FAO.org

Africa has the youngest population in the world. In spite of the huge opportunity for the continent’s growth represented by such a high number of young people, two-thirds of youth are unemployed or working in vulnerable conditions and low-paying jobs. Young women face additional challenges in the agribusiness sector due to cultural and societal barriers, lack of agribusiness and entrepreneurship skills, land ownership rights as well as underrepresentation in decision-making positions.

Recognizing the challenges faced by young women to become successful agripreneurs,  FAO, through the project Integrated Country Approach (ICA) for boosting decent jobs for youth in the agrifood system and the Subregional Office for Eastern Africa, collaborated with the African Women Agribusiness Network (AWAN-Afrika) to carry out an agribusiness training and coaching programme targeting young women agripreneurs and rural leaders in Eastern Africa. Since 2021, through a Letter of Agreement, the two organizations have joined efforts to empower young women agripreneurs in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda by strengthening their business-related and leadership skills.

In 2022, following the development of a youth-sensitive tailor-made agribusiness training and mentorship programme, 76 young women agripreneurs and leaders could benefit from face-to-face trainings, online sessions and group coaching. Online sessions were facilitated through the African Youth Agripreneurs (AYA) platform, which also offered an opportunity to network. Through AWAN Afrika and other existing networks, the young women will continue to receive agricultural and marketing information, as well as networking opportunities.

In November 2022, a webinar on “Opportunities and Support Needs for Young Women Agripreneurs in Eastern Africa” was held to present the results and lessons learned from the coaching and mentorship experience, with the aim to generate a broader debate on the challenges faced by young women agripreneurs across Eastern Africa. The stakeholders attending the webinar, including policy makers, development partners, and young women agripreneurs, proposed a number of priority areas for future action, which are outlined below:

1. Provide affordable finance, markets and business development services, including through the provision of mentorship, grants and infrastructure sharing opportunities;
2. Promote and adopt inclusive and intersectional approaches to ensure that youth-oriented policies take cross-cutting relationships and hierarchies into account;
3. Develop complementary social protection interventions to recognize and compensate young people’s unpaid contributions to food systems;
4. Enhance young women’s business and entrepreneurship and financial management skills through coaching and mentorship programmes;
5. Include women and youth in the decision-making process, includingto ensure that their plight with regard to access to land and other natural resources is addressed;
6. Invest in digital infrastructure and building the digital skills of agripreneurs to ensure rural connectivity and sharing ideas and experience.