Dear FSN-Moderator,
The WBG fully supports the need to promote youth engagement and employment in agriculture and food systems as agriculture accounts for 32% of total employment globally. Food systems extend beyond agricultural production and includes food storage, processing, distribution, retailing, restaurants, and many services. Food systems are one of the large employers globally. In developing countries, the food system employs the majority of people in self and wage employment both on and off the farm. Globally, 65% of poor working adults rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Farming generates about 68 percent of rural income in Africa and about half of the rural income in South Asia.
The aspect of youth engagement and employment is highlighted in the WBG report Future of Food: Shaping the Food System to Deliver Jobs and a paper on “Rural Youth Employment” prepared with IFAD for the German G20 Presidency in 2017.
We would also like to draw your attention to the following jobs diagnostics and analytical work which are not exclusively authored by the WBG:
World Development Report 2019-The Changing Nature Of Work: The World Development Report (WDR) 2019: The Changing Nature of Work studies how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Fears that robots will take away jobs from people have dominated the discussion over the future of work, but the World Development Report 2019 finds that on balance this appears to be unfounded. Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. Firms adopt new ways of production, markets expand, and societies evolve. Overall, technology brings opportunity, paving the way to create new jobs, increase productivity, and deliver effective public services. Read more
Creating opportunities for rural youth (IFAD Rural Development Report 2019): This report is based on substantive evidence and attempts to provide the kind of analysis that can inform policies, programs, and investments to promote a rural transformation that is inclusive of youth. It examines who rural youth are, where they live, and the multiple constraints they face in their journey from dependence to independence. A distinguishing feature of this report is that it examines rural development in the context of the transformation of rural areas and the wider economy. Opportunities for young women and men begin with a transformation towards a dynamic rural economy. These opportunities depend on the national, rural, and household settings in which young people reside. Only by understanding these multiple layers can governments and decision makers design effective policies and investments to enable young rural women and men to become productive and connected individuals who are in charge of their future. Read more
Pathways to Better Jobs in IDA Countries - Findings from Jobs Diagnostics: This report documents cross-country findings from an analysis conducted by World Bank staff working on Jobs Diagnostics. It identifies some key insights for policymakers to take into account when designing policies and programs for inclusive growth. The findings are drawn from three different sources. The macroeconomic section analyzes data for over 16,000 overlapping episodes of economic growth in 125 countries. The labor supply section analyzes labor data from the latest household surveys in 150 countries around the world. The firm-level analysis draws on business data from countries for which—at the time of writing—the World Bank had conducted a Jobs Diagnostic. Read more
Promoting a New Economy for the Middle East and North Africa: Countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) possess all the ingredients they need to leapfrog into the digital future. They have large, well-educated youth populations that have already adopted new digital and mobile technologies on a wide scale. They have a highly educated female population. That combination has immense potential to drive future growth and job creation. The question is whether the region can adapt to a new economic reality. Read more
Labor and Welfare Impacts of a Large-Scale Livelihoods Program : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from India: Improving the livelihoods of poor households and transitioning more women back to the labor force is a major challenge in South Asia. Self-employment promoted through women's groups has often been cited as a promising intervention towards this end. However, the evidence on the impact of such programs on household income and labor outcomes is limited, especially for government programs like the National Rural Livelihoods Mission in India. This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the welfare impacts of an "intensive approach" adopted under this program. Read more
Myanmar's Future Jobs- Embracing Modernity: There are more than 24 million jobs in Myanmar, consisting of both income and in-kind earning activities. These jobs are behind Myanmar’s enviable recent economic growth rates and are the main source of income for households, particularly poor households, and they can strengthen social cohesion, a particularly valuable outcome in an ethnically diverse and conflict-affected country. Building on the Myanmar government’s Myanmar Sustainable Development Program (MSDP), which provides a framework for jobs policy reform. Read more
