The majority of the world’s youth live and work in rural areas. Within Africa, 61 percent of the entire population are under 24 years of age. However, rural labour markets in most developing countries do not provide sufficient decent work opportunities for young women and men. Drawing on experiences from Nigeria and Benin, this presentation analyses the benefits of national rural youth employment investment plans, and also illustrates some of the main constraints observed when designing these. More information: http://www.fao.org/rural-employment/en/ ©FAO

1. Youth employment and food insecurity
- Why more and dedicated agricultural investments are needed -
Cases from Nigeria and Benin
Francesca Dalla Valle
(francesca.dallavalle@fao.org)
Youth Employment and Institutional Partnerships Specialist
Economic and Social Development Department
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

2. Food and Agriculture Organization’s mandate
Achieving food and nutrition security for all
Strategic objectives
• Help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition
• Make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable
• Reduce rural poverty (explicit emphasis on the promotion of decent
employment opportunities for rural youth)
• Enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems
• Increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters

3. Brief Africa Outlook
- positive trends -
• Africa has the world youngest population with about 200 million people aged
between 15 - 24
• Africa has a 2.7% working age population growth per year (13 million)
• By 2040 (if growth continues) Africa’s labour force will be of 1 billion (surpassing
emerging economies like China and India)
• By 2030 59% of youth aged between 20 - 24 will access secondary education
(presently approx 42%)
– 137 million with secondary education
– 12 million with tertiary education
• The agriculture sector (farming, fishery, livestock, forestry and agro industries) provides
employment opportunities to up to 80% of the working age population in some
African countries (for example in Tanzania, Malawi among others)

4. Brief Africa Outlook
- trends to address -
• Africa created 73 million jobs (2000 - 2008) but only 16 million for youth 15 – 24
• 60% of unemployed are youth
• In most African countries youth unemployment rates are double than adult
ones (the problem is very intense in most middle income countries)
– In North Africa youth unemployment rate (pre-revolution, 2010) was 23.4%,
adult was 3.8%
– In South Africa youth unemployment rate was 48%, adult was 2.5%
(2010-2011)
• 72% of Africa’s youth population live with less than $2.00 a day (with rates
surpassing 80% in countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia and Burundi)
• 38% of Africa’s working youth is presently working in agriculture (adequately
addressed, the sector can provide a much higher rate of employment opportunities for young
people)

5. Main constraints observed / experienced in
countries when designing rural youth
employment investment plans / activities

6. Education, vocational training, capacity development
Low levels of school attendance - Many
poor rural households understand the
need of keeping children in school but do
not have the means to do so
Strengthen support for vulnerable rural HH
providing protection schemes and safety nets
to keep children in school. This will also
prevent child labour in the agriculture sector
The MDGs and governments have majorly
focused on universal literacy
Strengthen focus on universal literacy along
with a good quality of education towards an
‘’employable’’ generation
Present curricula in rural areas do not
reflect the needs of the context
Revision of the curricula of both formal
education and vocational training to reflect the
agricultural sector needs and opportunities
The changing of the climate will affect
the agricultural sector in a variety of ways
(reducing crop yields, water resources,
production stability and people’s incomes)
Capacity development for young farmers must
reflect the ever changing environment and
equip them with knowledge to mitigate climate
variability issues

7. Access to land
In rural communities and through
customary laws the leaders and
elderly decide on access to land and
distribution
Sensitize community leaders, elderly,
communities, producers’ federations and
unions etc, in the positive outcomes of
having young people in rural areas to
whom transfer knowledge and skills for a
future sustainable production for all
Youth are still not adequately and
specifically addressed in most land
tenure policies and they are not
aware of their rights
Strengthen youth land rights, youth
responsive land laws and policies are
needed along with youth and
communities leaders and unions
knowledge, awareness and
empowerment, through economic
incentives and capacity building

8. Access to finance
Financial access is still very much
limited to youth and young people
are still regarded by financial and
micro finance managers as ‘’risky’’
clients
Promote/develop specific youth friendly
financial products combining credit with
thorough training, financial literacy and
capacity development
Finance institutions are less
present in rural areas
Facilitate knowledge during trainings
about the presence of producers’
federations credit unions, village saving
schemes etc

