R. William Seiders
Agricultural Training and Extension Officer, Rural Youth
Agricultural Extension and Education Service, FAO
Purpose and scope of the paper
The primary purpose of this paper is to provide you with necessary background information to assist you as you work over the next few days. It will include the purpose of the Consultation, some information on needs of youth, the potential of rural youth programmes, the definition of key concepts, a description of priority audiences, a brief overview of the history of rural youth work, a review of FAO's work with rural youth, the conceptual framework of the Consultation, implications of FAO's reorganization and possibilities for the future.
Purpose of the expert consultation
This Expert Consultation is to provide FAO with technical recommendations that will contribute to the development of a draft programme of action for rural youth work. This will help in the design of a framework for general strategies in working with rural youth programmes worldwide over the next five to ten years. Recommendations will be made on how FAO can support priority needs of member countries related to research, publications, training and technical assistance. It should include from eight to ten broad priority areas of action. Under each area there will be sets of specific recommendations for FAO, for governments and for rural youth programmes.
An expert consultation is different from a conference, a workshop or many other types of meetings. It is a gathering of professionals with specialized knowledge and experience in a given field, assembled in one place and at one time to give advice. There are no observers. It is not a training activity, although we hope each of us will learn a great deal from one another as we exchange ideas and develop recommendations. Most of the time during a consultation is for deliberations on key issues. The few papers presented are to set the stage for discussions to follow.
Related to the purpose of the Expert Consultation, it is important for you to understand who you are and who you represent. From the brief CV's that each of you provided, I was able to determine that among you there are over 250 years of accumulated experience working with youth programmes and activities in one form or another. I find this quite impressive!
Several criteria that were established as decisions were made about who to invite, including geographical and gender representation. With a given number of 18 sponsored participants, we first sought geographical representation. Sixteen of you, four each, are from the three regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. One is from the Near East. Two are from the United States of America and three from Europe, one of these from Poland. Six of you are women. Within the context of extension rural youth programmes, we also sought a variety of organizational types. Some of you are from government 4-H, Young Farmer or programmes similar to 4-H. Others of you are from private not-for-profit foundations that either operate a national 4-H-type programme or were set up to support a government 4-H rural youth programme. A few of you were invited because of the potential to create new extension rural youth programmes in your countries. Others of you come from other types of youth programmes including the World Association of Girl Guides and Girls Scouts, the International Association of Agricultural Students and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Another distinguishing characteristic of an expert consultation is that, unlike many other types of meeting, especially in the United Nations system, you are invited to participate in your personal capacity. Although all of you come from countries and organizations, for the purpose of the expert consultation you do not necessarily represent your government or your organization. You were invited because of your individual expertise.
If you do not represent your government, nor necessarily your organization, who do you represent? Firstly, since there are so few of you, your deliberations and recommendations must consider priority youth audiences for FAO worldwide. Many sub-regions and most countries of the world are not represented in this Expert Consultation. You must represent them! Secondly, you represent rural youth and rural youth programmes in your region of the world. Again, most countries in your region are not represented here. In like manner, you also should consider other youth programmes in your own country. And yes, even after everything above is said, you were selected because of the organization or government agency you work for. It is because of this experience with a particular organization or agency that we so highly value your contributions to this Expert Consultation.
The situation of rural youth worldwide
Rural youth make up a large segment of the total rural population, however they are often neglected and overlooked by government policy makers and international agency 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 addition, young people for the most part, have limited opportunities for participation and most often are unable to speak out on their own behalf. For many countries, it is assumed that formal education is all that is needed in response to needs of youth, therefore other options and opportunities, such as non-formal educational programmes are often poorly supported or not even considered.
Although I don't want to spend much time on the topic in this paper, I do want to reflect briefly on the troubling conditions of rural young people around the world and why our work is so important. Because of your long years of experience in youth work, most of you are well aware of the situations facing rural youth in your countries.
