83
JOURNAL OF YOUTH RESEARCHES
New Generations, Old Challenges:
Questioning Grassroots
Development in the Horn of Africa
Copyright © 2018
Republic of Turkey Ministry of Youth and Sports
/
Journal of Youth Researches • April 2018 • 6(14) • 83-110
ISSN 2147-8473
Received
| 10 March 2018
Accepted
| 12 April 2018
* Dr., Lecturer, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, School of Foreign Languages. Ankara,
Abdulaziz Dino Gidreta*
Abstract
The Horn of Africa (HOA) is home to one of the youngest population in the world. In Ethiopia, the
youth under the age of 25 constitutes 65% of the total population. And, population size and land
area coverage in the rural HOA makes more than three quarters of each nation’s entire population
and land. In this context, one can assume that common concerns and projections over development
in the HOA would be about a development for the new generation, and in the rural. Provoked by
the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s), to some extent, there have been tangible improve-
ments in lives of the new generation in developing countries. Yet, when it comes to HOA, national
or international development reports have been very often challenged by the emergent but disre-
garded narratives of general life unease, specially to the grassroots community. No matter how we
notice collective opinion convergences concerning substantial progresses in the region, there have
also been inferential divergences when it comes to changes towards the marginalized grassroots
communities. Literally, this article attempts to question the goal of development, by exploring the
context of human development in the region. It attempts to unveil the depth of life unease in three
rural neighborhoods in Ethiopia. Health and sanitation, education, agriculture and environmental
conservation constraints are addressed. The article is informed by series of in-depth interviews and
Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) involving the very rural residents, Development Agents (DA’s),
Health Extension Workers (HEWs) and local administrators. As a result, it is revealed that, develop-
mental challenges in the rural neighborhoods are far worse than what has normally been quantified.
The article urges policy attention and interventions.
Keywords:
Horn of Africa, Grassroots Development, Marginalized Communities, New Generation.
ANALYS I S / RESEARCH
