Promoting livelihood opportunities for rural youth - IFAD

Introduction
This paper 1 reviews the situation of rural
youth in developing countries and presents
options for improving their livelihoods in
light of the many growing challenges they
face. The main geographical focus is
sub-Saharan Africa and the Near East and
North Africa.
Rural youth in developing countries make up
a very large and vulnerable group that is
seriously affected by the current international
economic crisis. Globally, three-quarters of
poor people live in rural areas, and about
one-half of the population are young people.
Climate change and the growing food crisis
are also expected to have a disproportionately
high impact on rural youth. The Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO) estimates that nearly half a
billion rural youth “do not get the chance to
realize their full potential” (FAO, 2009).
The 2005 International Labour Organization
(ILO) report on Global Employment Trends
for Youth states: “today’s youth represent a
group with serious vulnerabilities in the
world of work. In recent years, slowing global
employment growth and increasing
unemployment, underemployment and
disillusionment have hit young people
hardest. As a result, today’s youth are faced
with a growing deficit of decent work
opportunities and high levels of economic
and social uncertainty” (ILO, 2005).
The lack of decent employment rather than
open unemployment is the central issue in
the majority of rural locations. In overall
terms, four times as many young people earn
less than US$2 a day than are unemployed.
Youth are particularly vulnerable in conflict
and post-conflict countries. Very high youth
unemployment coupled with rapid
urbanization has fuelled civil conflict in
many countries.
It is widely recognized that smallholder
agriculture and non-farm production in
rural areas are among the most promising
sectors for youth employment in the
majority of developing countries. However,
harnessing this potential remains an
enormous challenge.
While the crisis of ‘youth unemployment’
(particularly in urban areas) has been a
persistent concern of politicians and
policymakers since the 1960s, youth
development has remained at the margins
of national development strategies in most
countries. We are now witnessing, however,
a resurgence of interest in youth, the reasons
for which stem from a growing realization
of the seriously negative political, social and
economic consequences stemming from the
precariousness of youth livelihoods.
For many, this amounts to a ‘youth crisis’,
the resolution of which requires innovative,
wide-ranging ‘youth-friendly’ policies and
implementation strategies.
1 The original version of this paper was shared as a
background paper at the round table on “Generating
remunerative livelihood opportunities for rural youth” at
the Thirtieth Session of IFAD’s Governing Council held
13-14 February 2007 in Rome, Italy. It has been revised to
take into account the latest developments in this area,
especially IFAD support for rural livelihood programming.
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