In many developing countries, up to seventy percent of the young people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five live in rural areas with few primary schools and poorly qualified teachers. Of those that do go to school, 30 percent drop out during the first few years. Where there is school in sub-Sahara Africa, formal education lasts less than three years. In some regions of the world, as few as ten percent of the children continue their education beyond primary school. Of that ten percent, less than one-tenth of them finish secondary school and continue to some type of higher education. According to UNESCO statistics, there are from 130 to 150 million out-of-school youth and most of these are in sub-Sahara Africa. These numbers are increasing, not falling. Over two-thirds of these out-of-school youth are girls and young women.
The total youth population in the world today is estimated to be about 1,500 million and is projected to grow to two billion by the year 2050. All of that growth will be in the developing world, where it is projected that in the future eight of every nine youth will be living in a developing country. Although the total number of youth will remain greater in rural areas over the next ten to fifteen years, all future growth in numbers of youth will be in the cities. By the year 2025, it is estimated that there will be over one billion youth living in the cities, with only 700 million remaining in rural areas. Rural youth programmes have a very important role to play in helping youth who do decide to stay in rural areas, to have more satisfying and productive lives.
There are a whole set of circumstances that are placing youth at high risk in rural areas including HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, violence, discrimination, broken families and high birth rates among adolescent girls. Once thought to be a concern only in urban areas, these problems are causing widespread harm to hundreds of thousands of rural youth worldwide. Lack of educational opportunities and limited possibilities of gainful employment in rural areas combined with low standards of living, cause youth to leave their communities for the cities.
The value of rural youth programmes
Youth represent the future and hope of every country. The high return on resources invested in youth today have both immediate and long term benefits. Where they exist and are functioning well, 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.
The following aspects of youth programmes offer potential for helping young people in rural areas contribute to sustainable agricultural development and the betterment of their communities and their country. Government officials and policy makers need to consider some of these items as they think about the significant role that rural youth programmes can play in their countries.
In many parts of the world, rural youth are involved in economic activities. In some countries they make up a significant part of the total population. This is especially true where formal education in rural areas is limited and youth become involved in production activities at an early age. Many rural youth programmes actively promote the application of technology to improve agricultural production on a sustainable basis, and the start-up of agricultural and rural-based non-agricultural income-generating activities. Any attempt to enhance the knowledge, skills and experiences of young people, and increase their access to resources through rural youth programmes will have immediate positive impact on rural economies.
In addition to helping youth acquire knowledge and skills related to sustainable agricultural development and income-generating activities, programmes targeting rural youth also have the potential to help them become aware of, understand and value, people of differing ethnic and cultural backgrounds. There are too many cases in the world today where lack of appreciation of cultural diversity is tearing rural society as well as entire nations apart. Most programmes stress activities that contribute to building cross-cultural understanding.
Belonging to a formal group offers the experience of democratic action with elected officers and structured decision making by consensus or majority vote. Skills gained help youth contribute to the effectiveness of peoples participation in the general community. A related area is that youth gain and practice valuable leadership skills that will enable them to accept formal and informal leadership roles as adults. Special efforts can be made to provide leadership skills training and practical experience for young women to increase women's representation in rural community organizations.
Youth programmes have the potential to empower youth to become agents of change in their local communities. Youth need to be viewed as resources for development rather than as objects of development. Through an FAO rural youth workshop in Guatemala, Central America in 19.93 young people were trained to go back to their communities to plan and carry out small-scale, low-cost activities to improve their communities.
There is a potential to strengthen families. Although focused on young people, community-based rural youth programmes easily lend themselves, with a little bit of planning and effort, to the active involvement of all family members. Parents often serve as volunteer leaders of their children's' club or group.
Especially for out-of-school young people, a rural youth programme may be the only way they can learn about critically important and in some cases life-threatening topics in areas such as HIV/AIDS, population education, nutrition and health.
Rural youth programmes can help youth feel good about themselves through positive activities and significant accomplishments of personal and group goals. Much of the destructive behaviour among youth in many parts of the world today in urban and rural communities alike are caused by low self-esteem. Strong rural youth programmes can help bring about the changes that lead young people toward contributing and productive lives.
Rural youth programmes can provide a safe learning environment where young boys and girls together can effectively discuss and deal with sensitive issues such as gender roles and population education. Boys and girls can learn together and experience proper roles that will eventually lead to attitudinal changes in the larger community in support of Women In Development (WID) goals.
