Tito E. Contado
Chief, Agricultural Extension and Education Service, FAO
It is a great pleasure to welcome you, on behalf of the Director-General of FAO, to this Expert Consultation on Extension Rural Youth Programmes and Sustainable Development. I also take pleasure in extending a warm welcome to all of you on behalf of our Assistant Director General, Mr. Henri Carsalade and our Division Director, Mr. Stein W. Bie who unfortunately are unable to be with us on this occasion.
We are most appreciative of your interest and willingness to participate, as leaders of rural youth programmes from around the world, in this important. Expert Consultation. We look forward to your active participation, to your insights and suggestions on improving rural youth programmes, which will not only help youth worldwide, but which will contribute to the attainment of universal and sustainable food security, sustainable agricultural production and natural resources management and the eventual alleviation of rural poverty. These goals - food security, sustainable agricultural production and poverty alleviation - will be the challenges that today's youth will face as tomorrow's leaders.
The Context: Rural Youth and Sustainable Development
Ten years ago, FAO had an Expert Consultation on Rural Youth and Young Farmers in Developing Countries. It was timed to coincide with the UN International Youth Year. It was organized within the framework of the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development held in 1979.
Between 1985 and 1995, that context has changed. Since 1985, many world events and changes have occurred which have strong implications for rural youth, and for young people in general. These events include:
· The FAO's Global Consultation on Agricultural Extension in 1989
· The Conference on Agriculture and the Environment in 1992
· The United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in 1993
· The International Conference on Nutrition of 1994
· The Social Summit in 1994 in Copenhagen
· The World Population Conference in Cairo in 1995
· The World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995
· The new world trade agreement (GATT)
· The push for structural adjustment and market liberalizations in developing countries
· Popularization of electronic communication technology.
Depending on how one looks at these elements, they could either diminish the focus on youth or enhance and sharpen the focus on the youthful segment of the world's population. In general, all of these factors implicitly or explicitly include concerns for youth and their future well being.
The Agricultural Extension and Education Service of FAO sees this new context as an opportunity and challenge to sharpen FAO's focus on and support to the youth segment of the rural population. For example, UNCED recognized youth as a special group and an important element in the quest for sustainable development between generations. The World Conference on Women highlighted the neglect in the past of the great potential of women in general, and more specifically female youth, in rural areas of the world. The World Conference on Population recognized the large young population in developing countries. The Global Consultation on Agricultural Extension concluded that there is inadequate attention and resources devoted to rural youth programmes in extension.
Major Issues and Challenges
This Expert Consultation focuses on rural youth as human resources for sustainable development. Using the jargon of the economists, rural youth are recognized as one of the "economic capitals" in sustainable agricultural and rural development. The others are natural resource capital, social and institutional capital, science and technological capital.
As we all know, human capital is a unique and pivotal factor in development in that it is both an active agent of change and a beneficiary of change and progress. When its potentials are developed, human capital is the only one that can create, modify, apply and utilize the other capitals such as technological and natural resources, for sustainable development. As human capital, rural youth in developing countries present many issues of which two major ones are relevant to this Expert Consultation, namely: their large numbers and their relatively low economic value.
The Numbers Issue. The large numbers of youth, which will be around 1,180 million by the year 2000, make them a significant economic factor in development. Although the proportion of rural youth has been declining from around 66 percent in 1980 to a predicted 53 percent by the year 2000, their absolute numbers have continued to expand from approximately 476 million in the early 1980's to around 573 million in the year 2000. The large numbers of youth in rural areas and the poor economic situation of many developing countries, present the critical challenge of mobilizing and involving youth as active participants in the process of sustainable agricultural and rural development.
The Economic Value Issue. As agents of change and as generators of wealth and services, young people individually command very little economic value in the village and in the larger economy. With limited opportunities for gainful employment of the untrained, the low economic value of rural youth is due to an oversupply as well as their inadequate know-how and experience that is productive for development. This is particularly serious for those rural youth who have little or no formal schooling, or those who drop out of school very early in life. The major challenge that this presents to this Expert Consultation is how to effectively establish rural youth development programmes that can improve and enhance the economic and social value of rural youth, individually and collectively, in their own social milieu.
Constraints and Opportunities
Although rural youth often have little or few economic assets such as land and property, they have the time, energy and intelligence needed to learn and improve their knowledge and capabilities for positive change and development. Unlike adults who may have fixed ideas, rural youth are generally highly flexible to adjust or adopt innovations for development. For example, rural youth are likely to learn and adopt new science-based farm enterprises, especially those that protect natural resources, and are likely to take population education more seriously than their parents. To address these constraints and opportunities, there are at least three strategic issues that you should consider in your deliberations during this Expert Consultation.
The Policy Issue. Given the economic and social significance of rural youth in developing countries, what is the scope for the formulation of adequate policies that recognize the potential and important role of youth in sustainable agricultural and rural development? Is there adequate provision of mechanisms, for example organizations, and support to increase their economic value by meeting their training and developmental needs? As a policy, do ministries of agriculture consider and include rural male and female youth as part of the present and future agricultural manpower? Which policies can ministries of agriculture and agricultural education and extension institutions implement that can increase, in a stable manner, the concern and support for the training and involvement of rural youth in sustainable agricultural and rural development?
Programmatic Issues. Given the large number of rural youth and the need to increase their economic value in their respective localities, which programmes for out-of-school rural youth can enhance their involvement in the development process and improve their economic and social worth and thus their contributions to sustainable development? Which approaches, with wide applicability, cost-effectiveness and economic sustainability are available, can be tested and adopted more widely? Which priority programme thrusts and educational content can accelerate the improvement in the capacities and economic value of rural youth, particularly in Low-Income, Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs)? Is there scope and in what areas, for international organizations such as FAO to assist in addressing programmatic issues of rural youth development programmes?
The Resources Issue. The Global Consultation on Agricultural Extension pointed out the issue of too few resources devoted to rural youth by agricultural extension organizations of both the public and private sectors. How can rural youth programmes attract more resource support from the public and private sectors, including NGOs?
What are the potentials for national and local governments' cooperation and partnership in funding rural youth programmes?
Can it be demonstrated that resources invested in rural youth programmes have significant economic and social returns? If there are rural youth programmes and projects that demonstrate competitive economic returns, can they be expanded and funded by investment institutions such as national and regional development banks and the World Bank?
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you will have the time and the right environment during this Consultation to reflect upon the various issues and opportunities which I have briefly outlined in my opening remarks, and any other relevant issues that I have not mentioned. Given your many years of experience and expertise in rural youth development programmes, the challenge is yours to collectively offer creative ideas and advice on how member countries and international organizations such as FAO can effectively address the constraints and opportunities for developing the contributions of rural youth to their own development, and to national and regional sustainable agricultural and rural development.
Let me conclude by thanking the Agricultural Extension and Education staff for creating this excellent environment for a professional consultation of experts from around the world on rural youth for sustainable development. Finally, may I express our sincerest confidence in your individual and collective commitment and capacity to successfully produce useful advice and recommendations for the work of our Organization and its member countries in rural youth programme development which can contribute significantly to the attainment of sustainable agricultural and rural development.
