Research by Ghassan Baliki, Tilman Brück, Neil Ferguson and Wolfgang Stojetz on rural youth in the context of fragility and conflict has been published as 54 IFAD Research Series Issue. The paper was originally commissioned as a background paper for the 2019 Rural Development Report: Creating opportunities for rural youth.
While conflicts are often defined as “development in reverse”, there is a general lack of research focusing specifically on young people living in rural areas. Yet, from wider literature, we know that conflict is a cause of adversities across a range of economic and non-economic indicators. Exposure to violence increases infant mortality, reduces birthweight, harms child health, damages human capital accumulation, restricts performance in education and interacts negatively with labour market opportunities. Despite this accumulated knowledge, key knowledge gaps remain, especially when it comes to understanding possible mitigation programmes.
