CTA Strategy Plan 2013-2017 released for Youth in Agriculture’s fostering

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) published recently its Youth Strategy Plan from 2013 to 2017.

After more than 15 years supporting and promoting youth engagement in agriculture, CTA has launched this strategy in order to boost the crucial role of young people in agriculture and rural development (ARD) to develop and modernise the sector.

70% of Africa’s young population are rural and more than 50% of the ACP population are below 30 years old. This is why CTA’s strategy identifies four main priority objectives on youth issues in order to give young people a chance to find decent work or start their own business as well as to stimulate growth in the rural economy.

Supporting capacity building and youth engagement in policy dialogue, promoting entrepreneurship, increasing the use of ICTs for the youth and fostering mentorship programs for young agricultural scientists and researchers, are the 4 key objectives to improve youth livelihoods in ACP agricultural economies.

As a partner, YPARD participated to the Strategic Youth Stakeholder Workshop that took place in Wageningen, Netherlands, from November 12^th-14^th, 2012. Likewise, YPARD is also working with CTA in identifying ways to implement this strategy through concrete activities at all levels.

CTA’s Youth Strategy is a model of how organizations can push the youth agenda while creating a mutual benefit. You can download the CTA’s Youth Strategy Plan from 2013 to 2017 from YPARD e-library.

Picture credit: Corn CIO: Chessboard 3D.