1. Agriculture Policies
Supporting Youth Engagement In
Southern Africa
Sithembile Ndema Mwamakamba
sndema@fanrpan.org

2. Youth and Agriculture in Southern Africa
• Africa is the world’s youngest continent,
• In 2010, 70 % of the region’s population was
under the age of 30,
• In 2010, 20 % of the population were young
people between the ages of 15 to 24.
• The large majority of the youth lives in rural
areas and mostly employed in agriculture,
accounting for 65% of total employment.

3. Regional Efforts in Creating Youth Policies
• NEPAD Youth Desk
– Launched in 2005 by New Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD) to give youth a platform for dialogue and enable them
to contribute to policy debates.
• The African Youth Charter
– Adopted July 2006 at the 7th Ordinary Session of the
Conference of Heads of States and Government
– Lays the pedestal for national programmes and strategic plans
for Youth empowerment
• Youth Decade Plan of Action (2009-2018)
– Declared by the African Union Assembly in January, 2009, Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia.
– Framework for multi-sectoral and multidimensional
engagement of all stakeholders towards the achievement of the
goals and objectives of the African Youth Charter.

4. Status of the African Youth Charter

5. Youth Charter and Agriculture
Article 14: Poverty Eradication and Socio-economic
Integration of Youth
• Train young people to take up agricultural, mineral,
commercial and industrial production using
contemporary systems and promote the benefits of
modern information and communication technology
to gain access to existing and new markets;
• Facilitate access to credit to promote youth
participation in agricultural and other sustainable
livelihood projects

6. Article 12: National Youth Policy
• State Parties shall obliged to develop a
comprehensive and coherent national youth policy
as follows:
– The policy shall be cross-sectoral in nature considering the
interrelatedness of the challenges facing young people;
– The development of a national youth policy shall be
informed by extensive consultation with young people and
cater for their active participation in decision-making at all
levels of governance in issues concerning youth and society
as a whole;
– The policy shall advocate equal opportunities for young men
and for young women;

7. FANRPAN’s Youth In Agriculture Work
• September 2011
– FANRPAN convenes a Regional High Level Multi-stakeholder
Food Security Policy Dialogue on “Advocating for the
Active Engagement of the Youth in the Agricultural
Value Chain”

8. Background
• November 2011
FANRPAN commissioned case studies in Malawi, Mauritius, South
Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zimbabwe to assess current and
emerging youth policies and initiatives with a special focus on links
to agriculture.
Evodius Rutta Calvin Kamchacha Mduduzi Dlamini
Executive Director Executive Director President
TAYEN FAFOTRAJ Swazi Youth in AgriBusiness
Tanzania Malawi Swaziland
Nawsheen Obert Mathivha Tavaka Nyoni
Executive Director Consultant
Hosenally
CAYC ORAP
Agriculture Zimbabwe
Graduate South Africa
Mauritius

9. Study Objectives
• Establish baseline data on youth policies and initiatives
currently in place in the case study countries.
• Identify gaps and opportunities for developing national youth
and agriculture policies within agricultural sector and make
appropriate policy decisions.
• Investigate the current participation level and coverage of
rural and urban youth in agriculture and their perceptions
towards the sector
• Investigate and assess how the key institutions as well as
current tools, and mechanisms and policy instruments
available have mainstreamed youth agenda
• Profile investment opportunities for youth engagement in
the agricultural value chains

10. Youth and Agriculture Policies - Malawi
• National Youth Policy reviewed in 2010 aimed at
promoting youth participation in key development
activities namely
– education, science, technology and environment,
health and nutrition, social services, recreation,
sports and culture, youth participation and
leadership and youth economic empowerment.
• Youth policy has failed to link youth to agriculture
• Opportunities for mainstreaming or integrating
agriculture within the identified sectors exist

