuses on ‘motherhood in childhood’ in the context of rapid social change, drawing on multi-generational narratives from young women, their mothers and grandmothers, as part of Young Lives, a fifteen-year study that has traced the life trajectories of a group of girls growing up in poverty. Marriage and motherhood in childhood in past generations was the norm but has increasingly come to be seen as incompatible with the expectations for modern female childhood. A growing discourse of female empowerment suggests significant expansion of ‘choice’ for girls, but closer inspection of girls’ lived experiences of marriage and motherhood suggests a more complex, uneven, picture. Girls face multiple, sometimes contradictory messages regarding the kinds of respectable life paths they should pursue. Their sense of expanded horizons in childhood is easily diminished when they become young mothers, highlighting the persistent influence of poverty and the feminisation of reproductive roles and the ambiguous nature of their agency across time.

This fact sheet presents findings from the fifth round of the Young Lives survey of children in Ethiopia.The data show that indicators of nutrition have improved with decreased levels of stunting, thinness, and household food insecurity, which are probably related to better access to sanitation and drinking water. However, overall rates of stunting and thinness still remain high, and some households moved from being food secure to mildly food insecure, probably as a result of the recent El Nino-driven drought, so that nutrition interventions continue to be important.

This fact sheet presents findings from the fifth round of the Young Lives survey of children in Ethiopia in 2016. Young Lives is a longitudinal study of childhood poverty that has followed two cohorts of children born seven years apart since 2002. This fact sheet reports on trends in household living standards – measured by a wealth index – and movement into and out of poverty for the Younger Cohort households in 2016 (Round 5 survey) compared to 2002 (Round 1 survey). It also reports on intergenerational mobility between parents and children in terms of education and health for the Older Cohort (aged 22 in 2016). There have been noticeable movements into and out of poverty over time. Of the 1,741 Younger Cohort households interviewed in all five rounds, 584 (33%) were in the bottom tercile (i.e. poor) in 2002, but only 12% of these households have been persistently in the bottom wealth tercile over the five rounds from 2002 to 2016.

Child marriage is a global concern and a priority issue for the African Union; the Ethiopian government has devised a strategy to eliminate the practice by 2025. This paper analyses Young Lives survey and qualitative data from girls aged 19 to understand pathways to early marriage, which we argue can best be explained by a combination of interacting factors at community, household and individual levels.

This research report explores children’s accounts of everyday violence in Ethiopia, and the ways in which factors at individual, family, community, institutional and society levels affect children’s experiences of violence. The report primarily draws on analysis of four rounds of longitudinal qualitative data gathered over seven years, complemented with analysis of cross-sectional survey data from Young Lives. Findings show that violence affecting children – mostly physical punishment and emotional abuse – is widespread, accepted, and normalized. Differing economic activities affect family dynamics and the likelihood of children experiencing violence, which is often linked to the challenges of poverty and the expectation that children will contribute to the household economy.

This paper considers the views of caregivers and children in four sites in Addis Ababa and Hawassa about a condominium housing programme established by the government of Ethiopia with the intention of providing low-cost housing for the urban poor, especially for those living in sites designated for redevelopment. The paper provides insights into the ways in which the Young Lives children and adults perceive this new form of housing, what they appreciate and what they dislike about it, the extent to which they would wish to live there, and their assessment of whether they will be able to afford the costs. The paper also presents the views of officials and community leaders, as well as case studies of a few households which have already moved into condominium housing. The perspectives of families who will be directly affected by urban redevelopment have important policy implications in terms of addressing the needs of the urban poor, their preferences and priorities. The findings suggest the need for a range of options for financing access to condominiums for the urban poor, including more flexible, longer-term, inter-generational or group loans, and the formation of housing cooperatives. Alternatives to the condominium model should also be considered, since it does not seem to be a realistic option for the very poor without the benefit of subsidies.

In this paper we present findings on the place of work in the lives of children. These findings come from a study carried out with children in three Ethiopian communities, in two cities and one rural area. We describe the types of work done by boys and girls of different ages, and show how these children seek to combine work with school. We find that, with changes in the economic contexts, some children started paid work as early as 8 years old but that most younger children were mainly involved in work for the household. Gender differences become more prominent with age: compared to boys, older girls routinely take on greater responsibility for household chores and care activities; going to school or undertaking paid work does not diminish their household responsibilities. Based on the findings we suggest that social protection policies and programmes should provide insurance against community and household shocks and support children in affected households. Flexible learning arrangements can enable children who are working to continue with schooling.

This document is the research manual that guided qualitative data collection as part of a substudy within Young Lives on ‘Stimulating evidence-based approaches to child work/labour in Ethiopia’ (2012–14) funded by the Oak Foundation. Young Lives is an international study of childhood poverty, following the lives of 12,000 children in four countries (Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam) over 15 years. We share this document for other researchers carrying out social research with working children to adapt, use and develop in their own research. We have tried to maintain as much of the original document as possible; this means that the language is directed towards field researchers working as part of Young Lives. This document was drafted in 2013 and we have checked and updated it ready for publication in this format in early 2015.

The role and value of child work are under scrutiny as never before in Ethiopia, as elsewhere, where the rapid expansion of formal schooling, as well as broader social, political and economic changes, bring into sharp relief competing definitions of what a ‘good childhood’should look like for this generation of children. Although working from a young age was historically considered a normal part of childhood and of socialisation processes, this view is being challenged by current policies which emphasise the negative aspects of child work, meanwhile championing the positive aspects of schooling. Yet, for many children and families, work remains a defining feature of childhood and an important part of managing everyday risk and pursuing long-term well-being. For them, school and work are not ‘opposites’, although many children find it difficult to juggle multiple and sometimes competing demands on their time.In an earlier study conducted in southern Ethiopia, Abebe (2008: 3) describes these societal shifts in terms of ‘the tension between young people’s daily lives and their future wishes on the one hand and, on the other, what they are required to learn through formal education in order to become full members of society’. In the previous chapter, Abebe argues against a ‘silo’approach to child labour in favour of attending to the broader structures and politico-economic contexts within which children’s lives unfold. The current study complements Abebe’s macro-focus by taking a close look at the life worlds of working children in three Ethiopian communities. In this

This chapter aims to provide a preliminary bibliographical resource, an initial critical review of the literature, new insights on child work and labour in Ethiopia, and suggestions for future lines of research. The first part considers the different disciplinary and methodological approaches used to study the issues; we suggest that the various disciplinary lenses through which child work and labour have been studied result in a fragmented rather than an integrated picture. Moreover, we argue that there is a dichotomy between quantitative approaches, many of which have focused on rural surveys and the linkages between child work and education, and qualitative approaches that have concentrated on urban areas and vulnerable children. The second part briefly reviews findings from quantitative research, notably on the prevalence of child work and its distribution, children’s time use and their contribution to the household economy, the impacts of government rural development and food security programmes on child work, and the implications of work for children’s health and wellbeing. The third part considers key findings from qualitative research on the work that children do, in particular that of children at risk focusing on the main categories studied, and discusses the value and meaning of work and changing work norms. The fourth part considers the policy context, international and national legal frameworks, policies and action plans. The fifth part considers interventions within the country to address child labour. The final part draws overall conclusions and identifies research gaps. Some authors treat ‘child work’and ‘child labour’as synonymous and …