Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition in West Africa

FAO

 

FSN Forum in Africa

 

DISCUSSION No. 11   •   Digest No. 5   •   see the online discussion

Sustaining the Impact of Capacity Development Initiatives for African Youth in Agriculture

until 17 November 2017

 

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Dear members and colleagues,

This lively discussion on “Sustaining the Impact of Capacity Development Initiatives for African Youth in Agriculture” is attracting insightful comments: please find the latest below, including from one of the experts supporting the topic.

To add your voice, please feel free to reply directly to this email or to post online after registration. Comments are welcome in English and French.

For more information, please visit the webiste here.

Thank you to all participants so far!

Your FSN Forum team

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Chers membres et collègues,

Cette discussion dynamique sur le thème “Favoriser un impact soutenu des initiatives de renforcement des capacités pour la jeunesse africaine dans l'agriculture” attire des commentaires très pertinents: vous trouverez ci-dessous les plus récents, y compris celui de l'un des experts qui soutiennent la discussion.

Pour prendre part à la discussion vous pouvez répondre directement à ce courriel ou afficher votre commentaire en ligne après inscription. Vos contributions sont les bienvenues en anglais et en français.

Pour plus d'information, consultez le site de la discussion ici.

Merci à tous les participants jusqu'ici!

Votre équipe du Forum FSN

 

Nawsheen Hosenally, Agribusiness TV, Burkina Faso
Expert supporting the discussion

First of all, I would like to thank FAO and partners for taking this initiative to organise this e-discussion which touches the critical component of post-capacity development support. As a youth, I have myself been involved in some capacity development initiatives that have improved my skills and enabled me to see opportunities, grab them and make a change. I am very glad to be one of the subject matter experts and would like to respond to the questions of the debate based on my experience.

What are the biggest challenges youth in Africa face after going through youth-specific capacity development initiatives in agriculture?

I think the biggest challenge in post capacity development initiatives for youth is the reality on the ground and also lack of follow-up from the initiator/organiser of the training. For example, suppose the young participants have been trained on packaging, branding and marketing, then coming back home, the person realizes that the materials that they need for packaging is not easily available at an affordable price where they are based. Or online marketing is challenging because of the poor Internet connection, which is still a big challenge in many African countries. And of course, access to finance is another issue. These are just few examples, but there are so many examples on training v/s reality gap. Moreover, when a training is organised, its viability and long-term impact should be thought of by the organiser. Then, there is the issue of follow-up from the organisers. Once the youth go back home, if there is no follow-up in terms of communication or activity, it is rare that the youth will actually use the knowledge/skills gained from the training, unless the person has clearly had prior motivation and plans on how to use the knowledge gained from the training in his/her activity.

What are the examples of existing post-capacity development sustainability initiatives for youth in agriculture in Africa? What works and what does not? Are there any success stories and good practices that can be shared?

For me, I was already into agriculture as a student, but it’s such a broad subject that you don’t really know in which segment of the value chain you should be in and what to do after your studies. I was lucky that I came across an essay competition organised by CTA on youth finding ICT solutions that can address agriculture challenges in their country. I wanted to participate and started to do some research and read on the use of ICTs in agriculture. I was really amazed to see how mobile phones were being used to share market or weather information to farmers, something that did not exist in Mauritius back in 2010. I got inspired and submitted an entry for the competition. It was shortlisted and the next step was a Web 2.0 and social media training for development. Following that, CTA launched a blog competition a year later and I won the first prize in the individual category. This opened many opportunities to me, including job opportunities. If I am working in the area of youth, agriculture and ICT today, it’s the result of this programme. My point here is that what made it work is that it was a series of activities that was linked to each other, and over time, I grabbed all opportunities that came to me. In addition, we were added to an online network (mailing list) which, after 7 years is still active. Today, this programme is no longer here in the same format, but there are still opportunities for youth through other programmes. Recently, what has also worked has been the introduction of incubation programmes that help youth in different aspects of their business and which takes place over a certain period of time. What certainly does not work is one-time activities with no communication or follow-up after the training.

What post-capacity development support do the youth need? What can the youth do to support each other in developing their skills and capacities?

