African governments have made youth employment a policy priority, and African youth are demanding policies that improve their job prospects. KEY FINDINGS - Africa's working-age population is growing by 20 million a year, and by 2050 will be growing by 30 million a year, raising questions about whether the region can create enough jobs for young people. - Concerns should not be overblown—the share of young people in the working-age population peaked in Africa at roughly 38 percent in 2001, not much larger than the peak share in other developing regions during their own "youth bulges." Africa's rural areas and food systems will have to play a bigger role in absorbing young job seekers than they did in other regions, given the continued growth of rural populations. - Opportunities in food systems for youth may be overestimated: Young farmers who are familiar with information technologies are not necessarily more likely than their elders to adopt improved inputs or increase productivity. Nor are they more likely to operate or work for a nonfarm enterprise or to migrate to large urban centers. - Broad-based development policies that create opportunities for all rural people may do more to support the growing youth population than polices designed specifically for youth. ; PR ; IFPRI1; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies ; DGO; DSGD
Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa are under enormous pressure to create more and better jobs for the region's young and rapidly growing population.1 Africa is undergoing a 'youth bulge' in which the share of young people in the working age population is peaking due to past declines in mortality coupled with persistently high fertility (Canning, Raja, and Yazbeck 2015). This demographic transition has created a sense of urgency, and even anxiety, within national governments and the international development community (Resnick and Thurlow 2015). With the advent of the Sustainable Development Goals (UNDESA 2016), most policies and strategies in Africa today focus on promoting 'inclusive growth', which means that the population, especially the poor, should not only benefit from, but also participate in, the development process. This has made job creation a major policy objective, alongside the more traditional goals of accelerating economic growth and reducing poverty and hunger. ; PR ; IFPRI2; CRP2 ; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)
Abstract Refugee sites throughout the world are loci of economic activity, including small enterprises, but limited information exists on these. We advance knowledge by collecting and analysing data on 326 enterprises operating inside and outside Rohingya settlements in southeastern Bangladesh. We find the following: refugees have access to a diverse array of active businesses; Bangladeshis and Rohingya both operate businesses and the two communities interact through transactions in local goods, services, inputs, and labour markets; lending plays an important role in sustaining these economies, as approximately 50 per cent of transactions are on credit; Rohingya-run enterprises face greater challenges than their local counterparts: their businesses are smaller and less profitable, and refugee workers are paid lower wages than local workers; and about half of the difference in performance between Rohingya and Bangladeshis can be explained by levels of start-up capital, scale, location, and education.
As Rwanda is expected to return to its rapid growth trajectory following the COVID-19 pandemic, agriculture will continue to play a central role in the structural transformation of the entire economy. To this end, the Government of Rwanda continues to invest in the agricultural sector by building on Strategic Plans for the Transformation of Agriculture (PSTAs) that began in the early 2000s. The challenging question is how to prioritize public expenditures across a broad portfolio of policies and programs. Ambitious plans, whether in the short or long term, require difficult decisions. The prioritization of public investment becomes even more complex as Rwanda's structural transformation advances and as new investments—beyond the farm—become critically important for the agricultural sector. The structural transformation process itself means that as agriculture becomes more integrated with the rest of the economy, public resource allocations need to address a wider range of issues across the entire food system; these include nutrition-sensitive food production systems, inclusive value chain development, nonfarm rural enterprise development, and climate-resilient sustainable intensification of both crops and livestock. This study provides evidence that is designed to assist the Government of Rwanda in its selection of agricultural policy, investment, and expenditure portfolios that reflect the country's broad focus on its food system and structural transformation. This process of prioritization will need to incorporate multiple public investments targeting multiple development outcomes and will need to be grounded in the costeffective use of public resources in a largely market-led transformation process. This data-driven and evidence-based approach must critically underpin an informed investment prioritization process that helps achieve ambitious targets in an environment constrained by limited public resources. The study uses the Rural Investment and Policy Analysis (RIAPA) economywide model developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), with contributions from colleagues at the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN) and the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR). The study draws on data from multiple sources as well as expert insights to inform the application of RIAPA's Agricultural Investment for Data Analyzer (AIDA) module as a tool to measure the impacts of alternative public expenditure options on multiple development outcomes. Using this integrated modeling framework, the study links agricultural and rural development spending to four specific outcomes: economic growth, job creation, poverty reduction, and diet quality improvement; at the same time, it considers the synergies and tradeoffs associated with the different investment options in the transformation process. The paper first assesses the contribution of public expenditures to agricultural and rural development under the fourth Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation (PSTA 4) that extends between 2018 and 2024. These findings are important, given the fact that since the beginning of PSTA 4, the budget allocated to MINAGRI (measured in constant prices) has stagnated. Our results suggest that increased spending on agriculture is well justified and that such spending is essential if the Government of Rwanda is to achieve its long-term development goals. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; Rwanda SSP; CRP2; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; Capacity Strengthening; RIAPA ; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)
