The impact of mobile phones on young people’s lives and life chances

in sub-Saharan Africa

Gina Porter, Kate Hampshire, Albert Abane, Augustine Tanle, Alister Munthali, Elsbeth Robson, Ariane De Lannoy,

Nwabisa Gunguluza, Mac Mashiri, Andisiwe Bango

[Universities of Durham, Cape Coast, Malawi, Cape Town, Walter Sisulu]

Child Poverty research scoping day, IDS, Brighton, November 2016

Kate Hampshire, Albert Abe, Alister [Universities of Durham, Cape Coast, Malawi, Hull and Cape Town]

∂

Background: Mobile phones and youth in Ghana, Malawi, South Africa

• 3- country [ESRC/DFID funded] study 2012-15

• Explores impacts on education, health, physical mobility, livelihoods, inter-generational relations

• Builds on 24-site child mobility research [2006-10] with preliminary phones/mobility observations

J. of Information Technology for Development (2012)

• Mixed methods research focused on young people 9-25y

• Collaborators: Universities of Durham, Cape Coast, Malawi, Cape Town, Hull + some former child peer researchers

∂

Research Methodology• 8 research sites per country: high density

poor Urban, Peri-Urban, Rural, Remote Rural in 2 agro-ecological zones

• Co-investigation with young researchers as key to developing academic researcher questions

• Academic researcher component: • Qualitative research N=1,640(individual story-based interviews, call-register interviews + focus groups, life histories, etc.)• Survey N=4,500

9-18y N=3,000; 19-25y N=1,500

∂

Co-investigation as a route to fuller understanding

[Qualitative Research June 2016 vol. 16 no. 3: 293-304] • 70 ‘child’ researchers [33 girls, 37 boys]: 11-19y school

pupils recruited and trained 2006 for child mobility study

• Many also contributed to 2012-15 phones study as/when available

• Findings feed into design of larger adult academic research study

∂

The mobile phone: seen as a potential game-changer by many youth

• Land-lines mostly limited to elites• Mobile phone penetration rates in Africa = now over 80% in urban areas • An accessible and affordable tool, re-envisioned to suit African contexts: adapted

low cost modes of usage: SMS, ’buzzing’, money transfers• Young people often at the vanguard of adoption – smart phones now an essential

among urban ‘cool youth’

∂

Expansion of mobile phone ownership and use (9-18y only; all phone types;

average across all sites) Own phone [all types] % Phone usage % [week prior

to survey]2007/8 2013/14 2007/8 2013/14

Malawi 0.6 8.4 9.3 34.7

Ghana 2.4 16.2 16.7 41.6

South Africa 21.0 50.8 55.8 77.2

∂

“When one has a phone it’s a symbol that things are working in life”

[20y F teacher, rural Malawi]

∂

Everyday phone usage among young people: diverse aspects examined

• Education: Journal of International Development 2015: 28,22-39 • Health: Social Science and Medicine 2015: 142, 90e9• Inter-generational relations: Geoforum 2015: 64, 37–46• Mobilities/Transport: Annals of the American Association of

Geographers, 2015,106:2, 434-441 • Migration/stretched households [paper under review]• Gender and sexuality [paper in preparation]

• Livelihoods - focus of the remainder of this presentation

∂

Livelihoods and post-schooling transitions

• Youth’s poor employment prospects - a major issue across SSA• Contrasts across our study countries:

9-25y not enrolled in education who have had some livelihood activity within last 12 months [N= 1,381]: Malawi 91%; Ghana 77%; South Africa 52%

• Ghana + Malawi: open unemployment relatively low, especially in rural sites - much ‘working poverty’ (low-earning informal sector employment - typically temporary + poorly paid + poor work conditions)

• South Africa: a much smaller informal sector, much higher unemployment • 53.6% of RSA youth 15-24y available and searching for work; • 63% of youth 15-24 unemployed if include ‘actively discouraged’

youth not seeking work’ [World Bank, 2013]

∂

Mobile phones: a route to securing improved livelihoods?

• Potential of mobile phones to support livelihoods and poverty alleviation - a major focus of academic interest

• Much positive evidence BUT differentiated impacts increasingly recognised - Benefits accrue to men; to richer, more educated people; to more privileged women

• Little livelihoods research specifically youth-focused - despite youth being at the vanguard of phone technology uptake

• Do market processes give rise to inbuilt inequalities of access (Duncombe 2014)? Can these be surmounted by youth [who typically occupy low status positions in African society]?