In my experience, youth networks are very useful and many of these are very often online networks. Sometimes they are not directly agriculture related, but broadly on business/entrepreneurship. I would take a recent example, which is the YALI (Young African Leaders Initiative) Network. I left my job to start a business in 2015 and during that time, I came across the YALI Network and joined. On its online platform itself, they offer many online courses on various topics (environment, business, leadership etc). In addition, the members in the network are all across Africa and have the possibility to exchange with them. This year, I was selected for the Mandela Washington Fellowship, which is part of the YALI initiative and I was placed at the University of Iowa for 6 weeks, whereby we studied business and entrepreneurship. We were 25 fellows from 18 countries and most of us already had a business. Apart from the training itself, it was a great opportunity to learn from each other and share experiences. Even now after the programme, we are still in touch through our Whatsapp group and other communication channels. When we need a contact or information where the other fellows are, it’s easier and sometimes, we even collaborate with each other. What happens also is that when we come back to our countries, we have the possibility to become a mentor for some programmes and mentor other youth. In this way, we share our experiences and also create other leaders.

What enabling environment is needed to ensure sustainability of youth in agriculture capacity development initiatives?

·         Tailor capacity development programme based on the needs of the youth and their context.

·         Link with various institutions while designing the programme so that when it is completed, they can support the youth in terms of finance, technical skills etc.

·         Collaboration among institutions at national, regional, International levels is also needed to avoid conducting the same activities in isolation.

Is there a role for modern technologies, including Information and Communication Technologies, in sustaining capacity development initiatives?

Yes, certainly. Training programmes are often organised in another region/country than where the young person in based and it’s not always practical to meet physically on a regular basis. From the examples I have shared for the previous questions, online platforms have been very useful in sustaining capacity development initiatives. Online platforms can be in the form of mailing lists, Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups etc.

To sum up, the following are my recommendations on post-capacity development support:

·         Youth is a heterogeneous group. We cannot put all of them in the same basket – urban/rural youth, education level of the youth, their interest (production, processing, marketing, services etc.). Hence the youth group targeted must be properly identified.

·         Tailor training/capacity building programmes based on the needs of the identified youth.

·         Select the youth to be trained on a competitive basis. If they have to strive to get it, they will understand its value and make the most of it.

·         Seek feedback on the capacity development initiative and always improve the programme, based on the responses.

·         Follow up with the youth who have been trained and link them with partners and other opportunities.

·         Avoid one-time activities.

·         Encourage youth to get into networks. But too many networks with same activity is also exhaustive, and the youth lose interest. Hence, various institutions should work in collaboration.

I will stop here for now.

Thanks for reading!

Nawsheen

 

CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED

iconAtsu Sename, Entreprises Territoires et Développement, Togo

Bonjour,

Je réponds aux questions du facilitateur:

What are they lessons that have you learned from your post-capacity development initiatives that you could further share on this Forum?

Les principales leçons tirées sont les suivantes: 

·         un travail de sensibilisation est encore nécessaire pour faire participer les jeunes filles à l'entrepreunariat agricole. En effet, nous avons remarqué que les jeunes filles au Togo ne s'impliquent pas dans la production agricole. Elles sont plus tournées vers la commercialisation.

·         il est important de nouer un partenariat avec une institution de micro-finance ou une banque avant de lancer la formation des jeunes pour pouvoir tenir compte des exigences de ces institutions lors de la formation. Ce partenariat permettrait aux jeunes d'échapper aux difficultés qu'ils rencontrent dans les formalités de demande de crédit. 

·         la création par l'Etat d'un fonds d'appui à l'entreprenariat agricole est nécessaire pour booster l'activité des jeunes et renforcer l'attractivié du secteur agricole.

·         l'innovation agricole au niveau de la jeunesse mérite d'être soutenue par la promotion d'un fonds d'investissement qui opère spécifiquement en faveur des jeunes entrepreuneurs agricoles.

What specific support is provided to the youth after they have gone through the CD initiatives that you have highlighted?

Après les renforcements des capacités,

·         nous mettons les jeunes en relation avec les banques d'affaires et les institutions de micro finance pour remplir les formalités d'obtention de crédit sur la base d'un fonds dédié accordé par un bailleur. 

·         nous faisons un suivi-accompagnement des jeunes pour la mise en oeuvre de leurs plans d'affaires sur les trois premières années.

