Putting Children First: Identifying solutions and taking action to tackle poverty and inequality in Africa. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 23-25 October 2017 This three-day international conference aimed to engage policy makers, practitioners and researchers in identifying solutions for fighting child poverty and inequality in Africa, and in inspiring action towards change. The conference offered a platform for bridging divides across sectors, disciplines and policy, practice and research.

1. Social connectedness:
An enabling condition for addressing intergenerational
poverty and supporting secure transitions to adulthood?
Marlene Ogawa1, Shirley Pendlebury2 and Carmel Marock3
1Synergos South Africa, 2University of Cape Town, 3Singizi Consulting
Putting children first: Identifying solutions and taking action to tackle
poverty and inequality in Africa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 23-25 October 2017
Theme: Supporting secure transitions to adulthood
This work is made possible thanks to funding from the Samuel Family Foundation

2. Case study: Social Connectedness in City Year, Johannesburg
 Assumption: Strengthening social connectedness helps to diminish
intergenerational poverty by enabling young people to negotiate
pathways to productive adulthood.
 Central question - case study: How are transitional pathways of
youth volunteers influenced by their participation as service leaders
in City Year, Johannesburg?
 Testing the assumption: How, if at all, do findings from the case
support for assumption?

3. Impetus for the paper
 Kim Samuel, the Samuel Family Foundation and OPHI –
Social Connectedness as a Missing Dimension of
Multidimensional Poverty
 Social Connectedness Programme, Synergos South Africa
• Research on conceptions of care and connectedness in
IKS (FDC; NMCF)
• ‘Proof of concept’ interventions (City Year, NACOSA,
REPSSI)
 Samuel and Bagwiza Uwizeyimana (2017) case study on
social connectedness and young care-workers (NACOSA)
and service volunteers (City Year)
 The situation of youth in South Africa

4. About Synergos
Synergos helps create a world that is
just, peaceful and sustainable, where
people everywhere are empowered,
aware of their common humanity and
able to realize their full potential.
Lasting
solutions
to
Poverty
Leaders
Institutions
Partnerships
Personal transformation for social change.
Systemic shift

5. The Social Connectedness Programme aims to:
• understand and reduce chronic isolation as a
contributor to and consequence of poverty;
• increase social connectedness of children and
youth

6. Questions
 In what ways is the Social Connectedness Programme in South
Africa contributing to young people’s transitional pathways into
work and other forms of livelihood?
 How might an expansion and deepening of young people’s
social connectedness alter the processes that fuel an
intergenerational cycle of poverty and inequality?
 Is social connectedness a strong enough mechanism for
enabling young people to make critical life transitions in starting
to work, continuing to learn and exercising citizenship?
 What’s at stake in the notion of a ‘secure transition to
adulthood’?

7. Outline
1. Social connectedness, social capital and resilience
2. Thinking about youth – critical transitions, demographic
dividend vs ‘ticking time-bomb’, livelihood pathways and
assets.
3. Case Study – Young service leaders, City Year, Johannesburg
4. Social connectedness as a mechanism for change?

8. 1. Social connectedness, social capital and resilience
Chronic Social Isolation (relational
deprivation) – inadequate quality and
quantity of social relations with others
at different levels of human interaction
(individual, group, community and larger
social environment).
Social connectedness – meaningful
relationships and bonds with peers,
families and communities; may extend
into wider social networks.
Social connectedness –intrinsic to well-
being & instrumentally valuable.
Social capital
Bonding capital – nurtures, and arises,
from ties between people of similar
backgrounds or interests.
Bridging capital occurs across socially
heterogeneous groups, produces a flow
of resources for advancing aspirations
(Yeboah, 2017).
Linking capital – vertical connections
with people in positions of authority or
influence who may provide access to
resources (Woolcock 2012)
Resilience?
‘an eco-systemic transactional
process’ resulting in a positive
adjustment to significant adversity

9. Social connectedness as a ‘missing dimension’ of poverty
See Zavaleta, Samuel & Mills, 2014; 2017.
Relational deprivation is an intrinsic part of
capability poverty:
 ‘…people have good reason to value not
being excluded from social relations, and in
this sense, social exclusion may be directly
a part of capability poverty’ (Sen, 2000, p.
4).
 Relational deprivation can result in or
worsen other deprivations.
 Affiliation between people is a social basis
for respect and non-humiliation
(Nussbaum, 2000).
 People’s sense of belonging to a group
enhances their capabilities and can support
their productivity.

