News

New industrial complex buildings in Ethiopia
Hawassa Industrial Park, Ethiopia (Credit: Paula Meth)
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Orientation Workshops

We hosted an Orientation Workshop for our two case study sites in November 2020 and January 2021 to build the project teams’ knowledge of our corresponding cases.

The South African case is an area known as Bronkhorstspruit / Ekangala located to the eastern edge of Tshwane municipality in Gauteng. For this workshop we were joined by leading researchers who have worked in the areas, as well as Johannesburg photographer Mark Lewis.

The Hawassa team delivered an orientation workshop on Hawassa on the 22nd January 2021, again bringing in experts working in and on the city who focused in detail on the Industrial Park, youth employment, as well as the rapidly transforming urban context.

Official launch: Hawassa University

On the 14th January 2021, Hawassa University hosted an official project kick-off event to mark the official commencement of the project, with presentations by project members and senior members of their university, including: Professor Tesfaye Semela (Director-IPDR); Dr.-Ing. Eshetayehu Kinfu; Dr. Paula Meth and Dr Tom Goodfellow (via zoom) and Dr. Ayano Berasso (President-HU).

Workshops A & B

Between March and May 2021 we held two workshops with our newly recruited Youth representatives from Hawassa and the Bronkhorstspruit/Ekangala area, and our newly recruited fieldworkers. 

The Hawassa workshop was first, followed by the workshop in South Africa, held in Johannesburg. For two days in March, 15 Youth representatives, joined the Hawassa project team, and fieldworkers in person at the University of Hawassa to learn about the youth futures project, and to meet the international teams based in the UK and South Africa (via zoom). Likewise in Johannesburg, in May youth representatives travelled to the University of Witwatersrand and worked with the Wits team in person, also meeting the international teams based in the UK and Ethiopia (via zoom).

Both workshops used a mix of online sessions and face to face workshops to learn about the project, about devising and carrying out surveys, and the ethical issues associated with the project. All youth representatives contributed to collaborating on relevant survey questions and practiced carrying out surveys with each other. The Youth Representatives are preparing to undertake surveys of other youth in their local areas focusing on the issues of housing and work.