It has been demonstrated over and over again that young people tend to take a special interest in conservation and the management of natural resources. They are more ready to accept and promote sound environmental practices than adults. Youth have demonstrated a readiness and ability to exert a significant influence on society as a whole in this critical area. Rural youth programmes can become the catalyst which energizes the process of environmental education in a country leading to practical applications on a large scale, thus contributing to sustainable development.
Definition of key concepts
Before we go much further, I would like to define some key concepts that are important as we work over the next few days. Two of these, "extension rural youth programmes" and "sustainable development" are found in the title of the Consultation. Another has to do with how we define "youth" and the other is "food security", an area of critical importance to the work of FAO.
It is important for us to understand the concept of "extension rural youth programmes." We use the term in its broadest sense. It includes the more traditional 4-H and Young Farmer Programmes of government ministries of agriculture. These are often found within agricultural extension services and draw heavily on agricultural and rural development subject matter that forms a significant portion of their non-formal educational curriculum for rural youth. The term, as we will use it, also includes 4-H and similar programmes that came out of the tradition of the worldwide 4-H youth development movement. Some are found in government ministries other than agriculture, while many are non-government organizations (NGOs). These also include private foundations that were specially established to support these types of programmes. These programmes are generally characterized as using a comprehensive youth development approach; having an educational mission; formally structured, democratically operated clubs; learn-by-doing project based; and generally supported by local community volunteer leaders. By design, most of you come from these types of programmes.
Although a focus of this Expert Consultation is on extension-type rural youth programmes, we do not want to forget that FAO's mission is to support all programmes, both government and NGO, that target rural young people with educational programmes. The title of the' Consultation specifically mentions "extension rural youth programmes", but it is not our intention to leave the other types of rural youth programmes out of consideration.
Sustainable development is another key phrase in the title. It is fairly obvious why we included sustainable development in the title of the Consultation. We firmly believe that rural young people, through rural youth programmes, can make a significant impact on the development of their respective countries and with their help this development can be sustainable. Our Service belongs to the new Sustainable Development Department. In a recent brochure giving information about the SD Department there is a good description of sustainable development in the context of FAO's mandate. It says:
"The challenge facing agriculture is to satisfy people's rights to food and, at the same time, ensure that the resource base remains productive for the future. As populations grow, and land and water resources dwindle, the world must make a rapid shift to sustainable agricultural and rural development. This approach seeks to ensure that present and future generations have equal access to the total capital of natural and human resources."
We should also keep this in mind as we carry out our deliberations. Sustainability concepts, strategies and methods need to be incorporated into projects and activities supporting rural youth programmes.
There is no universally accepted definition of "youth." Each individual rural youth programme in a country decides the age ranges of their target population. The United Nations, for statistical purposes, defines youth as males and females between the ages of 15 and 24. There is a wide variation among programmes in establishing age criteria for participation. Many programmes target youth between the ages of 8 and 20. Some have an upper range of 25 years of age. The range among all programmes can go from as young as 5 to as old as 30. In some countries, it is often said that life, especially in rural areas, is so difficult that there is no youth; a person goes from being a child to taking on adult responsibilities without passing through a youth phase. Rural youth programmes may work with a wide variety of ages, however age groupings should be identified and educational programmes developed accordingly.
Most rural youth programmes worldwide tend to work with older adolescents and young adults. Experience and field research are showing that to obtain important results, rural youth programmes need to consider working with younger boys and girls and educational activities need to reflect this. As a child reaches adolescence, most of the attitudes and behaviours are already established. Another reason is that we need to work with younger boys and girls to help them develop basic skills so they will have necessary competencies as they become older youth.
Gender is important in the definition of youth. In programmes it supports, FAO seeks a balance in terms of male and female participation. Where tradition and culture allow, youth of both sexes are encouraged to meet and carry out activities together. Where this is not possible, programmes need to assure that relatively equal numbers of boys and girls are being reached and that programmes are designed with their special needs in mind.
Food security is another important word we need to define and bring to your attention. Food security and food production in Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDC) is a major new thrust within FAO. (See Annex I for a list of LIFDC's) The World Bank defines food security as "access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life" (FAO, 1995).
