Youth Engagement and Skills Acquisition Within Africa's Transport Sector: Promoting a Gender Agenda Towards Transitions into Meaningful Work, Qualitative Data Collection, 2019-2022

Youth engagement and skills acquisition within Africa’s transport sector was a collaborative research project between Durham University, UK, the University of Sokoto, Nigeria, the South African Labour and Development Research Unit [SALDRU] at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and the UK-based NGO Transaid. The project’s core data set deposited with RESHARE comprises in-depth interviews focused on daily mobility and transport, conducted by project academic staff and young unemployed women we trained as peer researchers at the outset of the study; a small number of focus group discussions conducted by academic staff; and diaries focused on daily mobility, mostly written by peer researchers during the pandemic. Anonymised data sets are provided for each of the three study cities.
Note: The research team had also anticipated collecting quantitative data concerning the pilot trainings for transport users and transport workers led by Transaid. These were to have comprised baseline assessments, followed by post-intervention surveys after one month and six months to assess skills uptake among participating women. Although Transaid staff succeeded in implementing pilot training interventions in each city, in the final months of the project, COVID constraints limited recruitment numbers and the collection of baseline data amenable to statistical analysis. Collection of post-intervention data has not been possible due to COVID constraints and the requirement to end the project on 31st March 2022. Transaid’s reports on the pilot interventions will be made available on the project website: https://transportandyouthemploymentinafrica.com<p>Acknowledging the importance of mobilising Africa's young women into the labour-force, this research addresses the specific impediments presented by a highly gendered transport and travel arena and the implications this has for girls' and women's current/future access to meaningful work. Women of all ages are discriminated against, both with regard to access and use of transport (which affects their access to skills acquisition and employment across all sectors) and with reference to their employment within the transport sector itself. Relevant skills acquisition at an early age, for safely navigating transport and more equitably seeking employment is essential if they are to break through such barriers.

We aim to understand and address these challenges through in-depth participatory research with young women of low socio-economic status in peripheral locations of Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia (one city-region per country), including piloting of skills-based interventions.
The research has three, interlinked strands:
a)The User Strand comprises research into improving young women's use of transport to access training programmes and employment, built around the following questions:
-What are the economic, social and infrastructural determinants of the transport ecology in which young women are located and how does it impact on their transport experiences and behaviours?
-How is young women's physical access to meaningful work and associated skills building shaped by their travel potential and access to transport (i.e. especially travel safety and security for women resident in low income areas)?
-What key skills do young women need if they are to travel safely to work and training opportunities (whether as pedestrians, as cyclists, or when negotiating public transport)?
-How can appropriate safe travel skills training be provided?
-What wider interventions are needed to support a safe travel skills programme [e.g. from government, transport unions, NGOs, private sector] i.e. with reference to the multiple layers of political, economic and socio-cultural decision-making processes?

b)The Employment Strand comprises research into improving women's access to skills (e.g. commercial driving, vehicle repair/ maintenance) to enable them to obtain more meaningful employment within the transport sector, built around the following questions:
- How have historical, social, political and economic legacies of planning and policy processes impacted on opportunities for women's employment in the transport sector?
-How can young women's aspirations to work in this sector be expanded and enhanced?
-What do young women perceive as the main barriers to skills acquisition and subsequent employment in the sector?
-What skills training can be provided to enable young women to play a more prominent role in the sector?
-What wider interventions are needed to support training programmes to improve women's employment in this sector [e.g. from government, unions, NGOs, the private sector]

c)The Action Research Strand builds on User and Employment Strand findings. It will pilot transport-related skills training for young women, to improve their access to employment [both directly, through employment in the transport sector and indirectly, through travel safety skills to enable them to travel to diverse employment opportunities].
Ihere will be small pilot action research projects in each country:
-One to assist women build skills as transport users [and thus access diverse employment opportunities within and beyond the transport sector]
-Up to 3 to assist women build skills towards employment in the transport sector.
Intensive monitoring and evaluation of this strand throughout its life will ensure key lessons are learned.

