Africa taps youth for food security and nutrition

WITH nearly 60 percent of its population below the age of 24 and working on wages roughly $US2, Africa has to provide more decent jobs that appeal to the young.  In line with this goal, the Food and Agriculture Organization, with governments in Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda, launched the project ‘Promoting Nutrition Sensitive Agricultural Diversification to Fight Malnutrition and Enhance Youth Employment Opportunities in Eastern Africa’, on 27 November 2014. The idea behind the project is to empower the youth in the agricultural sector (farming and poultry), in order for them to enhance food security and nutrition and to have more stable livelihoods.

The approach seeks to reduce poverty in the rural areas.  Some 500 youth farmers in aquaculture and poultry farming are transforming lives in rural and peri-urban settings. The project targets to benefit about 5,000 people in each of the four countries.

The project, worth $4 million, is one of four new ones being funded by the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund for a total of $16 million. These projects will assist 24 countries in West, Central, East, and Southern Africa, covering youth employment and malnutrition, transboundary animal and plant diseases, food safety and urban food security.