Summary of discussions
Recommendations
from the three issue areas
The panel discussion: Problems and opportunities facing government agricultural extension rural youth programmes
The plenary discussions
Moderator Kalim Qamar, Senior Officer Agricultural Training and Extension, SDRE, FAO
Presentations were made briefly by four speakers based on their country papers to open a discussion on problems and opportunities faced by government extension rural youth programmes.
Kewagamang Pilara (Botswana) spoke of the problems of unemployment in his country and the poor educational opportunities available to young people in rural areas leading them to believe that life is better in the cities and that rural areas have no future for them. The 4B Programme is for youth only up to the age of 22. Those who have gained the appropriate skills and knowledge can then become volunteer leaders. If members do not become leaders at this age, they have to drop out of the Programme. As a result, a new age limit may soon be implemented to allow membership up to the age of 29.
A major problem was seen as the lack of any coherent youth policy. Current youth programmes are practically all school-based and tend to be seen as recreation rather than serious educational programming for youth development. The small number of out-of-school youth groups are not yet very successful and a greater concentration of effort will be needed in this area.
A third major area of concern is that extension staff have no specific training in youth development, they are simply appointed to take over responsibilities with rural youth work.
John Baptista Mubiru (Uganda) spoke of continuing, though reduced, support for their rural youth programme. Young Farmers of Uganda from government, international donors and NGO's.
Despite a recent reorganization of extension, little attention has been directed toward the youth programme as a specific consideration. Young Farmers of Uganda now only concentrates on agricultural production. There is a need to include other important topics for rural youth, such as the processing and marketing of cottage industries; health and nutrition; and environment and natural resources.
Laksana Disyabutra (Thailand) spoke of the decreasing interest of youth in agriculture due to the low level of income in rural areas. The young farmers programme of Thailand, Yuwa Kasetkorn, aims to increase skills in agricultural production through training in modern methods to create entrepreneurs who will be able to achieve an adequate and satisfying standard of living in rural areas.
Jorge Utrera (Guatemala) mentioned that the Ministry of Agriculture seems to be constantly changing the name of programmes to reflect new priority areas. However, he suggested that the name changing implied that something was wrong with the current rural youth programme, when in fact that might not be the case. Firstly, from the broad government perspective there is no plan to deal with the specific needs of youth. Secondly, the government tends to develop programmes without consulting the youth themselves. Thirdly, development and democracy go hand in hand. It is not possible to have one without the other.
Following the presentation of the papers during "Setting the Stage", and the panel discussion, participants raised many points of concern to the Consultation in a general discussion session. This section summarises the main points raised.
Participants affirmed the importance of rural youth programmes and the positive impact they make toward sustainable development in developing countries. Female and male youth make up a large segment of the total rural population and yet they are often neglected and overlooked by government policy makers and international development strategists. This can be attributed, in large part, to the overwhelming concern for immediate solutions to problems of national development, with an accompanying inaccurate perception that youth are not yet productive and contributing members of society.
In a time of reduced budgets, rural youth programmes need to play a greater role in resource development at all levels of the organization, through local community-based fund raising to the establishment of national foundations. It was suggested that FAO play a role in helping governments develop alternative resources, through information, training and publications, including, assistance in establishing and maintaining a national private sector not-for-profit foundation to support rural youth work.
Youth Programme Development
Where they exist and are functional, rural youth programmes play an important role in building life skills of individual young people; strengthening families and communities; and working towards sustainable agricultural and rural development as a major contributor to the overall progress of a country. Rural youth programmes actively promote the application of appropriate technology to improve agricultural production on a sustainable basis. Young people tend to take special interest in conservation and management of natural resources and are more ready to accept and promote sound environmental practices than adults. Rural youth programmes can become a catalyst which energizes the process of environmental education in a country, leading to practical applications on a large scale, thus contributing to sustainable development.
