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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