Through this work we will produce gender-sensitive transport/travel skills guidance for govt, private sector, NGOs + academia at local, national + international levels.</p>

本数据集对应的研究项目为「非洲交通领域青年参与与技能习得」，由英国杜伦大学、尼日利亚索科托大学、南非开普敦大学南非劳工与发展研究单元（South African Labour and Development Research Unit, SALDRU）以及英国非政府组织Transaid联合开展。项目核心数据集存放在RESHARE平台，包含三部分内容：一是项目学术人员与研究初期培训的青年失业女性同伴研究者开展的、聚焦日常出行与交通主题的深度访谈；二是学术人员开展的少量焦点小组讨论；三是主要由同伴研究者在疫情期间撰写的、聚焦日常出行的出行日志。研究为三个城市分别提供了匿名化数据集。

备注：研究团队原本计划收集Transaid主导的交通使用者与交通从业者试点培训相关定量数据，具体包括基线评估，以及干预后1个月、6个月开展的追踪调查，以评估参与培训的女性的技能掌握情况。尽管Transaid工作人员已在各城市顺利实施试点培训干预，但在项目最后阶段，新冠疫情限制导致招募人数受限，且可用于统计分析的基线数据收集工作受阻。受新冠疫情限制以及项目需于2022年3月31日结项的要求影响，干预后数据的收集工作未能开展。Transaid关于试点干预的相关报告将发布于项目官网：https://transportandyouthemploymentinafrica.com

本研究认识到动员非洲青年女性进入劳动力市场的重要性，聚焦高度性别化的交通出行领域带来的特定障碍，及其对女性当前及未来获取优质工作机会的影响。各年龄段女性在交通资源获取与使用（这会影响她们在各行业获取技能与就业的机会）以及交通行业自身的就业机会两方面均遭受歧视。若要打破这些壁垒，女性在幼年阶段习得安全出行与更公平求职的相关技能至关重要。

研究目标：本研究旨在通过与尼日利亚、南非、突尼斯外围地区（每个国家各设一个城市区域）的低社会经济地位青年女性开展深入参与式研究，包括试点技能干预项目，来理解并应对上述挑战。

研究分为三个相互关联的模块：
a) 用户模块：聚焦改善青年女性使用交通资源以参与培训项目与获取就业机会的研究，围绕以下问题展开：
- 青年女性所处的交通生态系统的经济、社会与基础设施决定因素是什么？这如何影响她们的出行体验与行为？
- 青年女性的物理出行潜力与交通获取情况（尤其是低收入地区女性的出行安全保障）如何塑造其获取优质工作及相关技能培养的机会？
- 若要安全通勤至工作与培训场所（无论是步行、骑行还是搭乘公共交通），青年女性需要掌握哪些关键技能？
- 如何提供适配的安全出行技能培训？
- 支持安全出行技能培训项目需要哪些更广范围的干预措施（例如来自政府、交通工会、非政府组织、私营部门的支持），即涉及多层级的政治、经济与社会文化决策流程？

b) 就业模块：聚焦改善女性获取技能（例如商业驾驶、车辆维修保养）的机会，以助力她们在交通行业获得更优质的就业岗位，围绕以下问题展开：
- 规划与政策制定进程中的历史、社会、政治与经济遗留问题如何影响女性在交通行业的就业机会？
- 如何拓展与提升青年女性投身该行业的职业抱负？
- 青年女性认为阻碍其获取技能并进而在该行业就业的主要障碍是什么？
- 可以提供哪些技能培训，以帮助青年女性在该行业发挥更重要的作用？
- 支持旨在改善女性在该行业就业的培训项目需要哪些更广范围的干预措施（例如来自政府、工会、非政府组织、私营部门的支持）？

c) 行动研究模块：基于用户与就业模块的研究成果，将为青年女性试点开展与交通相关的技能培训，以提升她们的就业获取能力——既包括直接通过交通行业就业，也包括间接通过掌握出行安全技能以拓展多元就业机会。
各国将开展小型试点行动研究项目：
- 一个项目助力女性培养交通使用者技能（从而获取交通行业内外的多元就业机会）
- 最多三个项目助力女性培养技能以投身交通行业就业。
在该模块实施全程将开展密集的监测与评估，以总结关键经验教训。

通过本研究，我们将为地方、国家及国际层面的政府、私营部门、非政府组织与学术界制定具有性别敏感性的交通/出行技能指南。