Engaging young people in agriculture is not just about making farming sexy
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UNCCD Library
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Web resource
Changing the image of rural life is important, but it can only go so far unless rural areas offer rewarding jobs and opportunities for a decent living. It is crucial to match education with labor market demands, generate jobs through supply chain development and improve socio-economic conditions for society as a whole.
How to ensure the effective inclusion of rural youth? How to make sure young people have a prosperous future in rural areas? And how can we work together with young people to achieve these goals? These were the core questions discussed during SIANI network gathering in Stockholm on January 30, 2020.
Nearly every international event has a session about youth and we often acknowledge that young people are left to scramble for whatever they can get, particularly in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries. Meanwhile, youth unemployment and lack of inclusion are not only a matter of concern for social cohesion and inequality, but it also generates losses in GDP and tax revenue. The lack of youth inclusion might furthermore decrease the trust in state institutions which ultimately can fuel social unrest, as seen during the Arab Spring.
IFAD’s Rural Development Report 2019 shed light on why it is crucial to invest in rural youth. The report laid the ground for the Rural Youth Action Plan 2019-2021, a strategic framework the UN Agency intends to employ in all its country strategies to advance the action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Francesca R. Borgia (Technical Analyst in Rural Youth at IFAD) spoke about the logic behind the plan.
66% of all young people in the world live in rural and peri-urban areas of low- and middle-income counties. Most of these areas have favorable farming conditions, but are hindered by limited market space. So, in contrast to a persistent myth, many young people do work on farms, but their incomes fall below the poverty line, and there are few other jobs in rural areas in general. Consequently, young people leave for cities and don’t aspire to pursue a career in agriculture.
Read the whole news piece from the link above
How to ensure the effective inclusion of rural youth? How to make sure young people have a prosperous future in rural areas? And how can we work together with young people to achieve these goals? These were the core questions discussed during SIANI network gathering in Stockholm on January 30, 2020.
Nearly every international event has a session about youth and we often acknowledge that young people are left to scramble for whatever they can get, particularly in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries. Meanwhile, youth unemployment and lack of inclusion are not only a matter of concern for social cohesion and inequality, but it also generates losses in GDP and tax revenue. The lack of youth inclusion might furthermore decrease the trust in state institutions which ultimately can fuel social unrest, as seen during the Arab Spring.
IFAD’s Rural Development Report 2019 shed light on why it is crucial to invest in rural youth. The report laid the ground for the Rural Youth Action Plan 2019-2021, a strategic framework the UN Agency intends to employ in all its country strategies to advance the action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Francesca R. Borgia (Technical Analyst in Rural Youth at IFAD) spoke about the logic behind the plan.
66% of all young people in the world live in rural and peri-urban areas of low- and middle-income counties. Most of these areas have favorable farming conditions, but are hindered by limited market space. So, in contrast to a persistent myth, many young people do work on farms, but their incomes fall below the poverty line, and there are few other jobs in rural areas in general. Consequently, young people leave for cities and don’t aspire to pursue a career in agriculture.
Read the whole news piece from the link above
Keywords
youth and agriculture
youth unemployment
rural economics
rural development
trade opportunities
education
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