FAO support its Members in developing a strong enabling environment in which young people can thrive and seize current and future farm and non-farm decent rural employment opportunities.
Youth: Present and Future of Agriculture
Youth makes up roughly 1/5 of the population of developing and emerging economies.
In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than 10 million new jobs per year will have to be created in rural areas in the next two decades to absorb the new entrants in the labour force.
There is a largely untapped reservoir of employment opportunities in agriculture. Yet, the drudgery and poor remuneration associated with low-productivity family farming turn young people away from agriculture and make them more prone to migrate from rural areas.
Maintaining interest in farming as a profession is vital to future food security and agricultural development.
We need to “cultivate” the young generation of farmers, food entrepreneurs, scientists, agronomists, extension agents, union and government leaders!
FAO’s response to the youth employment challenge in rural areas
Participation in international fora to advocate rural youth inclusion, such as:
GLOBAL LEVEL
Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth
UN System-wide Action Plan on Youth (Youth-SWAP)
Inter-Agency Network on Youth Employment (IANYD)
Evidence shows that most migrants are young between 15 and 34 years old and employment is the main driver of migration. Promoting decent jobs for youth in the rural areas is key to reducing distress migration!
FAO works with countries to address the root causes of distress migration and enhance the positive impact of migration.
COUNTRY LEVELSupport governments to develop and implement:
Investment plansNational programmes
Policies and strategies
REGIONAL LEVELSupport regional and subregional organizations, such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), to develop speci�c policies and strategies for youth employment in agriculture.
Research, knowledge & evidence generation
Training methodologies
Public-Private Partnership
models for youth
empowerment
Eradication of child labour
in agriculture
Design of policies and programmes
for youth in agriculture
Promotion of policy coherence amongst agriculture, youth employment and
migration policies
Dissemination of good practices on the promotion
of youth entrepreneurship
AREAS OFINTERVENTION
Tanzania and Zambia Malawi, Mali,
Youth skills and rural microenterprise development for poverty reduction
Publication of Youth and agriculture: Challenges and concrete solutions
Establishment of Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools in more than 20 countries
Senegal
Support to the developmentof the National Rural YouthEmployment Policy
Tunisia and EthiopiaImplementation of the project
Youth mobility, food security and rural poverty reduction
Uganda
Support to the development of anational Youth in
Agriculture Strategy
Guatemala
Nigeria
Support to the expansion of employment services in the rural areas
Design of the Youth Employment in
Agriculture Programme (YEAP)
Caribbean
Support to the development of Caribbean countries’ national plans of action for youth employment in agriculture
Publication of Addressingrural youth migration at its root causes: A conceptual framework
Development of the FAO-ILO e-Learning Course End Child Labour in Agriculture
Publication of the Handbook for monitoring and evaluation of child labour in agriculture
Publication of Incorporating decent rural employment in the strategic planning for agricultural development
Examples of FAO’s activities and tools to promotedecent youth employment in agriculture
Development of the Decent Rural Employment Policy Database
Publication of FAO: Private and public partnership model for youth employment in agriculture
Development of the online Decent Rural Employment Toolbox
fao.org/rural-employment
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