Since 2015, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been implementing a global project titled Integrated Country Approach for Boosting Decent Jobs for Youth under the Agrifood System (ICA). The project has been implemented in Guatemala, Senegal, and Uganda (2015–2022), and Rwanda and Kenya (2019–2022). It aims to enhance decent jobs through the economic and social empowerment of rural youth by enhancing the enabling environment for youth agripreneurship. This is done through evidence generation and dissemination, policy and strategy support, and capacity building. Based on the success of Round one of the YIYA initiative, FAO, MAAIF, and partners embarked on a process to scale up the initiative into a national youth agripreneurs mentorship programme, to attract and inspire more young people to engage in the agriculture sector countrywide.

Unemployment rates for youth are three times higher than for adults in all world regions, and a vast majority of unemployed youth are young women. Among people who do have jobs, youth have a higher incidence of working poverty and vulnerable employment than adults. Youth also face serious barriers in accessing land, credit and other productive assets for establishing their own livelihoods, and many young people lack the right to representation in workers’ unions or producers’ organizations. At the same time, today’s young people are on the front lines of the transformation of agriculture and food systems. They are coping with the effects of environmental and climate change, which are likely to accelerate and intensify during their lifetimes. In October 2019, at its 46th session, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) to prepare a report to review the opportunities for and constraints to youth engagement and employment in sustainable food systems. This report articulates a conceptual framework to understand the role of youth as agents of change in the transformation of agrifood systems.

Persistent rural-urban inequalities in conjunction with conflict, crisis (financial, food,Persistent rural-urban inequalities in conjunction with conflict, crisis (financial, food,pandemics) and climate change severely affect rural populations. The intersection of inequalities affects marginalized and vulnerable sections differentially. There has been a renewed interest in empowering youth across sectors mostly geared towards achieving sustainable development goals and there is an impetus towards recognizing youth as equal partners on the road to development. This evidence and gap map (EGM) plots studies on the effectiveness of interventions for youth employment in developing countries in the context of climate change, conflict, and crisis, demonstrating where evidence exists and where there is a lack of evidence.

Engaging youth in agriculture requires an enabling environment, including access to financing, modern farming technologies, and training programs tailored to their needs. Inclusive value chain clustering promotes sustainable rural transformation, with collaboration among stakeholders and active involvement of youth and women leading to positive impacts on employment and regional development. Comprehensive support packages, including tailored training and targeted grant programs, are essential for enhancing the skills and employability of young individuals in rural areas, addressing challenges like limited financial access and climate change adaptation.

The world urban population is expected to double in 30 years leading to a growing number of urban poor. The urban population expansion is more pronounced in developing countries as result of the immigration from rural areas, as people flock to the cities in search of food, employment and security.. The trend is accelerating, and by the year 2030, it is expected that about 60% of the world’s population will be living in cities. Such rapid urbanization and the harsh reality of urban poverty require ad hoc strategies to ensure adequate food supply and distribution systems to address escalating levels of urban food insecurity. Besides the growing demand for food, there is a rapid increase of poverty, unemployment, hunger and malnutrition in the urban and peri-urban environment around the world - issues that are of great concern to central and municipal authorities.

 Active involvement of youth in agriculture is necessary for sustainable agricultural systems but is currently a challenge in many areas. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative participatory research methods, this study analyses rural youth’s realities, perspectives and aspirations in dryland Agricultural Livelihood Systems (ALSs) in the Midelt Province, Morocco,

with a particular focus on gender. The data collected are an important first step in understanding the target group and working with youth to identify and develop appropriate programmatic interventions to improve their livelihoods and rural futures. Prior to expressing their aspirations for their rural life and career, the youth first raised the issue of unfulfilled primary needs: access to education, potable water, heath care, and lack of infrastructure in their villages. The issue of outmigration from rural areas is controversial and not so widespread. The youth’s dream village is envisioned as a rural place where people have a more comfortable life with their own families, farming better and more sustainably rather than seeking a job in urban areas. To support the youth’s aspirations and their willingness to stay in agriculture, there is a need for infrastructural and regulatory interventions and specific training in agricultural practices targeting and engaging youth.

