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Meaningful youth engagement in youth agripreneurship initiatives
“What does meaningful youth engagement mean to you? And in the context of your work, what are the main challenges to youth engagement that you have encountered?”
How do you make sure your youth agripreneurship initiative responds to the needs of the youth that you would like to serve? What can you do to keep youth engaged throughout and beyond the duration of your initiative?
We're curious to hear your thoughts and experiences! Please leave a comment below.
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Authors
Joscha Betke
Knowledge Broker @ The Broker
Bente Meindertsma
Coalition Builder Netherlands Food Partnership
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Meaningful youth engagement to me means giving young people equal opportunity to create, co-create and be part of solutions to challenges affecting them. Involving young people at the project design, implementation and evaluation provides an opportunity to create new capacity with and for young people to drive positive change.
Joscha Betke
AuthorThank you for your reply and interest in MYE Fridah! What would be a good approach how NGOs can involve youth meaningfully in the co-creation of the project design?
Joscha Betke
AuthorVery inspiring words by our CoP member SADDAM KHALFAN AHMED from the GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR IMPROVED NUTRITION (GAIN): For me, meaningful youth engagement goes beyond mere participation; it's about involving young people in decision-making processes, valuing their perspectives, and empowering them to actively contribute to the development and execution of programs. It's not just ticking a box; it's recognizing that young people bring unique insights, innovative ideas, and boundless energy to the table. In my experience, successful youth engagement approaches involve creating safe spaces for open dialogue, mentoring and capacity-building opportunities, and actively seeking youth input in program design, implementation and evaluation. It's about treating young people as partners, not just beneficiaries. While we have made progress in youth engagement, there's still much to learn and improve upon. We need to enhance our strategies for reaching marginalized youth, ensure that our programs are inclusive and accessible to all, and continuously adapt to the evolving needs and preferences of young people in an ever-changing world.
Anonymous
Private Sector Engagement (PSE) in Youth Agri-preneurship Theres an urging need to put some clarity on various misconceptions created by a lack of coordination and collaboration between sectors and also develop adapted instruments for effective Private Sector Engagement (PSE). Who is to do this? Absolutely every stakeholder in PSE but the Government has to take the lead for a solid anchor of PSE and for sustainability. According to Morgado C. and Di Bella (2013), Private Sector Engagement (PSE) implies active participation of private sector in development results. A definition broadly presented in other to take into account both form and informal collaborations that occur. Throup PSE, mutual beneficial outcomes are achieved through sharing of assets, connections, creativity or expertise between private sector and other sectors. However, in many developing contexts, there's an alarming need to demystify the concept as there's high expectation put on private sector to create job opportunities for a growing number of youth and yet less is done to try to understand the needs of the private sector in order to be able to meet the expectation. For instance in the case of Burundi, private sector is often considered as not enough cooperative when it comes to creating internships and job opportunities. Truth is, this is a misconception of private sector work and engagement. Private sector in Burundi is more than willing to contribute to decreasing the level of youth unemployment however, there are parameters that are not enabling them to fully commit to that. Let's take a look at a private enterprise based in Burundi. The latter will be requested to engage in creating future prospects for youth however, there are parameters such as (but not limited to): (a) Business unconducive environment: In Burundi, for instance, private sector is struggling to find foreign currencies to import raw material or products and to do day-to-day operations which slows down their productivity, cash flows thus reducing revenue coming in. (b) Lack of known and well-structured collaboration frameworks with other sectors: this has caused significant harm to youth in Burundi as for instance, an incubator or funded youth program would develop a training on financial literacy and business plan development without consulting and involving relevant private sector actors (banks or microfinances). Once the business plans are rejected by financial institutions it is interpreted as lack of willingness from private sector to collaborate towards promoting youth initiatives and job creation. (c) Limited capacity: when private enterprises are not making enough profit, their number one objective will not be to increase the number of staff but rather to downsize. This will imply that such private enterprises might reluctant to receive intern not because they are seen as liabilities but because there would not be any dedicate person to train them. Those who would thrive and take up few interns may not be able to retain them due to its financial situation. A strong and engaged private sector will indeed support the country to create jobs and generate more opportunities for Burundi's citizens. However, this economic potential could only be unlocked through a series of key reforms that provide the foundations for private sector-led investment (Malick Fall, IFC Country Manager for Burundi-Country Private Sector Diagnostic, 2022).
Joscha Betke
AuthorHi Favie, Thank you for elaborating on some of the misconception around PSE and discussing the barriers that the private sector is facing in Burundi! This really speaks to the importance of creating an enabling environment: An enabling environment is characterised by well-functioning infrastructure and markets as well as reliable regulatory, policy and legal systems that particularly ease the access to land and finance for women, youth and smallholders. How to create an enabling environment? → Strengthen functioning and sustainable markets to make agripreneurship a profitable option for youth by working on the following elements: (i) steady demand and market prices for agricultural products, particularly by large buyers; (ii) a reliable supply of produce and raw materials; and (iii) immediate and efficient market linkages. → Create value chain linkages between targeted agribusiness and the wider ecosystem in the economy or within a specific sector. → Expand national accreditation and certification systems to the (rural) agricultural sector. → Ease access to finance & land for SMEs and make it integral to programmatic design. For more concrete recommendations, Read our Policy Brief: https://www.thebrokeronline.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Boosting-inclusive-youth-agripreneurship-in-Africa-six-key-recommendations.pdf