Children in a flour mill (©Arno Trümper/adelphi)
A lack of jobs and money is a major strain on resilience for the young, growing population in an area with endemic unemployment and underemployment. But it is also a risk as unemployed, marginalised and frustrated young people are highly susceptible to recruitment by armed opposition groups. For a generation more familiar with exclusion, where a sense of “otherness” has become entrenched, it is vital that efforts to restore livelihoods also foster a sense of ownership, inclusion and worth. The people’s ability to depend on unproductive pastoralism and agriculture has been undermined by degraded soil, weak value chains, inadequate physical and financial infrastructure, and poor entrepreneurial capacity. This makes climate-proof or non-agricultural livelihood options all the more important.