Rural Youth Employment

Rural Youth Employment [ID: 565]

Topic | Organisation | Updates | Members [ID: 609]

Rural youth need more and better jobs in sustainable agri-food systems and green economies. Creating decent employment and income opportunities is essential to reduce poverty, improve food security and provide a future for young people in rural areas.

Building on previous work and initiatives, the G20 Summit in 2017 saw the launch of the Rural Youth Employment initiative, after a historic vote by governments and heads of states signaled a clear political commitment of the international community to support empowerment of youth in rural areas.

The Global Donor Platform responded to this call for action by establishing the Thematic Working Group on Rural Youth Employment in 2018 and is actively engaging with its members in current policy processes like the UN Food Systems Summit which highlighted the crucial role of youth in shaping sustainable food systems of the future.

Topic | Organisation | Updates | Members

Why we engage in – Headline [ID: 607]

Three reasons why we engage

Why we engage in – Content [ID: 608]

Youth accounts for one out of every six people worldwide

Globally, millions of young people are bound to engage in agriculture. Youth should be more than a topic in the development world. This young generation will shape the future of agricultural and rural development.

Active and involved youth creates new employment opportunities

Donors and development practitioners can join forces for advancing policies and programmes for creating more and better jobs for young people in agri-food systems with a view to revitalize rural areas.

The voices of youth can help shape polices and decisions for the future

Enhance their role in policy processes by including their ideas and experiences. Young women and men are a major driving force for shaping a better future of work in rural areas. By listening to and actively engaging them, youth can be powerful agents to shift agri-food systems towards more sustainable patterns.

Members’ quotes title [ID: 621]

Talking about Youth Employment

Members’ quotes [ID: 614]

Quote | Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General

“Africa’s demographic dividend has tremendous potential to transform the supply and demand of future goods and services, including in the agriculture and food industry.”

Quote | Jane Lowicki-Zucca, USAID

“We need to do our best to understand youth and include them in all their diversity.”

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Quote | Mukulia Kennedy Ayason, Africa Union Commission

“We need to get more focused and engaged in decentralising our system of work and our system of policy-making, to ensure a bottom-up approach that develops policies which respond to the issues of youth.”

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Quote | Lindsay Katchika-Jere, Network for Youth Development, Malawi

“It is important to hear the voices of the youth themselves, in terms of what they want to happen if they are to be involved in the agricultural sector.”

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QUOTE | Ken Chamuva Shawa, ILO's Regional Office for Africa

“The agricultural sector must be transformed by ensuring that we develop value chains that create jobs in the agricultural system and by encouraging and supporting the continental programs for agriculture, such as CAADP, to ensure and enhance youth employment.”

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QUOTE | Cyriaque Hakizimana, Young African Researchers in Agriculture

“A reconfiguration of land ownership across the African Continent needs to be undertaken with ownership by the youth being prioritised.”

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The Thematic Working Group [ID: 567]

The Thematic Working Group

Organisational structure – subheadline [ID: 610]

Organizational structure

The Global Donor Platform’s Thematic Working Group (TWG) on Rural Youth is a donor-catalysed working group with significant youth participation. Its role is to advise donors, governments and civil society organizations on the most effective ways to support and empower youth, enabling them to contribute to and benefit from sustainable rural livelihoods and food value chain systems.

The TWG holds regular conference calls, organizes webinars as well as physical meetings and side events. It also reviews technical formats to engage more effectively with youth in open discussions.

Organisational structure – content [ID: 611]

Organisational structure – content [ID: 612]

Our priority areas

Exchange evidence-based approaches and promote learning and collaboration
Promote multi-stakeholder partnerships with different partners
Support resource mobilization
Create effective and innovative communication tools and channels for knowledge sharing
and share information on opportunities for rural youth

Highlights

Organized an ‘Independent Dialogue’ leading up to the Food Systems Summit
Jointly organized webinars on current issues and major trends
Coordinate members activities, identify cooperation potential and synergies,
and develop concepts and ideas for joint programming and offers

Updates [ID: 615]

Updates

Latest Rural Youth [ID: 568]

LATEST >

Green Jobs for Rural Youth in Agri-Food Systems

The Thematic Working Group on Rural Youth Employment (TWG RYE) has recently been exploring the topic of green jobs for youth. This ongoing conversation led to a webinar “GREEN JOBS FOR RURAL YOUTH IN AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS”, which took place on 25 April 2022, to discuss entry points for understanding green jobs in agri-food systems.

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CFS process on youth engagement and employment

Throughout 2022, the Thematic Working Group on Rural Youth Employment (TWG RYE) will be following the policy convergence process towards the development of policy recommendations in the Committee of World Food Security (CFS) on Promoting Youth Engagement and Employment in Agriculture and Food Systems, which was initiated at the 49^th CFS in October 2021.

More CFS process on youth engagement and employment

Youth employment and entrepreneurship in sustainable agri-food system transformation in Africa (Seminar)

15 February 2022

The GDPRD Thematic Working Group on Rural Youth Employment member GIZ (Global Project on Rural Employment with a Focus on Youth) in partnership with the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) organized a session on “Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Agri-Food System Transformation in Africa” as a side event to the 7th EU-Africa Business Forum (EABF22).

More Youth employment and entrepreneurship in sustainable agri-food system transformation in Africa (Seminar)

Events Rural Youth [ID: 569]

EVENTS >

Currently there are no events.

Resources Rural Youth Employment [ID: 574]

RESOURCES >

Publications

COMPENDIUM: DONOR ENGAGEMENT WITH RURAL YOUTH

The Global Donor Platform for Rural Development published a new comprehensive study that highlights current approaches, trends and remaining questions in donor engagement with rural youth.

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