It is felt that more research and data collection are needed to determine what is successful and what is not in youth programme development. Ideas could be gained from looking at other successful youth programmes such as the Wildlife Clubs in parts of Africa, the YMCA and YWCA, and the Scout and Guide movements. The Scout movement for example has been a successful programme over many decades. One of the reasons why the movement works so well is because there are a variety of activities specifically targeting different age groups within the programme. There are more challenging and difficult activities with more sophisticated leadership roles required as young people grow older.
Not only should youth programmes have age-specific activities, but they should also consider lowering the minimum age of membership. For programmes where members range from 15 to 25 years of age, it may be too late to change values and behaviours in critically important areas such as family life, population, drug and HIV/AIDS education. For older adolescents and young adults, most patterns of behaviour and ways of thinking have already been established. The greatest impact may come when working with younger youth.
Youth need to be integrated into all aspects of rural development, not only programmes specially designed for rural youth, as with "women's" programmes, which started as specially targeted activities, are now to a large extent considered part of the mainstream of on-going rural development projects and activities. A comprehensive youth policy would ensure the involvement of youth in all relevant areas of rural development including, health, nutrition, household food security, environment, sustainable development, population, family life education, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, entrepreneurship programmes, small business development, agricultural production and post harvest issues.
Constant changes in government often lead to significant disruptions in continuity of programming. For political reasons, many new governments often want to implement something new; even if the old programme works well. This leads to confusion and wasted resources. The need is to build on successes, not just to keep starting over again.
The Status of Rural Youth Work
Youth work often tends to have a low priority and low status, which in turn makes it difficult to attract qualified and competent staff. This stems from a lack of coordinated government policy on youth work and a consequential lack of funds and resources being allocated to the programmes.
It was felt that FAO should intensify its efforts of advocacy on behalf of rural youth and play a role in assisting governments formulate national youth policy, with special considerations for rural young people. Sufficient resources should be provided by governments to strengthen and expand existing rural youth programmes and create and maintain new ones. Rural youth programmes should become a part of all comprehensive strategies of national agricultural extension services that target rural families. Governments should encourage partnerships and volunteerism in youth policy and programmes as well as facilitate entrepreneurship and income-generating activities for rural youth.
Within extension services, rural youth programming should be included as a specialization such as is the case with livestock, crop production, plant pathology and marketing. This would allow for the provision of subject matter specialists (SMS) and place it on an equal status with the other programme areas. This would also ensure that proper training would be provided with an appropriate career structure.
Lack of a career structure and limited training opportunities are major reasons for the low status of youth work. Extension youth specialists need training on youth development rather than just being appointed to the job and expected to work in partnership with subject matter specialists in technical areas such as irrigation, livestock and crop production. There is also a great need to provide on-going training to the general field extension workers in youth work, to be supplemented by support from rural youth subject matter specialists at higher levels in the organization.
Rural Youth Professional Training
In many countries, there is no formal youth professional training programme. The first stage in developing such a programme would be to look at what the programme needs to accomplish then decide what skills are required. A framework to help analyze the situation is found in the paper Youth Professional Research-Knowledge Taxonomy Applied to Rural Youth Programmes in Developing Countries, presented at the Consultation. It sets out a taxonomy which could be adapted for use in specific circumstances to develop proposals for professional youth worker training and staff development programmes before potential funding agencies are approached. Specific training programmes would then be proposed with identified priority topics rather than just a request for general training. It was also considered important that volunteer leaders, often vital to the success of rural youth programmes, also receive training as well as professional youth staff.
An area where FAO could assist here would be in the design and development of action programmes for expanding and strengthening existing programmes or creating new ones. This would include the development of guidelines and prototype national youth worker training curricula and materials. FAO should also conduct research to identify successful training programmes and models, and disseminate this information. It is interesting to note that the Commonwealth Youth Programme offers a diploma in professional youth work.
Content of Rural Youth Programmes
Agriculture is often the main focus of rural youth programmes, but while this is important, it is often not an area of choice for many young people. Unless it can be made more profitable, people will continue to leave agriculture for other employment. Other attractive village-level activities could include post harvest work such as agro-processing and marketing. Rural industries also need to be considered as an alternative to agriculture.
