Youth development practitioners often focus on the supply and demand side of unemployment: greater investment in skills development and quality education on the one hand, with job creation and economic growth on the other.

However, in South Africa, a country with high rates of poverty and inequality, we often miss an important part of the conversation — the experience of poverty on a young person’s ability to identify, connect with, and hold on to opportunities.

Poverty is not just about material deprivation; it impacts every aspect of a young person’s life, including their confidence. The inner or hidden dimensions of poverty also require policy attention and investment in evidence-based interventions.

In this podcast, we explore how the inner dimensions of poverty reinforce the everyday material hardships experienced by out-of-school and unemployed young people. We talk to Simone Peinke, project lead of FETCH and Anwar Parker, Psychologist for the Year Beyond programme, about how these compounding challenges trap them in cycles of exclusion and what we can do to help them break free.

The Learning Lunch podcast features three types of episodes: Deep Dives; Nourish & Flourish; and Best Bites.
Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:
The Main Meal - A ±30-minute podcast
The Takeaways - Instructions for a ±30-minute group reflection based on what you listened to.
To learn more about the work that we do, go to www.dgmt.co.za