Increased emphasis needs to be placed on:
Coordination of efforts
Improvement of services and facilities In rural areas
Vocational training
Training for self employment
This of course is very easy to say and very much more difficult to do. There are some specific actions which can be taken however and a few suggestions for consideration are given below.
a) Schools and colleges
b) Agricultural extension services
c) Youth groups
d) Parents, and other adults in the community
e) Mass media
f) Peers
Programmes of Population Education for rural youth will necessarily vary from country to country, however, some principles can be established as a common ground.
· Coordination of efforts: A single organisation needs to be the coordinator for national programmes in each country. Actual execution of programmes may be carried out through different Ministries, youth organisations and NGOs but a single organisation for coordination would increase effectiveness and interchange of information and experiences.· Government policy must support rural youth programming efforts. Without organized national effort, youth activities will continue to be limited, fragmented and Ineffective. FAO will continue to play an active role III supporting seminars, workshops and other activities which have a favourable influence on national youth programme policy.
· Existing youth organisations, whether government or NGOs will be the most effective means of reaching out of school rural youth. New youth groups should not be formed for the sole purpose of population education but promotion of further group formation within existing organisations can be useful to Increase the potential audience. It is better to build on existing organisations and programmes than to begin new ones.
· Income generation and vocational training are major concerns. They can be an element of population education programmes but should not be such a large element as to remove the Importance of population education.
· IEC programmes without access to services are of limited use. Population education and service delivery III the form of counselling and clinic services need to be developed together.
Many different communication channels work together to Influence attitudes and behaviour. The major channels Influencing rural youth are as follows:
Schools and colleges
Agricultural extension services
Youth groups
Parents and other adults in the community
Mass media
Peer groups
In order that have the greatest impact on attitudes and practices it is important that all these channels of influence are addressed since otherwise messages from one channel can be counteracted by other channels.
Issues related to population education and sustainable development need to be Integrated into the curricula of schools and colleges. In many countries of Africa, much work has already been done in this area in urban schools but as yet, less in the rural schools and agricultural schools and colleges. FAO is presently working to develop projects to integrate population education into agricultural education in a number of countries.
With their network of village level workers, extension services offer an ideal opportunity to work with rural youth and young farmers on a national basis. In many countries rural youth and young farmer work is an integral part of the extension mandate. In these cases, 4-H type approaches have become common place and the message about the value of sustainable agriculture has become a part of the extension message to youth. FAO is executing a UNFPA funded project concerned with the integration of population education into extension services in a number of countries.
Since in many developing countries, the majority of rural youth have dropped out of the formal school system or never attended school at all, there is a need to develop methods for reaching out-of-school rural youth with a sustainable agriculture message. Through project INT/88/P98 "Integration of Population Education into Programmes for Rural Youth in Low Income Countries" a set of youth group leaders guides have been produced. These guides booklets provide leaders of local youth groups (scouts, agricultural cooperatives, young farmers' clubs, religious societies etc.) with the references they need to integrate population related concepts into the regular activities of the youth group.
Youth organisations exist In all countries of the region, some associated with government and some Independent national and international organisations such as the scouts, 4-H, young farmers clubs, religious organisations etc. These organisations provide a major network of rural young people with great potential for vocational and Informal education and training.
Selecting, applying and adapting technology to suit varying local conditions depends largely on the capabilities of the adopters themselves, particularly taking into account the infrastructural deficiencies of most \African countries. Whereas technical knowledge and entrepreneurial skills may be imparted through education and training, their application requires the development of leadership qualities as well as a notion of self-reliability, readiness to adopt Innovations and to take risks among rural youth. Promotion of these attitudes may partly be achieved through increased organization of rural youth into village-level youth groups of any nature, as these provide settings:
-to extend non-formal education and spread applicable knowledge and skills to help compensate for the lack of relevant formal training.-to help solve conflicts arising from the changes between traditional roles/status attributed to youth within rural communities and new roles accorded to them in developing self reliance and entrepreneurship.
- to serve as a root structure for cooperative enterprises/projects III agriculture, rural based small industries or relevant services (acquisition & distribution of inputs, marketing)
Considerable Influence Is exerted on young people in any community by the adults surrounding them. Their cooperation with, support for, and understanding of education and training programmes aimed at young people is essential. It is therefore important that methods, techniques and information promoted through the extension services and other (mainly) adult communication channels complement efforts to reach the youth population - and vice versa.
Posters, radio programmes - particularly radio drama - tape/slide and video through audio-visual vans and other types of mass communication media may be of use as backup to a formal and informal education campaign as described above.
If enough young people can be reached through the above channels, peer pressure from informal groups such as friends and relatives of similar ages, can be expected to compound the effects. One of the greatest difficulties is promoting population education, sustainable agriculture and rural development is making the issues relevant to individuals and particularly young people in rural areas. Deforestation is too broad an issue - but Increasing distances to find fuelwood is not. National population growth is rather meaningless to an individual, but land fragmentation, unemployment and urban migration are not. Unless rural youth and young farmers are deliberately integrated into development programmes for sustainable agriculture the success of such programmes will be severely limited.
NGOs - non-governmental organisations have often shown themselves to be particularly effective at working at grass roots level with young people. Governments and international agencies are finding it to be increasingly important to work together with NGOs supporting them III their work and learning from their approaches.
