Youth Inspiring Youth in Agriculture in Uganda - Launch of phase two of the Youth Champions Initiative
In Uganda, FAO, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) and the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD), have launched the second round of the Youth Inspiring Youth in Agriculture Initiative (YIYA) to identify and recognize successful youth agripreneurs aged 18-35 from across the country.
The initiative will be implemented in partnership with two national youth organizations, the Young Farmers Champions Network (YOFCHAN) and the Young Farmers’ Federation of Uganda. It aims to award youth agripreneurs as role models that can inspire other youth to join the sector through knowledge-sharing, capacity building and mentorship.
Over 270 youth agripreneurs will be selected and awarded at district and regional levels. Among these, the best 35 will be awarded as National Youth Champions.
The award package includes youth peer-to-peer support activities, opportunities to attend technical trainings, exhibitions of agricultural products, as well as policy dialogues related to youth employment in agriculture.
Speaking at the launch of the YIYA at the Uganda Media Center, the FAO Representative in Uganda, Antonio Querido, emphasized the need to engage Uganda’s youthful population in the agriculture sector by providing incentives and decent employment opportunities. He said: “If we are to make substantial progress towards attaining national and global aspirations for sustainable development, it is important to engage and re-engage youth in productive enterprises like agriculture and agribusiness”.
In parallel, to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, FAO Uganda is leading a mask campaign and has so far distributed 3000 masks to young farmers and youth employers especially youth lead farmer cooperatives and associations. Further, FAO is supporting the government to develop Standard Operating Procedures (SoP) for prevention and control of Covid-19 and other infectious Diseases in the agricultural sector. The SOPs will guide youth employers and employees as well as other value chain actors within the agriculture sector on the basic provisions required to ensure own and others’ safety and health at the workplace in relation to COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, in light of the current global pandemic.
These initiatives are implemented in the frame of the FAO programme “Integrated Country Approach (ICA) for boosting decent jobs for youth in the agri-food system”, funded by Sweden. Through the first phase of the programme, in 2017, FAO supported MAAIF in the development of the National Strategy for Youth Employment in Agriculture (NSYEA) and the first pilot of the YIYA with 25 youth selected at national level. The first cohort has been instrumental in attracting more young people into agriculture and agribusiness, helping them to earn a living income from agriculture. The second round of the YIYA will scale up the model into a national youth mentorship programme, aimed at inspiring the youth to engage more efficiently in the agriculture sector countrywide.