Understanding how rural youth learn knowledge and skills for improved livelihoods: comparing case studies of mixed farming and pastoralist communities in Ethiopia

Rural development efforts in Ethiopia are currently focused on agricultural development. As rural youth are the critical labour force in the agriculture sector, the process of how they acquire new knowledge and skills to... [ view full abstract ]

Rural development efforts in Ethiopia are currently focused on agricultural development. As rural youth are the critical labour force in the agriculture sector, the process of how they acquire new knowledge and skills to enable them to efficiently run agricultural activities needs to be better understood. This paper expands the usual focus of the ‘Education for All’ agenda on formal education, to look at learning that takes place outside schools and training institutions and explore how educational policy could take account of and build on young people’s everyday learning and their aspirations for enhanced rural livelihoods. Based on an IFAD-UNESCO research project conducted in 2013-14, the paper discusses ethnographic research conducted in two contrasting communities (pastoralist and mixed farming) and analyses policy implications in the areas of agricultural skill development and adult basic education.

This study investigated the learning process through which rural youth acquire knowledge and skills for improving their livelihoods and to generate understanding on the dynamics of the learning process. Findings revealed that for rural youth in both contexts, informal learning was the dominant mode of learning and that even so-called ‘illiterate’ young people had learned to use mobile phones and do calculations in the market through interaction with their peers and adapting their own learning strategies. The paper concludes with reflections about how new partnerships between agricultural and educational policy makers and researchers – as was initiated through this project – could point the way towards a broader conception of learning for sustainable development.