Event Date: Feb 22, 2017
Time: 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM America/New York
Location: United States
Online: Online Event
Information
Involving youth in agriculture has become a major focus in development, as many countries continue to struggle with youth unemployment. Join this month's Ask Ag Online Chat, where the Feed the Future Innovation for Agricultural Training and Education (InnovATE) program will answer your questions about Positive Youth Development (PYD) programs in agricultural development.
Positive Youth Development (PYD) programs provide opportunities for young people to build skills and exercise leadership in their communities. In addition, programs that involve universities, extension services, local organizations, government, schools and the private sector can be tremendous catalysts for change.
Experts will answer the following questions:
- Youth are very diverse. What tools or methods do community-based programs use to engage youth demographics, inclusive of gender, education, religion, and life-stage, in agriculturally-focused work?
- How should key stakeholders be engaged to create a positive youth development program?
- What types of training or extension services are most effective for creating sustainable community based youth programs?
- How are positive youth development programs different or new compared to other community-based programs used to provide agricultural and life skills to youth?
Ask Ag About... Positive Youth Development
Gary Walker
USAID Bureau for Food Security
Gary Walker is the Senior Youth Advisor for Feed the Future in the USAID Bureau for Food Security. His job is to help Feed the Future to become more youth inclusive and to help mainstream youth across Feed the Future’s... more portfolio. He has extensive experience in development policy and programming, project design and evaluation. He has more than 40 years of experience with workforce development, education, rural livelihoods, food security and other areas. He has had long-term assignments as a COP, Senior Advisor and technical consultant in Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana and Zambia and has carried out scores of short-term consultancies in over 30 African countries plus Haiti and a few in Asia. He is a graduate of the American University School of International Service and the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. less
Bineta Guisse
USAID Education and Research in Agriculture (ERA) Project
Bineta Guisse is currently the Gender & Youth Integration in Community Economic Development Programs Coordinator at USAID/Education, Research in Agriculture Project after five years of serving as the Gender and Community Outreach... more Officer. In her current position, Bineta specializes in strategic planning and organizational policy development and implementation with a focus on innovative approaches to securing child well-being and women’s empowerment through education and micro enterprises. She is the current architect of the project’s Gender Strategy, and is spearheading USAID/ERA’s efforts at promoting gender equality and integrating youth Programming through a variety of new programs, most notably the Positive Youth Development, Senegal 4-H program. Prior to joining USAID/ERA, she was a consultant, activist, and community organizer with over 15 years of experience in community based programs with governments and NGOs. She served as a consultant for more than 10 years offering on-going training and technical assistance to community development institutions and assisting local municipalities to build economic development initiatives within economically depressed areas of target cities. less
Prosper Doamekpor
Tuskegee University
As a trained agricultural and extension specialist, Dr Prosper Doamekpor has over 10 years’ experience in rural development, extension programming, designing and implementing intervention programs in agricultural and rural... more development projects. Over the years, he has assisted with human capacity strengthening programs aimed at maintaining sustainable livelihoods among target audiences. Dr. Doamekpor currently serves as Youth Development Specialist for the Cooperative Extension Program in Tuskegee University, Alabama, and is responsible for youth development activities, recruiting and training emerging young leaders, and coordinating youth programs with other Extension agents. He provides leadership for planning, implementing and evaluating statewide plan of work designed to address the educational needs of youth and young adults. In addition, he guides and counsels volunteers associated with youth development programs throughout the Black Belt area and the State, as well as other program-related groups. Prosper obtained his doctorate degree in Agricultural and Extension Education at Penn State University. He obtained his Master of Philosophy and Bachelor of Science degrees in Agricultural Extension and Agricultural Science respectively from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. less
Umaru Sheriff
4-H Liberia
Umaru Sheriff is the National Executive Director of 4-H Liberia Inc. and one of the key individuals that re-established 4-H in 2006 as a national NGO dedicated to teaching agriculture education and leadership to youth in Liberia.... more Through his leadership, a strategic plan for 4-H Liberia was developed focusing on agricultural and leadership training skills for youth. His main duties are to establish 4-H clubs, recruit and train 4-H staff and volunteers, and implement the day-to-day activities of 4-H Liberia. Mr. Sheriff also serves as a reconciler in his community, helping to negotiate misunderstandings among community members. His long term goal is to develop young people in his home country and in Africa through collaboration with government and non-government organizations. Mr. Sheriff has always lived in Liberia, with the exception of five years in Sierra Leone as a refugee during the Liberian Civil War which ended in 2003. He’s a 2010 graduate of the University of Liberia with a BBA in Accounting and Public Administration. less