Priority audiences for FAO
It is up to individual organizations within countries to decide on their priority youth audiences. For FAO, the highest priority youth audiences are out-of-school young people living in rural areas of developing countries, especially from LIFDC's. Many of these will be the farmers of tomorrow and tend to be most neglected by educational programmes and other community services. FAO does work with rural youth who are in school, but generally in an out-of-school setting.
FAO is open to work with all government ministries and NGO programmes reaching rural youth. Over the years, we have worked on an equal basis with all government agencies and NGO's in countries targeting rural youth. We have tried to be "all things to all people". In an age of reduced budgets and a need to demonstrate higher levels of impact, we feel we must focus more precisely on those organizations of highest priority. This Consultation represents a turning point in the implementation of this strategy, where the focus is on extension-type rural youth programmes. Figure 1 shows the classification of youth programmes into three general priority categories:
Figure 1. Priority Classification of programmes targeting rural youth
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Category # 1: Extension-type programmes, including ministries of agriculture, agricultural extension services, Young Farmers Programmes, 4-H, programmes similar to 4-H and foundations supporting such programmes. Category # 2: Other government ministries and NGO's working exclusively with rural youth. Category # 3: Other government ministries and NGO's targeting all youth in a country, including rural youth. Some identify rural youth as a sub-audience of priority and develop special programmes, such as in Uganda where the Girl Guides have a special programme called "The Girl Guides Farmer Programme". |
There are several reason why we have chosen extension-type rural youth programmes as the highest priority. (1) FAO has traditionally been closely associated with the international 4-H youth development movement; (2) within the organizational structure of FAO, rural youth work is in the Agricultural Extension and Education Service of the Research, Extension and Training Division, one of whose primary mission is to strengthen agricultural extension services worldwide; (3) there is a strong feeling that youth programmes should be a part of all extension services as a way of more completely meeting the needs of rural families; (4) due to recent structural adjustments within many governments worldwide, existing youth programmes are facing serious difficulties; some have their very existence threatened. (5) if we can help extension rural youth programmes become stronger, they in turn become more effective partners in building national, regional and district level collaborative working relationships with other government ministries and NGO's. (6) extension-type programmes, unless FAO plays a role, do not have any international support systems with links to international organizations similar to those which are provided to other national programmes; and (7) we do not know which of the programmes are still in existence and how we might be able to help them, since the last systematic work to identify them was done in the 1970's.
History of rural youth work
As we think about creating new programmes or strengthening existing ones, lessons from the past can be quite helpful. Much can be learned from the early development of rural youth work in terms of reasons for getting started, successes and failures. A look back not only provides lessons learned, but can give valuable insight into the potential such programmes can have for the future. Annex II contains a brief review of the early development of rural youth work in the United States and the subsequent spread of the 4-H youth development throughout the world.
Recent changes affecting government extension rural youth programmes
Over the years, many of these programmes mentioned above have ceased to exist for one reason or another. For some, after initial start-up, there were not enough human and financial resources invested to sustain a viable rural youth programme. A few fell by the wayside as a result of political turmoil, civil unrest and war. On the other hand, many of these programmes have been successful over the years and are only now facing serious problems caused by structural adjustment of national economies and reorganization of governments.
Although not understood on a broad basis or well-documented in the literature, there seems to be a crisis worldwide among many of the government rural youth programmes that started out of the movement of the 1950's and 1960's. Many are struggling, while others no longer exist. The issue needs to be studied in order to learn what might be done to assist programmes by helping them adapt to the current and future realities of their respective countries. Some of the contributing factors include: (1) drastic changes in national extension services leading to reorganization and down-sizing; (2) decentralization of government administration; (3) loss of "institutional memory" of the traditions, practices and methodology of rural youth programming; (4) lack of resources, information and support; and (5) shifting of experienced and trained personnel away from rural youth activities.
One of the purposes of our Consultation is to try to gain some level of understanding of what is happening. We will do this through a review of country papers, a presentation of a summary of these papers and a panel discussion on government rural youth extension programmes.