Communities Livelihoods Fisheries- Governance, Growth, and the Blue Economy in Mozambique: To support Mozambique’s blue economy and promote sustainable rural development, the World Bank is working to make the fishing sector more sustainable and profitable by aligning economic development with the sustainable management of marine resources. Capturing blue economy opportunities requires an integrated, cross-sectoral approach. Read more
Timor-Leste Poverty - Making Agriculture Work for the Poor: About 80 percent of the poor households in Timor-Leste live in rural areas and are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. It is therefore widely acknowledged that growth in the agriculture sector is an important channel through which poverty can be reduced in the country. Read more
Mozambique – Jobs Diagnostic: The report focuses on the challenge of Mozambique's jobs transition: how to accelerate the shift into higher value-added activities and better livelihoods. Read more
Diagnostic study of barriers for strengthening livelihoods of low-income rural women in Uzbekistan: Due to the strong economic growth maintained in the last 15 years, Uzbekistan made progress in reducing gender inequality. At the same time, several demographic and structural challenges remain; and effectively engaging women in the economy is one of them. While modernizing various sectors of the economy will foster progress and development, it may also result in setbacks for women, as they lack the skills and education needed to successfully adjust to a changing reality. While women constitute around 50 percent of the national population, their participation in the formal labor market is limited. Active women’s participation offers a reserved potential for further national economic growth and improved livelihoods for women in Uzbekistan. Read more
Jobs Diagnostic Côte d'Ivoire: Employment, Productivity, and Inclusion for Poverty Reduction: The Côte d’Ivoire jobs diagnostic provides a comprehensive empirical analysis and solid evidence-base of employment challenges and opportunities in Côte d’Ivoire to inform strategies and policy actions. Read more
Jobs Diagnostic Tajikistan: The objectives of this report are twofold. First, it analyzes the main challenges facing the country in terms of jobs at the macro, firm, and household levels. Second, it outlines a set of policies and programs that can facilitate structural transformation to achieve the country’s development objectives through i) a higher rate of job creation in the formal sector; ii) improvements in the quality of jobs, particularly those in the informal sector; and iii) better access to jobs among vulnerable population groups. Read more
Monitoring and evaluation of jobs operations: The Jobs M&E Toolkit provides a package of resources for project teams and clients to support mainstreaming the Jobs Agenda in World Bank Group (WBG) lending operations. The aim is to help teams working with government counterparts with simple tools for the data collection on jobs, without the burden of resource-intensive survey efforts. The toolkit contains a set of guidance on indicators for key results on jobs, data collection forms, and manuals, which are tailored by beneficiary type: individuals and firms. Read more
There are also a number of relevant blogs to be mentioned:
Five new insights on how agriculture can help reduce poverty: The view that productive agriculture is critical for employment creation and poverty reduction is now widely shared within the development community. Read more
Five facts about jobs and economic transformation in IDA countries: What are the pathways people follow to better jobs? Economies grow when more people find work, when they get better at what they do, and when they move from low-productivity work to better, higher-productivity jobs. Read more
Budding entrepreneurs in rural Bihar: The Agri-Entrepreneurship (AE) model follows a decentralized approach to empowering local youth as “Agri-entrepreneurs” (AE) who champion agriculture development in neighboring villages. Besides local self-employment, the model facilitates the delivery of services such as access to high-quality inputs, crop advisory, doorstep financial transactions, and aggregation of surplus produce for distant markets. Read more
Growth in Central Asia hinges on creating more jobs with higher wages: Jobs and wage growth have been the most important driver of poverty reduction globally, and Central Asia. In Tajikistan, for example, it has cut poverty by about two-thirds since 2003. In Kazakhstan, it accounted for more than three-quarters of income growth over the past decade — even among the poorest 20 percent. Read more
Rising with rice in Côte d’Ivoire - More and better jobs by connecting farmers to markets: The challenges faced by the different actors within the rice value chain in Côte d’Ivoire while distinct, are also interconnected. How could we address these constraints so that the chain can reach its full potential and contribute to poverty reduction through more and better jobs? Read more
