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Jobs and Skills take centre stage at the Africa Rural Development Forum
The ILO will highlight skills development and youth employment at the 2nd Africa Rural Development Forum to be held in Yaoundé, Cameroon from 8-9 September 2016.
ABIDJAN/YAOUNDE (ILO News) – The 2nd Africa Rural Development Forum will be held under the theme “Transforming Africa’s Rural Space through Youth Empowerment, Job Creation and Skills Development” in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
The Conference – organised by the NEPAD Agency with the support of and in collaboration with OECD, CIRAD and other partners including FAO, GIZ and AfDB - will provide an opportunity for the ILO to promote decent work in the rural economy.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) will specifically discuss during the sub-session on Skills Development for Youth Economic Empowerment youth – FAO, ILO and GIZ on Friday 9 September 2016.
The objectives of the meeting are:
To raise awareness of the magnitude of the challenges that Africa is facing in coming decades; as well as the need for transformational development strategies based on multi-sectoral, place-based and participatory approaches, for job creation.
To review and share lessons on available tools and methodologies for designing and implementing multi-sectoral, place-based, and participatory strategies and projects for youth employment.
To support the potential creation of added value and decent jobs for young people in the informal economy, and to propose relevant measures and public policies to achieve the ambitions structural transformation of Africa economies on the basis of sectors and niches, and their training and skills needs and inclusive financing for youth and entrepreneurs.
To support member states in aligning employment policies with their growth and development agenda
In the context of youth employment, agricultural development along the value chain offers one of the opportunities to create the best impetus for engaging emerging ‘African youth’ for inclusive growth in Africa.
Targeted capacity building on youth entrepreneurship and youth empowerment is required to ensure that the private sector skills gaps are addressed.
The consensus of opinion is that innovative approaches built upon local dynamics are required to achieve the structural transformation of African rural areas and to provide decent jobs and insertion opportunities for young people.