FAO's involvement with rural youth work
FAO became involved in rural youth work in the late 1960's. It was closely associated at the time with the worldwide 4-H youth development movement that was rapidly spreading around the world. In 1985, as part of the United Nations International Youth Year, the Expert Consultation on Rural Youth and Young Farmers in Developing Countries was held. Since then, major activities have included o = dional and regional workshops, institutional strengthening projects for rural youth programmes and the initiation of FAO population education activities in 1988. A milestone in FAO rural youth work was the publishing of the first issue of Youth Works in 1987.
As you think about possible future courses of action for FAO, you should have some idea of the scope of rural youth work over the past several years.
Established in 1987, Youth Works, is a newsletter that is published twice a year and distributed through FAO country offices to government officials and rural youth professionals worldwide in Spanish, French and English. Over 4,000 copies of each issue now go out to a growing list of subscribers. We are making every effort to ensure that the newsletter reaches field level youth professionals. In addition to providing useful subject matter information and updates on FAO rural youth activities, our hope for the future is that it becomes a way of exchanging ideas and information among youth professionals worldwide. We strongly encourage contributions in the form of articles, information notes, and available references and resources of interest to readers.
A significant amount of FAO's work with rural youth has been in the area of population education. Two United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) projects are under way. One is an inter-regional project with activities in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, China, Vietnam, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Thailand and Indonesia. The other project is sub-regional, focusing on five countries in Central America. Both projects are designed to adapt FAO rural youth population education leader guides to specific country situations on a regional basis. The ultimate goal is to increase awareness among rural youth of the impact of rapid population growth on family life as well as on national development and to encourage the institutionalization of population education within government and non-government programmes for rural youth.
In addition to the UNFPA-funded activities, FAO in 1994 on its own sponsored a two-week rural youth population education workshop in the Philippines using Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) funds. The participating countries of China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines sent teams of three persons each.
A strategic planning activity for rural youth took place in Uganda with the assistance of a FAO TCP project. What started out as a fairly small-scale FAO project to strengthen the rural youth programme of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries of Uganda, evolved in 1994 into an larger effort to bring together most rural-youth serving ministries of government and non-government organizations (NGOs) to explore ways of sharing resources and information, and possibly collaborating on activities and projects. As part of the project, seventy-four representatives from rural youth organizations and government agencies, including local volunteer leaders and youth from 17 districts came together in a two-day National Strategic Planning Conference for Rural Youth in Uganda.
Another outcome of the TCP in Uganda mentioned above was a study to determine the impact of HIV/AIDS on rural families with special attention to youth. Due to the critical nature of AIDS in Uganda, the design of the project called for the study as an important first step in any attempt to strengthen the rural youth programme. The title of the study report written by Dr. Daphne Topouzis is Uganda: The Socio-Economic Impact of HIV/AIDS on Rural Families with an Emphasis on Youth.
Using Regular Programme Funds, over the past several years, FAO has supported the planning and implementation of national workshops to study the situation and needs of rural youth in various countries throughout the world. The most recent workshop was held in Ethiopia to assist the Ministry of Agriculture explore the possibility of establishing a new extension rural youth programme. Workshops were held in Guatemala in 1993 and in Uganda in 1992.
Conceptual framework for the expert consultation
Again as important background for you to keep in mind as you discuss and deliberate about possible future courses of action for FAO and governments, you should consider the elements of a conceptual framework of the Consultation. (See Figure 2)
Figure 2. Conceptual Framework for the Expert Consultation
So that you can make informed decision about what FAO should be doing, you need to have some idea of what resources are available:
Possible Inputs:
(1) FAO Human Resources
· Rural Youth Officer· Agricultural Extension and Education Service Officers (SDRE)
· Regional and Sub-Regional Agricultural Extension and Education Officers
· Officers from other services in the Research, Extension and Training Division and other technical divisions (Forestry; Animal Production and Health; Land and Water Development; Plant Production and Protection; Agricultural Engineering; Food and Nutrition; Fisheries; Environment; Integration of Women in Development; Population; and People's Participation.)