In Africa, more, not fewer people will work in agriculture: Many people in Sub-Saharan Africa still work in agriculture; on average, over half of the labor force, and even more in poorer countries and localities. The share of the labor force in agriculture is declining (as is normal in development), leading African leaders and economists to focus on job creation outside agriculture. Read more
Debunking three myths about Informality: Since the concept of the “informal sector” was coined half a century ago, countries all over the world have promoted the formalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises. The perceived benefits of formalization include better access to credit, justice, large formal clients, and, for the government, higher tax revenues. But according to recent literature, most formalization efforts resulted in modest and short term increases informality rates. Read more
How can we unlock the potential of household enterprises in Tanzania? Non-farm household enterprises provide an important opportunity for employment in Tanzania. Agriculture is still the primary economic activity of the country, but the economy is shifting away from it, and the number of people employed in this sector has been declining since 2006. Read more
Agriculture is the ‘green gold’ that could transform the economy and the lives of Ugandan farmers. Agriculture is Uganda’s ‘green gold’ that can transform the economy and the lives of farmers. Why it is then that Uganda’s well documented agricultural potential is not realized? What specific public-sector policies and actions are required to unleash the entrepreneurial energy of Uganda’s largest private sector actors—its farmers? Read more
In South Asia, poor rural women have begun to set up lucrative new businesses: Across South Asia, our agriculture and rural development projects are helping transform the lives of poor rural women. From daily wage laborers, they are now becoming entrepreneurs who generate jobs for others. Over the last decade, these projects have supported an estimated 5 million micro and small entrepreneurs, most of whom are women. Read more
Horticulture offers hope for growth and jobs in rural Afghanistan: Investments in agriculture, particularly horticulture, have produced tangible returns as unique weather conditions are favorable to growing produce that is in-demand in local and regional markets. Read more
Can agriculture create job opportunities for youth? Technology and the internet are also opening up opportunities for agriculture, and urbanization and changing diets are calling for new ways to process, market, and consume our foods. So, can agriculture provide job opportunities for youth? Read more
Measuring youth employment projects: What can we learn from each other? Youth employment projects face varying contextual realities and constraints that often result in generating innovations when adapting and customizing their monitoring and evaluation system. There is a lag in the spread of innovations due to the various contexts, funders, and organizations often operating independently. Read more
Accelerating and learning from innovations in youth employment projects: Innovations in youth employment programs are critical to addressing this enormous development challenge effectively. Rapid progress in digital technology, behavioral economics, evaluation methods, and the connectivity of youth in the developing world generates a stream of real-time insights and opportunities in project design and implementation. Read more
How can Zambia create 1 million jobs? Job creation has become a mantra in the country since the government has set the goal to create a million jobs in key sectors over the next five years under the Seventh National Development Plan. Read more
Very useful knowledge products are:
Feed the Future Project Design Guide for Youth-Inclusive Agriculture and Food Systems: Research paints a dynamic picture of youth in agri-food systems. Overall, rural youth earn “mixed livelihoods” from a diverse stream of sources—on-farm, off-farm, and non-farm—with self-employment playing a particularly important role. Read more
Creating jobs for rural youth- in agricultural value chains: The brief argues that youth-inclusive investments to modernize the agricultural sector will unleash its huge potential, offer attractive employment opportunities and create a level playing field for rural youth. Read more
Challenges and opportunities in agriculture for African youth: The brief explores the challenges and opportunities facing young people trying to enter the agricultural and agribusiness sector. Read more
What Works in Soft Skills Development for Youth Employment? This report summarizes areas of consensus regarding soft skills from the perspective of the Youth Employment Funders Group (YEFG), a network of donors working together to generate and share more and better evidence-based knowledge on what works in the field of youth employment. Read more
