FAO publishes YouthWorks since 1986, a bulletin on rural youth in Spanish, English and French, reaching thousands of professionals working with young people around the world. Furthermore, it established in 1997, the Rural Youth Network on Food Security and Sustainable Development in English-speaking Africa. FAO focal point for the work with rural youth is the Rural Youth Officer (rural-youth@fao.org) located at the Extension, Education and Communication Service (SDRE) of the Department of Sustainable Development. In addition, rural youth development is supplied with the resources and technical support provided by the different FAO departments, among them, those of nutrition, agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Besides the resources available at FAO, the organization tries to establish initiatives of co-participation with other United Nations agencies, as well as with other intergovernmental organizations, international development and donor groups, and governmental and non-governmental programs for rural youth, which share the interests of empowering rural youth so that they become active participants of food security and sustainable development initiatives. The work of FAO for rural youth development is carried out under the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond of the United Nations System. Likewise, FAO is an active member of the UN Inter-Agencies Working Group on Youth, coordinated by the Youth Unit under the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, in New York. FAO takes part also at the World Youth Forums of the United Nations System, which gathers periodically hundreds of non-governmental youth organizations, along with member country representatives and personnel of UN agencies in order to prepare and supervise joint activities, programs and projects related to the execution of the World Programme of Action for Youth. Within the framework of the new FAO planning process, rural youth is considered of high priority. Rural youth and food security have been selected to integrate one of the five technical projects of the Research, Extension and Training Division as from 2000 up to 2005. The three main components are the strategic planning, training and educational design. Due to their great number and potential impact, rural youth
should be part of any proposal related to immediate or long
term solutions in favor of food security and sustainable development.
It is true that young people need education and training to
become the agricultural producers and community leaders of
the future, but it is still more important that they receive
the best possible support, as well as access to resources,
so that they may turn into active participants of the current
initiatives in favor of food security. At present it is possible to obtain an electronic version, text only, of the Youthworks bulletin so as to reach the greatest number of rural youth organizations, which now have access to Internet. This bulletin in its electronic version, will allow detailed information and more frequently than the printed version. Nonetheless, the printed version will be published and distributed regularly, through the mail services. Send an e-mail to subscribe to the electronic version to: Mailserv@mailserv.fao.org leaving in blank the subject part and writing the following message: Subscribe
YouthWorks-L Documents
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Rural
Youth
This century has made it possible
to treasure a wealth of practical working experiences with the young
people of rural areas. FAO has been participating in this effort
during the last thirty years. The mission FAO takes up for youth
development, consists in strengthening and promoting programs addressing
rural youth, both at governmental and nongovernmental level, as
well as help to establish new programs that will allow young people
to become active and productive members of their communities.
There is a series of circumstances that place rural youth
in a high risk situation in rural areas, including HIV/AIDS
infection, drug abuse, violence, discrimination, war, family
disruption and the high birth rates among adolescents. Previously
these problems were considered unique to the urban areas; nevertheless,
they also affect hundreds of thousands of young people in worldwide
rural areas. The lack of educational opportunities and the
scarcity of well remunerated employment in the rural areas,
together with the low levels of living conditions, force a
great number of young people to leave their villages and emigrate
to the cities.
© 2005 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations