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In March 2024, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a new phase of its Integrated Country Approach for boosting decent jobs for youth in the agrifood system (ICA-4 project). Covering Ecuador, Viet Nam, and Zambia with the intention to further expand, ICA-4 will continue working to support national stakeholders – including policymakers, market actors, and youth organizations – in designing and implementing solutions for creating decent employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for youth in selected agrifood value chains. At the same time, the project aims at facilitating knowledge sharing and policy dialogue among stakeholders.

Unlocking the potential through a market-systems development (MSD) approach

By adopting a market-systems development (MSD) approach, the project looks at finding lasting solutions to address the root causes of dysfunction and youth exclusion in targeted market systems.

As each market is a complex 'system' involving many stakeholders, each with a particular set of unique characteristics, project’s interventions will be shaped through the careful analysis and understanding of priority value chains in Ecuador, Viet Nam, and Zambia. The ultimate goal is to make markets more financially rewarding, accessible, inclusive and resilient in the long term, ensuring large-scale beneficial change to rural youth.

Within the MSD approach, the role of the private sector will be key. Exploring partnerships with business actors that can induce more youth-friendly business models and practices, generating more and better jobs for youth and opportunities for young agripreneurs. The public sector will also be a key stakeholder in this phase of the programme to guarantee an adequate enabling environment, the right incentives for businesses to be more youth-inclusive, as well as specific policy interventions in support of vulnerable youth.

A particular focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation and young women

The project will pay particular attention to climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Thus, this phase of the project will aim at ensuring that youth job opportunities are increased in the frame of environmentally sustainable agrifood value chains. Particular emphasis will also be placed on empowering rural young women and men, by supporting youth social networks and collective action. 

Targeted final beneficiaries are the rural youth aged 15-35 that are unemployed, underemployed, or in poor working conditions, but with potential to be engaged in the value chains. The project will have also a clear focus on young women, introducing interventions in support of gender equality. Other challenges limiting inclusivity will be considered, ensuring the interventions proposed benefit and do not introduce additional discriminations between educated youth, poorer youth, or Indigenous Youth.

The need for a youth-inclusive agrifood sector

Evidence suggests that the agrifood is a sector of opportunities for youth not yet fully harnessed. The increasing demand for agricultural products linked to a growing population, urbanization and change of consumption patterns is creating more opportunities. However, low incomes, poor working conditions, limited access to productive resources and decision making in agriculture and rural areas, often build negative perceptions on agriculture for youth. Even when youth are interested in entering the sector and investing in their territories, poor services, discriminatory norms, or regulations limit their capacity to do so and therefore discourage them from entering the agrifood sector.

Boosting decent employment in the most productive value chains

The ICA-4 project aims at addressing these challenges by boosting job opportunities for youth in the most productive value chains – where most job opportunities have been identified. In Ecuador, a world leader in the production of fine cocoa, ICA-4 will promote youth involvement in the cocoa value chain. In Viet Nam, Government’s emphasis on the greening of the rice value chain is an ideal setting for engaging youth as leaders of change and innovators towards more sustainable production. In Zambia, the development of the soybean value chain, driven over the past decade by the booming domestic and regional demand for animal feed and processed soy-based foods, offers high potential for boosting youth employment.

This interregional project will be mainly implemented at country level but will also contribute to regional and global dialogues and frameworks, such as the FAO Rural Youth Action Plan – to enhance the overall well-being of young women and men. Through global dialogue, the project will also contribute to improve knowledge about the various needs of rural youth and how agrifood system development can create productive employment pathways that cater to their needs.