It is with this in mind that Switzerland’s 2018–2022 Cooperation Strategy for Southern Africa is seeking innovative ways to make the agricultural value chain more attractive to young people in order to curtail ‘distress migration’ as well as unlock the potential of the sector in providing decent employment and improved livelihood as part of addressing Sustainable Development Goal 8 which calls for productive employment and decent work for all.
Southern Africa has one of the youngest population on the continent. There were more than 40 million people aged between 15 and 24 in 2017 in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), about 30 percent of the continent’s total figure and this is expected to double by 2045. The region also has some of the highest youth unemployment rates on the continent, with 53 percent of young women, and 43 percent of young men, not employed.
Making agriculture attractive to young people in Southern Africa is therefore critical in mobilizing the human capacity depository in SADC in order to spur economic and social transformation as they are vast opportunities to be realized through engaging young people especially in agriculture.
At the policy level, the African Union 2014 Malabo Declaration includes specific targets on youth engagement in agriculture that includes the creation of jobs in the agriculture value chains and the support and facilitation of preferential entry and participation for women and youths in gainful and attractive agribusiness opportunities. This policy initiative, recognizes the importance of agriculture in the economic development of the continent, as most countries are predominantly agricultural with a massive pool of young people.
With the regional youth population likely to double by 2055, young people continue to be many times more likely than adults to be unemployed. This will be made worse by the fact that the majority of rural youth face particular barriers to accessing productive employment: young women and men tend to encounter challenges in accessing adequate knowledge, information and education, they have insufficient access to land, inputs, financial services, markets and ultimately, limited involvement in policy dialogue.
In addition to youth employment in agriculture, the cooperation strategy will also be targeting young people living with HIV/AIDS as key populations that continue to be disproportionately affected by the epidemic. This is because while medical advances have transformed HIV treatment especially among adults and children it has not altered the stark reality for young people, particularly in low to middle-income countries in Southern Africa who continue to the infected at alarming rates.
The number of adolescents living with HIV in the SADC region for example has risen by 30 percent between 2008 and 2016 when AIDS related deaths have only fallen by 5 percent in adolescents while the figure is up by more than 30 percent for children and adults.
In addition to working with young people in the development of the region, the Swiss Cooperation Strategy will continue to work in the food security and HIV/sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) domains. Attention will also be put on better disaster preparedness, response and recovery, enhanced crop diversity, integrated seed systems, and increased income-generating activities along agricultural value chains which will enhance the local population’s resilience to the adverse effects of climate change. This will done with an indicative financial envelope of CHF 135 million (US$140 million) in the next five years.
Download the new RPSP Strategy HERE
