Adamu, Abebaw Yirga
3 Publications in AERD
Author Publications
Export PDFYouth-led participatory action research (YPAR) in Ethiopia: a promising practice to examine systemic economic injustices
By Hailu, Meseret F.
Youth unemployment in Ethiopia is a widespread problem that threatens the country’s economic and political stability. This quantitative article, driven by the active participation of the youth, aims to provide insight into the national context of youth unemployability in Ethiopia. Methodologically, we conducted a quantitative analysis of secondary data collected as part of a national youth-focused project in Ethiopia between 2021 and 2023 using a participatory action research (YPAR) framework. YPAR serves as the theoretical foundation that undergirds this analysis. Regarding the demographic characteristics of the participants, 3,215 youth were surveyed about their employment experiences. The data reported in this article comes from 545 survey respondents who were higher education students enrolled in 10 universities and six colleges across Ethiopia. Among the respondents, 52.1% were women and 47.9% were men. The respondents were aged between 18 and 29, with 13.5% falling into the 18–19, 58.5% in the 20–24, and 28% in the 25–29 age brackets. We conducted a descriptive analysis: all non-Likert categorical variables and demographic questions were evaluated using frequency and percentage computations, while means, medians, and standard deviations were generated for the Likert-scaled questions to provide insight into the participants’ responses. The findings from this analysis can help education researchers and practitioners understand that a major stakeholder group is missing from policy development conversations in Ethiopia: students. We conclude by discussing how YPAR, emphasizing youth participation, can be helpful for future research and policy development about employment for Ethiopian university graduates. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Student Ethnic Diversity Management in Ethiopian Universities: Practices, Challenges, and Way Forward
By Adamu, Abebaw Yirga
Ethnic-related issues have been the historic and prevalent questions of Ethiopian society. Student ethnic diversity management is one of the major challenges facing public universities in Ethiopia. I interviewed 48 deans to examine the practice, challenges, and way forward of student ethnic diversity management. The study revealed that the practice of student ethnic diversity management is low and there are different internal and external factors that affect diversity management in higher education. Above all, the politicization of ethnicity is found to be the mother of all challenges associated with student ethnic diversity management in Ethiopia. This implies that addressing issues related to the ethnic political and administrative system at a national level is the highest priority, but is a long-term plan, and universities need to take different measures that help them to at least avoid or minimize the negative impacts of diversity.
Stakeholders' participation in adult education programme development in Ethiopia
By Abate, Samuel Getnet
The implementation of integrated functional adult education (IFAE) programme needs collaborative efforts of different sectors. Studies indicate that the collaboration among different sectors is low, but the sectors' view in relation to the contribution of the programme and their participation in the implementation of the programme is not well studied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand stakeholders' views about the programme and their participation in its implementation. The necessary data were collected from Adult Education Board members, Adult Education Technical Committee members and facilitators through questionnaire, in-depth interview, and document review. The result indicated that stakeholders have positive views about the collaboration and the contribution of the programme to the development of different sectors and the nation in general. It also revealed that, there is minimal involvement of stakeholders in the implementation of the programme including programme management, awareness creation, community mobilisation, budget allocation, education and training, and monitoring and evaluation. Stakeholders' positive view about the programme and its contribution is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the effective implementation of the programme. Thus, there is a dire need for stakeholders' and government's commitment and strong programme monitoring and evaluation supported by clear accountability structure.
© 2026 AERD Database System. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Strategic Technologies.