Susan Naburi
4-H Tanzania
Susan Naburi is currently the Executive Director and CEO of 4-H Tanzania, a non-profit youth member based organization. Her responsibilities include organizational development, fund raising and sustainability. She works on... more strengthening youth entrepreneurship and self-reliance and promoting agri-business in rural areas. Ms. Naburi is a member of the Board of Directors, past and present, in various organizations locally and internationally. She is also very involved in community service and is an active volunteer in various capacities. Ms. Naburi’s achievements include: Host and trainer to the International Take a Lead Conference. Founder and active member of the Africa 4-H Network and Global 4-H Network. Host and founder member (Hub of excellence – Leadership) 4-H Africa Leadership Institute. Facilitator on Gender Equity & Sensitivity in 4-H programs at the 1st Global 4-H Network Summit Seoul, Korea. She graduated from the University of Maine, USA in IT. less
Comments
We found that the 4-H model is an exciting way to engage young people. The program has the means to help youth get the necessary tools they need. Among the many features that make the program an interdisciplinary effort are the essentials elements and targeting life skills that can be applied to anyone and their ability to stay in touch with social and cultural realities regardless of gender or religious concerns. In this program, I’ve seen kids who learn plenty of things in a very short amount of time, youth who develop life skills that are very needed for life in a very healthy and positive manner …. all this is helping to shape strong personalities and future leaders. The program has contents of education that go further than the knowledge and “know-how;” it allows the youth to become the main actor of their apprenticeship in a context of scarcity of teachers and educators and helps them furthermore face life with more resiliency and even more allow them to shape a bright future.
Hi Richard,
We are now online and I have seen your question. It is a broad one and hard to answer in just a few lines since what is most effective depends on the sub-sector, the level of skills and education of the youth involved and the demand in the area. That said, a good practice is to integrate technical skills (farming, processing, management etc) with life skills in order to address youth needs holistically. Youth also need a sense of belonging, opportunities for leadership and a feeling that they are contributing to their communities.
Hello, I will unfortunately not be able to participate to the webinar but this subjet appears of utmost importance in relation to our mandates / projects and is increasingly seen as a focus subject by many international donors. Would (some of) you be able to recommend some key readings or/and experts' discussion groups in relation to the subject ? Many thanks in advance and best regards. Vincent
Hi Vincent,
USAID YouthPower has thousands of resources related to positive youth development (PYD) programs and how to measure PYD-related outcomes in youth programming on its website www.YouthPower.org and more specifically about PYD here: http://www.youthpower.org/positive-youth-development
You can also join YouthPower Learning's four active Communities of Practice here: http://www.youthpower.org/youthpower-communities-practice
If you need any other resources, please feel free to send us an email at info@youthpower.org.
Best,
YouthPower Learning Team
Hi Vincent. I’m the learning and communications specialist for the Innovation for Agricultural Training and Education (InnovATE) project. We organized this chat for today with Agrilinks because positive youth development programs hit so many areas in need (leadership development, skill building, community strengthening). We hosted a side event at the RUFORUM biennial conference last October on positive youth development, experiential learning and outreach. You can find all the presentations from that event on our website here: http://www.oired.vt.edu/innovate/events-listing/workshops/ruforum-5th-biennial-conference-south-africa-october-2016/
Also, we have a brief Good Practice Paper on positive youth development that lays out the essential elements: http://www.oired.vt.edu/innovate/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Youth-Development_Updated_101416.pdf
And finally, the U.S. 4-H organization has conducted research on positive youth development in the U.S. You can see their findings here: http://4-h.org/about/research/
Hi KV,
YouthPower Learning has developed illustrative indicators to measure PYD-related outcomes in youth programs. You can find them here: http://www.youthpower.org/positive-youth-development-pyd-indicators
These are available in the brand new PYD Measurement Toolkit developed by YouthPower Learning, which is available here: http://www.youthpower.org/positive-youth-development-toolkit
Hi Everyone! My name is G. Umaru Sheriff and I am the National Executive Director of 4-H Liberia. My main duties are to establish 4-H clubs, recruit and train 4-H staff and volunteers, and implement the day-to-day activities of 4-H Liberia to develop life skills in youth and build food security. I am also working to improve the educational systems in my country. My long-term goal is to develop young people in Liberia and Africa through collaboration with government and non-government organizations.
