Youth Identity and Political Participation in Urban Djibouti: An Examination

Youth in urban Djibouti face distinct challenges and opportunities that influence their identity formation and political engagement. Qualitative research methods were employed through semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of urban youth and focus group discussions among community leaders. Youth identified four key themes influencing their political participation: socio-economic status, cultural identity, education level, and access to information technology (IT). The analysis reveals that while IT access is increasing, it does not uniformly enhance youth political engagement across all demographic groups. Integrating digital literacy programmes into existing educational frameworks could potentially bridge the gap in IT access and its impact on political participation among urban youth.