This study is one of four studies focusing on ICED’s priority areas – youth, disability, women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and violence against women and girls (VAWG). The terms of reference (TOR) was developed with the Youth and Education Team in DFID London. The key objective of the study is to assess what work is currently being undertaken by DFID in infrastructure and cities (I&C) programming and whether these programmes improve outcomes for young people in terms of jobs and training opportunities, and if not, why not.
In addition, the scoping study is to identity potential entry points to further DFID in pushing for economic opportunities for young people within I&C programming. This scoping study also focuses on grey and digital infrastructure to understand how they integrate and enable the economic empowerment of young people.
The study prioritised five DFID Country Offices – these are countries where an initial literature review identified potential I&C case studies and where there are investments in DFID’s Youth Agenda (the ‘trailblazer countries’). In agreement with DFID, Tanzania, Kenya, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Uganda were invited to participate in the scoping study. The study also looked at interesting examples emerging from other donors or organisations.