11. Youth and Agriculture Policies - Mauritius
• Four policies were identified as being relevant to the
youth:
– Blueprint for a Sustainable Diversified Agrifood Strategy for
Mauritius (2008-2015)
– Strategic Options in Crop Diversification and Livestock Sector (2007-
2015)
– Multi Annual Strategic Plan for the Sugar sector (2006-2015)
– National Youth Policy (2010-2014).
• These policies identify several general opportunities
for the youth
– Introduction of the “Young Agricultural Entrepreneurial
Scheme”(YAES) tailored to provide young entrepreneurs with
incentives to acquire agriculture based training skills at all levels.
• The National Youth Policy (2010 - 2014) was prepared
in consultation with the National Youth Council

12. Youth and Agriculture Policies – South Africa
• 15 key policies, 10 specific to agriculture and 5
entirely focused on youth development
• The National Youth Development Agency Act, 2008
advocates for an Integrated Youth Development
Approach across all the sectors.
• Prior to this Act, the youth (especially those in the
rural areas) were hardly ever involved in policy
decision and planning processes.
• Policies mostly top bottom approaches and the green
and white papers on agrarian transformation have no
links youth

13. Youth and Agriculture Policies - Swaziland
• Youth programmes are guided by a national youth
policy which has no direct link with agriculture
• Policy proposes the establishment of a special fund
for youth to engage in entrepreneurial initiatives
• Other relevant policies are :
– The Swaziland Comprehensive African Agriculture Development
Programme (CAADP) Compact
– The Food Security Programme (FSP) - provides for vocational
agriculture at high school level through the Schools Agriculture
Program
– Poverty Reduction and Strategy and Action Programme (PRSAP) -
seeks to establish a Youth Fund to address business development
opportunities for the youth.

14. Youth and Agriculture Policies - Tanzania
• National Youth Development Policy of 2007 is the only
one that specifically addresses youth issues.
• Other recent initiatives include
– the Agriculture Sector Development Strategy (ASDS) which
recognizes the central role of the youth in providing active
labour force.
• the KILIMO KWANZA (Agriculture First) strategy ,
addresses youth issues by proposing:
– introduction of the agricultural loans;
– providing land to agricultural graduates;
– providing full scholarships or loans to agricultural
undergraduates;
– developing incentives to attract and retain youth in agriculture;
– mainstreaming of gender issues; and strengthening the position
of women in agriculture.

15. Youth and Agriculture Policies - Zimbabwe
• National Youth Policy is aimed at empowering the youth in a
comprehensive, coordinated multi-sectoral manner
• The policy prioritizes a number of options for implementation,
among which are:
– training youth in agricultural production using contemporary systems and
modern information and communications technology,
– provision of land and mining rights to youth and youth organizations to
encourage socio-economic development,
– facilitation of access to credit to promote youth participation in agricultural
projects,
– the centrality of education and skills development programmes for wealth
creation, socio-economic integration and empowerment,
– enhancing the attractiveness of rural areas to young people by improving
socio-economic infrastructure.

16. Engaging Youth in Policy Development
What Needs to Happen
• Capacity Building of youth – There is need for training and skill-
building opportunities for young people that can prepare them
for active participation in decision-making processes.
• Engage youth actively -Youth must be recognised as major
stakeholders and need a platform where their voices can be
heard on issues that directly concern them.
• Link youth to planning and policy efforts. This can be
accomplished by involving youth in the examination of existing
policies as well as determining and evaluating potential policy
alternatives

17. Engaging Youth in Policy Development
What Needs to Happen
• Allow youth to identify their own interests. Within the greater
framework of agriculture policy making, youth may have
expertise or interests in specific topics.
• Facilitation - Youth Communication, Advocacy and Networking.
There is need to guide youth in terms of how to communicate
their challenges, ideas, and experiences.
• Institutionalising Youth Policy Engagement from Primary –
Secondary - University Levels – There is need to learn from
other programmes that have been successful in engaging young
people in different sectors (e.g SIFE, 4-H).

18. Nothing for
the Youth
Without
the Youth