Hi everyone,
I am Gary Walker and have now joined the conversation. I look forward to interacting with all of you and especially those of you on the ground in Tanzania, Liberia and Senegal who are joining us today since each of you has such valuable experience.
I want to share this information from the Global Clover Network, showing the importance of 4-H around the world and why we have to invest in the youth development.
- The Youth Solution
The 4-H movement—made up of 4-H programs delivered through Cooperative Extension at land-grant universities in the United States as well as independent 4-H programs from around the world—is uniquely positioned to meet urgent global needs:
- Young people are the drivers of change—and today there are more than one billion people between 12 and 24.
- The young people of today are the farmers who will feed the world in 2050.
- 4-H reaches 7 million young people in more than 50 countries.
- More than 3.5 million girls and young women are leading in 4-H today.
- The 4-H high quality positive youth development experience is proven effective—with a 100-year history of agricultural and economic development.
- A global network of independent 4-H programs is working together to offer the 4-H experience to millions more young people—with a goal to double the number of young leaders reached outside the U.S. by 2015.
I want to share this information from the Global Clover Network, showing the importance of 4-H around the world and why we have to invest in the youth development. The Youth Solution The 4-H movement—made up of 4-H programs delivered through Cooperative Extension at land-grant universities in the United States as well as independent 4-H programs from around the world—is uniquely positioned to meet urgent global needs: Young people are the drivers of change—and today there are more than one billion people between 12 and 24. The young people of today are the farmers who will feed the world in 2050. 4-H reaches 7 million young people in more than 50 countries. More than 3.5 million girls and young women are leading in 4-H today. The 4-H high quality positive youth development experience is proven effective—with a 100-year history of agricultural and economic development. A global network of independent 4-H programs is working together to offer the 4-H experience to millions more young people—with a goal to double the number of young leaders reached outside the U.S. by 2015.
There are many ways to develop community-based programming to engage youth in agriculturally focused work based on the principles of positive youth development.
Depending on the type of programming the community wants to adopt and implement, the following tools and/or methods could be used:
Community assessment is one strategy to help community groups learn more about their communities and develop programs to the community needs. This helps to identify local issues and assets, and potential directions before planning project activities. In other words, it is the process of learning about the social, economic, and physical aspects of a community as well as the interrelationships among these elements. Community assessment is important and critical because it helps local groups understand important background information before programs are undertaken. Because each community is unique and different based on demographics and unique beliefs with its own goals, preferences, assets, issues, resources, past history, and potential for the future, a proper assessment can help the community make decisions that are appropriate to its unique set of circumstances.
For instance, the assessment will be useful in
- Identifying community assets, opinions and goals
- Planning for the future
- Identifying local resources
- Encouraging local participation
- Marketing your community
- Identifying community needs
Depending on the type of programming the community wants to adopt and implement, the following tools and/or methods could be used:
- Youth-Adult Partnerships (this program a partnership between youth and adult – they are equal partners in running the program agenda and making decision that will affect every individual.
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/workingwithyouth/910?task=view
- Youth Voice – Youth Voice Youth Choice
http://4-h.org/parents/healthy-living/youth-voice-youth-choice/
http://www.casel.org/youth-voice/
- Youth Extension Paraprofessionals (In this programming, youth are trained in various life skills, including the tenet of extension to be able to deliver programs to their peers and young ones. They also have the capacity to impact older people through the services they provide in community and civic engagements)
4-H Liberia is using the following tools and methods to do community- based programs to engage youth in Liberia:
· All 4-H programs use a positive youth development approach. This includes three key methods: teaching practical life skills; providing training and opportunities for leadership and service to others; and building relationships with trained adults who can be advisors and mentors.
· Another factor is experiential or hand-on learning. This allows children and young people to “learn by doing” and “learn while earning.”
