Thumbnail Image

Africa’s youth in agrifood systems: Innovation in the context of COVID-19

Year of publication 2020

Place of publication Accra, Ghana ;

Pages 10p.

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet

ISBN 978-92-5-133137-8

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, young entrepreneurs in agrifood systems in sub-Saharan Africa were already facing a number of challenges. The main challenges include limited access to natural resources, finance, technology, knowledge and information, and insufficient participation in policy dialogues and other decision-making processes. The COVID-19 pandemic and its disruptions to agricultural value chains are presenting additional hurdles for these agripreneurs. Without focused and appropriately designed response interventions addressing their specific constraints and contexts, it is increasingly observed that some of the policy responses and measures put in place by governments to halt the spread of the virus are exacerbating the existing challenges that the youth are facing in engaging in agrifood systems. For example, several formal and informal micro, small and medium-sized agribusinesses that employ many young people, have been forced to close or downscale significantly as a result of lockdowns and movement restrictions at national and local levels. FAO, together with other members of the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD), has called for effective and safe partnerships with young people during and after the COVID-19 crisis to ensure that government and development partners’ response measures are inclusive of youth’s needs.

See the full list of policy briefs related to COVID-19.

Cite this content as:

FAO. 2020. Africa’s youth in agrifood systems: Innovation in the context of COVID-19. Accra.

https://doi.org/10.4060/cb0539en

Language English

Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Book (stand-alone)
    Empowering young agri-entrepreneurs to invest in agriculture and food systems
    Policy recommendations based on lessons learned from eleven African countries
    2020
    Also available in:
    Measures that empower young agri-entrepreneurs should be a key component of a sustainable development-centred investment promotion strategy. The very realization of future generations’ food security, the sustainable transformation of food systems and the combat against unemployment and distress migration all depend upon the successful implementation of strategies that make the agri-food sector more attractive for the youth. This, in turn, requires smart policy responses that will help young investors overcome the numerous barriers they face – access to finance, land, information and technical services, to name but the most crucial ones. Since 2017, FAO has provided support to African and South-East Asian countries in identifying key challenges for young agri-entrepreneurs and good practices through participatory capacity analyses and strategic planning processes which were carried out with, and for the youth. This report summarizes the main findings and lessons learned from FAO’s work with eleven African countries – Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Conakry, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Uganda. It identifies key challenges and policy recommendations regarding youth’s access to finance; land; technical services and information; as well as the engagement of youth in policy-making processes. The report also contains a set of five overall key policy recommendations for the empowerment of young agri-entrepreneurs.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Booklet
    Youth Inspiring Youth in Agriculture Initiative 2022
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    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 aims to enhance decent jobs through the economic and social empowerment of rural youth by enhancing the enabling environment for youth agripreneurship. FAO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), launched the Youth Inspiring Youth in Agriculture Initiative (YIYA) in 2017. YIYA is a nationwide competition aimed at promoting youth employment in the agricultural sector by recognizing and supporting young agripreneurs, that are role models to their peers and are willing to work with and support other youth through knowledge-sharing, capacity building, and mentorship. The first cohort of youth champions (25), selected and awarded in 2017, received cash, technical training in different value chains, opportunities to exhibit their enterprises nationally and internationally, and participated in youth-focused policy dialogues on employment in agriculture. 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. In 2021, over 270 youth champions were selected from over 1 400 applications and 35 national youth champions were recognized and awarded with equipment, assets like animals, inputs and all of them have gained visibility and will further be supported to access opportunities.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    The Democratic Republic of the Congo | Revised humanitarian response (May–December 2020)
    Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
    2020
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been facing chronic challenges linked to poverty, food insecurity, lack of access to basic services, armed conflict and insecurity, epidemics (cholera, Ebola virus disease [EVD], measles and malaria) and population displacement. Following the first reported case of COVID-19 in the country (March 2020), the Government declared a state of emergency and several urgent and essential measures were put in place, such as the closure of borders, the partial lockdown of Kinshasa with movement restrictions, and the closure of all schools. These restrictive measures were necessary but have affected a country that was already fragile, further exacerbating peoples’ vulnerabilities. In the framework of FAO’s Corporate COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme and the United Nations Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19, FAO has revised its humanitarian response for 2020 to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and address the needs of the most vulnerable households.
Show more

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.