Highlights

A ‘youth crisis’ brewing in rural areas

In developing countries across the globe young people in rural areas face an increasingly difficult future. Too many are dissatisfied, poised between continuing to eke out a subsistence as their fathers have done or migrating to urban areas in search of a job. But with their poor schooling and lack of skills they are ill equipped to secure employment. When unemployed or underemployed they are at risk of being drawn towards antisocial activities and spreading disaffection within communities. Young people are the future, yet in rural areas they are a neglected group whose marginal status and lack of prospects undermine social cohesion, stability and growth.

Specialists taking part in the round-table discussion on generating remunerative livelihood opportunities for rural youth held at IFAD’s 2007 Governing Council Meeting, emphasized the dangers of continuing to neglect this social group. The figures speak for themselves. As unemployment rises in rural parts of developing countries, a disproportionate number of young people are without jobs. And underemployment is a growing trend among rural youth.

On average about 53 per cent of the total of unemployed people are youth. In Egypt they constitute 90 per cent of the unemployed labour force. “Many other ‘frightening figures’ like this underline the gravity of the current ‘youth crisis’,” said Samir Radwan, specialist on the Near East and North Africa region and one of three panellists at the round-table discussion. He said that the problem grows out of a continuing bias towards urban growth and neglect of the rural sector.

For Paul Bennell, a senior partner with the consultancy group Knowledge and Skills for Development, providing quality schooling is all-important in equipping young people for a productive future. “Quality education must reach rural youth,” he said. “This is our priority – that boys and girls all complete the cycle of primary education.”

Asha Juma, Minister for Labour, Youth Development, Women and Children for Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania, said her government has made progress in increasing employment opportunities for young people in rural areas through policy, legislation and investments to improve access to schooling. “We still face many challenges,” she said. “It is especially difficult to target improvements in education in rural areas. We also need to improve the availability of post-primary education and skills training in rural areas, and to launch widespread publicity campaigns against prostitution, drug abuse and HIV/AIDS.”

How to tackle the problem of unemployment and underemployment of rural young people? The response of the panellists overwhelmingly emphasized the need to increase productivity in rural areas through much-needed investments in agriculture and agricultural training, modernization of the sector and improved access to markets. “In the long term,” said Radwan, “we need to generate sustained economic growth in rural areas in order to secure a future for young people.” In the short term, governments need to invest more in rural areas, funding public works programmes and stimulating microenterprise and small business initiatives within the general framework of an extensive employment campaign. Young people comprise a special group with special needs, panellists concluded. Comprehensive national youth development strategies do not yet exist, and they need to be put in place.

Source: IFAD