Youth at work: promoting young entrepreneurs to reduce rural poverty in Mali
The Government of Mali is encouraging job creation for rural youth. In this context, FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture have launched a new project that aims to reduce rural poverty through fostering of youth entrepreneurship.
The project, named “Youth at Work, Reducing rural poverty”, is funded by the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund (ASTF) and was launched on August 28th. It aims to generate attractive and decent job opportunities for rural youth in an effort to increase resilience and strengthen food security. The project will contribute towards the creation of 400 new decent work opportunities and the improvement of 1,000 existing jobs.
An integrated model for decent youth employment creation will be implemented within selected agricultural value chains in Mali and the project will make use of FAO’s Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools training methodology. Moreover, the project aims to facilitate the establishment of long-term partnerships between public and private rural institutions in Mali, such as producers’ organizations, to ensure that it is sustainable in the long term.
The project was officially launched in Baguineda (Koulikoro region) by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Secretary General. The Mayor of Baguineda delivered the opening speech and this was followed by a speech from the FAO Deputy Representative. The event, which was jointly organized by Mali’s Ministry of Agriculture and FAO, received coverage in both national newspapers and television.
Fifty participants attended, representing a wide range of key stakeholders, including: officers from the ministries of Agriculture, Employment, Public Service and Youth, as well as representatives from various farmer and youth organizations, international organizations, unions and civil society organizations, and other technical and financial partners.
Following the launch, a video and a series of technical presentations were shared with the participants to provide a clear overview of FAO’s approach and available tools for promoting decent rural employment at global and national level. An outcome of this workshop was the approval of a national steering committee that will be established to guide the project. Two further regional workshops are forseen in the project target areas of Kayes and Mopti, in order to finalize the action plan and identify appropriate interventions.