Most of you know YPARD as an international platform through which young professionals are able to express their ideas and realise their full potential towards a dynamic ARD.
You might not know about all of the other activities that are going on worldwide, at local, national, regional and global levels.
You can now find the YPARD 2011 activity report in the YPARD e-library. We hope you find it useful and we believe it will give you a better idea of what has been achieved in the last year.
With the UN International Year of the Youth culminating in August 2011, now is the critical time to ensure that youth remain on the agenda.
Let's remember that while unemployment of adults in Least Developed Countries has hovered around 4% for the past decade, unemployment among youth has consistently exceeded 10%*. The number of young people of working age is increasing while this same group faces unemployment rates well above those of their older counterparts.
The large numbers of youth provide an opportunity for economic growth through agriculture and poverty reduction, yet they are often ignored and undervalued when developing priorities in the agricultural sector.
The Young Professionals’ Platform for Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD) reaffirms its committement to keeping a focus on youth at the forefront of Agricultural Research for Development (ARD).
Some Highlights from 2011
- 3 annual regional plans developed and transfer of seed funds for implementation;
- Successful blog series with E-Agriculture on Youth, Agriculture and ICTs;
- Recruitment of a Web and Communications officer;
- Development and population of YPARD accounts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn;
- Baseline study on mentoring and launch of a pilot peer to peer mentoring program;
- Conducting an e-discussion on youth in extension and presentation of the outcomes by YPs at the international extension conference in Nairobi;
- Several YPARD members actively engaging in ARD events;
- Support by the ISPC of the CGIAR for 12 young YPARD scientists to attend the CGIAR science forum;
- A YPARD representative elected to the steering committee of EFARD;
- A YPARD representative elected to the executive council of FORAGRO.
*ILO (2011) Growth, Employment and Decent Work in the Least Developed Countries report. Fourth UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Istanbul, 9-13 May 2011.