Promoting livelihood opportunities for rural youth - IFAD

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The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) single out youth as a key target group. Target 16 of the MDGs is to develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth. The 2007 World Development Report published by the World Bank also focused on youth. The global population of young people aged 12-24 is about 1.3 billion. The youth population is projected to peak at 1.5 billion in 2035 and it will increase most rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Southeast Asia (by 26 per cent and 20 per cent respectively between 2005 and 2035). FAO estimates that about 55 per cent of youths reside in rural areas, but this figure is as high as 70 per cent in SSA and South Asia. In SSA, young people aged 15-24 comprise 36 per cent of the entire labour force, 33 per cent in the Near East and North Africa (NENA), and 29 per cent in South Asia. About 85 per cent of the additional 500 million young people who will reach working age during the next decade live in developing countries. The global economic downturn has accelerated the growth of the rural youth population because many young migrants to urban areas are returning to their rural homes and other young people are discouraged from migrating to urban areas. Globally, youth are nearly three times more likely to be unemployed than adults (ILO, 2010). 2 However, the incidence of youth unemployment varies considerably from one region to another. It is highest in the NENA region, where nearly one-quarter of all youth are classified as being unemployed. It is lowest in East Asia and South Asia with rates of 9.0 per cent and 10.7 per cent respectively. Youth unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa was 12.6 per cent in 2009 (table 1). (Breakdowns of rural and urban youth unemployment rates are not available.) Particularly high rates of youth unemployment are closely linked with high rates of landlessness – for example, 20 per cent in NENA. 2 Young people aged 15-24 are estimated to account for 60 per cent of the unemployed in sub-Saharan Africa. TABLE 1 Youth unemployment rates by region 1999 and 2009 Region 1999 2009 Developed economies and EU 13.9 17.7 Central and Eastern Europe and CIS 22.7 21.5 East Asia 9.2 9.0 South East Asia and Pacific 13.1 15.3 South Asia 9.8 10.7 Latin America and the Caribbean 15.6 16.6 Middle East 20.5 22.3 North Africa 27.3 24.7 Sub-Saharan Africa 12.6 12.6 Source: ILO, Global Employment Trends, 2010. 7
Who are rural youth? Age and location are the two key defining characteristics of rural youth. Age definitions of youth vary quite considerably. The United Nations defines youth as all individuals aged between 15 and 24. The 2007 World Development Report, which focuses on ‘the next generation’, expands the definition of youth to include all young people aged between 12 and 14. Similar definitional variations exist with regard to location. Distinguishing between who is rural and who is urban is increasingly difficult, especially with the expansion of ‘peri-urban’ areas where large proportions of the population rely on agricultural activities to meet their livelihood needs. Traditionally, policy discussions concerning youth have been based on the premise that youth are in transition from childhood to adulthood and, as such, have specific characteristics that make them a distinct demographic and social category. This transition is multi-faceted. It involves the sexual maturation of individuals, their growing autonomy, and their social and economic independence from parents and other carers. The nature of the transition from childhood to adulthood has changed over time and varies considerably from one region to another. Rural children in developing countries become adults quickly mainly because the transition from school to work usually occurs at an early age and is completed in a short space of time. The same is true for poor young rural women with regard to marriage and childbearing. ‘Lack of alternatives’ is the major reason given for very high levels of marriage and childbearing among rural adolescent girls. Rural survival strategies demand that young people fully contribute to meeting the livelihood needs of their households from an early age. Consequently, youth as a transitional stage barely exists for the large majority of rural youth, and the poor in particular. Many children aged 5-14 also work (for example, 80 per cent in rural Ethiopia). Another related attribute of rural youth is that they tend to lack economic independence or ‘autonomy’. The rural household is a joint venture, and the gender division of labour is such that full, individual control of the productive process is virtually impossible for women in many countries. Given that large proportions of rural youth are subordinate members of usually large extended households, they are largely dependent on their parents for their livelihood needs. As youth grow older, the autonomy of males increases, but contracts for females. Moreover, in most traditional and poorest populations in low-income countries, girls typically marry shortly after menarche or when they leave school. Rural youth are also very heterogeneous. The World Bank definition of youth encompasses the 12 year-old pre-pubescent boy attending primary school in a remote rural area and a 24-year old single mother of four children eking out an existence vending on the streets of a large rural village. Since 8
Page 1 and 2: Investing in the future Creating op
Page 3 and 4: Table of contents Introduction 4 Wh
Page 5 and 6: Introduction This paper 1 reviews t
Page 7: A worker packages decorative plants
Page 11 and 12: Key features of rural youth livelih
Page 13 and 14: Future labour demand in rural areas
Page 15 and 16: Improving youth livelihoods in rura
Page 17 and 18: According to the sustainable liveli
Page 19 and 20: BOX 3 Farmer Field Schools in East
Page 21 and 22: Training and capacity-building acti
Page 23 and 24: A young man makes and repairs shoes
Page 25 and 26: Partnerships to promote youth rural
Page 27 and 28: Concluding remarks The urgent need
Page 29 and 30: References Amin, S. (2008) Enhancin
Page 31: 30 International Fund for Agricultu

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