Chapter Five: Rural Youth Migration and Development in Zimbabwe

This chapter explores intractable socio-economic challenges triggering youth exclusion and resultant migration of rural youths. Undeniably, as Arslan et al. (2021) suggest, in Global South countries, increasing numbers of rural youth and their perceived disenchantment with society and economy have raised policy concerns globally. As will be shown later, dominant narratives in Africa and Zimbabwe generally point to exclusionary socio-economic development policies which favour a gerontocratic model of development. Despite a policy architecture amplifying youth inclusion, the implementation modalities of policies sideline youths from political and local government development as they continue to be labelled as immature. It is increasingly acknowledged that productive youth employment is among the major development challenges of our time. The small size of the manufacturing and formal service sectors and the informal sector economies in Africa magnify this challenge; the likelihood is that a significant proportion of youths will continue to live in rural areas for decades to come.