Rural-to-urban migration is a major problem in developing countries as youth see more opportunities and more excitement in the cities than in the farming communities. Agricultural programmes alone are often of limited success in slowing down this trend to move to the cities. The participants discussed what could be done to help encourage youth to stay in the rural areas.
Several participants mentioned that if youth are to stay in agriculture, there is a need to greatly increase its income generating capacity. Malaysia, for example, includes post harvest activities, processing, marketing, input supply, mechanization and general management in a total farm development approach for the rural youth programme. This helps to develop entrepreneurs in rural areas rather than just agricultural producers, who in many cases can actually increase their overall income to well beyond that often achieved by employment in urban areas.
It was also suggested that rural youth programmes should not only concentrate on agricultural skills development. They should focus on developing rural young people to become productive, caring and contributing citizens of their respective communities and country The trend worldwide is to move away from farming as a sole source of income. If programmes concentrate only on agricultural production, they are fighting a losing battle. Youth programmes should include agriculture, but not to the exclusion of other areas critically important to the interest and needs of rural young people.
There needs to be a balanced approach to educational programming with rural youth programmes. The emphasis on agriculture often arises because some youth programmes, especially 4-H and young farmer groups, are often based in ministries of agriculture. On the other hand, where responsibility for youth rests within ministries of education, school-based programmes tend to be overemphasized to the exclusion of out-of-school youth.
In some cases, rural youth programmes are seen as an extension of the in-school formal education system with the result that as young people drop out of school they also drop out of the youth programme. Since in many countries the majority of rural girls and boys attend only a few years of school, the out-of-school part of the programme needs to be given a separate identity and strong financial support to compensate for limited formal educational opportunities available in farming communities.
Conversely, there are many examples where youth programmes and extension work can be used to encourage and support formal education for girls and boys and young women and men in rural areas.
In some countries, programmes for youth come under a separate ministry of youth and often have limited status. A coherent national youth policy is needed for governments to bring together the strengths of different ministries in designing and implementing programmes for youth, including those in rural areas.
Since youth needs vary from one area to another, programmes need to be flexible enough to accommodate these differences. Much of the actual coordination among the various ministries and non-government organizations could best be done at the regional, provincial or district levels.
Youth Participation in Programmes
There was a general consensus of the need for greater participation of youth in the design and implementation of youth programmes for them to be truly successful. The experts discussed how participation can best be achieved in youth programmes and what mechanisms have been shown to be most effective. A number of points were made:
· The interests of youth need to be determined before designing programmes, since they vary significantly from place to place and among different age groups of young people.· Grass roots start-up of youth clubs and groups may be an ideal, but in actual practice there is usually a need for outside stimulation which should be followed by gradually increasing participation of young people as they gain confidence and develop leadership abilities.
· Youth can be encouraged to take part in decision making, but this will not necessarily just happen by itself. Young people need to be actively encouraged and allowed to practice leadership skills in safe, non-threatening settings. They need to develop and practice communication skills, such as speaking before groups of people. In the Commonwealth Youth Programme countries, at least one youth representative is now included in ministerial meetings when youth issues are discussed. With the regional CYP meetings, facilities are provided for youth representatives to meet together as a regional youth forum.
· Often autocratic leadership behaviour is a restricting factor in active youth participation in the design and implementation of programmes. There is a need to work with adult and youth leaders to help them develop the skills that allow full participation of young people.
· Recreation and sports are a basic need of youth and can be used as a starting point to initiate youth activities. Once groups have been formed, other activities can be introduced, including leadership development and the design and implementation of relevant project work and educational programming.
· Youth should also not be considered in isolation when developing youth programmes. Parents and other community members will also have an influence on the programmes and their support and active involvement is needed if activities are to be successful. Parents can often reject any kind of education for their children in order to keep them at home for cheap labour.
