youth employment

This article provides an overview and analysis of youth employment in Sub-Saharan Africa. While many refer to the youth employment problem as the ‘youth unemployment problem’, unemployment is not high in low-income sub-Saharan Africa (3%) or in middle-income countries outside of Southern Africa. Since jobs remain elusive in the formal wage sector, youth have found innovative ways to express and exploit their talents and capabilities in the agriculture and household enterprises (informal sector). »

This article provides a macroeconomics analysis of the youth employment problem in the low and lower middle income countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). While concerns about youth employment are often voiced, the discussions tends to lack context due to the absence of labor market data and analysis. This article tries to reduce this gap through analyzing macroeconomic changes and indicators in SSA. »

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) & The International Labour Organizattion (ILO) prepared a background paper for the Feeding Africa conference of October 2015. The paper highlights several challenges and opportunities in involving youth in agribusiness. The authors stimulate the development of a special program to promote youth in agribusiness. »

In this blog post on the INCLUDE platform, Marije Balt from Springfactor elaborates on youth moving to urban areas and explores programmes and plans of donors to invest in job creation in Africa’s largest sector, agriculture. The blog highlights a number of obstacles faced by young people wishing to engage in agriculture, such as the stigma surrounding agriculture as a lifestyle and source of livelihood, restricted access to land, irrelevant education, inability to handle risk and poor access to finance. Comprehensive approaches are needed, both in rural and urban areas, in agriculture and other sectors, whuch can help youth in Africa find decent work and stop looking for the proverbial greener pastures elsewhere, Balt concludes. »

This article elaborates on the involvement of youth in livestock production as key to the actualization of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) in Nigeria. It scrutinizes the socio-economic role of livestock, the state of Nigerians livestock industry, youth involvement in livestock production and the constraints young people face to get involved in livestock production. The authors provide solutions to ensure the active participation of youth in livestock production. »

From November 25 to 27, a big regional horticulture event took place in Kigali consisting of a three-day horticultural exhibition at the PSF Expo Grounds, combined with a two-day conference about Innovation and Trade in Horticulture. A Business Innovation Competition took place during the event as well. »