The impact of mobile phones on young people’s lives and life chances in sub-

Saharan Africa

Gina Porterwith Kate Hampshire, Albert Abane,

Augustine Tanle, Alister Munthali, Elsbeth Robson, Ariane De Lannoy, Nwabisa Gunguluza, Mac Mashiri, Andisiwe Bango

[Universities of Durham, Cape Coast, Malawi, Cape Town, Walter Sisulu, Hull]

Digital Development Summit 2017, London, 13th March 2017

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Technology and jobs in sub-Saharan Africa: what prospects for youth?

• One of Africa’s most pressing problems - youth’s poor future employment prospects: poor jobs/no jobs

• ‘Getting by’ increasingly involves technology – but it’s still mostly the basic mobile phone!

• Reflections from ESRC/DFID-funded research with young people across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa

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Background: Mobile phones and youth in Ghana, Malawi, South Africa

• 3-country study 2012-15, 24 sites [high density poor urban to remote rural]

• Builds on earlier 24 site child mobility research [2006-10]

• Mixed methods research focused on young people 9-25y: • Co-investigation with young researchers • Qualitative research: N=1,640• Survey: N=4,500 [9-18y N=3,000; 19-25y N=1,500]

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The technology context: mobile phones as a potential game-changer for youth

• Mobile phone penetration rates in Africa - now over 80% in urban areas • An accessible and affordable tool, re-envisioned to suit African contexts:

adapted low cost modes of usage: SMS, ’buzzing’, money transfers• Young people at the vanguard of adoption – smart phones now an

essential for urban ‘cool youth’

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Expansion of mobile phone ownership and use (9-18y only, all phone types; average across sites)

Own phone % [all types]

Phone usage % [week prior to survey]

2007/8 2013/14 2007/8 2013/14

Malawi 0.6 8.4 9.3 34.7

Ghana 2.4 16.2 16.7 41.6

South Africa

21.0 50.8 55.8 77.2

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“When one has a phone it’s a symbol that things are working in life”

[20y F teacher, rural Malawi]

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The work context: youth livelihoods and post-schooling transitions

• Youth’s poor employment prospects - a major issue• Contrasts across our study countries:

9-25y not enrolled in education who have had some livelihood activity in last 12 months: Malawi 91%; Ghana 77%; South Africa 52%

• Ghana + Malawi: open unemployment relatively low, especially in rural sites - much ‘working poverty’ (low-earning informal sector employment, temporary + poorly paid + poor work conditions)

• South Africa: a much smaller informal sector, v high unemployment • 53.6% of RSA youth 15-24y available and searching for work; • 63% of RSA youth 15-24 unemployed if include ‘actively discouraged

youth not seeking work’ [World Bank, 2013]

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Mobile phones: a route to securing improved livelihoods?

• Much positive evidence BUT differentiated impacts increasingly recognised: benefits accrue to men; to richer, more educated people; to more privileged women

• Little livelihoods research specifically youth-focused - despite youth being at the vanguard of phone technology uptake

• Do market processes give rise to inbuilt inequalities of access (Duncombe 2014)? Can these be surmounted by youth [who typically occupy low status positions in African society]?

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5 Areas where mobile phones may be implicated in youth livelihood strategies

1. Conduct of job searches 2. Phone-related work as a direct income

source [airtime sales, etc.]3. Improved organisation of micro-enterprise4. Income through criminality – robbery,

scams etc.5. Building a safety net – garnering

resources through pursuit of network capital

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Finding a job through the phone

• Used a phone to help try to find a job in the last year [9-25y not enrolled in education]:

Malawi 19%; Ghana 24%; South Africa 46%

• Routes to finding a job opening by phone: a) Phone to personal contacts:

• Malawi 95%; Ghana 97%; South Africa: 56% b) Internet searches

• Malawi 3%; Ghana 2%; South Africa 38% [n.b. higher access to smart phones in RSA]

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Cell phones now widely perceived as essential for job search in South Africa

Job hunting was really difficult [without a phone] because I had to rely only on buying newspapers and even [then needed to give] my mother’s cell number when I was requested to give my contact details[South Africa man 23y, EC PU, internship]

I check the internet once a week for any vacancies. If I find any vacancy, even if it has passed, I take phone contact… I call the numbers..[and] I normally ask the person if I can send my CV …[South Africa woman 25y, GNW U, volunteer at outreach centre; certificate in computing, recent in-migrant from rural Limpopo]

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Occasional job success I decided to look for a job at the filling station after a friend told me they were looking for people… I asked my friend for the numbers [and] called them to check if they were still taking CVs. They told me they were closing the next day. I didn’t waste any time…One week after I received a call from them for an interview... I went there prepared and I was hired. [South Africa, boy 15y, GNW PU, school drop-out]

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Losing hopeI subscribe to many websites: Job Mail, Career 24… they send me emails with job alerts. There is no fee to sign up. Every day I get emails about jobs….We are applying, applying, applying. My friends too. Every day we apply but we don’t get any feedback. That’s what I hate about this system. [South Africa, woman 22y, GNW]

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Job search findings, South Africa • Phone is a key conduit for learning about new

opportunities + contacting potential employers • Personal contacts still important• Those [relatively few] with jobs or volunteer

posts regularly attribute success partly to owning/using a cell phone.

