Youth in War and Post-War Africa
Priorities and Policies
Hugo Kamya, Ph.D.
April 17, 2012
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Impact of War on Children
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Context
Northern Uganda
Qualitative interviews with girls and boys
Lived experiences of children
Coping with consequences of war
Priorities and policies
Youth in Africa
• Fastest growing and most youthful
population in the world
• Over 40% under the age of 15
• 20% between ages of 15 and 24
• Is this a “ticking, demographic timebomb?”
• War and Post-War Youth complexify this
serious challenge
Psychological Profile
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A sense of alienation from self and other
Feelings of abandonment
A threatened sense of well being and safety
Feelings of vulnerability
Feelings of loss and meaninglessness
Experiences related to PTSD
Avoidance and enduring vigilance
Psychological Profile
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Trauma as a present reality
Heightened sense of alertness
Fixation on trauma
Body dysregulation/Fragmented memories
Reduced capacity to learn escape behaviors
Depression and anxiety
Externalizing behaviors: aggressiveness
Complex layers of loss
• Systems of cooperation and mutual
dependence: broken social networks
• Loyalty to, and solidarity with family/kin
• Interpersonal relationships
• Shame, survivor and collective guilt
• Disrupted social identities
Other Losses
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Environmental effects
Physical effects
Neuro-developmental effects
Trans-generational transmission of trauma
Forces at reorganization
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“It never happened to me” stories
Stories which minimize the events
“It was no big deal” or “I deserved it.”
Anxious attachment to caregivers
Stories portraying avoidance/numbing
Stories portraying children having inner
imaginary companions for safety
Priority and Policy Issues
• Ensuring economic opportunities and
stabilization
• Attention to basic infrastructure services
• Gender equality: empowerment of females
• Ensuring security and youth participation
• Cultural relevance and responsiveness to
changing youth demographic
• Commitment to activism & political reform
Priorities and Policies
• Attention to issues of access: education
• Enacting and implementing laws that
support and promote girl education
• Community habilitation & reintegration
• Policies that support health and mental
health services: Cultural responsiveness
• Long term monitoring, assessment and
evaluation of youth programs
Priorities and Policies
• Human rights & humanitarian policies with
clear age-based definitions of childhood
• Employment opportunities, protections and
employability training
• Long term development geared at youth
• Relief programs that include youth priorities
• Social safety nets to absorb economic and
social shocks
Priorities and Policies
• Holistic approaches to youth development
• Improving physical infrastructure
• Policies geared toward asset development,
asset ownership and skills upgrading
• Sound data and agreed upon indicators to
monitor progress: conduct of research
• Well monitored operational support and
accountability mechanisms
References
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second generation perspective. In E.B. Williams & J.F. Sommer, Jr. (Eds). Handbook of Posttraumatic Therapy (pp. 106-125).
Betancourt, T.S. & Khan, K.T. (2008). The mental health of children affected by armed conflict.
Protective processes and pathways to resilience. International Review of Psychiatry, 20, 317-328.
De Silva, H., Hobbs, C., & Hanks, H. (2001). Conscription of Children in Armed Conflict – A Form of
Child Abuse. A Study of 19 Former Child Soldiers. Child Abuse Review, 10, 125-134.
Goodman, J. (2004). Coping with trauma and hardship among unaccompanied refugee youth form Sudan.
Qualitative Health Research ,14, 9, 11771196.
Harkness, L.L. (1993). Transgenerational transmission of war-related trauma. In J.L. Wilson & B.
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Kamya, H. (2009). The impact of war on children: How children make meaning from war experiences.
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References
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