∂

5 Areas where mobile phones may be implicated in youth livelihood strategies

1. Conduct of job searches 2. Phone-related work as a direct income

source [airtime sales, etc.]3. Improved organisation of micro-enterprise4. Income through criminality – robbery,

scams etc.5. Building a safety net – garnering

resources through pursuit of network capital

Focus here on nos. 1 and 5

∂

Finding a job through the phoneNB 9-25y not enrolled who have had some livelihood activity within last 12 months [N=1,381]: Malawi 91%; Ghana 77%; South Africa 52%

• Used a phone to help try to find a job in the last year [9-25y not enrolled in education]:

Malawi 19%; Ghana 24%; South Africa 46%

• Routes to finding a job opening by phone: a) Phone to personal contacts:

• Malawi 95%; Ghana 97%; South Africa: 56% b) Internet searches

• Malawi 3%; Ghana 2%; South Africa 38% [n.b. far more access to smart phones in RSA]

∂

Cell phones now widely perceived as essential for job search in South Africa

Job hunting was really difficult [without a phone] because I had to rely only on buying newspapers and even [then needed to give] my mother’s cell number when I was requested to give my contact details[South Africa man 23y, EC PU, internship]

I check the internet once a week for any vacancies. If I find any vacancy, even if it has passed, I take phone contact… I call the numbers..[and] I normally ask the person if I can send my CV … I also contact these people to check if they can tell me about the times when they have vacancies [South Africa woman 25y, GNW U, volunteer at outreach centre; certificate in computing, recent in-migrant from rural Limpopo]

∂

Occasional job success I decided to look for a job at the filling station after a friend told me they were looking for people… I asked my friend for the numbers [and].. called them to check if they were still taking CVs. They told me they were closing the next day. I didn’t waste any time… one week after .. I received a call from them … for an interview... I went there prepared and I was hired. [South Africa, boy 15y, GNW PU, school drop-out]

∂

Losing hopeI subscribe to many websites: Job Mail, Career 24… they send me emails with job alerts. There is no fee to sign up. Every day I get emails about jobs….We are applying, applying, applying. My friends too. Every day we apply but we don’t get any feedback. That’s what I hate about this system. [South Africa, woman 22y, GNW]

∂

Job search findings, South Africa

• Phone is a key conduit for learning about new opportunities + contacting potential employers

• Personal contacts still important• Those [relatively few] with jobs or volunteer

posts regularly attribute success partly to owning/using a cell phone.

• Reduced search costs [including less travel]• Some rural to urban migration may be delayed

till job obtained [less ‘tarmaccing’] • NB Remarkably few enrolled pupils [only 6%]

say they are using phones for job search. [More advice in schools may be useful.]

∂

Phones as youth safety net: in pursuit of resources through network capital

Numerous phone requests by youth for money and material goods [most to relatives]:• Phone request in last 12 months [all 9-25y] for money gift/loan for youth

personal use: Malawi 45%; Ghana 41%; South Africa 51%• Phone request in last 12 months for material goods [shoes, clothes,

books etc.] : Malawi 39%; Ghana 36%; South Africa 65%

My mother [in the village is] selling vegetables…and sends me and my younger brother money to buy food and pay rent…I am looking for a job, meanwhile I get temporary jobs…my mother sends us money by depositing it in my bank account…once she deposits the money in the account my phone will notify me [South Africa, 23y m ECU]

∂

Conclusion: youth’s poor employment prospects persist despite high phone access/use

• Conundrum of youth at the vanguard of phone adoption - yet still

apparently consistently disadvantaged in access to employment and income

• Some jobs secured through phones BUT PHONES ARE NOT ENOUGH

• Many youth in our sites lack strong employability attributes – Low levels of education = a poverty trap – South Africa: little work experience, hence volunteer posts uptake

• Lack of strong bridging social capital to allow sourcing of good jobs• Bonding capital [+ social grants in South Africa] helps cushion against

extreme poverty - but youth want work• Frustration, despair, apathy - especially widespread in South Africa

∂