Youth-led Social Movements in a Shrinking Civic Space in the Horn and East Africa

Purpose and goal:

The project’s overarching objective of using case evidence from the Horn and East Africa to examine the potential of political protests organized by youth-led social movements to mitigate the shrinking of civic space has been fulfilled. Moreover, the project investigated a gender parity reform that emerged as an outcome of protests in Ethiopia, examining the motivations behind the reform, its implementation within a conflict context, and its implications for gender equality.

Expected results and effects:

The project uncovered the mechanisms and relevant contextual factors linking protest mobilization to political change, providing valuable insights into the dynamics of youth-led protest movements amid shrinking civic space. Moreover, its investigation of a gender parity reform as an outcome of protests offers several insights, including the challenges of implementing such reforms in conflict contexts and the need for democratic dispensation.

In addition to their theoretical contributions to the literature, these results are expected to inform policy and advocacy efforts. Approach and implementation:

The first part of the project employed the process-tracing approach, informed by semi-structured interviews and secondary data, to identify the mechanism and relevant contextual factors linking protest mobilization to political change. Moreover, semi-structured interviews and an online public survey, which were analyzed using thematic analysis, were used in the second part of the project to investigate the motivations, implementation, and implications of a gender parity reform that emerged as an outcome of protests.