#AskAg Twitter Chat: Youth Employment in Agriculture

#AskAg | Photo Credit: ONE DROP Foundation

Event Information

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Join us on June 11 for an #AskAg Twitter Chat on Youth Employment in Agriculture, co-hosted by USAID, Making Cents International, IFPRI and Winrock International.

Youth make up about one fifth of the population of developing and emerging economies and, according to the International Labor Organization, face global unemployment levels from 10 to 28 percent.  At the same time, higher food prices and the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050 make efficient and productive farming more important than ever.

How do we communicate the full range of choices available to young people to work in agriculture sector which could help us all to meet the twin needs for both agricultural growth and youth employment?

Unfortunately, the image of production farming isn’t popular with many young people in developing countries. Many see a farming career as working on a small, non-mechanized plot for little profit and with little future. And those who are interested in farming face challenges, including limited access to capital and credit, a lack of relevant skills, and difficulty finding available and affordable land.

Opportunities exist, both for local producers to capture growing domestic markets and for workers to meet demand for farm-related jobs in transportation, trade, machinery, and extension. What measures can the international community and developing country leaders design to help young people seize these opportunities? By providing youth the opportunities to bring their energy, vitality, and innovation to the business of agriculture, we all benefit from the potential transformative impact on economic growth and social development.

Twitter Accounts to follow

ExpertsOrganizations
• Rachel Blum: @rrblum• USAID: @USAID
• David Feige: @DavidFeigeAg• Making Cents: @MakingCentsIntl
• Karen Brooks: @IFPRI • IFPRI: @IFPRI
• Carol O'Laughlin: @cbmo46 • Winrock International: @WinrockIntl

Guiding questions

  1. What do you see as opportunities in production or non-production aspects of the agriculture sector that could make it appealing to young people as a career?
  2. How easy or hard is it for young people to get land for farming either in Africa, Asia or Latin America? What ways can young people get land to farm?
  3. What do you see as the challenges or barriers for getting young people interested in agricultural employment whether as a career or as transitional work?
  4. What methods work in getting young men and women the knowledge they need to effectively participate in the agriculture sector?
  5. What kinds of skills and assets do young people bring to the table to contribute to agriculture value chain competitiveness?
  6. Do you have examples of programs that work to help young people enter farming or value chains and succeed? What could we do differently?

How to participate

  • If you are new to Twitter, visit Twitter.com to sign up for an account. (For more tips on getting started, check out our Twitter 101 Training.)
  • Explore the guiding questions that will be discussed during the chat.
  • Join us for discussion by using the hashtag #AskAg and following @Agrilinks.
  • You can also follow on Twubs or through the livestream below.

Spread the word!

Livestream

Speakers

Rachel Blum

Rachel Blum

USAID

Rachel Blum is a Youth and Workforce Development Technical Specialist in USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3). She provides technical support to field Missions in the area of youth employment and skills development, and manages an initiative that is developing a youth research and evaluation agenda for USAID’s Office of Education. Prior to this role, Rachel served as Senior Economic Technical Advisor at CHF International, where she supported 20 field offices in the areas of youth employment, value chain development, food security, and household economic strengthening. She was also the Program Manager of the CHF/USAID Cooperative Development Program. Previously she served as Country Director in Azerbaijan and Kosovo. Globally she has provided technical assistance to over twenty countries worldwide. Rachel holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Georgetown University.

Karen Brooks

Karen Brooks

IFPRI

Karen Brooks is Director, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets. Brooks has worked for the World Bank for the past 20 years. For the last 10 years of her tenure there, she managed analytical and operational programs in agriculture and rural development for the Africa region. Brooks also worked extensively in Europe and Central Asia and in Africa; in the former on issues related to the transition from central planning and in the latter on the investment and policy agenda associated with the renewed commitment to agricultural growth. Prior to joining the World Bank, she was Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. Brooks received both her PhD and Master’s degrees in Economics from the University of Chicago, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.

David Feige

David Feige

Making Cents International

David Feige is Director of Economic Growth and New Business at Making Cents International. He brings to the position 12 years of experience in technical, business development and project management roles for a wide range of donor and non-donor clients. His expertise includes value chain development; competitiveness analysis; MSME development; entrepreneurship; local economic development; and livelihoods interventions. David comes to Making Cents from J.E. Austin Associates, a specialized economic development consultancy, where he spent nearly five years conducting technical work in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Prior to joining J.E. Austin, David was an Economic Development Officer at International Relief and Development, where he backstopped projects in Serbia and Montenegro and Lebanon. Before coming to Washington, D.C., David devoted most of his time to field work, first as a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador and later on the USAID-funded Central Asia Enterprise Development Project, where he was based in Kazakhstan. He also worked for a small, Seattle-based nonprofit that provided technical assistance to social enterprises in the developing world. David received his MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and his BS in Business Administration from Miami University of Ohio. David's recent work with Making Cents includes youth-inclusive value chain development in Kenya and technical backstopping for projects in Georgia and Nigeria. He is also responsible for the rural spotlight at this year's Youth Economic Opportunities Conference.

Carol O'Laughlin

Carol O'Laughlin

Winrock International

Carol Michaels O’Laughlin is Group Vice President, Empowerment and Civic Engagement (ECE) at Winrock International. Carol has devoted 40+ years to international development and relations working with not for profit, public and private sector organizations. Among her areas of specialization are employment and micro-enterprise development; grassroots development; institutional development, corporate social responsibility; building indigenous philanthropy; women empowerment; youth leadership and education. Carol directs Winrock’s ECE Group focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment, capacity building and leadership; and social protection. Programs include women’s social, economic and political development; employment and enterprise development; anti-trafficking in persons; formal and non-formal education; children labor prevention; and governance and NGO capacity building. Prior to joining Winrock Carol served as Executive Director of Global Alliance for Workers and Communities, a tri-sector initiative to improve the lives and prospects of workers, mostly young women, in the global supply chain. Other positions include: Vice President for Partner Development and Grants, International Youth Foundation; Senior Foundation representative, Inter-American Foundation; and International Affairs and Grassroots Development Officer, Lilly Endowment.

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