Jonathan F. Cook
bc Consultants, U.K.
Introduction
This paper is intended as a summary overview of the country and special interest papers tabled at the Consultation. As such, it does not deal with specifics for each country but rather tries to draw together trends and patterns which are common to the various programmes.
The paper also deals specifically with rural youth programmes concerned with agricultural and rural development such as the 4-H organisations, Future Farmers Associations and the Young Farmers Clubs. There are many other youth organisations or services that deal with moral issues, sports and recreation and with leadership development, such as the scout and guide movements, sports clubs and associations and the various religious organisations. Neither these nor the many organisations and services that include youth as a specific target group, such as health, education, rural credit, social and recreational clubs, are covered in the paper.
It is not a simple matter to present an overview of the papers presented which include countries as diverse as Barbados, a small, relatively prosperous island economy, Botswana, a resource poor land locked African country, Poland an Eastern European former centrally planned country, and Thailand and Malaysia - two of the fastest growing economies in the world.
However, despite the diversity in the countries in terms of size, politics, population density, agriculture, level of development and prosperity, a number of common concerns were raised in many of the papers and some general principles can be drawn from them.
Who are we talking about?
There is no accepted definition for "youth". The age range considered as youth is different in every country and may be as young as 8 in the 4-K programme in Kenya or 10 to 22 in the 4B programme of Botswana. Colombia gave the oldest range in the papers presented with 16 to 28. However, perhaps age is not a suitable measure of "youth". We have all known children who seem older than their age and many of the world's greatest geniuses produced their best work before they were 30. One of Britain's best known poets, John Keats - who incidentally wrote much of his best work in his room above the Spanish Steps in Rome and is buried a few hundreds metres from here - died at the age of 23. As mentioned in the paper from Kenya, however, what is a common factor, rather than age, is that youth are people who are largely dependent on their parents for their livelihood.
Youth, however are not children, but are in transition from childhood to adulthood. Both the problems and the strengths of youth are largely due to this transition where youth move towards increasing independence. Their aspirations are also largely connected with this move from dependency to independence, the search for meaning and purpose, entertainment and excitement, financial independence and ownership, desire for status in the community and for appreciation and acknowledgement by their peers. These are the common aspirations of youth worldwide. Helping youth to meet their aspirations in a constructive way is the aim of most youth programmes.
If aspirations are not satisfied in their own communities, young people will look for other ways to satisfy them resulting in rural to urban migration, drug problems and crime. The Rolling Stones expressed the feeling in their hugely successful hit song "Can't get no satisfaction".
Common problems
To a large extent successes and failures in rural youth extension programmes seem to depend on how well these aspirations of youth are recognised and taken into account.
· Common youth problems mentioned by several papers include increasing unemployment, population pressures leading to reduced availability of land and other resources, rural to urban migration, poor educational opportunities and the increasing marginalisation of agriculture and rural life. As populations increase, the problems of the urban areas become increasingly acute leading to cuts in funding and resources for rural programmes and especially of youth programmes. Inevitably then as resources become more scarce, and poverty increases, youth look for ways out of the trap often with limited success. Some move to the cities though with poor education and few skills of use in urban areas, they find it difficult to compete with those raised in the cities. Others marry early to give themselves independence as mentioned by the paper from Colombia - which again without the skills, knowledge and resources to develop their own business often makes matters worse.· Education in rural areas is often inappropriate being biased toward urban life. This in turn increases aspirations to move to the urban areas as it is felt that a more satisfying or more exciting life can be found in the cities. Agriculture and other subjects relevant to rural life have been introduced into primary school curricula in some countries in an attempt to help with this problem by improving the skills and knowledge needed for rural life. Since rural youth rarely have the skills and knowledge to make a successful move to the urban centres where they have to compete with those raised in the cities, this type of education at least helps them to make better use of the opportunities available in rural areas. Agriculture itself, however, is increasingly seen as an unattractive and difficult way to make a living, meaning that improving agricultural knowledge and skills alone are unlikely to prevent the move to the cities.
· For those who follow formal education courses to higher levels in agriculture, with the exception of South Africa, there is no longer any guarantee of employment due to cuts in state employment for graduates.
How have youth programmes evolved?
