Children across the world face increasingly complex journeys into adulthood. For young people fleeing conflict or living in poverty, the difficulties of building meaningful adult lives are made worse in situations where there is a lack of stability, poor access to education and few sources of financial or social support.

International data indicates that the average period of displacement for refugees is now more than 20 years. Children who become refugees can expect to remain refugees as they grow into adulthood. This creates fundamental challenges for young people who are forced to reconstruct their expectations and pathways into adult life. While governments and donor organisations make substantial resources available to support children and youth, little is know about how the effects of violence and displacement impact on the transitions of young people into adulthood.

The material made available on this website explores these issues through the perspectives and voices of children and youth growing up in Africa and the Middle East. The site provides access to participatory research commission by DFID on Growing up in Contexts of Protracted Crises in Uganda and Jordan.

In addition to the outputs generated by the DFID project, this site will also be providing access to other research material looking at the experiences of street children growing up on the streets of Ghana, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.