discussing chronic poverty amongst youth in order to underline how difficult it is for many Nigeriens to escape poverty and to underscore the systemic and structural trends
challenging these escapes. The narrative then focuses on the question of how some youth have managed to overcome these problems to escape poverty, and the factors that enable these escapes to be sustained alongside those that contribute to downward pressures and to new or re-impoverishment.
In terms of poverty inheritance, the youth were less likely to be chronically poor and more
likely to be never poor compared to adults/parents in mid and late adulthood (Figure 8). However, in terms of dynamics – i.e. movements over time – they were more likely to be
impoverished and less likely to escape. This might be explained by the fact they are more
likely than older adults to be involved in the labour market and subject to the vicissitudes of the fortunes of working people in a precarious labour market with fewer foundational assets
(farm, livestock) to stabilise them. The analysis that follows investigates youth inclusion in labour markets along different poverty trajectories, as specified above.
Figure 8. Poverty trajectory by youth status of household head, baseline survey year
Youth Other adults 0% Chronic poor
20%
40%
60%
Impoverished
Poverty escapers
80%
100%
Never poor
4.1. Chronic poverty pathways While many respondents had escaped or fallen into poverty, thus experiencing considerable poverty mobility over the course of their lives, a third of our qualitative youth sample (18 out
of 49) remained in chronic poverty. A key defining feature of the livelihoods of the chronically poor youth is that they were economically active but had an employment history punctuated with periods of unemployment and low-paid employment. This often means
that they cannot yield a surplus above their consumption needs, reducing their ability to invest in assets or small businesses. It is therefore difficult for chronically poor young workers to make the transition from working as poorly paid farm or family labourers to potentially
more rewarding self-employment, or even to generate savings to handle health or other shocks. Poverty inherited from parents limited the funds for children to access education, or
for adolescents and youth to develop profitable livelihoods or access adequate capital for migration. We examine these topics in turn below.
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