Participation, empowerment and capacity building: Exploring young people's perspectives on the services provided to them by a grassroots NGO in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper explores young people's perspectives on the services that were provided to them by one NGO in sub-Saharan Africa. Semi-structured interviews and discussion groups were carried out with 71 young people, aged between 10 and 18 years old, who lived and worked on the street. Volunteer facilitators (n = 26) who run the groups and who had either previously lived on their street themselves or who lived in the ‘informal slum areas’ also took part in the discussions. A number of challenges and tensions became apparent from discussions including issues around capacity building, empowerment, participation and the depoliticised nature of social action.