Developing a strategy to promote agriculture among young people

All organisations working with youth in the Pacific realise the challenges involved in youth finding productive and satisfying employment. The Land Resources Division (LRD) of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) has long recognised the particular challenges facing Pacific youth in rural areas and the lack of substantial opportunities which has contributed to the drift of youth to urban centres resulting in shortages of labour in the rural areas and increased social problems in urban centres. Recognition of these problems and challenges most recently prompted the Heads of Agriculture and Forestry (HOAFs) for the Pacific region to endorse and recommend that LRD, as the lead regional agency with a mandate for agriculture, to:

Develop, with relevant partners, a strategy to promote agriculture among young people.

To meet this challenge LRD, and partners, have developed a terms of reference to guide the development of a strategy to address this recommendation. This Weblog has been designed as a support tool when designing this strategy.

The development of the terms of reference and weblog for the strategy commenced with the recent Regional Youth Stakeholders meeting held at SPC, Noumea in March 2008. This gathering further endorsed LRD's plan to develop the strategy.
This Weblog has been initiated to facilitate working with the many stakeholders involved in youth development and to promote the sharing and exchanging of information which will be important to the development of a strategy. The Weblog will hopefully act as a repository of information relevant to the development of the strategy and will facilitate ease of access to sources of information for those involved in its development.

The Weblog contains substantial background information on various Pacific Youth Organisations and relevant Regional Organisations and Agencies which need to be consulted and involved in the development of the strategy. The need for special consideration of Francophone Youth Associations and Micronesian Youth Associations is addressed.

Nine key areas, which are by no means exhaustive or prescriptive, are suggested for exploration as a way of improving youth involvement in agriculture. These are:

1. Youth Mainstreaming
2. Youth Coordination and Partnership
3. Youth Participation
4. Youth Education and Learning
5. Youth Enterprise and Entrepreneurship
6. Youth Peer Organisations
7. Youth Oriented Agricultural Extension
8. Youth and ICTs
9. Youth Showcase

If LRD is to address the issue of promoting agriculture among young people it must work in partnership with the SPC Human Development Programme (HDP) and other relevant regional youth organisations and bodies. In particular, the Pacific Youth Council (PYC) will be an important strategic partner for LRD. It must also be guided by already existing regional frameworks such as the Pacific Youth Strategy 2010 (PYS2010), the Pacific Youth Charter and the Pacific Plan.

Finally, there is an Additional Resources section which contains links to other resources that might be useful in the development of the strategy.

The aim of this Weblog is to encourage comment and the addition of other useful sources of information. Please feel free to do both. This way the pool of information and knowledge will be dynamic, always growing.

For detailed information, or copies of the strategy Terms of Reference please contact Stephen Hazelman (stephenh@spc.int) or Rose Maebiru (rosem@spc.int).