 

iconOlolade Adesola, L.A. Consult Limited, Nigeria

Many of the Youth trained have grasped the vital importance of super-imposing Business Skills on Production Skills in order to make a Success of Agriculture as a Business.

They can now Study their Business Environments, Identify their Strategic Business Priorities and use these to develop their own Peculiar Business Plans that would guide future Deployment of Financial, Material and Human Resources.

However, many of them are constrained by Finances as they are yet to acquire Loans or Grants to actualize their Dreams and Plans.

But those who have been fortunate to raise Funds are Managing their Businesses more Prudently and Efficiently - Identifying (and Negotiating) with Markets even BEFORE Production, Maintaining Industrial Harmony by Managing Human Resources fairly to both Employer and Employee, Proactively Identifying Potential Risks (not just Production Risks but Enterprise Wide Risks Assessment) to Business Success and Mitigating those Risks BEFORE they materialize etc.

In addition, the Business Management Training has given them Boldness, which is not evident in Agripreneurs without this type of Training.

It is still early days, so it is premature to fully report Successes, but the prognosis is certainly reassuring.

 

iconYves Stephane Ngaleu, Ministère de l'agriculture et du développement rural, Cameroon

One of the biggest challenge youth face after going through specific CD initiative is lack of support, it could be moral, equipment and / or financial. In Cameroon, there is a project call "Programme de Promotion de l'Entrepreneuriat Agropastoral des Jeunes ", this program empowers youth for three months and at the end of their capacity development on good agricultural practices, management and how to write a project, they will present a project that is going to be financed as follows: government supports 50% of the total capital, the youth brings 10% of the total capital and there a loan of 40% by a microfinance Institute.

Often after the training some youth are not able to mobilise their 10%, some doesn't have guaranty for the loan. But those who are able to benefit from this opportunity, create job for their self and for other youth in their community. They are able to transfer what they acquire to other youth and serve as examples and model for the future beneficiaries of the program.

 

iconMusa Usmna Musa, Kano agricultural and rural development authority, Nigeria

In response to your question based on my previous post; what are they lessons, if any that have you learned from your post-capacity development initiatives that you could further share on this Forum?

There are numerous lessons learned from our post-capacity development initiatives, below are some of them:

(1) The majority of farmers (youth) are willing to engage in agribusiness, but they don't have the capital strength to start up.

(2) Most of our youths have the agribusiness skills.

(3) Youth are always ready to participate in an activities that can improve their livelihood.

(4) Lack of continuity retards progress

(5) You can be rich when you engage in farming

(6) Top-down approach should be avoided, while bottom up should be encouraged.

(7) Agribusiness is the appropriate channel to alleviate poverty

 

iconHalimatou Baldeh, Food Safety and Quality Authority of the Gambia, Gambia

Africa is a youthful continent is as authentic as the holy books and the only way to ensure that Africa is self-sufficient in Food is by empowering our youthful population. Here in the Gambia the Government is doing all that is possible to ensure that the youths are empowered through agriculture. One of the Major activities embarked upon in my Agency right now is the training of youths on Good Agricultural Practices through Food Value Chain. Choosing cassava as a main crop that every Gambian can cultivate is a positive way of helping youths to grow cassava in abundance so as to meet both local and international demand. We are anticipating that in the near future the Gambia will grow cassava in abundance using Good Agricultural Practices in order to be able to export cassava and cassava products to countries such as in the EU.

 

iconShadrack Agaki, Africa Youth Employment Initiative, Kenya

Negative Influence from environment

Just like a drop of blood dirties a whole drum of clean water so does the negative energy and Negative perception on agricultural activities kills the morale of youth who undergoes capacity development. A strategy paper drawn by the Ministry of Agriculture (Kenya Youth Agribusinsess Strategy 2017-2021) launched in July identifies Youth Negative Perception towards agriculture as the biggest impediment to implementation agribusiness in Kenya.

According to the strategy paper, we must overcome this challenge if we are to succeed in attracting youth into agribusiness.

The solution then would be even as organization develop and design curriculum, attention should be paid to the need of pilot projects that would be used as case studies to share as success stories. It is through story telling that we can win the fight against negative perception. Platforms like peer learning forums would make perfect places where this stories would be shared.

So capacity development programs should be modelled in form of this forum to facilitate easy learning and adaptation.

 

 

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