Social Science Research Council

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in partnership with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (NRF) selected 13 recipients for the 2003-2004 program for research and training on Understanding Exclusion, Creating Value: African Youth in a Global Age. The theme was Youth, HIV/AIDS and Social Transformation. Funding for the program was provided by the Education for Democracy and Development Initiative of the U.S. Agency for International Development, CODESRIA, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), and the NRF.

Background

In the past two decades, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has constituted a crisis of virtually unprecedented proportions confronting younger generations of Africans. Africa is the most affected area in the world, with more than 23 million people estimated to be infected with HIV or to have full-blown AIDS. While AIDS touches all parts of the population, it has especially powerful impact upon the lives of youth - the present and future productive members of society. How are young Africans being affected by the epidemic? How are they coping and imagining their lives and futures in these difficult conditions?

Demographic trends reveal that about 50% of Africa's population is below the age of 18 and an extraordinarily high percentage of it is between the ages of 15-25. This makes Africa the most 'youthful' continent in the world. Despite this, young people in Africa are often placed in the margins of the public sphere and major political, socio-economic, and cultural processes. The challenging political and socio-economic situation and the devastating public health constraints on the continent make young people particularly vulnerable to poverty, disease and death. Many have no or little access to education, employment, healthcare, and basic nutrition. Greater reflection, knowledge, and analysis is required in order to better understand the lives of young Africans today - their vulnerabilities, strengths, aspirations and prospects for the future - as well as the broad conditions that shape their role in society.

The fellowship program supported projects that examined the impact of HIV/AIDS on the lives of African youth and the ways in which young people creatively organize and redefine their lives to deal with the pandemic. Research addressed not only the personal and interpersonal dynamics of transmission and infection but also the broader transformations at household, community and institutional levels. Research topics included, but were not limited to the following: youth's sexual ideologies and changing patterns of behavior regarding sexuality and marriage practices; changes in intergenerational relations, households and families (care-giving, the transfer of knowledge, wealth and social power, AIDS orphans, gender relations); the impact of HIV/AIDS on the educational and healthcare systems in relation to young people (access to schools, training and learning; access to treatment); economic impacts (employment, labor markets, productive capacity); the role of young people in programs related to prevention and care, or in social movements for access to treatment and support; and youth's understandings about local, national or global responses (or lack of them) to their situations. The fellowship put emphasis on empirical social science research informed by theory and analysis from a wide range of perspectives and disciplines - historical, anthropological, sociological, economic, demographic, public health and others.

Fellows attended a five-day orientation workshop prior to research in October 2003, received a research grant of up to $10,000 USD for their field research, and attended a final workshop at the conclusion of their fieldwork. Field research entailed extensive original research (whether quantitative, qualitative, or a combination) that produced new knowledge relevant to analysis and/or practice.

African researchers based in the region who held at least a Masters degree and who were no more than five years beyond a Ph.D. were eligible for this program.