Young farmers clubs and 4-H organisations have traditionally aimed at helping and encouraging youth to develop a fulfilling life in rural areas by providing them with the technical and social skills and knowledge necessary. At least that has been the aim in theory. In practice many of these programmes have concentrated more on "keeping young people busy and out of trouble" rather than on teaching specific useful technical and social skills. In this respect, the paper from Kenya mentioned that young people did not seem to have an understanding of how the programme would affect them in their future lives but only focused on the immediate benefits of the programme.
The earliest programmes aimed directly at rural youth were the formal vocational agriculture schools.
In some Western countries, such as Poland and Finland, Young Farmers, 4-H clubs and similar organizations were then established in the first quarter of the century.
In most developing countries however similar programmes were not started until the middle of the century with Thailand being one of the first to start a rural youth programme for agriculture and leadership training in 1953.
The majority of programmes began linked directly with a government ministry - usually the ministry of agriculture, though occasionally with others such as the ministry of education. In several countries there is an ongoing debate as to which ministry should be in charge of the youth programmes. In practice this tends to be resolved through some kind of cooperative arrangement whereby one ministry acts as the lead agency and others coordinate their programmes with them as in Kenya with the ministries of agriculture and education.
In some countries, programmes are operated largely through schools or formal education institutions which has had both positive and negative effects as seen in the next section.
Support for rural youth programmes has come and gone over the century. Most notably in Poland, whose 4-H programme first begun in 1925, virtually disappeared and begun again in 1991. Some countries today maintain strong and growing membership such as Poland, Finland, Botswana and Colombia. Others such as Guatemala and Kenya show declining membership largely through reduced budgets.
In many countries of the world, restrictions on government budgets mean that financial support is being cut. Strong rural youth programmes are generally seen as desirable by governments but pressure from urban areas mean that the rural youth programmes are rarely one of their highest priorities. New sources of funds therefore need to be found as with the foundations established in Barbados, Colombia, Thailand, Poland, Costa Rica, Botswana and Finland.
Lessons learned
A number of issues have been recognised in the various reports which seem to be of key importance in planning and implementing youth programmes. Lack of consideration of these aspects may be major reasons behind the limited success of some rural youth programmes.
Although experiences in youth programmes have of course been extremely varied throughout the world, common aspects identified as important can be grouped under the following categories:
· Activities and content of rural youth programmes
· Organisation and policy issues
· Rural youth group management
· Co-ordination and links with formal education
· Funding and support.
1. Activities and content of rural youth programmes
The subject areas covered by rural youth training and the range of activities organised for youth groups has been considered by most countries as a crucial aspect in the success or failure of the rural youth programme. Failure to pay enough attention to the relevance and appropriateness of the activities results not only in very limited success of the programme, but often leads to drop outs, decreasing support from the community and break up of the groups. This in turn can undermine the potential success of future, better conceived activities.
Specific points raised by different countries include:
The content of activities should be relevant, up to date, practical and seen as such by the youth members and their communities. Several countries have implemented programmes which for example have included training of young people in farm practices which were either obsolete or did not respond to specific market needs.· Activities should be varied since the interest of a young audience is easily lost when activities become repetitive.
· When choosing activities the aspirations of young people to gain some financial independence should be considered. Income generation activities introduced by the programmes need to be planned in such a way that risk involved is minimised and that the rural group is given access to all technical information and skills required.
· Parental and community support is often lost if project activities are not seen to have any financial or practical results. Agriculture, horticulture, crafts and other project activities must be financially viable or produce something of use to the community. For income generating projects this includes carrying out an adequate economic viability study before introducing the idea. Training needs to cover not just technical issues but also management and marketing aspects. Technical support and assistance in finding funding for activities is also needed during their operation. Several countries mentioned that youth members could not practice what they had learnt through lack of access to capital.
· Social interaction and entertainment should also be considered and incorporated into programmes. Activities are more effective with young people if they enjoy what they are doing and if they help fulfil some of their aspirations. One of these aspirations is for novelty, excitement and entertainment. Lack of consideration of this aspect may also lead to loss of membership, since youth programmes to some extent face competition from sports and social clubs which may be more attractive to young people.
