FSN Network Debate
Sustaining the Impact of Capacity Development Initiatives for African Youth in Agriculture
Contribution: Planning for the big picture
Hello everyone,
Here’s my take on some of the macro-issues that lie behind the five questions raised. You’ll see that I’m generally sceptical about what young people in Africa can do for themselves either individually or collectively given the limited resources and opportunities that face the majority. This, however, should not detract from what some are already doing successfully and from the the investment required of those currently in charge – of countries, regional/national institutions, banks, investment funds, companies and similar. And too, the contribution of those on the outside looking into the continent not all of whom will be pro-Africa, pro-youth or neutral in approach.
Introduction – difficult choices for distant planners
If ‘youth’ and ‘agriculture’ appears in the title you must take note - the compatibility and the incompatibility of the two sectors in Africa (and many other places). Many contributors have already made that obvious link between young people and the future – the young you see around today are the leaders of tomorrow – it follows logically. The challenge is equally obvious – capturing these young people to the social and industrial sectors that are essential to the development of the national economy; and this becomes fundamental when you realize that these are the same people who may have been trained and educated by the state.
It’s equally obvious that the loss of these potentially productive young people is a wasted resource if they are not captured, encouraged and incorporated into the national workforce; lose them and you lose both your current investment and your future.
Sounds great, notwithstanding the reality of what you read as described by many of your 35 correspondents thus far – unemployment, few opportunities, inadequate resources (access to land, finance, technologies, etc.), poverty of national planning, no/limited markets, etc. You name it – it’s listed somewhere in this FSN debate; and if not this one, then one of the others*. We are, as an interested and technically-competent community (meaning us - the FSN community) clever with words, but perhaps less capable when it comes to shifting ideas into practice.
Lost resources – people who emigrate/drift
And, this thing then about reality – take an example – what about the young Nigerian men working the supermarket car parks in Italy. You name a town – you will find them there; hassling the shoppers for their return trollies because – you guessed it – there’s a euro return fee in the chain-locking system, and this is how people on the fringe of a society can make a marginal living. And it’s not just the Nigerians, but also those from many other African countries doing much the same.
Talk to them – they are always either English or French speaking – and you’ll find many are graduates who have left their countries for the unknowns of Western Europe. And, in addition to the supermarket men they’re also casual petrol pump attendants, seasonal agricultural workers by the tens of thousands, and hawkers of all kinds of cheap merchandise at traffic lights and around the bars in Italy. What a way to make a living.
Equally – take a second example - you meet educated young Egyptians driving taxis in Cairo – graduates from the universities representing all manner of technical/literary sectors – who are unable to find suitable work; and this, in one of the most dynamic of the North African countries. Imagine a country that lives on <10% of the land area and has difficulty in attracting young people to the land – typically distant lands - and then keeping them there. How do you provide living space and feed 100M people? The challenges are obvious.
Africa feeding the world
And here’s the contradiction of agricultural production industries as a recipient of young people; individually they may have neither the capabilities nor the resources to make it given the need to modernise national (and regional) agricultural industries across the continent. With 20% of the world’s land area, Africa is well-placed to literally ‘feed-the-world’ when (I hesitate to say ‘if’) sufficient inter-regional/trans-national African institutions, companies, investors, regional/national governments, etc. can be mobilized and provided with the vision required; and then mobilize the resources and make a difference.
Vision followed by action
Sure, much of this comes within a ‘macro-planning/longer-term’ target, but time is not the best of allies here. You only have to explore the agro-industrialization offered by large-scale irrigation that has been introduced in recent times into Northern Sudan – the transport infrastructure that links into national networks in Egypt and will eventually link Nairobi to Addis Ababa to Khartoum to Cairo on all-weather highways; and the investment in agro-production and agro-industrial processing that will follow/is already underway. And, if not by those with Africa-first priorities, but those that see the continent as ready for modern food production.
Everyone knows the basic food security numbers; >1B people food insecure today; 10B people to feed by 2050 (of which >2.5B will call Africa ‘home’), and changing dietary requirements that include more varied and interesting foodstuffs that demand higher investment, more advanced technologies and the capabilities, knowledge and experience of specialized people. Above all, key issue this, you need markets, buoyant commercial sectors – national and regional – and pragmatic public sectors that are able and sufficiently confident to provide the basis for the private sector to grow and succeed.
Ask yourself why all those well-educated young men from Nigeria continue to drift northwards at alarming rates; from a giant of a country with a rich petrochemical economy and a resilient agro-production heritage?
Consider India
And, by way of shifting this contribution from the ‘smoke & mirrors’ of hypothesis, explore the national planning available from India, for example. Larger population than Africa and with few of the natural resources available; but better organized and with considerable potential already recognized on global scale. Download the government’s sales document ‘EY Doing Business in India 2015-16’. It’s available at: http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-doing-business-in-india-2015-16/%24FILE/EY-doing-business-in-india-2015-16.pdf. Explore potential, examine the investment sectors highlighted, see what they say about employment.
Similar problems to Africa too – languages, abject poverty, growing Gini Index, etc. And note India’s competitive position – way down the international scale when it comes to others - in the bottom 25%. The point is to recognise this – and change. India will also have more young people than Africa into the next period, of which females in the workforce post-secondary & higher education are already dramatically under-employed. Key words: ‘Inefficiency & waste’. Read about it at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/india-workforce-skills-training/
Final words
Off track? Sure, could be, but an approach to macro-planning and monitoring/adapting the experience of others when considering the five questions/issues raised for this FSN debate by Mr Chisenga has value. It is expecting too much of the FSN network to do more than provide a debating platform, but it’s a start. Youth to youth opportunities for Capacity Development? Hmmm. Strictly limited/non-existent. Define ‘agriculture’ and link this to ‘national education’. Put into place those short, medium & long-term national plans for agro-production and post-production. Encourage the rise of core and down-stream service and advisory industries, get public sector services into the field. Decide on the priorities that link urban and rural development. Be smart.
Africa needs to nurture its young people; those with experience need to monitor, advise and guide; those with vision need to share their ideas and imagination; watching from the side will be the investors and entrepreneurs who will take risk, exploit and reap the rewards; herein will be need for competent and sympathetic governments that will provide those essential frameworks to encourage the investors, etc. but also to collect the taxes and re-invest them, and share new wealth within local communities. Oh, and don’t forget safety nets for those who cannot easily participate from first base.
Key subject then: ‘Young people and their future’. Enjoy the debate.
Peter Steele
Melbourne
Australia
01 November 2017
*We had a similar topic for the FSN West Africa Network January 2013 – ‘Finding work for young people – agricultural options’ Check it out. My earlier contribution was more ‘hands-on’.
Д-р. Peter Steele