GROUP I - YOUTH POLICY AND RESOURCES
Chairperson: Mohamed Shafie Sallam; Rapporteur: John Durston
Recommendations for FAO
Policy Development
· Continue and intensify advocacy of the need for a rural youth policy.
· Advocate the need for explicit attention to be paid to rural young women and other specially disadvantaged sectors.
· Assist countries in developing, monitoring and evaluating national youth policies.
· Prepare guidelines for this process, including possibilities for funding.
· Promote the participation of rural youth in policy formulation.
Information/Sharing Resources
· Continue and intensify distribution of materials, collection of information, development of indicators and research on good practice and successful rural youth programmes.
· Conduct comparative and evaluative studies of rural youth policies.
· Develop linkages, networking and consultations among rural youth programmes for the exchange of experiences, information and resources world wide.
· Establish a data base of extension rural youth programmes worldwide and publish a directory with the profile of each country programme.
Financial Resources
· Identify, publicize, catalyze support for rural youth programmes within the international private sector community.
· Develop and publish a manual on promoting rural youth programmes.
Recommendations for Governments
Policy Development
· Create a national youth policy with adequate planning for resources, staff and youth development.
· Create an explicit rural youth component in a national youth policy with short, medium and long term programmes.
· Develop mechanisms for rural youth participation in policy formulation in both the areas of youth and sustainable rural development.
· Mainstream rural youth into development institutions. Promote coordination within concerned institutions.
· Enhance the status of rural youth professions and provide funding for training and professional development opportunities.
· Encourage, motivate and train rural youth to become resources for sustainable development in their respective communities.
· Promote volunteerism as a key part of rural youth policy.
· Develop monitoring and evaluation systems.
Information/Sharing Resources
· Develop Technical Cooperation Among Developing Countries (TCDC) and similar mechanisms for sharing of expertise among countries.
· Facilitate North/South meetings to share information.
Financial Resources
· Facilitate resource mobilization by rural youth organizations.
· Promote entrepreneurship and income-generating activities within youth programmes.
Recommendations for Rural Youth Programmes
Policy Development
· Include rural youth and local communities in policy formulation.
· Develop potential of locally diverse forms of adult service with rural youth.
· Incorporate explicit attention to rural young women and specially disadvantaged sectors.
· Develop monitoring and evaluation systems.
Information/Sharing Resources
· Facilitate resource mobilization by rural youth organizations.
· Work to build networks, cooperation and collaborative working relationships with other youth-serving programmes in the country.
Financial Resources
· Facilitate linkages with other institutions for possible alternative funding sources.
· Work towards establishing a not-for-profit foundation to seek private sector financial support to the rural youth programme.
GROUP 2 - INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING AND PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT
Chairperson: John Baptista Mubiru; Rapporteur: Mary Kay Munson
Recommendations for FAO
Strategic Planning
· Develop a global Action Programme for youth development.
· Develop guidelines for strategic planning.
· Develop prototype training materials.
· Develop guidelines for working with disadvantaged audiences (e.g. rural young women, ethnic minorities, and disabled)
Financial Resources
· Assist governments in preparing projects for potential funding.
· Provide publications such as manuals and fact sheets on financial resource development and management.
· Support funding requests to other organizations.
· Train youth workers on strategies for developing and managing income-generating projects.
Partnerships
· Facilitate contacts between non-government organization (NGO) and government agency youth programmes.
· Participate in coordination activities of United Nation agencies to provide a unified support to youth programming.
Professional Youth Staff
· Provide financial support and coordination for training of staff through TCDC/TCCT, Academic Institutions and Retired Professionals arrangements.
· Provide technical support for training of professional youth workers.
· Assist member countries in developing national youth worker training curricula and materials.
· Identify successful training programmes and models and disseminate information.
· Promote specialized roles for rural youth workers.
· Support the establishment of national and regional professional associations of rural youth workers.
