KEY MESSAGE
A youth-oriented approach involves asking practical questions to develop tailored services for youth in the agribusiness sector. 2SCALE has been experimenting with various options to support young producers and entrepreneurs. Making agriculture interesting to youth requires making it attractive and remunerative by having access to land, finance and technologies in order to modernize. Besides production another alternative for youth inclusion was explored: specialized service delivery to value chain actors. This paper provides examples of how 2SCALE tackled youth inclusion in its partnerships.
Why the focus on youth in the 2SCALE partnerships?
Gender mainstreaming is not a new item on the development agenda. It has been part of 2SCALE’s strategy since the beginning of the program. However, the focus on youth in agribusiness came at a later stage. A youth oriented approach also involves asking more practical questions, such as who the youth are and how they are involved in agribusinesses and agricultural value chains. Once the answers to these questions are identified, the first challenge is to actually involve youth in agribusiness by making the sector attractive to young people; it is then necessary to ensure equity in the accessibility of opportunities and accompanying benefits compared to more seasoned actors in the value chain.