Critical Capital for African Agri-Food SMEs: Rabobank Foundation, AgriProFocus, and ICCO Cooperation offer support to agri-food SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa in overcoming some of the most important hurdles to growth and development. Read more
Empowering Youth to Engage in Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems: This report aims to enhance understanding on the main challenges and opportunities to empower youth to carry out and benefit from responsible agricultural investment by giving voice to those most concerned – young farmers, agri-entrepreneurs and workers, and those who support them. It summarizes the main findings from a series of multi-stakeholder capacity assessment workshops with participants from six countries – Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Uganda. Read more
The Future of Rural Youth in Developing Countries: Rural youth constitute over half of the youth population in developing countries and will continue to increase in the next 35 years. This study looks at local actions and national policies that can promote agro-food value chains and other rural non-farm activities using a youth employment lens. Read more
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) Attract Youth into Profitable Agriculture in Kenya: Youth cherishes technology, efficiency, and innovations and accommodate entrepreneurial risks. The objectives of this study were to show the beneficial use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in agriculture among the youth in Kenya, assessed ICT application and commonly used tools, experienced challenges, impacts and suggested future ICT use. Using radio, short message services (SMS) and social media, they discussed agricultural topics and shared successes. Read more
Informal is the new normal improving the lives of workers at risk of being left behind: In 2009, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) publication of is informal normal? Marked the acceptance of a new understanding of informality in mainstream thinking. The book argued that, rather than being a stage of development to be reduced and eventually – as far as possible – eradicated as the entire labor force graduated to higher quality and more formal employment, the informal sector was likely to grow. Read more
Agriculture, Technology, Livelihoods, and Employment: Debates, Issues, and Concerns: The lack of technological transformation in agriculture has drastically reduced income earning opportunities. The sector is still plagued by several challenges related to widespread rural poverty, natural resource degradation, and attaining competitiveness in the increasingly globalized economy. Read more
Food Processing in Sub-Saharan Africa: Solutions for African Food Enterprises: Food processing is a significant driver of local economies, creating supplier linkages for millions of small-scale farmers and helping elevate rural incomes across East and Southern Africa. Read more
The Emerging ‘Quiet Revolution’ in African Agrifood Systems: This brief focuses on the new opportunity of farmers, via rural-urban food supply chains, to link to the massive and growing and diversifying urban food market in Africa. Read more
Agriculture, Food and Jobs in West Africa: The share of agriculture in food economy employment varies significantly across countries – in Mali and Niger it is more than 90%, whereas in Cabo Verde, Ghana and Nigeria it is closer to 60%. Read more
Critical Capital for African agrifood SMEs: A review of demand for and supply of risk capital for agrifood SMEs in Sub-Sahara Africa. Based on field studies in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mali. Read more
Youth in Agricultural Cooperatives: Challenges And Opportunities: the main objective of this study is to explore youth’s perspectives and needs for engaging in agricultural cooperatives. The following knowledge questions were formulated, which we hope to give answers to throughout the report. Read more
Youth for Growth: Transforming Economies through Agriculture: This report presents recommendations for how the US government can lead global efforts to promote broad-based agricultural development as a catalyst for improving youth livelihoods while preparing and empowering youth to contribute to that growth themselves. Read more
Youth Engagement in Agricultural Value Chains across Feed the Future: A Synthesis Report This report aims to inform Feed the Future (FTF) efforts moving forward to more strategically and deliberately engage youth in market systems by providing insights from current FTF country programs, Guatemala, Liberia, Nepal, and Uganda Read more
Women-Led Farms and Producer Organizations are Recreating the Litchi Value Chain in India. This holistic, market-based approach to transforming the litchi value chain for women is making a great change in the community. Read more
Case Studies on Youth Employment In Fragile Situations: report by ILO, UNDP, and UNHCR presents examples of good practices from around the world, showcasing innovative approaches to youth employment that help to build peace and resilience in fragile and conflict-affected situations. Read more
Best Regards,
Astrid
Astrid Jakobs de Padua