· We also begin our programs with children in the primary grades and continuing through secondary grades and into young adult-hood.
Currently, we use the following tools in Liberian 4-H programs.
1. Cultivating Learning with School Gardens Curriculum developed by United States Department of Agriculture and United Stated Agency for International Development. This curriculum demonstrates lives skills activities to students and the information contained is used for their public speaking sessions.
2. 4-H Agriculture Enterprise Toolkit developed by the Global 4-H Program. This books is developing youth in Liberia positively in goal setting, market survey for enterprise garden etc. 4-H Liberia is reaching 72 schools and each of the 72 schools has two copies of this book.
3. 4-H Handbook, this document is used to trained student in parliamentarian meeting procedure, teach students the responsibilities of their elected official and the responsibility of the club members.
The 4-H program is meeting young people from all work of lives. It do not have religion, political or ethnic boundary. When it comes to gender sensitivity, we insure that girls and young women have equal opportunities to be leaders. In most of the 4-H Clubs, females hold elected offices and in some clubs the presidents are female. We offer training in public speaking and group processes so that all youth have the necessary skills to lead.
This is an excellent question for our 4-H experts since the question asks about methods used by community-based programs. From a more global perspective, I would say that youth programs must be age appropriate and gender relevant. They should be holistic combining topics like hygiene and nutrition with technical skills for improved farming and processing techniques. Whenever posible, incorporating functional literacy adds value to the process. In terms of tools or methods, youth are more likely to be engaged when they are active participants with a minimum of classroom instruction and lots of hands-on expereince. I hope our 4-H colleagues can add some specific examples from their field experience.
PYD offers a range of approach and techniques based on:
· Organizational skills for leaders or trainers
Setting the stage with an Inclusive and safe environment (e.g., a club) creates a sense of belonging among the members regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, or religion. Also, make sure to get parents or caretakers involved in the beginning of the process. Then a caring adult (e.g., club leaders) who foster positive relationships with youth, help set boundaries and expectations for young people by promoting an atmosphere of acceptance of individual participants and diverse thinking (e.g., through team building exercises and activities).
· Engagement in Learning
This is accomplished through hands-onlearning, and includes capitalizing on curiosity and use of competitiveand cooperative learning methods. Experiential learning method, or the Learn-By-method Doing approach among other methods are used to fostering and developing an interest in learningand an inquiring mind. Youth as learners specially from diverse socio economic status or education and life-stage in agricultural-focused work, may generate multiple intelligences or aptitudes, therefore leaders needs to be well-informed to empower children and youth, enhance their agricultural and life skills and enable them to explore risks, solve problems and develop greater gender equity all by fostering; Belongingness,Independence, Mastery and Generosity… 4-H essential elements.
· Citizenship, Healthy living and STEM
Youth activity guides are filled with engaging, content-rich experiences that cultivate abilities that youth need for everyday living as they progressively gain knowledge about subjects that interest them. STEM (science engineering, technology, and applied math); Healthy Living; and Citizenship as part of the three 4-H mandated missions that allows achieve the vision of healthy, productive and engaged youth, PYD programs.
At Making Cents International we integrate Positive Youth Development Approaches into our youth and agriculture projects. We encourage youth engagement in program design and ask them to provide feedback at regular intervals throughout the project. Through our curriculum we offer hands-on opportunities to builds skills and link them with coaches and community mentors who provide support and encouragement. We train our local trainers on how to create a safe, supportive environment to encourage positive social emotional learning and expression.
My name is Eng. Henry Rwamugema from Rwanda and with several years experience in rural development and economic growth. There are two things I need to highlights regarding youth involvemment in agricalture and rural development: 1) The youth involvemment in agricalture and rural development is timely and climate driven: The current trend driven by the global climate change is the major driver shifting traditional agricalture practice into Technology Driven Agricalture and Agribusiness. Unfortunately the older farmer groups in most cases cannot cope with the challenges and level of education which is necessary to cope with climate change, youth groups are fit to cope with this challenge and cope with the situation. What is needed is to strenghen agricalture technology professionalism in the national education system and give it a priority 2) Acess to Finance: Agricalture driven by technological solutions should be seen as a scientific business adventure and open up financial flows into the development banks, commercial foundations, etc and encourage young entrepreneurs to go for it.