9. Youth representation
Youth are inadequately
represented in producers’
organizations / federations and
unions
Youth committees / sections should be
facilitated in producers’ / farmers’
organizations
Youth associations representatives
are majorly ‘’ad-hoc’’ invited
participants (for example in
conferences dedicated to young
people specifically)
Enhance and support the creation of
rural youth and young farmers’ councils /
platforms to address and facilitate rural
youth participation in agricultural and
rural development policies, design of
programmes and projects and M&E while
enhancing their participation in all kind of
policy debates

10. Youth access in the agriculture sector positive results
(Countries assessments on FAO’s rural youth employment activities)
Increase in the
employment rate,
decrease in under
employment and
working poverty
Increase in food
security and
income of rural HH
As observed in impact
assessment in various
African countries, youth
headed HH when
compared to adult ones
derived a higher income
from their agricultural
activities*
Propagation of
post-harvest value
addition
As before, younger HH
heads have been
assessed in being more
involved in appropriate
storage and processing*
Innovation in labour
saving
technologies
Young people are more
keen and active in using
any kind of new
technologies*
LEADING TO
Contribution to poverty alleviation in rural areas
Rejunification of the agro sector
* FAO’s appraisals 2008-2013

11. Nigeria
• Youth population approx 67 million
• 42.2 % of youth are unemployed
• 80 % of the unemployed youth do not have secondary education
Investment plan - Approx 220 million (US$)
Programme duration - 5 years
Beneficiaries
o 740,000 market oriented young agro
producers (20,000 per each state)
o 18,500 agropreneurs (500 per each state)
Executing entity - Ministry of Agriculture
Partners - Ministries of labour, education, trade,
vocational training, private sector, civil society etc
Commodities of primary focus by agro
ecological zones
o Cotton, onions, tomatoes, cassava, rice,
sorghum, livestock and fisheries, maize, oil palm,
cocoa etc.
N-AGRIPRENEURS
AGRI-
BUSINESS
(2-3)
AGRICULTURAL (Value chain) MARKET-ORIENTED
PRODUCERS & Tranformers
(5-10.000)
MARKET
COMMODITY ZONES
AGRO-INDUSTRIES
Producer Producer Producer
Transport
Value
additionBulking-up,
storage
Agro-
processing

12. Benin
• Youth are approx 60 % of entire population
• Approx 100,000 rural youth enter the labour market each
year
i. Renforcement
descapacités
humaines
- formation
techniqueet
gestion;
- information
-
ii.Renforcementdescapacités
d'investissement:
- kitdedémarrage
- accèssau crédit/matchinggrant
iv. Envirinnement
favorable
- cadreregulateur
- acces auxressources
(terre/eau)
- acces auxintrants
- acces auxmarchés
- coordination&
stratégies
- forades 'voix'localeset
sectorielles
iii.Accompagnement/ Appuicontinu
- autoritéslocales(commune,departement)
- organisationspaysannes(OPA)etdejeunes
- formationcontinuedesservicesconseil
- projetdedéveloppementlocal
PROMOTION de
L'EMPLOIdesJEUNES
dans
le SECTEUR AGRICOLE
Investment plan - Approx 200 million (US$)
Programme duration - 5 years
Envisaged jobs
o 150,000 youth agro enterprises
Executing entity - Ministry of Agriculture
Partners - Ministries of labour, education,
trade, vocational training, private sector, civil
society etc
Commodities of primary focus by agro
ecological zones
o Cassava, rice, soya bean, livestock and
fisheries, maize, cashew nuts, etc

13. Conclusions
• Establishing partnerships among governments, farmers’ federations and unions and
youth producers is essential to enhance youth entrance in the agro sector
• Develop or revise national youth employment plan of actions taking into account
the specific needs of rural youth
• Enhance and support the inclusiveness of youth in local economic development
efforts and initiatives (for example the CAADP, economic corridor development
initiatives, territorial development activities etc)
• It is key to improve the quality and occupational and health safety standards of
jobs in the informal sector and minimum wages in the agriculture sector
• Promote, institutionalize and invest in holistic approaches that strengthen both
youth’ skills and provide mentorship
• Foster adequate means and opportunities for youth to be able to remain in rural
areas and manage migration