New project to enhance digital literacy and foster agri-preneurship among youth and women in Rwanda
Agricultural digitalization and bridging the gaps of digital literacy among the local farmers to entice more youth to be agri-preneurs
17/02/2022. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Rwanda Development Board has launched a new project to enhance the digital skills and innovation capabilities to foster agri-preneurship among youth and women in Rwanda.
“This project is coming in addressing first of all the critical challenge we are having in terms of digital skills, but secondly it’s also coming to target more than 50 percent of our population which is women and youth. They are very active, they are contributing a lot in the agriculture sector and with them being educated on digital-related aspects we believe that it is going to bring a very big change in Agriculture sector and Rwanda in general,” said Diane Sayinzoga, Head of Special Economic Zones and Export Facilitation Department at Rwanda Development Board (RDB).
“There is an African proverb I like. It says if you want to go fast go alone, but if you want to go far go together. In order to achieve the digital transformation, we need to work together. FAO is delighted to work with various partners and we are happy to work with Rwanda Development Board on this project,” Officer-in-Charge, Office of Innovation, Beth Crawford said.
Increasing young agri-preneurs
About 70 percent of Rwandans are engaged in Agriculture. The sector employs around 66 percent of the working population. The agricultural sector accounts for 26 percent of the national GDP and Young people in Rwanda constitute more than 40 percent of the entire population. However, a big percentage of young Rwandans have not yet embraced agribusiness regarding being one of the most beneficial profession.
“Youth like innovations, new ways of doing things, using electronic gadgets, interacting online actually they like a business that keeps them connected. We need to make sure that we introduce all that digital approaches they prefer along the food chain, from farm to table. Therefore, if we successfully implement this project we will be immensely contributing to achieving zero hunger for present and future, Leaving No One Behind,” FAO Representative, Gualbert Gbehounou said.
Involving Women
To educate a woman is to educate the whole family because women informally unknowingly or knowingly transfer their skills and knowledge to all members of the household. This new project targets women because hunger cannot be ended without empowering and fully involving them.
The contribution of women to move a needle of the world’s development has been underrated for so long, yet they bear brunt of every dire condition a household, a family, and the world can endure. The promotion of digital skills and boosting innovation capabilities of women will greatly contribute to making their farming becomes less tiresome, rewarding, and joyous and finally increase production towards sustainable, inclusive, and resilient food systems.
Creating enabling environment
The project “Enhancing the digital skills and innovation capabilities to foster agri-preneurship among youth and women in Rwanda” taps and leans on the strong and fruitful partnership with the government of Rwanda through various initiatives of advancing agribusiness.
Since 2017, FAO has been partnering with the Government of Rwanda in different projects aiming at digitalization of agricultural sector, bringing digital innovations to the local farmers, supporting local suppliers capacity development and promotion of E-commerce for agricultural value chains, development of the digital agricultural strategy and women and youth empowerment.
The aim of these interventions are always to ensure enabling environment in embracing agricultural digitalization, bridging the gaps of digital literacy among the local farmers and increasing access to the market of the agricultural products at local, regional and international level.
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