Reason 2: The whole family works. At 15 years old, Interviewee 21 met her husband at the Dolé market (where young migrants would chat to friends on their breaks). Her paternal uncle arranged the wedding and received the dowry. He migrated to Nigeria when they were married and sent money home; this is when she transitioned from her job street selling (tala tala) to home-based work, more befitting of a married woman.
Reason 3: Commission trading with savings from migrant husband. For her first income, Interviewee
21 sold peanut oil, which she received on credit (commission trading). She sold 4–5 litres of oil at a rate of XOF800 per litre. After 3–4 days, she earned XOF150 per litre as a profit (this worked out to roughly 150 per day in earnings). She saved the money she received from her migrant husband for household expenses. Reason 4: Access to vocational training course in sewing. For her second income, Interviewee 21 enrolled in a two-year training course (CFM) in sewing, embroidery and knitting. She was told about
this course by the little sister of the neighbourhood chief. Access to this training requires a registration fee of XOF 13,000 per year, which she paid in instalments. She also bought small equipment such as
threads and needles. She completed the first year, but could not continue because of financial difficulties, and so did not get the diploma at the end of the course. However, this was sufficient for her to have a new income-generating activity. Lack of demand prompted her to focus instead on mending torn clothing. She has a tabletop sewing machine. (In the male and female FGDs, there was mention of children who would not go to school because of torn clothing, so the demand for mended clothes for this purpose, rather than making new clothes or tailoring, may also speak to the poverty of the area where she resides).
Reason 5: She has some assets. She lives in an inherited house shared with her brother’s family in Karakara, and we think she has three sheep.
Reason 5: Her husband returned from migration ten years ago. He has an irregular income but it is
sufficient in combination with her and her children’s income. Nearly a month after the marriage, Interviewee 21’s husband left again for exodus (migration). He worked in a bakery and was paid daily. Every month for the first three years, her husband sent her XOF 6000 when he was in Nigeria. He regularly returned home. It has now been ten years since the husband stopped migrating. He was then
involved in three activities to provide for his family: managing a water fountain at the Dolé market, which was unprofitable because of high water bills; serving as a rickshaw transporter of water cans to market traders; and catering selling cowpea and rice dishes. They still have difficulty paying the COGES costs (her eldest son had to leave school because they could not pay) and thus face difficulty keeping their children in school.
4.3.
Impoverishment and transitory poverty escapes
Even for youth who do manage to escape poverty, and others who were originally non-poor,
the prevalence and manifestation of a range of shocks and stressors within their contexts
render them susceptible to falling into poverty. From the qualitative data, most of the youth interviewees from Tahoua and Zinder are living in large intergenerational households (i.e. they live in their parent’s or parents-in-law’s house even if they have a spouse and young children of their own). Those in rural areas engage in some subsistence farming on the land
of the father and contribute to the household with the income they earn. In this context, they are prone to sharp changes in wellbeing. The sections below discuss key livelihood shocks
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