(2) FAO Programme Resources
· TCDC/TCCT (Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries/Technical Cooperation among Countries in Transition)· Retired Experts
· Sabbatical (academic/research)
· Regular Programme Funds
· TCP
· Funding from other sources
(3) Access to the Youth Professional Research-Knowledge Base (PRK) Applied to Rural Youth Programmes
(4) Access to Agricultural/Rural Development Research-Knowledge Base Applied to Rural Youth Programmes
· Research-knowledge base from FAO Technical Divisions· Research-knowledge base from national agricultural extension, research and education systems
(5) Collaborative Working Relationships with Other Organizations and Agencies
· UN agencies (UNFPA, UNDCP, UNESCO)· German Government (Herrsching Seminar for the Promotion of Rural Youth Work)
· Regional Organizations such as the ASEAN Rural Youth Development Centre and the Rural Youth Network for the Southern Cone of Latin America (REJUR)
· Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA)
Below are some of the possible outputs. Knowing what FAO has done in the past may help you as you formulate recommendations for the future:
· Possible outputs:
· Research
· Publications
· Networks established
· Projects formulated
· Technical assistance
· National/Regional/International workshops
· Youth Works
· Strategic planning,
· Roster of youth development professionals (TCDC, Sabbatical, retired experts)
· Other
1996-97 regular programme proposal
There are four main activities proposed for use of FAO Regular Programme funds for 1996-97. If the budget is approved, Youth Works will continue to be published two times a year. Another proposed activity is to carry out a survey and publish a global directory of extension rural youth programmes. This would help us identify extension rural youth programmes and facilitate networking within regions and around the world. We hope to be able to carry out a strategic planning exercise for at least one rural youth programme in a country. We feel it is a necessary first step in strengthening a programme or creating a new one. The fourth activity, in collaboration with the Agricultural Education side of our service, is to develop a rural youth development curriculum in an agricultural university in a developing country. The curriculum would service as a prototype for other agricultural universities around the world.
Implication of FAO's reorganization
As most of you may be aware, FAO is undergoing a major reorganization. You should know about some of these changes as they have implications for the future of rural youth activities within the organization. The internal organizational structure is very different than what it was one year ago. Departments, Divisions and Services have been changed to be more in line with new strategies for helping FAO carry out its mandate more effectively. As a result of this reorganization, rural youth work within the SDRE Service is in a new division and a new department. The new division is Research, Extension and Training (SDR) in the new department of Sustainable Development (SD).
Two areas of change that have immediate impact on rural youth work as it will be carried out in the future has to do with the concept of operational and normative functions and decentralization. The operational functions are those that have do with project formulation, project management and providing technical assistance. Normative functions are those that relate to designing and testing new methods, research, being on the "cutting edge" of the latest technology in a given field, and the dissemination of this knowledge. Departments have been realigned according to these two types of functions. The rural youth component of the Agricultural Extension and Education Service (SDRE) has clearly been designated as a normative unit in the new structure. This should be considered in your deliberations in helping to guide FAO's rural youth work into the future.
The other has to do with decentralization. The idea is to bring FAO closer to the member countries by creating new sub-regional offices and staffing them with technical officers. There will now be Agricultural Extension and Educational Officers in the regional offices of Santiago, Chile; Cairo, Egypt; and Accra, Ghana and the sub-regional offices of Bridgetown, Barbados and Harare, Zimbabwe. These five officers will now have responsibilities for supporting rural youth work in their respective geographical areas of assignment. Much of their work in the new scheme of things will be considered operational.
Possibilities for the future
I would like to ask you to consider the following ideas for FAO's possible future areas of work that could contribute to expanding and strengthening programmes for rural youth worldwide.
The first has to do with strengthening cooperation among regional and international organizations. FAO should work with others to encourage networking, cooperation and collaboration among national organizations and government agencies targeting rural youth. The potential number of youth in need in rural areas is great and the job of working with them has become so complex that all organizations targeting rural youth in a country have an important role to play as they make their own unique contributions. In many cases, it is no longer possible for any one organization to think they can solve the problems of rural youth single-handedly. There is a need to build collaborative working relationships among the various youth-serving organizations and agencies in each country to share information and resources and to develop and carry out joint projects and activities. We need to encourage the establishment of collaborative working relationships among government agencies and NGO's targeting rural youth.
