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)

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

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)

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)

Main constraints observed / experienced in

countries when designing rural youth employment investment plans / activities

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

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

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

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

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

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 ZONESAGRO-INDUSTRIES

Producer Producer Producer

Transport

ValueadditionBulking-up,

storage

Agro-processing

Benin • Youth are approx 60 % of entire population

• Approx 100,000 rural youth enter the labour market each

year

i. Renforcementdes capacités

humaines

- formation technique et gestion;- information-

ii. Renforcement des capacités d'investissement:

- kit de démarrage- accèss au crédit /matching grant

iv. Envirinnement favorable

- cadre regulateur- acces aux ressources (terre/eau)- acces aux intrants- acces aux marchés- coordination & stratégies - fora des 'voix' locales et sectorielles

iii. Accompagnement / Appui continu

- autorités locales (commune, departement)- organisations paysannes (OPA) et de jeunes- formation continue des services conseil- projet de développement local

PROMOTION de L'EMPLOI des JEUNES

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

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