The meeting will provide spaces for youth to explore on-farm and off-farm business opportunities  that promote decent work and are environmentally friendly.

Smart Workshop 1:

Employment for Rural Youth

In rural areas, young people are less likely to have an employment and – when they do – it is an informal employment that does not provide any legal protection for them. Young people work as contributing family workers, as own-account workers in their own informal micro-enterprises, or as subsistence farmers, typically earning low wages, under casual or seasonal work arrangements and facing unsafe working conditions. In this workshop, we will discuss ways of changing this situation, ways of improving work options for rural youth. We will talk about how rural youth can access existent job opportunities (labor market intermediation); about how to stimulate private sector investments and operations so they create jobs for rural youth and hire them more; and about how to make sure that the skills rural youth acquire in trainings are those needed by those who offer jobs (job-oriented trainings and internships). Currently, agriculture is the main provider of jobs for rural youth; however, improving employment for rural youth means also capturing on the non-agricultural sector (tourism, mining, timber processing, etc.), as well as in different parts of agricultural value chains. It also means, finally, thinking about how to improve working conditions of rural youth currently employed in the informal sector. How to encourage formalization without marginalizing already-marginalized youth and without inhibiting entrepreneurship? How to connect supply and demand in rural job markets in such a way that youth are included? How to stimulate rural private sector to hire young men and women? How to improve the matching between skills needed by employers and developed by rural youth? Drawing on the experience of the presenters, in this workshop we will discuss potential answers to these questions, among others, and its participants will be able to establish parallels and connections with their own cases.

Smart Workshop 2:

Approaches to Youth Entrepreneurship

Although youth entrepreneurship is an important pathway out of poverty for rural youth, only a portion of young entrepreneurs prove to be successful and their profits are often below the level of income earned in wage employment. Entrepreneurship in rural areas, more than a choice, seems to be the only option for poor rural youth trying to produce some income. At the same time, rural youth held an underexploited potential for entrepreneurship, particularly in agri-food industries (processing, distribution, marketing and retailing), because they are able to both acquire the necessary skills and take the risks involved in the creation of a new enterprise. In general, policies and programs that aim at improving rural youth entrepreneurship offer young men and women packages combining vocational training and financial services, while others also focus on beneficiaries’ basic life skills (including literacy), strengthen specific value chains in which youth develop their microenterprises, and establish partnerships with market operators that will assure demand for new businesses. How to adequately assist rural youth in the development of their rural micro-enterprises? What is the best way of incubating businesses led by rural youth? How to identify those business plans and young men or women who are more likely to develop successful entrepreneurs? What are the necessary competences and skills that rural youth need to develop in order to become successful entrepreneurs? How to make sure that new businesses led by rural youth are sustainable and have access to markets? Drawing on the experience of the presenters, in this workshop we will discuss potential answers to these questions, among others, and its participants will be able to establish parallels and connections with their own cases.

Smart Workshop 3:

Access to land and natural resources

Access to land and to natural resources is necessary for production and entrepreneurship, but it is also a factor of empowerment and autonomy. Rural youth often lack access to land because of practices and cultural barriers as well as a lack of awareness of their rights and information, which makes difficult for them to secure tenure, even more difficult for young women. Moreover, rural youth are generally excluded from policy dialogue regarding land and natural resources issues. In this context, producers’ organizations, communities, programs and governments have implemented innovative strategies to improve rural youth’s access to land and natural resources. Although inheritance remains the main way in which young farmers can insure access to land, other mechanisms such as rentals, collective land use, land purchases and inter-vivos land transfer (made during lifetime) are also becoming ways for rural youth to access land. Other factors, also, have an impact on the use of land by youth: its quality, its access to water and other natural resources, and the legal possibility to sell it or to use it as formal collateral are important characteristics of land tenure that have an impact on rural youth’s opportunities to use the land. How to improve rural youth’s access to land and land tenure? What are the factors that should be taken into account when implementing strategies to increase rural youth’s access to land? How to make sure that rural youth can make good use of this land? Drawing on the experience of the presenters, in this workshop we will discuss potential answers to these questions, among others, and its participants will be able to establish parallels and connections with their own cases.

