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All Change at Young Lives

Ongoing Covid-19 research, new Young Lives Director and new ways of working

The coronavirus has caused a global crisis, which has forced many of us round the world to change how we work, live and communicate. It also led to Young Lives rapidly adapting its processes to support the important work of recording the impact of Covid-19 on the young people we study.

Early March this year came with a big announcement for Young Lives. We were delighted to have received funding from the UK’s International Development arm (DFID) now the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), to continue our research until 2024. ‘Young Lives at Work’ would follow our 12,000 young people, now in their late teens and mid-twenties, into their work life, to understand how poverty may have impacted their life outcomes. We were ready to go out into the field, in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam, to start our sixth round.

But Covid-19’s dramatic spread across the globe changed our plans and our ways of working. We moved from our offices to work virtually; and we adapted our Round 6 survey process for ''Young Lives at Work'' to go ahead as a telephone survey. Alongside changing our way of working, we welcomed a new director, new staff members and continued multiple different research stands.

Thanks to the Herculean efforts of the Young Lives teams working in increasingly difficult circumstances across our four study countries, we were able to release the headlines findings from our first call in August.  These findings indicated that the Covid-19 pandemic has already had a profound impact on our young people.

The second phone call has now been completed with data analysis underway. We will be exploring in more depth young people’s labour market experiences and how the pandemic is affecting their work life, home life and education. We will releasing further headline findings in November.  We’re grateful for FCDO''s support to continue our research into this important area.

In this newsletter, we''re excited to share our first phone survey findings,  introduce our new director and give you a flavour or our recent work.  You can read more at www.younglives.org.uk 

                   Welcoming our new Director - Andy McKay

Andy McKay joins us from the University of Sussex where he was Professor of Development Economics. He brings extensive experience of research on labour issues in developing countries, gender, and young people''s school to work transitions.  He is also well versed in giving policy advice to bilateral donors, international organisations and governments of developing countries.

Andy has followed Young Lives almost from the outset, and is busy getting to grips  with our latest plans and (virtually) meeting all our staff around the globe.

It''s a pleasure to have him on board.

"Our longitudinal data can offer important insights into the pandemic’s short and medium-long term impacts on young people." – Andy McKay, Young Lives Director

                             Covid-19 - our work around the pandemic

Covid-19''s impact has been felt across all sectors, and in all countries.

As the crisis took hold our team grappled with how it might impact the young people we study and the areas we cover.

Alongside our phone survey, our researchers explored its effect on education, and digital learning, on young marriage and those at risk of marrying young. We also looked at the ethical dilemmas we faced when moving our survey process from in-person, to on the phone, during a pandemic - in the ''ethics of disruption''.

                            Headline findings from our Covid-19 phone survey

Headline findings of our first Covid-19 call from Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam have been released. Athough incidence of the virus is currently low amongst our respondents, lockdown has exacerbated instability and pre-existing inequalities. 

''7 out of 10 young people surveyed in Peru had lost their source of income, while only 17%  were able to work from home''

  ''In Ethiopia, remote learning was only accessible for 24% of male, and 31% of female respondents.''

''35% of the food insecure households ran out of food, during lockdown in India .''

''65% of young people surveyed in Vietnam were anxious about the current circumstances.''

Effects on education, work and health may have long-ranging consequences for the young people we follow, as well as for the economic security of their countries.

The first call in our telephone survey found that most couldn''t shift their work and education online, subsequently many had lost jobs and income, were unable to access education, and food insecurity had significantly increased.

The Young Lives at Work Phone Survey is investigating the short and medium-term impact of Covid-19 on the health, well-being, employment and education trajectories of young people in our study. These headline reports are the first in a series, with further analysis following in November when the second phone call is completed.

You can read more about our FCDO funded Young Lives at Work programme here which include the resources used to conduct the Phone Survey - the  Survey Manual and First Call Questionnaire

You can also gain a snapshot of how the pandemic affected each of the Young Lives'' countries with the country directors'' blog - here, and read our piece that featured in The Conversation - here.

School Leaders Phone Survey - Ethiopia and India

In April, over 90% of global educational institutions shutdown due to COVID-19. Young Lives'' Education team sought to understand how this affected learning for students in low and middle income countries. In September we released the findings of our COVID-19 Head teacher survey in two of our study countries - Ethiopia and India. 

Headline finding revealed that head teachers are particularly concerned that girls, weakers students and those from the poorest households are most at risk of dropping out of school, however additional support was largely targetted at those studying exams. Head teachers believe the effects of lockdown on learning will be long-lasting. Read the full reports here.

For more information on Young Lives education work, go to our webpages here and here. This research is funded by the Echidna Giving Foundation.

                         Young Marriage and Parenthood Study 

Young Lives, in partnership with Child Frontiers, and with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has been studying Young Marriage, Parenthood and Cohabitation (YMAPS) in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Zambia since 2017.

Through YMAPS, we''ve sought to bring the voices of those who marry, cohabit and parent young to the forefront.

As part of the project we''ve released: Dreaming of a Better Life: Child Marriage Through Adolescent Eyes, in both French and English, which offers fresh insights and evidence to inform efforts to end the practice of child marriage.

Alongside our book, we''ve also recently published a policy brief on Zambia, an English translation of the Peruvian country report and insights from our comparative research across all four countries to learn how to support these young people.

We''re also excited to be able to share with you our most recent animation and our digital stories that were recently shared to co-incide with The International Day of the Girl Child.

                                     Second Chances - Our New Animation

Ethiopian Digital Stories - Young Marriage and Parenthood Playlist

Sharing Young Lives'' Methodological Learning

Young Lives Publications

You can explore all our publications that we''ve released over the last year (and longer) - here.  You can also read more on all our current research at www.younglives.org.uk 

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