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Ready to go digital? Assessing the digital readiness of young agripreneurs in East Africa









Pafumi, M. and Arimbi, V. 2021. Ready to go digital? Assessing the digital readiness of young agripreneurs in East Africa. Nairobi, FAO. 




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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Identikit of the East African youth agripreneur in the digital space 2022
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    Food and Agricultural Organization’s Integrated Country Approach for boosting decent jobs for youth in agrifood systems carried out a digital readiness assessment of youth in agribusiness in partnership with the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation and youth-led organizations in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. Over 360 young male and female entrepreneurs engaged through an online survey and virtual focus group discussions that generated insights on their interaction with digital technologies, either as entrepreneurs, service providers, or members of youth organizations. This infographic provides a visual profile of the youth and their digital behaviour and skills.
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    Assessing the digital readiness and communication ecosystem of rural youth
    Methodological guidelines
    2024
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    Digitalization is a potential game-changer to boost youth engagement and leadership in agrifood systems. Digital engagement can increase youth access to timely information, training, or marketing opportunities while providing more venues for peer learning, networking, and participation in policy dialogues. Yet, the transformative power of digital technologies also entails the risk of widening existing divides. As we seek to engage youth in the digital space, we must consider a series of interrelated factors that influence their online experiences ranging from digital access, use, and literacy, to overall information flows, offline communication resources, social interactions, and the norms shaping them. These methodological guidelines will be a useful resource for development professionals who wish to leverage communication and digital technologies in their work with and for youth. The document provides an analytical framework and practical orientation to conduct age-specific and gender-responsive research on digital readiness and the overall communication ecosystem of young people in order to inform inclusive engagement strategies and youth-centred digital services. Section 1 explains the rationale behind investing time and resources in appraising the existing communication ecosystem before designing any initiative aimed at engaging youth in agrifood systems and in rural areas. Section 2 outlines an analytical framework to unpack the digital readiness and the communication ecosystem of young rural women and men along major investigation areas: digital access, use and skills; information flows; offline communication resources; and social capital and social norms. Section 3 describes how to conduct hands-on research combining the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Section 4 summarizes final considerations and take-home messages. The Annexes provide two examples of data collection tools, namely a mobile survey questionnaire and a focus group discussion guide, while the Field Stories present real-life examples testifying to the multiple and varied applications of the methodology within the scope of FAO’s Integrated Country Approach (ICA) for Boosting Decent Jobs for Youth in the Agrifood System project.
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    Project
    Reducing Rural Youth Migration in Kenya - GCP/KEN/087/ITA 2022
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    The key focus of the project was on strengthening the enabling environment to provide alternatives to youth migration, and on harnessing the potential of migration for local development by directly supporting key policy processes in the area of migration, social protection and value chain development. The project engaged rural youth and other value chain actors in productive activities along agrifood value chains and assisted youth entrepreneurs to scale up their businesses along selected value chains. The capacity of youth was increased through technical and business training, coaching and business mentoring, as well as by facilitating access to markets, credit, input provision and non financial support services. At institutional level, technical assistance was provided in the review and finalization of five government policies. At field level, the project organized 1 087 young into 58 groups along four value chains (herbs and spices, improved local chicken, indigenous vegetables and pig) with high potential for employment and income generation. Relevant training was provided, along with assets and inputs worth USD 210 794 to support agro enterprises at farm level. Youth were also engaged in business to business roundtables, as a result of which 325 youth (190 male and 135 female) benefited from improved linkages to other markets and off takers. In terms of improving access to finance, 40 youth groups from 29 wards across the six sub counties benefited from loans totalling KES 5.7 million disbursed by the Youth Enterprise Development Fund.

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