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Interpretation services in Arabic, English and French will be made available.

Background

Africa is home to a growing youth population, which presents an opportunity for the continent to benefit from a demographic dividend. However, many young people lack the skills and resources to capitalize on economic opportunities, and private sector partners struggle to find suitably trained employees and entrepreneurs.

To address this issue, the ProAgro YOUTH project aims to increase self and wage employment for rural youth in Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, and Malawi through integrated agribusiness hubs. The project provides young people with the skills needed to access employment or start their own business, and supports enterprise and value chain development to help the private sector grow and provide more and better jobs. The project is expected to create 1,500 direct jobs for wage workers and entrepreneurs in each country, as well as additional indirect jobs.

During the start-up phase of the project, close consultations were carried out with key stakeholders (including government and social partners) and (other) implementing partners in each country. Rural employment diagnostic studies have been initiated with the aim of refining the project strategy and adapting it to national realities.

A regional forum is being proposed as a dialogue forum on the pressing issue of youth employment challenges in rural areas.

Objectives

The main objective of the Regional policy dialogue is to reaffirm the commitment of the ILO and IFAD to promote decent jobs in Africa, in particular for young women and men in rural areas, with the start of the ProAgro YOUTH project. More concretely, the regional event will:

1. Reinforce ILO and IFAD policy dialogue with governments and other key stakeholders on the promotion of decent work in rural areas in Africa by sharing experiences and lessons from related interventions across the region.
2. Showcase how investments in integrated agribusiness hubs in the region can create decent jobs for young women and men and how interventions such as ProAgro YOUTH can be brought to scale.

Audience

The event will be open to and attended by:

• Officials from governments, such as Ministries of Employment/Labour, Finance and Development Planning, Agriculture, Youth, trade, SMEs and related institutions
• Representatives of workers’ and employers’ organisations
• International financial institutions and development partners
• Youth-led organisations and youth representatives including students in the agricultural and its adjacent sector
• Media representatives-interested in agriculture and its adjacent sector, or youth employment
• Officials from regional organizations such as the African Union and relevant regional economic communities
• ILO and IFAD offices in the region.