Smart Workshop 4:

Access to financial services and products

Rural youth encounter different barriers when trying to access the regulated financial market. They live far away from financial institutions, their agricultural activities are seasonal and sensitive to weather and commodity risks, and their age (when minors) is an obstacle for opening a saving account, applying for a loan or contracting an insurance. Also, financial services and products do not always support the youth life strategies. In this context, some programs and financial institutions have developed new strategies for improving rural youth’s access to financial services and products. They have included financial literacy as part of trainings, they have provided loans to youth groups instead of individuals, they have encouraged adolescents to open saving accounts and have developed specific products for young clients. How to ensure sustainability for youth savings products over the long term? How to couple financial services with non-financial services? How to target rural youth when offering financial products and services? How to use technology in order to facilitate access and usage of financial services for rural youth? Drawing on the experience of the presenters, in this workshop we will discuss potential answers to these questions, among others, and its participants will be able to establish parallels and connections with their own cases.

Smart Workshop 5:

Policy Dialogue and Rural Youth Empowerment

Rural youth are often excluded from decision-making processes that affect them. At different levels (local, national, regional, etc.), they can hardly access instances of discussion about public policies. How can rural youth become a relevant actor in public and policy discussions? How rural youth’s needs and opportunities can be a priority in governments’ agendas, across different ministries and government levels? What skills do rural youth need to develop in order to become leaders? How can youth networks push for pro-youth policies? How can they be autonomous, sustainable and successful in their activities? Drawing on the experience of the presenters, in this workshop we will discuss potential answers to these questions, among others, and its participants will be able to establish parallels and connections with their own cases.

Smart Workshop 6:

Young women

Young women face a double challenge of being young and being female. They face greater challenges than men due to gender-biased norms, higher chances of being married and pregnant at an early age, limited physical mobility and more household responsibilities. Facing these circumstances, some pro-youth policies and organizations have developed innovative strategies for the inclusion of young rural women: they have designed specific training models, they have provided services specific to women and have adopted integral approaches, which often address sexual health and pregnancy, in their interventions. What are the specific needs of rural young women? How can we successfully address them? Drawing on the experience of the presenters, in this workshop we will discuss potential answers to these questions, among others, and its participants will be able to establish parallels and connections with their own cases.

Smart Workshop 7:

Vocational training approaches

Vocational training programs for rural youth improves their skills and productivity, and can open up new employment opportunities for them. However, they present specific challenges. Sometimes, rural communities, families and the rural youth themselves do not recognize the benefits of training, training programs are not relevant for the characteristics of the local market, or they are, for practical reasons, hardly accessible by those they are supposed to benefit. How to ensure the relevance of vocational training programs? How to encourage rural communities, families and the rural youth themselves to engage in vocational training processes? In a particular context, what makes a vocational training program accessible for rural youth? How to articulate vocational training programs with other stakeholders (market operators, local technical assistance services providers, local organizations, etc.)? Drawing on the experience of the presenters, in this workshop we will discuss potential answers to these questions, among others, and its participants will be able to establish parallels and connections with their own cases.

Smart Workshop 8:

Partnerships and Access to Innovation, Technologies and ICTs

Technology can help rural youth acquire more and new skills, access markets – improving their business start-up opportunities –, and enhance their production techniques, shifting from input-intensive to knowledge-intensive agriculture. Youth are also keen on using ICTs and technologies in their production, more than older generations. Strategies that improve rural youth’s access to technologies and ICTs, small rural hubs where they can learn about farming, food processing and marketing, or apps that help young farmers to identify agricultural diseases or to get up-to-date data regarding agricultural products and trends, for example, are the focus of this workshop. How ICTs, and technology in general, can be used to improve rural youth’s businesses? How can we improve rural youth’s access to technologies and ICTs? How can we establish partnerships and alliances in order to improve rural youth’s access to technology and innovations? Drawing on the experience of the presenters, in this workshop we will discuss potential answers to these questions, among others, and its participants will be able to establish parallels and connections with their own cases.