Challenge
While Liberia’s economy has not fully recovered to pre-war levels (prior to 1989), its population of about 4.8 million continues to grow at a high rate. As a result, the country is faced with the twin challenge of a particularly large youth population (over 70 percent are below the age of 35), and a pervasive lack of job opportunities. This leads to high level of vulnerability among youth. Only 3.5 percent of youth ages 15-24 have stable jobs in the formal sector. The majority are employed in the informal sector, either as unpaid family workers or self-employed. Moreover, rural areas face an additional challenge of persistent food insecurity. In this context, providing young people with access to productive employment is critical to ensure economic recovery and stability in the country.
Approach
The Youth Opportunities Project aims to increase access to income generation opportunities for young people in Liberia. The project uses a community-based productive inclusion approach to provide economic and empowerment opportunities for youth living in both rural and urban areas. The project has a strong emphasis on women economic empowerment. Additionally, one of the project components specifically aims to promote productive inclusion of rural youth. It supports them with life and business skills training, improved agriculture techniques, labor subsidies and farm input grants (to procure seeds and tools). This approach has helped many extremely poor youths living in rural communities become self-sufficient while at the same time contribute to the development of their communities. They now work together to develop farms, grow and sell their produce, save proceeds for their own businesses, and support their communities in the process. In urban areas, the project facilitates transition to productive employment for youth who would like to open their own business and successfully transition into the labor market.
Results
Key results from the Youth Opportunities Project interventions to date include:
- 12,000 youth in rural and urban areas received life and business skills training such as socio-emotional regulation, health and hygiene, money management, among others. These trainings have helped youth farming groups to properly manage their farms and identify appropriate markets for their produce in rural areas. They also helped urban youth with developing their business plan proposals and managing the small business established with support under the project.
- 10,000 youth living in rural communities received farming inputs and labor subsidies to engage in community-based farming. The youth have also been organized into over 350 youth farming groups, which has enabled them to cultivate larger land area, leading to higher yields further contributing to the sustainability of the groups.
- Youth supported with farming inputs and labor subsidies by the project cultivated 12,000 acres of land with rice and cassava, contributing to food security in Liberia. They also produced vegetables and other non-staple crops for additional earnings.
- An additional 120 young beneficiaries received agro-processing machines to offer services to farmers in their communities.
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