Promoting decent work and productive employment of young people in rural areas: A review of strategies and programmes

The promotion of decent work for young people is increasingly being recognized in national development frameworks. Meanwhile, several donors and multilateral organizations have long been involved in the promotion of employment and poverty reduction programmes in rural areas. IFAD itself provides substantial support to rural development promotion but most of these projects have not had a specific focus on rural youth, although the interventions have improved youth’s employment prospects and working conditions through their participation in these projects. Only a few projects, mainly concentrated in the NENA region where youth unemployment is rather significant in rural areas, have had young people as specific target group. This approach is, however, changing, as IFAD has taken steps towards increasing youth programming through farm and non-farm activities but also training and other labour market measures targeting young farmers. This is particularly emphasized in the Rural Enterprise Projects co-financed by the Fund in some of the countries it operates. Against the above described backdrop, the proposed project will review IFAD strategies and employment programmes involving young people through decent work lenses, with the aim of drawing lessons about good practices and about improvable aspects. The project will consist of three phases. The first phase will centre on the development of a methodological framework to collect and systematize data and information on IFAD’s rural development programmes involving youth. The second phase will revolve around the analytical review of such interventions as well as other non-IFAD programmes targeting rural youth, with a view to distil good practices and lessons learnt. Finally, the third phase will focus on the dissemination of the key findings and recommendations to feed into the development of future interventions.

Project symbol

GLO/10/16/IFA

Admin unit

ED/EMP/MSU

Start date

01/10/2010

End date

31/07/2012

Total allocation

295884

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

295884

Development Partners

International Fund for Agricultural Development

Country/Countries

Global

Outcomes

Employment Promotion