· Facilitate and coordinate professional rural youth staff international exchange programmes.
· Assist with networking on training issues.
Volunteerism
· Support exchange programmes to encourage volunteer staffing.
· Support training on volunteer development programmes.
· Support research/studies to introduce volunteerism.
· Develop a handbook on volunteer leadership development for rural youth programmes in developing countries.
Professional Research and Knowledge Base (PRK)
· Assist in the creation of a prototype professional research and knowledge base for rural youth development which can be adapted by country programmes.
· Fund research to determine the knowledge that is generic for youth programmes, especially applied to needs of developing/transition countries.
· Include special needs of disadvantaged audiences such as rural young women, ethnic minorities, and the disabled.
· Develop a recommended academic programme to prepare professionals in youth development education.
· Support in-service training for national leaders in the use of the professional research and knowledge base.
Recommendations for Government
Strategic Planning
· Make funds available for strategic planning.
· Incorporate youth programmes into current extension systems.
· Encourage partnerships and volunteerism in youth programmes.
Financial Resources
· Provide training for youth workers and staff in income-generation projects.
· Improve marketing infrastructure for products developed by members of rural youth programmes.
· Establish credit facilities and schemes specifically for youth. Inform youth groups of potential funding sources.
Partnerships
· Promote cooperation of other institutions in support of youth programmes.
· Ensure education programmes are suited to rural youth.
· Promote education and training for rural youth as a high priority
· Encourage and provide incentives for good teachers with rural backgrounds to stay in the farming communities.
Professional Youth Staff
· Ensure adequate number of professional youth staff for national programme coordination, youth development subject matter specialists support and field operations.
· Provide systematic staff training and professional development opportunities for youth workers.
· Where full-time assignments in youth work are not possible or appropriate, include part-time youth responsibilities in current job description for employees at various levels in the organization.
· Provide special training for youth professionals to work with disabled and other disadvantaged audiences.
· Employ and train disabled personnel to become youth workers.
· Provide incentives and recognition for youth workers.
· Facilitate networking among staff.
Volunteerism
· Include management of volunteers within the training programme.
· Integrate volunteerism into government programmes.
· Involve volunteers in programme planning.
· Encourage programmes to recruit and train disabled volunteer leaders.
Professional Research and Knowledge Base
· Facilitate cooperation among ministries of government, universities and research organizations in providing knowledge and research relevant to youth development education.
· Provide funds for research in developing and supporting a research and knowledge base in non-formal youth development education.
· Make professional research and knowledge available to all youth programmes in the country.
Recommendations for Youth Organizations
Strategic Planning
· Incorporate Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) surveys, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and focus group techniques as a part of needs assessment.
· Include income generating activities to increase the value of youth programmes to young people in rural areas.
· Incorporate life skills development into programmes to prepare youth to become contributing, caring and productive citizens.
· Consider including topics such as population, health, nutrition, household food security, small business management, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development in educational programming for out-of-school rural youth.
Financial Resources
· Identify and engage in income generating projects.
· Raise money at the community level to support the local youth programme.
· Diversify activities for local fund raising.
Partnerships
· Share information and resources with other institutions in the country.
· Encourage other organizations to incorporate activities for rural youth into their activities.
· Use mass media where practical to increase the spread of information.
Professional Youth Staff
· Become actively involved in the selection of youth workers.
· Provide opportunities for disabled youth professionals.
· Provide in-service training and professional development opportunities for youth workers. Collaborate with other organizations in staff development.
· Provide incentives and recognition for youth programme staff to improve their skills and knowledge.
· Identify and disseminate information on suitable training programmes.
· Identify and prioritize training issues.
· Facilitate networking among youth professionals.
Volunteerism
· Design roles for volunteers in youth work at all levels.
· Youth organizations to be responsible for their own projects through volunteer support.
· Design recruitment, training and supervision strategies for volunteers.
Professional Research and Knowledge Base
· Create initiatives for organizations to identify the professional research and knowledge base relevant for their programmes needs.