Involving the use of endogenous resources, know-how and territorial identity, Rural Territorial Development (RTD) is a recent approach based on improving local productive systems competitiveness on the basis of regional inherent multifunctionality and pluriactivity. In recent years, rural tourism has become one of the strategies adopted for promotion, development and integration of local agents, leading not only to improved competitiveness but to higher income as well. The current work presents recent trends and advances in the development of rural tourism as an income diversification strategy for local rural populations. It analyzes the impact of this activity in rural areas, together with its participation and importance in the tourism sector. Finally, some experiences in the development of rural tourism in Colombia and its normative and legal frame work are reviewed.

Young people are the future. But all too often in today’s world young women and men are marginalized and excluded – from decent employment and from crucial decisions about how to address the big challenges that face us all. Their voices are rarely heard in democratic debate and their needs and views are rarely reflected in policies and programmes.

Yet more than ever the world needs young people’s ideas, their talents and their energy. In rural areas, we particularly need their drive and innovative skills to sustainably produce the food required by an increasingly populous and urbanized world.

Young people aged 15 to 24 make up 17 per cent of the developing world’s population. In the least developed countries alone, 15.7 million young women and men will join the working age population every year between 2010 and 2050.

Many of them will live in rural areas and work outside the formal sector. Today in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, 62 per cent of young people work on family farms, where they are often unpaid and unprotected. Given the sheer numbers of young people reaching working age, the potential of a so-called “demographic dividend” is great, but so is the risk.

Integrating young people into productive society boosts their countries’ economic growth while also contributing to political stability and social harmony. If we fail to bring young women and men into the economic mainstream, we will lose the contributions of this generation while raising the likelihood of social unrest.

 Well-functioning rural-urban linkages are indispensable to create decent work for all. In Sub-Saharan African countries, the increasing demand for high-value primary and processed products in urban areas can offer multiple employment opportunities for rural youth. It is therefore necessary to promote integrated approaches aimed at enhancing mutually beneficial rural-urban flows of goods, services, capital and labour, particularly along agri-food value chains.

Given the context of transitions related to rapid urbanization, the roles that rural economies and societies will have to play (particularly smallholder farmers and other rural producers) in creating sustainable and inclusive food systems, in generating employment and incomes and in contributing to more balanced, equitable and mutually reinforcing patterns of rural-urban development in Africa require the attention of analysts, policymakers and development programmes in the years ahead. Addressing challenges related to a bulging population of young people will be particularly important in any work on the rural-urban nexus, in which youth migration plays critical roles.

Re-framing food security narratives and identifying policy options that foster sustainable transitions

A list of publications

Credit, risk & market orientations of the rural farming youth of Uttar Pradesh & Rajasthan.were studied.These orientations have bearing on the entrepreneurship and migration among rural youth in India.

This is the study conducted on educational and occupational aspirations of rural youth in 4 Indian states viz Kerala, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh & West Bengal.

Attracting and retaining youth in agriculture is critical for Indian Agriculture. Most of the new innovations (both technical and institutional) require a skilled agricultural work force. For instance, promotion of high value agriculture, precision farming, organic cultivation, Hi-Tech horticulture, micro-propagation, Integrated Pest Disease & Nutrients Management, Post Harvest Management, development of backward and forward linkages etc, require well trained young farmers with enthusiasm and passion for farming and ability to take risks. The rural youth could be the ideal target for skill training in these new areas of agricultural growth and to do this effectively there is a need to mobilize young farmers. Organised groups of young farmers will be useful for introducing new production technologies and organizing effective input and output markets.Agricultural extension services should tap the energy and creativity of rural youth to transform agricultural sector.

The booklet presents 20 ICT-enabled entrepreneurial ventures created by young innovators from African and Caribbean countries. The innovations feature the use of mobile phones, social media, websites and a new generation of tractors. The young innovators featured in this publication are role models who can inspire others and encourage them to innovate for agriculture. Their stories are a testimony of how young people are already contributing to transforming agricultural value chains through their innovations. They demonstrate that these types of efforts can contribute to increasing employment, and fostering food and nutrition security. A key message that comes out from these stories is the need for all stakeholders to develop holistic strategies that can build youth agribusiness capacities and advance this novel type of agro-entrepreneurship.