• Reduced search costs [less travel]• Some rural to urban migration may be delayed

till job obtained

• NB Remarkably few enrolled pupils [only 6%] say they are using phones for job search. [More advice in schools may be useful.]

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Phones as a direct income source• Hawking airtime etc. far more common in Ghana

and Malawi than in South AfricaI sell mobile phone credits, SIM cards and pure water… On the average, I earn…more than the salary I was earning as a pupil teacher [Man 23y; Ghana U]

• Mostly airtime sales alongside other petty trade• How sustainable, especially in South Africa [where

supermarkets are key retail players]? • Interviewees in South Africa often seemed to have

just started in business….

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Phones in youth micro-enterpriseDiverse uses reported [apart from direct phone businesses] e.g.: • For building relations with customers/suppliers• Placing/receiving orders [especially rural

contexts]• Booking transport [personal or freight]• Bank notification of payments• Chasing debts • Illicit activities e.g. organising robberies,

scams [youth also as victims]• BUT Evidence of phone use to build

livelihoods and configure new ones less prominent than we anticipated

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Phones in the service sector My customers … call to make appointments most of the times [especially for home visits]…When I started my hairdresser shop I posted my numbers on my shop…a lot of people are calling me.. If it wasn’t for my phone, I wouldn’t be where I am. [South Africa 20y f hairdresser, GNW U]

My boss often gets contracts from clients and will call me...Last week, we never met face to face but, through the phone, we served more than four clients…I face some technical challenges so I called him for instructions…We communicated for almost ten minutes on phone and I was able to finish the job. In fact, the phone has been of tremendous help in my work [Ghana 24y male, Electrician Apprentice, U]

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Building a taxi customer baseThe use of cell-phone in this business is of crucial importance...I bought this cell-phone the day I received my first pay…people would ask for my contacts and I could not give it to them…I had no choice but to buy a cell phone…you snooze, you lose! [South Africa GNW U taxi driver, 24y]

My friends who had phones had an upper hand and were making more money than me. … I was losing business and I decided to buy my own phone to maintain my client base. [Malawi BL PU 21y bicycle taxi operator]

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Phones and criminality• Stories from all sites, but especially South Africa• Numerous phone scams • Violence in phone theft – youth a common target;

Experience of phone theft/attack [among those using a cellphone in last 12 months]: Malawi 16%; Ghana 23%; South Africa 47%[my phone] was taken by tsotsis on my way to school… I was going alone. …One of them put a knife in my back and asked for a phone [South Africa 20y F, ECU; pupil]

• BUT Young men also perceived to be perpetrators of phone theftSo many tourists are attacked by these young boys…and they are mostly targeting the cellphones [South Africa I8y F, employed as hostel cook EC]

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Phones as youth safety net: in pursuit of resources through network capital

Numerous phone requests by youth for money and material goods [most to relatives]:• Phone request in last 12 months [all 9-25y] for money gift/loan for youth

personal use: Malawi 45%; Ghana 41%; South Africa 51%• Phone request in last 12 months for material goods [shoes, clothes,

books etc.] : Malawi 39%; Ghana 36%; South Africa 65%

My mother [in the village is] selling vegetables…and sends me and my younger brother money to buy food and pay rent…I am looking for a job, meanwhile I get temporary jobs…my mother sends us money by depositing it in my bank account…once she deposits the money in the account my phone will notify me [South Africa, 23y m ECU]

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Conclusion: youth’s poor employment prospects persist despite high phone access/use

• Conundrum of youth at the vanguard of phone adoption - yet still

apparently consistently disadvantaged in access to employment and income

• Some jobs secured through phones BUT PHONES ARE NOT ENOUGH

• Many youth in our sites lack strong employability attributes – Low levels of education = a poverty trap – South Africa: little work experience, hence volunteer posts uptake

• Lack of strong bridging social capital to allow sourcing of good jobs• Bonding capital [+ social grants in South Africa] helps cushion against

extreme poverty - but youth want work• Frustration, despair, apathy - especially widespread in South Africa

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Appendix- methodology

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Research Methodology• 24 research sites – 8 per country:

• High density poor Urban, PU, Rural, Remote Rural

• 2 agro-ecological zones

• Co-investigation with young researchers as key to developing academic researcher questions

• Academic researcher component: • Qualitative research N=1,640• Survey N=4,500 [9-18y N=3,000; 19-25y

N=1,500]

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Co-investigation as a route to fuller understanding

[Qualitative Research June 2016 vol. 16 no. 3: 293-304] • 70 ‘child’ researchers [33 girls, 37 boys]: 11-19y school

pupils recruited and trained 2006 for child mobility study

• Many also contributed to 2012-15 phones study as/when available

• Findings feed into design of larger adult academic research study

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Everyday phone usage among young people: diverse aspects examined

• Livelihoods - focus of this presentation

• Education: Journal of International Development 2015: 28,22-39 • Health: Social Science and Medicine 2015: 142, 90e9• Inter-generational relations: Geoforum 2015: 64, 37–46• Mobilities/Transport: Annals of the American Association of

Geographers, 2015,106:2, 434-441 • Migration/stretched households [paper under review]• Gender and sexuality [paper in preparation]