Rural Agricalture enterprise should not be seen as risky business and unfortunately financial institutions still viewing it in that angle,and usually not reluctant releasing financial services to rural agricalture development. Who is going to feed the growing global population ? Young people, with knowledge, guts, enthusiasm and looking ahead for brighter future. We must support them !
Henry makes some excellent points. In our work with the Global Clover Network and 4-H, we learned that we had to promote youth-adult partnerships. This included leadership training for boys and girls, such as public speaking, group processes and decision making. It also required training for adults including as the teachers, extension agents, and parents so that they were able to work with youth in co-learning and co-leading.
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I work for AgriCorps and returned from my Fellowship with AgriCorps in June. Our Fellows work with 4-H Ghana and 4-H Liberia on the ground. While our main focus is agricultural education for the youth (and 4-H/Future farmer type clubs) we also recognize the need for adult partnerships. Our Fellows host multiple teacher training workshops each year that focus on the experiential learning model (learning by doing) and how to engage their students. Many of these teachers are also 4-H advisors. Our Fellows work with farmers in their communities as well in the hopes that by helping them find solutions to their challenges, the students also see there is reward and prestige in being a farmer.
I wonder if the ERA project in Senegal has experience with the problem of credit risk. The Senegal project called Naatal Mbay has made progress in crop insurance and contract farming to encourage more risk taking by banks. I do not have the two relevant document citations handy but will try to send them later today on this site. They may be on the USAID website.
Gary, we are interested to see several initiatives apart from credit risk. We need to entervene those risks through "climate resilient technologies and associated tools". Foer example Sub-Sahara African countries whom more than 80% livelihood depends on agricalture and climate change has hitted this part of the continent more than anytime in the life time. Something like simple and afforadble irrigation schemes like drip irrigation, post harvesting technologies to support and protect danages on the whole value chain during post harvesting especially for staples which are the major uptake and cash crops for rural economy in Africa.Any initiative from donors like USAID in pipeline to support Youth into technology driven agricalture ?
In regards to Naatal Mbay--- this LEO report includes a good case study on Naatal Mbay (an RTI (former IRG) implemented program) and it's work on crop insurance and credit. https://www.microlinks.org/sites/default/files/resource/files/Report20No.204920-20Case20Studies20on20Facilitating20Systemic20Change20-2050820compliant.pdf . While this powerpoint also discusses innovative risk management through rain index insurance in Naatal Mbay: https://seep2015.pathable.com/static/attachments/122826/1444232256.pptx?1444232256
ICRW released the Positive Youth Development (PYD) Toolkit, which provides a variety of resources, tools and references for using a PYD approach in youth-focused programming in low and middle-income countries. Positive youth development is an approach that aims to build and support the competencies, skills and abilities of youth so that they are empowered to reach their full potential. The toolkit is specifically geared toward helping program implementers, researchers and funders integrate PYD principles into program monitoring and evaluation. The PYD Toolkit was developed under the USAID-funded, Making Cents International-led YouthPower Learning project. Download the toolkit now.
Positive Youth Development engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, and families in a manner that is productive and constructive; recognizes, utilizes, and enhances youths’ strengths; and promotes positive outcomes for young people by providing opportunities, fostering positive relationships and furnishing the support needed to build on their leadership strengths.
How can we encourage more youths to go into enterpreneurship since unemployment is now the order of the day in Sub Saharan Africa? Most of them complained of lack of access to finance. However, we are trying to let them see that excuse of such should not make them handicap in pursuing their goals in life. Any other advice please
My name is Bineta Khalla Guisse, specialist in community economic development. I am the Gender & Youth Integration in Community Economic Development Program Coordinator with theUSAID/Education and Research in Agriculture (ERA) Project. USAID/ERA is building capacity in agricultural education and training in Senegal’s higher education institutions through improving teaching, supporting research, promoting community outreach, and advancing higher education policy. USAID/ERA interventions contributed to the creation of a new law in August 2013 by the Senegalese Ministry of Higher Education making community service and outreach an integral aspect of the higher education mission in Senegal. USAID/ERA is investing great efforts to strengthen partner institutions’ capacities to better deliver extension services and technical support to farmer’s communities and private sector.