2. Organisation and policy issues
Aspects related to organisational and political issues highlighted by several countries include:
· A rural youth programme cannot be successful unless it stems from sound planning at policy level, and unless it is backed by sufficient support and by an adequate organisational structure. This generally means that strong government support is needed for programmes, but financial and technical support may come from NGOs or other sources. Weak government backing for a programme is reflected in low priority, status and funding for youth work and consequently low interest by government staff in being involved in the programme.· Most countries realised the importance of the role of extension staff, and stressed the need to adequately train them in how to work with young people as well as on the various technical and management issues they will need to cover. Staff should not just be appointed to work as youth advisors with no background or training.
· It was felt, however, that extension staff should act as facilitators, advisors and trainers rather than leaders and managers of youth organisations. In several cases voluntary guides from within the community were seen as a key to the successful local leadership of the youth programmes. Their involvement also gives continuity to the programmes when extension staff are reassigned to new areas as often happens.
· Several countries noted that it can be more effective to identify existing youth organisations and work in co-operation with them rather than start up separate youth groups under a single organisational framework. NGOs can also provide a useful basis for starting up activities at the grass root level. This approach requires flexibility and dynamic leadership to make the best use of resources.
· In many cases, more attention needs to be paid to publicise the programmes to the local communities. Only a small percentage of rural youth are reached by these programmes at present in many countries. If youth and community leaders are not aware of the programmes and possibilities, however, they cannot take them up. Information production and dissemination are therefore seen as an important role for the national level organisation. Coordination of dissemination of information at local level often also needs improvement.
· Rural youth need to be directly involved in planning the programme to ensure that they are suitable and meet their aspirations. Since youth are looking for independence they need guidance more than control in planning programmes of activities.
3. Rural Youth Group Management
The aspects related to the internal management of the group include:
· Group management should reflect the ultimate goals of the programme, i.e. promoting initiative, responsibility and self reliance. Loose decentralised structures should gradually shift responsibility to the group and the full involvement of group members should be encouraged at all stages of activity and decision making.· The involvement of parents and others in the community is often important in maintaining membership and support for the youth programmes and activities.
· Benefits and incentives need to be considered and incorporated in the programme both for group members and for leaders and organisers to encourage higher involvement in the activities. In some cases, youth workers become involved in the programme only for the benefits they see to themselves, nevertheless, if youth work means only more work with no benefit or advantage to the extension workers or leaders, it can be difficult to maintain their interest and involvement.
4. Co-ordination and Links with Formal Education
Linking organisations such as the 4-H groups to formal educational institutions has proved a valuable way to increase both coverage and standardisation as well as to facilitate the administrative aspects. It has however also brought a number of disadvantages which are leading some countries to rethink the arrangements. Among these are that:
· It can cause conflicts with the standard curriculum since school work is often seen as more important.· When children drop out of school they also drop out of the programme since they are linked.
· In many developing countries, while the aim may be for nine or more years of schooling, the reality is that the majority of children only attend the first few years of school, which precludes them from further involvement in the programme.
The importance of a well structured formal as well as non-formal education system was recognised in several countries as a condition for the success of rural youth programmes. The 4-H, Young farmers and other youth programmes should not be seen as a substitute to the formal education system but as a complement. Cooperation between the programmes is needed while at the same time increasing access to the programmes for those who for whatever reason drop out of the formal education system.
5. Funding and Support
Several programmes have not been able to achieve the results expected because, though they were able to successfully train youth groups in skills for income generating activities, they overlooked the funding needed to start up the activity.
In other cases, programmes have had to be cut or reduced for lack of government funds. This underlines the need for adequate funding for the success of the youth programmes though also acts as a warning of the danger of relying only on government funding.
The most successful programmes appear to be those based on a strong local funding support, which includes contributions from different sources, including families, voluntary organisation as well as local government. Such programmes also usually have an effective fund raising body and make the best use of existing resources.
Current status of some rural youth programmes
While some countries have suffered set backs in their youth programmes through cuts in support and funding, others are continuing to grow and develop finding new ways to cope with problems that arise. Some examples are:
A new programme is being developed in Thailand to help rural youth set up their own farm based enterprises. Increased resources are to be made available for this programme which will begin 2 to 3 years before completion of the compulsory 9 years education and include formal education and study tours/attachments.