The second is to carry out a worldwide study of rural youth programmes. As we all know, one of the first steps in planning any activity is to study the situation. There is limited information available concerning the number and characteristics of rural youth programmes worldwide. It seems that information does not exist, except on a regional basis in a few parts of the world. We would like to see a data base developed and a directory published that provides basic information about each rural youth programme. It would serve as a benchmark in helping to assess needs to plan action programmes and would promote networking, the exchange of information and ideas among the various youth programmes worldwide, by providing names, addresses, telephone and Fax numbers, and E-mail addresses through a directory. A starting place in line with FAO's priorities may be a directory of extension rural youth programmes.
Strengthening private sector funding support for rural youth programmes may be more important than ever before. Governments do not, and most likely never will have, enough money, even in wealthy developed countries, to be able to fully fund a significant rural youth programme. At the most, governments can be expected to provide financial resources for staff and some operational costs. Experience has shown that it is difficult to maintain a rural youth programme without private sector support. Much of the short term assistance comes in the form of developmental projects or other types of donor funding. For sustainability, what is needed to supplement limited government budgets, is a private non-profit foundation with the capability to sell the benefits of rural youth programmes to potential donors. Instead of relying solely on regular international donor community support, funding for worthwhile activities should be sought from the international and national private sector including industries, corporations and businesses. In many instances this has really paid off. Where governments have not been able to maintain rural youth programmes, foundations have picked up the responsibility.
There is a need to support rural youth work as a profession. We must all work to enhance the image of youth professionals worldwide. In strengthening rural youth programmes, we need to build the status and pride in the profession of the rural youth worker through recognition and professional development. We should encourage the formation of national and regional rural youth professional associations.
All of us should work to support rural youth development as a discipline. We need to build the recognition of youth development as a true academic discipline supported by a growing research-knowledge base. Explore the use of the youth development research and knowledge taxonomy as it applies to rural youth programmes in developing countries. How can the elements including communication, educational design, youth development, youth programme management and volunteerism be applied to improve programmes in developing countries?
Create a clearinghouse of information on income-generating project ideas, micro-enterprises and vocational training relevant to rural youth programmes. Some of the greatest needs of rural youth programmes worldwide is help in implementing effective income-generating projects. A tremendous amount of information and experience exists, but it needs to be put in a form that can be readily accessed by rural youth programmes.
Summary
The primary purpose of this paper was to provide you with background information about FAO, it's rural youth work and available resources to assist you in your deliberations over the next three days. We appreciate you being a part of this Expert Consultation and look forward to the upcoming discussion and ultimately to the recommendations.
Reference
FAO. Development Education Exchange Papers. Rome: FAO, 1995.
Annex I - Low-income, food-deficit countries (LIFDC)
AFRICA
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo
Cote d'Ivoire
Djibouti
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Morocco
Mozambique
Niger
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Uganda
Zaire
Zambia
Zimbabwe
NEAR EAST
Afghanistan
Egypt
Jordan
Sudan
Syria
Yemen
FAR EAST
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Cambodia
China
India
Indonesia
Lao
Maldives
Mongolia
Nepal
Pakistan
Philippines
Sri Lanka
LATIN AMERICA
Bolivia
Colombia
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Nicaragua
Peru
OCEANIA
Kiribati
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
Annex II - A brief history of rural youth development work
Thomas and Marilyn Wessel give a good overview of the beginnings of rural youth work in their book 4-H An American Idea, 1890-1980: A History of 4-H (Wessel and Wessel, 1982). In the 1850's they report that there were successes in agriculture, but the industrial revolution was beginning to take off in the cities. Around the 1870's there were more Americans finding employment in non-farm jobs than on the land. Rural families felt they were losing their children to the cities and subsequent deep emotional attachment to the land.
The 4-H movement grew out of this concern for the future of a generation of rural youth. Parents wanted to instill in their children the idea that agriculture was not just for those who could not get a job in the cities, but that farming and rural life was something to be valued.
