facilitating youth’s access to rural activities facilitating youth’s access to rural activities...
TRANSCRIPT
Facilitating youth’s access to
rural activities
Philippe REMY - 24 May 2012
1 - Put more trust on young rural people
• Youth need more consideration and more trust must be put on them
• Do not try to fix them in villages, to force them to become farmers
• They must be part of the decisions on their own life • Help them to better dialogue with other generations
and to collectively reflect on their potential future at village level and on other opportunities
JFFLS
2 - Help the Youth think broader• Intergenerational• the whole value-chain• Non-farm activities• Explore niche-markets • mobility• reduce rural / urban fracture • Pluri-activity• agent of change / environmental stewards to
promote sustainable agriculture
Ghana
3 - Help the young build their own capacities
• youth education level still very low• training centres better adapted to their needs • revise curricula in a participatory manner • include education on agricultural production but also
on all the professional activities along the value chain
Songhai
… and 4 - their collective strength
Youth organisations:• Relatively new phenomenon• Lack resources and experience• Lack visibility and network• Rather small (less than 200 members)• Usually informal/not registeredYouth within Farmer Organisations• Low involvement in decision-making, especially for
young women • Problematic transitional leadership
.
What is needed?• human, technical and financial support to build and
strengthen their own organisations• youth sections within mixed FOs • Direct participation in policy dialogue• involvement in decision making processes from
design to implementation, monitoring and evaluation
case of Togo
5 - Trust must go as far as finance.
• Develop youth savings services• Innovate youth adapted financial services• Combine training with financial support and
vice versa• Launch youth innovation funds with technical
and financial support
As a conclusion…• Youth do not see a prosperous future in
agriculture and in rural areas if conditions remain as they are now
• but have the willingness and the capacity to create a new rural reality
• We have to keep in mind this positive message from young farmers and try our best to build on their recommendations to make their project become reality.
Thank you for your attention!