The present and future of rural youth in the SICA region in the COVID-19 scenario: analysis of gender, opinions, values, expectations, experiences and life projects

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out, between March and May 2021, in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, to (a) collect information and analyse the opinions, values, experiences and behaviours of rural youth in these three countries of the SICA region in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact at different levels education, work, health, violence, gender relations, citizen/political participation and associativism, environment, climate change and natural disasters;(b) investigate, in particular, how this pandemic influences the expectations and future projects of young people at a personal, educational and work level;and (c) analyse the information gathered from a gender and intersectional analysis that allows identifying and systematizing the differences and inequalities between the genders in all the selected aspects. The study also inquired about the opinions and explanations of rural youth about different aspects of the COVID 19 pandemic, among others, ideas about its "origin", the consequences at the social and environmental levels, and prioritized means of obtaining information, with the purpose of highlighting the frameworks of meaning that are built on this stage.