10. 2. Thinking about youth
 Five critical life transitions for youth (2007 World Development
Report, Development and the Next Generation): (i) continuing to
learn; (ii) starting to work; (iii) developing a healthy lifestyle;
(iv)starting a family; (v) exercising citizenship.
 ‘Demographic dividend or ticking time-bomb’? – This binary
opposition ignores complex, fluid, lived realities and aspirations of
youth.
 ‘Secure transitions to adulthood?’ At least two false assumptions,
but still a useful concept.
 Livelihood pathways and assets (Ansell et al., 2014)

11. 3. The Case: Young service leaders, City Year
 Collaboration – Social Connectedness Programme and City Year (CY),
Johannesburg.
 CY brings together young people (known as service leaders) for a
year of voluntary service, civic engagement and leadership
development. Service leaders mentor children in after-school
programmes at 9 primary schools in disadvantaged communities in
Gauteng.
 Two strands in CY programme: (i) Service in Schools and (ii)
Leadership Development for service leaders.
 Service Leaders: Most are between 22 and 24 years old, from lower
income households and families with very limited access to
employment opportunities and social mobility. Many join City Year
join to earn the small stipend, which – for a few – is the main income
for their households.

12. The Case: Young service leaders, City Year, Johannesburg
Collaboration: Social Connectedness
Programme & City Year (CY), Johannesburg
CY brings together youth volunteers (service leaders) to provide
after-school support to children in nine disadvantaged primary
schools in Gauteng
Two strands in CY programme for service leaders
(i) Service at after-school children’s clubs
(ii) Leadership Development – social
connectedness part of the core curriculum
Characteristics of service leaders: Most 22-24 years old, from lower income families with
limited access to employment opportunities. CY pays a small stipend. For a few service learners
the stipend is the main source of income for their households.

13. Programme evaluation
 Mixed methods: individual interviews, focus groups and survey (both
baseline and, where possible, end-line), with data collection from a sample
of different role players in the programme.
 Evaluation criteria for the Social Connectedness Programme:
Outcomes criteria: (i) cohort of practitioners has a deeper understanding
and integrates social connectedness into practice; (ii) key institutions
integrate knowledge of social connectedness and scale up to replicate
good practice models in programmes and practice; (iii) a cadre of leaders
are aware of the value of social connectedness and actively promote the
work.
Impact criterion: Resilience of children, youth and their caregivers is
developed through social connectedness interventions. This is given
expression in their performance in their different life spaces, and in their
ability to access resources, services, and opportunities.

14. 3. Findings – Three themes
 Employment and Employability – Livelihood Pathways
 Networks and Social Capital
 Accruing Assets for Critical Life Transitions

15. Employment and Employability – Livelihood Pathways
 2016 survey of a sample of 2014 and 2015 cohorts:
• 30% of survey respondents were employed
• 12% were in a learnership/apprenticeship or internship
• 20% were studying
• 39% were unemployed
 Findings are consistent with youth unemployment figures in RSA.
 Perceptions of how CY had assisted in finding employment:
“Learning about social connectedness and how to build my network
has really made a big difference to my getting this job”
“[CY] gave me the contacts I never had to get the job I have”
“Understanding the importance of social connectedness assisted me
to access the opportunity for a job”

16. Employment and employability (cont.)
 An employability repertoire – Employed respondents and those who were
studying further, picked out valuable attributes acquired through their CY
experience. Some attributes that emerged most strongly:
• discipline, positive attitude, energy, respect towards supervisors, ability
to work in a team, ability to communicate, problem-solving, attendance,
and curiosity.
 Tenacity and hope – Two-thirds of those who were neither employed nor
in education or training (NEET) had applied for more than 10 jobs since
completing CY. All were hopeful of their prospects – either to find jobs, or
study further, or start their own businesses.
 Self and others – CY graduates have moved beyond their own aspirations to
see themselves as resources for others. A little over half of those surveyed
had assisted friends or family to find work.

