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FAO’s Integrated Country Approach (ICA) for boosting decent jobs for youth in the agrifood system works to strengthen youth voice, ownership and agency in efforts to transform agrifood systems and rural economies.

At the policy level, ICA supports the adoption and implementation of national policies and localized strategies for decent youth employment in the agricultural sector. The ICA programme has been active in Kenya since 2019, focusing on youth-centred value chain development to accompany the implementation of the 2017 Kenya Youth Agribusiness Strategy (KYAs).

Furthermore, the programme invests in strengthening the organizational capacities of local and national youth networks to enable the meaningful participation of rural youth in agrifood value chains, financial mechanisms, service provision and policy dialogue. Given the weak level of youth organizations' engagement in agrifood-related policy making in Kenya, FAO adapted to the local needs the Learning framework for inclusive, integrated and innovative public policy cycle for family farming, developed in the frame of the UN Decade of Family Farming. The objective of this adaptation was to provide a training on policy cycle with and for youth, that could be an asset for their organizations to become more influential and be able to mainstream youth perspectives, needs and priorities in the policy cycle.

The three-day training took place in October in Kisumu, Kenya. It benefitted 30 people, including 24 young women and men and 6 government representatives from Siaya and Kakamega counties, areas where the ICA programme has supported the development of the local Youth Agribusiness Strategies (KYAs) and will support its implementation.

The training capitalized on the strong engagement of participants and helped establish synergies among the youth networks and between them and the Government representatives. Jonathan Makau, a representative of the Kakamega Department of Agriculture, delivered the opening remarks in the first day and Dr Elizabeth Odhiambo, the Siaya County Executive Committee Member (CECM) of Agriculture, participated in the final day, delivering the closing remarks and listening to youth's main proposals on how to strengthen their participation in the implementation of the KYAs.

All participants, including Government representatives, committed to follow up on the prioritized actions. In particular, the youth participants committed to work on a joint proposal to establish a steering committee or a technical working group able to support the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the county strategies and submit the startegies' proposals to the respective counties. Siaya's CECM of Agriculture and Government officials committed to receive the proposals and discuss their possible implementation, while FAO will keep collaborating with the youth organizations that have requested to further adapt the training, such as the KENAFF Youth Summit. An online version of the training will soon be available for everyone on the African Youth Agripreneurs (AYA) platform.

The activity provided a valuable opportunity to work with youth and strengthen their capacity to influence decision-making processes. This will be critical for effective and meaningful youth participation in the implementation of the local KYAs.