Relationship between selected demographic factors and livelihood among rural youth in Gerakan Daya Wawasan Villages, Malaysia

Youth represents the biggest population segment in human history. They are the key asset to the global workforce that brings energy, talent and creativity to create foundations for future nation building. Malaysia’s development plan, known as Vision 2020, aims to develop all aspects of the nation including national unity, social cohesion, economy, social justice, political stability, system of government, social and spiritual values, quality of life, national pride and confidence. Ultimately, the youth of Malaysia have a determinant role to play in achieving the status of a fully developed country by year 2020. Malaysia is well known for its effort to develop its rural areas. Thus, rural youth, especially need to be equipped with the sufficient knowledge to enable them to develop themselves and their environment. Despite the impact of decades of rural development programs planned, do rural youth community really achieve a better sustainable livelihood? This study was designed to examine the level of livelihood assets of rural youth communities in Malaysia based on the Pentagon developed by Department of International Development (DFID). The five livelihood capitals of DFID were used; there are human capital, physical capital, natural capital, social capital and financial capital. Additional capital, Cultural, has been included into the existing model as this capital was proven to be crucial in measuring community sustainable livelihood. To achieve that goal, the study stipulated the following objectives: 1) To define the level of livelihood assets among the rural youth in Gerakan Daya Wawasan villages; 2) To compare the difference in dimensions of livelihood assets by zones; 3) To identify the relationship between selected demography factors (age, income, duration of stay in village and family size) and livelihood capitals. The present study employed a quantitative survey and a set of questionnaire was used for data collection. This study used the three-phase process of measurement, which began with the conceptual definition of sustainable livelihood capitals, followed by instrument or measurement development, which involved testing and its application and finally, analyzing data to produce results. The conceptual framework was developed based on the “Pentagon” developed by Department of International Development from the review of literatures. A total of 240 respondents who resided in the Gerakan Daya Wawasan villages from four selected zones (Southern, East coast, Central and Northern) with the highest number of youths were selected through multistage convenience sampling technique. The data were analyzed using SPSS software to derive the research objectives. Descriptive and inferential analyses were employed to define the sociodemographic of respondents. ANOVA and correlation analysis were employed to identify the difference and the relationship between the socio- demographic factors and the livelihood assets owned or possessed by rural youth. The findings of the study show that the level of livelihood assets among rural youth in Gerakan Daya Wawasan villages were at the moderate level with human capital obtained the highest mean score among the other capitals. Selangor has scored the highest capitals of natural, physical and cultural among the other studied states. In addition, correlation analysis showed the independent variables, age, income and duration of staying in the village have significant and positive and/or negative relationship particularly with human, natural, and financial capitals. This study also highlighted some implications and recommendations for policy and practice towards the betterment of rural youth sustainable livelihood. Further, the need for future research on sustainability in rural youth livelihood by considering other domains in the rural communities’ context was highlighted.

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