In Malaysia, a programme of formal training courses to develop agricultural entrepreneurs and technicians has recently been revised (1994) to include aspects such as management and marketing of small businesses which are seen as increasingly important aspects of entrepreneurship training. Group visits are also arranged to successful agriculture projects both locally and overseas, works camps, discussions and forums organised by the Department of Agriculture.
Poland has a reactivated and rapidly expanding rural youth programme based on the American 4-H system. Several national level meetings and exchanges have been held this year. Their immediate programme is for the promotion of four pilot projects:
· The small enterprise project
· Environmental stewardship
· Orphaned and handicapped children 4-H project
· Junior leaders school project to prepare new leaders
A major problem with the youth programme (4B) in Botswana is the low status of youth work which has led to low priority for funding and consequent lack of interest by extension workers.
Practically all extension staff involved in the programme are women and it is mostly home economics projects which are promoted. Coordinator and extensions staff also lack training in youth work which add to the lack of interest.
Since 4B Programmes are largely run through schools, dropping out from school generally means also dropping out of the 4B Programme.
Future plans to deal with some of these problems are to strengthen technical input and increase effective participation to increase productivity. Agricultural activities will also be promoted among older members rather than crafts only as is done at present.
In Barbados, the programme is currently being reconstructed after a low period. Finances are more stable. Programmes are submitted in advance by the leaders to a youth foundation which provide quarterly funding. Leadership development training has been established and several new agricultural and home economics projects set up.
In Colombia the Association of Future Farmers of Colombia remains a strong and active organisation with support from both the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Coffee Growers Association - a private enterprise.
An NGO organisation FUNDEJUR, the Foundation for the Development of Rural Youth, has also shown significant success in entrepreneurship training programmes for rural youth which include management and marketing aspects. FUNDEJUR also provides technical assistance, assists in credit provision, fund raising and information dissemination to help raise awareness among rural youth of opportunities for self development.
FUNDEJUR's projects have the following characteristics:
· They respond to objectives identified by participants
· They are planned by beneficiaries according to their needs, capabilities and resources
· Enterprises are assessed for their long term sustainability before starting them
· They benefit both men and women
· They are environmentally sensitive
· They have technical support from the staff of official or private organisations in the area
Exchange programmes
Many countries continue to operate exchange programmes between their rural youth organisations though budget cuts have reduced the number and frequency of these exchanges recently. Malaysia tries to maximise the usefulness of young farmers study visits to Japan by assigning other young farmers to work with them for three months on their return, to learn from them.
Where do we go from here?
Naturally all countries would like to see their youth programmes grow and develop. Increased support and funding were on the wish list of many countries. Where funds are lacking from government sources though, some countries have looked for alternatives rather than cutting back on their programmes. Barbados and Colombia for example have raised support from commercial organisations and are working toward increasing financial autonomy both through outside funding and by developing increasing commercially viable self-funded projects.
Rural to urban migration is unlikely to be stopped, but by helping to provide a way for rural young people to satisfy their financial and other needs where they are (as mentioned by Thailand), the programmes can help prevent young people from leaving rural areas from necessity rather than because they wish to.
The Department of Agriculture in Malaysia emphasises a total farm approach where farming is considered a business and includes post harvest aspects, packaging, processing and marketing rather than production only. They envisage that after the year 2000, more agricultural related activities will be handled by group farming entities rather than individuals.
Poland stressed the need for much greater and better publicity if the movement is to continue to grow and the need for attractive programmes, able and dedicated volunteers and formal linkages with educational and cultural institutions.
Their future plans include:
· Fund raising for more resources
· Increase awareness of programmes and national promotion
· Coordinating of programmes in a national 4-H curriculum
· Maximising relationships and coordination with other organisations
Conclusions
The key issues raised by the various authors can be summarised briefly as:
· The closer the youth programmes meet the needs and aspirations of the youth themselves, the more likely they are to be successful.· Activities should help youth learn practical useful skills and in the case of income generating projects, need to be carefully planned to make sure they are viable.
· Community and institutional support is needed for continuity and coordination of programmes.
· Government support is needed if youth programmes are not to be seen as low status and low priority by extension workers.
· Government should not be relied on as the only source of funding.