· Apply a professional research and knowledge base to improve programmes by using it to: (1) develop job description for professional youth workers; (2) design academic programmes and qualifications; (3) orient in-service training to help staff develop competencies in selected areas; (4) identify research needs and carry out studies; and (5) catalogue and make information available in the principal domains for staff use.
GROUP 3 - EDUCATIONAL CONTENT AND DELIVERY
Chairperson: Elena Lodi Fé; Rapporteur: Virginia Gobeli
Recommendations for FAO
Youth Curriculum Development
· Gather samples of educational materials relevant to rural youth programming from around the world and disseminate to countries requesting copies.
· Develop and publish a curriculum guide for non-formal education programmes targeting out-of-school rural youth related to content, process and delivery methods.
· Identify and disseminate models of successful non-formal educational programmes for rural youth.
· Assist in developing models and prototypes in priority subject matter areas relevant to rural youth programmes.
· Implement pilot projects in specific subject matter areas.
· Assist in evaluating impact of programmes and projects relating to curriculum.
· Coordinate the technical assistance of experts to countries using the Technical
· Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC), Technical Cooperation among Countries in Transition (TCCT), Retired Professionals, Academic Institutions or other arrangements.
Mechanisms/Plans for Sharing Resources
· Facilitate the establishment of a network of information in youth related topics, issues and concerns.
· Continue and expand Youth Works.
· Employ officers with responsibilities in rural youth in FAO regional and sub-regional offices.
· Facilitate forums and meetings of youth professionals in regions and sub regions.
Recommendations for Government
Youth Curriculum Development
· Prioritize subject matter areas for youth curriculum.
· Allocate adequate funding for the development, distribution and evaluation of curriculum materials.
· Coordinate various government sectors involved in relevant subject matter areas as part of the overall curriculum development process.
Mechanisms/Plans for Sharing Resources
· Establish databases of curriculum materials and provide access to them for staff.
· Allocate budget for collaborative work among youth-serving organizations in the country.
· Host national and international meetings and workshops for youth workers.
· Collaborate with other organizations and countries at the regional and sub-regional levels to establish networks.
· Take the initiative in organizing inter-country meetings and in contacting funding sources, both in the public and private sectors.
Recommendations for Youth Organizations
Youth Curriculum Development
· Establish a comprehensive curriculum development process.
· Decide on subject matter priorities as part of the curriculum development process.
· Coordinate and collaborate with other sectors, including government agencies and NGO's, in building quality curriculum for rural youth programmes.
· Develop, test and evaluate educational materials.
· Ensure youth and community volunteer leaders are involved in the process of materials development.
· Identify needs of specific target audiences, with special consideration for young women and disabled youth.
· Develop age-appropriate curriculum, which may include several sets of materials on the same topic targeting youth of different age groups, interests and ability levels within the programme.
Mechanisms/Plans for Sharing Resources
· Stimulate government interest in promoting cooperation and the development of collaborative working relationships among organizations and agencies targeting rural youth in the country.
· Host national and international meetings of youth workers.
· Identify needs for information and research related to curriculum development and delivery mechanisms.
· Contact and connect with other programmes outside the country.
· Participate, when possible, in national and international meetings and forums.
· Establish communications on youth development initiatives within the Country, for example, though a newsletter.
Content of youth programmes need to be specific to the audience taking into account the age of members, environment, needs, interests and opportunities. However, some subject matter content areas, such as the following, are likely to be important to most youth programmes:
· Organization of rural young people into groups or clubs.· Leadership training for professional youth workers, volunteer leaders and youth group members themselves.
· Family life education, human sexuality, HIV/AIDS awareness, substance abuse, quality of life, nutrition, and household food security.
· Business and farm management
· Improved technology, entrepreneurial aspects, including services in agriculture, marketing, transport, farm mechanization, input supply, post harvest handling and other downstream activities.
· Environmental issues, integrated pest management, soil and water management and natural resources.
