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Agriculture contributes approximately one-quarter of provincial gross domestic product (GDP) in the Punjab Province. The provincial share is two-third of the total national agricultural output, leading in major commodities meant for food security in the country. The sector employs roughly 13 million people or 45 percent of the Punjab labor force. However, the overall added value from agriculture in Punjab’s economy is disproportionately low compared to other sectors of the economy. The agricultural sector offers significant opportunities for rapid economic growth and potentially help millions to improve their livelihood. Production and productivity have remained nearly stagnant during the last two decades. [...]

The aim of this document is to make policy-relevant suggestions related to the following questions: 1) How can vulnerable fisher-farmers' access to social protection be enhanced; and 2) What potential exists for social protection and fishery-related policies, institutions, mechanisms and programs to mutually reinforce poverty reduction and incentivize conservation and sustainable use of fisheries and related natural resources.

This study will be technically led by the ILO and its Regional Office for the Arab States, with technical and financial support of FAO, in collaboration and coordination with the League of Arab States and the Arab Council for Childhood and Development (ACCD) . The current study will be based on sectoral analysis of child labour in the Arab countries, drawing comparisons between countries (or groups of countries with similar child labour characteristics) according to economic sectors of children’s involvement in the labour market. It will provide quantitative and qualitative analyses concerning the main sectors where child labour is concentrated, in [...]

Almost 88 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion youth live in developing countries. Globally, young people account for approximately 24 percent of the working poor. Although the world’s youth population is expected to grow, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for young women and men remain limited – particularly for those living in economically stagnant rural areas of developing countries. Hence, creating more productive and beneficial jobs for the rural youth is particularly urgent. The FAO Integrated Country Approach (ICA) for boosting decent jobs for youth in the agri-food system project, currently implemented in Senegal, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Guatemala, aims to address [...]

Along the border of Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, many communities are ethnically and politically divided. Land is at the heart of social, political and economic life, which makes land disputes and other related issues even more challenging. Tensions and conflict in Liberia, as well as the civil war, created an unstable scenario, where marginalized people increasingly take to demonstrating in cities, and roadblocks and even violence are becoming more common. Within this context, FAO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) developed this project to promote the stabilization and cohesion of 10 communities along [...]

The operation of agricultural and food systems is key to the transition from subsistence to commercially-oriented food production, which will underpin rural poverty reduction and eradication of hunger. Sustainable food systems can also address the burgeoning challenges of malnutrition and obesity, working to deliver diets that promote and sustain optimal health for the world’s growing population.

The case study explores which skills and training opportunities young people need in order to gain access to decent employment in rural areas. The research was undertaken in order to develop recommendations to support the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and FAO Cambodia in developing appropriate recommendations to support rural young people, especially those of the 15 to 17 age cohort. The study highlights the limited decent employment opportunities that currently exist along various agricultural value chains in rural Cambodia. Poverty and the structural problems of the agricultural sector are the main barriers for youth in accessing decent rural employment. [...]

Today, about 783 million people live in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is primarily a rural phenomenon, with 80 percent of the extreme poor living in rural areas, across greatly diverse rural landscapes. Despite great progress in poverty reduction, the standard of living of the poorest of the poor has remained almost unchanged in the past 35 years, signaling that a huge gap in policy making and programmatic approaches are leaving them behind.  FAO has established a Corporate Framework on Rural Extreme Poverty to orient and bring to bear the relevant work of the Organization towards reaching Target 1.1 of the SDGs. [...]

Poverty, food insecurity and a lack of employment opportunities drive many young men and women around the world to search for jobs elsewhere. In Africa, where youth underemployment and unemployment rates are particularly high, many young people move away from rural areas, also because they do not perceive agriculture as an attractive and remunerative sector. The project aimed to address the adverse drivers of migration in two target countries, Tunisia and Ethiopia, which are particularly prone to rural outmigration of youth, while at the same time harnessing the development potential of migratory movements. In particular, the project focused on the [...]

This paper sheds new light on internal migration processes by estimating migration flows for 31 countries, focusing on step migration and on return migration back to rural areas from urban areas. The approach is to estimate the shares of the population (by gender) that move or stay in rural and urban areas over three periods (childhood and two forward periods). Using data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), the estimation was done with an information-theoretic procedure using maximum-entropy econometrics to estimate migration frequencies by population groups. Sizeable urban to rural migration flows are found, with rural returnees often contributing substantially [...]