17. Networks and Social Capital
 Participation in CY enables youth to extend, maintain and use
their social networks.
(a) “After City Year I started to make a lot friendships as I was
able to talk to lot of people and network.”
(b) “I engage with people of different ages and background on
regular basis, so the experience has furnished the skill to
socially connect with others in a good way.”
(c) “I have started and learned to approach people and create
meaningful networks that I hope will help me grow myself. I
have started to be an outgoing person, attending ‘women
seminars’ and growth events.”
(d) “Before I participated in City year programme I was not
able to connect with others outside my group but after my
participation I managed to apply things I have learnt within
organizations I participated in…”
Bonding
Bridging
Bridging +
linking
potential
From bonding
to bridging

18. Networks and social capital (cont.)
Evaluator’s comment:
“Because City Year is committed to addressing the nexus of leadership,
poverty, and education, there may be value in explicitly deploying the
language of ‘social capital’ as the sharp end of the stick in the
continuum of social connectedness. Where social connectedness offers
an approach to addressing a range of personal and social challenges
facing individuals and communities at a local level, social capital
explicitly seeks to deal with the structural challenges facing the kinds of
service leaders City Year attracts.”

19. Accruing assets for critical life transitions
 Increased confidence, greater interpersonal skills and a sense of self-
efficacy are important outcomes for young service leaders who
volunteer at City Year – a ‘bank’ of assets for learning, work, active
citizenship and service, family, healthy lifestyle.
 Service leaders’ perceptions of how they have changed through their
City Year experience:
“I created a friendly environment with my family, in which we rely on each
other’s strengths, hold each other accountable. I stopped being naïve; I now
know how to treat people the way they should be treated with respect.”
“I have started asking the people in the location about what is it that they
understand about SASSA/grant. I share the information about the grant
and all other training I have acquired. The most fundamental is patience,
the power tool about jay walking – it taught me to be patient and not
follow the majority”

20. Accruing assets for critical life transitions (cont.)
More examples of young people’s perceptions of how CY had changed them:
“Being alone, at first I was that kind of a person who would prefer to be in
his own corner and wait for someone to come to me but now I can’t do that
anymore, as I am the one who would sometimes go ‘out there’. […] in the
beginning […] I needed to understand the people around me first, through
the learning of social connectedness it has somehow changed how I see
things.”
“Working in a team; being a team captain; looking after the school
environment; sharing a meeting; leading a roof painting team during our
community service day.”

21. 4. Social connectedness as a mechanism for change?
 The title for this paper suggests that social connectedness may be an
enabling condition for addressing intergenerational poverty and
supporting secure transitions to adulthood. Is this indeed the case?
If so, how strong a mechanism is it?
 We pose the questions at two levels:
(i) Programmatic level: What is the efficacy of the social
connectedness programme at City year in enabling youth to get
work and accrue livelihood and other assets for critical transitions?
(ii) A high, general level: Is social connectedness a strong enough
mechanism for addressing child poverty (or to effect the kind of
change needed to break the intergenerational transfer of poverty)?

22. Social connectedness as a mechanism for change? (cont.)
 On the programmatic question: Social connectedness clearly serves as an
important framing idea for the service leaders in the Case Study. But
learning about the concept of social connectedness is not enough to bring
about meaningful change, given the context of structural unemployment
and persistent educational inequality.
 On the higher level question: On its own, social connectedness not a
strong enough mechanism for change. However, a growing body of
research on youth and the intergenerational transfer of poverty suggest
that social connectedness is a crucial enabling condition for kerbing this
transfer. It is also a necessary condition for well-being and heathy
development.

24. Acknowledgement
“This paper and approach emerges as a result of work and thinking advanced by Kim
Samuel in her collaboration with Oxford University's Poverty and Human Development
Initiative and through her leadership as President of the Samuel Family Foundation.
Kim Samuel's work advances that social isolation includes the experience of profound,
sustained loneliness and lack of belonging and can create significant barriers to socio-
economic individual and community well-being. Moreover, Kim Samuel has suggested
that social connectedness provides people with a sense of belonging through
meaningful and trusting relationships and bonds with those around them, facilitates
access to supports and opportunities to achieve improvements that are desired and
valued by both individuals and groups, and results in tangible assets for communities
and nations.“