The Wessels go on to say that the 4-H movement had no one beginning or national leader to create the programme. It started in several places throughout the country by farm families, agricultural scientists, school teachers, administrators and concerned citizens.
Another contributing factor was that the education being provided to most rural youth at the time was oriented toward urban living. In 1896 in the United States, a concerned professor at Cornell University, Mr. Liberty Hyde Bailey, considered this a primary factor in the constant migration of young people to the cities, which contributed to serious social and economic problems in the urban areas at the time. To interest young people in the beauty and wonder of the natural environment found in rural areas, he developed a series of nature leaflets to be used in rural schools throughout the State of New York. This idea soon spread to other states.
One of the earliest out-of-school groups was started in 1902 by Mr. Albert B. Graham, Superintendent of Schools in a township in Ohio. He met with the children and helped them work with simple projects that they could easily understand and carry out. These included testing the acidity of soil with litmus paper and selecting seed corn from their father's crop to be used in future planting. After a year, Graham sought help from the agricultural research station. The experiment station was looking for ways of promoting improved practices in the farming community. Soon youth club members were supplied with new varieties of corn to plant on their parents' farms to compare varieties to see how well they did. By 1904 there were over 3,000 members.
In Illinois, another principal of 4-H work was introduced - competition. Mr. Will B. Otwell in 1898 found that few adult farmers were interested in attending meetings to learn about new agricultural practices. He decided to forget parents and concentrate on youth. He offered a U.S. $ 1.00 premium on the best seed corn produced from improved varieties he had collected from all over the Midwest of the United States. That first year he had over 500 young boys who requested seed corn for the contest. In 1901 there were 1,500 boys and by 1904,50,000 entered the contest. Another major principal developed as a result of early youth work was "Learn by Doing". By 1910, in some parts of the country general youth clubs had been established, while in other areas contests were still the most important youth activities. An early movement saw the widespread establishment of Boys Corn Clubs and Girls Tomato Canning Clubs.
The general experience of the early agricultural leaders was that adult farmers were reluctant to try new practices. It soon became obvious that one of the fastest ways to introduce new technology was through young people. Parents saw the results for themselves of the work of their children and often applied these new practices to their entire farm. Governments worldwide should keep this important lesson from the past in mind when they consider allocating scarce resources to improving farming practices. Working with rural youth can have a significant impact on the rate at which new technology is adopted in a country.
From those early beginnings, the 4-H Youth Programme formally came into existence in the United States in 1914, along with a national law establishing the Cooperative Extension Service, the Smith-Lever Act. Today the 4-H Programme is very strong with over 5 million members and 670,000 local community-level adult volunteer leaders. Another important lesson is that to be successful, a programme must adapt to change. The 4-H Programme has been able to adapt to changing conditions over the almost 80 years of its formal existence. When it started, almost all members were sons and daughters of farmers. Today only 12 percent of the youth live on farms, while 21 percent come from large cities of over 50,000 people.
This 4-H movement spread to other countries. As has been demonstrated in many countries worldwide, the 4-H movement can be adapted to many different cultures and organizational settings. As early as the 1920's rural youth work was beginning in England, Canada and in Latvia. After World War II, 4-H programmes were started in Germany (1946), Korea (1946), Japan (1948) and Austria (1949) as part of national rebuilding efforts after the war. In the Philippines, 4-H became an important part of the Agricultural Extension Programme when the Bureau of Agricultural Extension was created in 1952.
In the 1970's, we were aware of almost 80 countries worldwide who had 4-H or programmes similar to 4-H. I have a poster hanging in my office originally developed by National 4-H Council in the United States with symbols of 96 rural youth organizations from 79 countries. The symbols are 4-H, 4-B, 4-A, 5-C, 4-D, 5-D, 4-F, 4-K, 3-P, 4-T and others that didn't necessarily use the clover insignia. Some of these programmes are represented by you who are here today. I also have a map of the world, produced about the same time as the poster with the symbols, that shows countries coloured green that have programmes similar to 4-H.
Wessel, Thomas and Marilyn. 4-H: An American Idea, 1900-1980: A History of 4-H. Chevy Chase: National 4-H Council, 1982.
