The transition to adulthood is marked by interrelated changes in the areas of education, employment and family formation. Using frameworks on gendered transitions to adulthood and links between assets and livelihoods, we analyse nationally representative, sex-disaggregated data from 42 countries to characterize rural youths’ transition to adulthood by gender and according to a four-category typology of low and high levels of structural and rural transformation. Overall, we find that young women and men experience the transition to adulthood differently according to the structural and rural transformation classification of the countries where they live. Across all structural and rural transformation categories, young women are more likely to be married and living with their spouses or in-laws, less likely to be in school or employed, and less likely to own land solely. Gender gaps in secondary school education favour young women only in countries with higher levels of structural and rural transformation, and favour young men in the other three categories. Moreover, a larger proportion of young women than young men are not in education, employment, or training (NEET), but many NEET youth, especially young women, have transitioned into domestic and reproductive roles (i.e. are more likely to be married and/or have children.) Additionally, we review impact evaluations of interventions targeting youth. We find limited evidence on the gendered impacts of such programmes, and these programmes seldom consider how constraints differ for young men and young women. Addressing gaps in programmes and building an evidence base on the gendered impact of interventions can provide insights into how gender roles can simultaneously limit options and offer opportunities to young rural women and men in the context of structural and rural transformation.

This paper evaluates the impacts on the participants of the Yemen Social Fund for Development’s youth employment and training program called Rural and Urban Advocates Working for Development (RUAWFD). The evaluation used both traditional surveys and an innovative experimental game methodology to show that the employment program, in addition to aiding youth individually, has important benefits for the country as a whole by contributing to stronger social capital. The survey analysis finds for the program participants significant increases between the baseline and follow-up surveys in self-reported trust in local government institutions and officials, political parties, and tribes. In reflecting on the level of cooperativeness in their own communities, participants reported increased awareness of the presence of marginalized groups and increased perception of cooperativeness in surrounding communities. There was also a significant increase in self-reported trust in people generally, especially for trust in other young people and in people from other areas of Yemen. The experimental game methodology uses a common pool game from the experimental economics literature incentivized by cash payments to measure trust levels between pairs of RUAWFD participants from different geographic regions. This approach confirms the findings from the survey analysis while avoiding possible self-reporting bias. The game results show that trust was lowest at baseline for partners in which one of the partners was from one of the Northern governorates and the other was from one of the Southern governorates. After the intervention, however, not only were average trust levels higher, but Northern-Southern pairs of RUAWFD participants had trust levels closer to those for pairs from the same regions. These findings are consistent with the literature on inter-group contact theory suggesting that community interventions can increase trust in individuals and institutions. This research contributes to a growing literature on trust and social capital as important development indicators, particularly in relation to conflict. The main results suggest that reinforcing social ties across regions in Yemen is an important benefit of the Social Fund for Development’s role as a national development agency and an achievable objective to consider in planning development interventions to contribute to future post-conflict reconstruction.