This report presents the results of a scientific research on the topic of Social Exclusion of Vulnerable Youth, commissioned by SOS Children’s Villages Netherlands and conducted by researchers of the Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam, in collaboration with local counterparts within the six study countries. The purpose of the research is to identify and understand the multi-dimensional drivers of social exclusion of vulnerable youth, which concerns youth who have lost, or are at risk of losing parental care.
Specifically, the objective of this synthesis research is to answer the main question: How are vulnerable youth affected by social exclusion in terms of their human wellbeing, employability and social acceptance?
The research aligns with the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) objective to ‘leave no-one behind’ [1; 2] and responds to policy makers and practitioners’ interests, whom have recognised the importance of including youth in their social and economic policies and strategic actions on the ground. Yet, vulnerable youth are on nobody’s radar. Youth in and from care, for example, are underrepresented or even not counted in national statistics. As a result, their conditions and progress into adulthood, social life and employment is not monitored. SOS Netherlands has signalled this to be a major issue of concern, together with other SOS Children’s Villages country offices within the international federation. Country specific studies on youth in alternative care have been conducted by SOS CV Finland [3] and SOS CV Belgium [4], both emphasising the ‘invisibility’ of youth in alternative care settings. Internationally, governments appear ill-informed about the outcomes of vulnerable youth, despite these young people being important builders of present-day and future societies. Initiatives, such as that by SOS CV Italy, to undertake an international care leavers mapping exercise, are highly needed to fill in this blind spot. In-depth studies exploring the drivers of social exclusion, such as the present study, are also highly needed to fill in the prevailing knowledge gaps on vulnerable youth and the conditions in which they grow-up.
This international research contributes to the global debate on social exclusion of vulnerable youth and provides concrete input to adjust SOS international’s existing programmes. The research was carried out in the period January 2016 until December 2017 in six countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, and the Netherlands. The SOS National Offices have supported this research, but did not play a role in the research to warrant scientific independence.
