Dear Jacqueline,
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share our views. The points that I will share below are based on my experiences working for FAO and IFAD on youth employment in agriculture as well as working for ILO on child labour and youth employment in the African Great Lakes Region.
· Targeting of development programmes/projects
Many people in rural areas of developing countries do not have birth certificates so often it is difficult to be sure of someone’s age. When designing a project or programme we might indicate an age range of people to be targeted but in practice these criteria might be difficult to apply. Hence it is advised to be flexible in applying these criteria to make sure that the right people are benefitting from the project.
An IFAD project for the Promotion of Local Initiatives for Development in Aguié (Niger) created a unique targeting system which enables community members to participate in the planning of the project activities. The project created a system of establishing four different groups in the villages identifying problems among the young men, young girls, elderly women and elderly men. Each group point out the needs and problems and possible project supported activities as solution. This approach could be adapted to specifically identifying problems in the category of youth aged 15-17 and then also following these youth over the years as they become adults.
· Artificial divide between child labour and youth employment interventions
In a number of cases, development projects either focus on child labour or on youth employment. Too often the linkages between both are not made. However, dividing both is artificial and at field level we have to simply address both groups together. In this forum, people aged 15-17 are called youth. We can also call them children. It leads us to the definition of what is a child in the context of rural Africa and what is considered child labour. Too often, children are forced to grow up quickly and work. Children between 15 and 17 are allowed to work if the conditions are not hazardous. This is challenging in practice. For example in Tanzania, children aged 15-17 work in tobacco plantations. The companies who employ them, pay them a lump sum from which they are also supposed to cover their occupational safety and health (OSH) precautions (such as buying boots and gloves to protect them while picking tobacco leaves). In practice, they will be reluctant to spend part of their salary on OSH.
· Data gaps
Trying to get specific data on youth aged 15-17 can be difficult. The UN defines children as those under the age of 18; adolescents are considered those between 10-19 years; and youth are those between 15 and 24. So how can we track what is happening with youth aged 15-17 at both global, national and local levels?
ILO is trying to overcome these data challenges through a number of data-collection processes at national level such as school-to-work transition surveys, and linking a child labour module to the integrated labour force surveys. In this way, specific data on the 15-17 age group can be more easily captured. At the same time, ILO is building the capacity of National Bureaus of Statistics and Ministries to collect and analyse these data.
· Rural vs Urban
Much has been said about trying to refrain rural youth from migrating to urban areas and abandoning agriculture. Even more has been said about developing countries having to invest in agriculture since this is in many cases still the main contributor to the GDP. If we really want developing countries to transform and ‘graduate’ to middle-income countries we cannot only focus on agriculture and we cannot only focus on industrialization. We have to focus on both at the same time.
In rural areas, agriculture is still the main driver of the economy and other rural-based activities will only thrive if agriculture as such is thriving. Agriculture has to be modernized or as a colleague adequately put it ‘moving the hand hoe from the field to the museum’. Youth (including those 15-17) will not be interested in backbreaking agricultural work that is only for subsistence. They want to work with modern equipment such as tractors and achieve economies of scale which can be achieved through joining cooperatives and sharing inputs. Leasing equipment is also an option, i.e. hello tractor. An interesting example on this from a young producers organization in Togo been shared in an FAO/IFAD/CTA publication on Youth and Agriculture.
We should further explore rural-urban linkages and add value to agriculture produce. It is mind blowing that in most supermarkets in East African countries you can only buy juice imported from South Africa while fruits are locally grown in abundance. Youth can be mobilized to engage in various links of the value chain such as transportation, processing, packaging etc.
With increasing globalization, rural areas are becoming more connected and ICTs are really transforming the (rural) economy in Eastern Africa. They modernize the image of agriculture, link operators in various links of the value chain, have revolutionized rural banking through ‘mobile money’ and so much more. This AGRA publication gives many examples. Development actors can no longer ignore the way ICTs are revolutionizing the agriculture sector and should invest more in incorporating them in their programmes and projects. CTA’s ARDYIS project is a good example on how this can be done. The ‘Digitalizing for Development (#D4D)’ initiative from the Belgian Government is another example of how the digital revolution can help us achieve the SDGs. Youth have an important role to play in using ICTs for development.
· Vocational training
In Tanzania, students can only access State Vocational Training if they have a Form Four Certificate. This means usually attending school up to the age of 17. This Vocational Training provided by the State is delivered in English. Needless to say that many youth are excluded from this opportunity and specifically those between 14-17 years.
ILO has been trying to address the skills mismatch through different initiatives which include ‘recognition of prior learning’. In many cases youth that are informally trained never received a certificate of recognition for this training. This initiative formally recognizes the skills and knowledge that a person already possesses against competencies in the National Training and Vocational Qualifications Framework. Hence this increases the employability of youth.
Charlotte Goemans