WEBINAR: Youth-Led Solutions to Enhancing The Resilience of Africa's Food Systems

15 April 2021. Youth-Led Solutions to Enhancing The Resilience of Africa's Food Systems

Convened by: Generation Africa, Yara International, AGRA, USAID, AGRF, Syngenta Foundation, Corteva AgriScience, Heifer International, Econet

The resilience of food systems needs to be strengthened in such a way that the economic, social and environmental foundations to produce sufficient healthy food and maintain healthy ecosystems for current and future generations are not compromised. It demands a comprehensive approach that integrates responses to climate, biodiversity loss, conflict, epidemics, economic crises, food insecurity and malnutrition and structural inequalities.

Generation Africa aims to collect collaborative solutions to the challenges that the youth-led SMEs in Africa face while coming up with businesses that aim to contribute to global food systems.Identifying Youth-led solutions to enhancing resilient youth businesses to support Africa’s food systems.

• Highlight challenges that youth agripreneurs are facing in building resilient businesses.
• Identify existing opportunities that youth agripreneurs can take advantage of.
• Collate the voice of the youth to state their case at the UNFSS.
• Craft a vision of Africa’s food systems in the next ten years and identify action steps necessary in making the vision into reality

Background
VC4A started with the mission to build up Africa’s start up community. Started in 2007, the network building organization has grown organically over the years into what is now the leading community working to build high growth high impact companies globally.

Shared resources:

IFPRI/Sygenta (2020) Youth Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness Nigeria Country Report. Suresh Babu, Yuan Zhou, Lena Koever and Nandita Srivastava October 2020, 62 pp.

This report forms part of an international multi-country comparative study. It identifies key drivers for the success of youth entrepreneurship in Nigeria and examines challenges that the country’s youth face on their way to becoming successful entrepreneurs. The report starts with a review of literature on the status of rural youth entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Seven detailed case studies of rural and urban agribusiness youth entrepreneurs (YE) then highlight specific challenges and opportunities. The insights gathered help address key policy and programmatic gaps. They also enable to offer recommendations for strengthening youth empowerment through entrepreneurial opportunities. 

This study concludes with some recommendations for policy makers, multinationals and the donor community. They include continuing efforts to improve infrastructure and technology access, creating and upholding regulatory product quality standards, improving YE access to credit and insurance, monitoring and evaluating policies and programs, and providing access to adequate and affordable education and training. 

Franzel, S., Miiro, R., Uwitonze, N., Davis, K., Luzobe, B. and Rurangwa, R. (2020). Engaging Young Agripreneurs: Options to Include Youth in Private Sector Extension and Advisory Services in Rwanda and Uganda. Developing Local Extension Capacity Project. Washington DC: USAID. 66 pp.

Owens Otieno and Adedana Ashebir (2020) MappingAgricultureInvesting in Africa 53 pp.

 

Related:
OPINION: Helping Youth Agribusiness Keep Pace with Fast Growing Africa
By Nteranya Sanginga, Aline Mugisho and Seyi Makinde

• Writing on the status of youth in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, David Sarfo Ameyaw and Eugenie Maiga note that rapid economic growth over the past 15 years has not been ‘pro-poor’, occurring primarily in sectors generating relatively few employment opportunities for youth.
• Authors of a study of perceptions of agriculture among secondary school students in three African countries suggest that courses must better cast agriculture as an economic frontier and modern farmers as pioneers rather than forgotten victims of poverty.
• The Youth in Agribusiness initiatives of IITA such as the IITA Youth Agripreneurs (IYA), Empowering Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment (ENABLE)-Youth, ENABLE-TAAT (Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation), Young Africa Works-IITA Project, Youth Employment in Agribusiness and Sustainable Agriculture (YEASA), Agrihub, and Start Them Early Program (STEP) are tangible proofs of the significant role youths play in the agricultural sector. For the past few years, these programs have created a platform encouraging the participation and engagement of young school children and unemployed or underemployed youth in agribusiness.