Supporting youth agripreneurship is no one size fits all solution

CoP members SNV and Rwanda Youth in Agribusiness Forum (RYAF) shared their experience with matching supply and demand side programmatic activities and approaches to serve both high potential entrepreneurs and include marginalized groups like rural youth and youth with disabilities. The successful Zimbabwean entrepreneur Vimbayi Kaitano illustrated how SNV’s Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship approach, helped her seedling business to grow through mentorship and the linkages to the wider business ecosystem. Rwanda Rural Youth Alliance chair James Kellon on the other hand shared what works in engaging rural youth and advised the group to start at the lowest grassroots level.

The interactive session generated 6 lessons about effectively serving the needs of different youth groups:

1. There is no one size that fits all approach. Programmes need to be tailored to the profile and ambitions of youth and should also take into account the economic opportunities in a particular context.

   1. A good tool to effectively identify the profile of different youth groups is the matrix model, integrating their social background and their employment profile.

2. Focusing on the supply side is not enough - go beyond training and connect youth to economic opportunities simultaneously.

3. Work more closely with market ready youth and consider long term investment to youth development, e.g. through mentoring and coaching and related business development services.

   1. 30% of the youth that enroll in agripreneurship programmes are intrinsic entrepreneurs with the ability to develop scalable business models that could provide employment to other youth. Give this group extra support to achieve their full potential by connecting with other ecosystem players that can provide follow up BDS services, institutionalised finance and access to diversified markets.

   2. Use innovative coaching and mentoring approaches to create peer-to-peer learning , e.g. youth farmers champions model.

4. Ask input and advice from local youth with different backgrounds to contextualise your global theory of change and tools.

   1. To integrate the voice of rural youth in (inter)national programmes and policy fora, start at the grassroots level and bring the voices from village level up to the district, province and national levels.

5. Create synergy between the rural and urban youths through linking primary production and processing activities and building an ecosystem of youth farming associations and active entrepreneurs.

6. To serve disabled youth, identify inclusive training opportunities and work directly with companies that can provide the facilities support and employ people with disabilities.

The learning session was the first in a series of three, all focusing on exchanging lessons and best practices related to the recommendations on effective youth agripreneurship programming identified in the policy brief developed by NFP, INCLUDE and The Broker. It brought together a highly diverse group of Dutch, African and other international participants, ranging from NGO’s and policymakers to youth networks and academia. While the majority of participants already practise different approaches to serve different youth groups, we observed an eagerness to learn how other organisations customise their approach to suit their objectives and the needs of youth. Suggested topics for follow up learning included a practical exchange on effective youth engagement strategies at project design stage and improvement of business models and projects during implementation. There was a specific interest in reaching rural youth in the research and creation stage of a project.