On September 30, 2015, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) launched the 2015 Africa Agriculture Status Report in Lusaka, Zambia. This report was specifically focused on "Youth in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa", highlight the challenges and the opportunities for African youth in agriculture. CTA, via the ARDYIS project, contributed two chapters on: "Innovative and Inclusive Finance for Youth in Agriculture" and "ICT and Youth in Agriculture" to the status report.

Over 63 percent of the total population in Sub-Saharan Africa live in rural areas where agriculture remains the single largest source of employment and income. The transformation of subsistence agriculture and embarking on an agribusiness development path will drive economic growth, while providing increased employment opportunities and enhanced livelihoods for people living in poverty. Some field-based practical experiences and lessons now show promise for improving the employment opportunities of young people through agribusiness. From the point of view of farmers, producers and other actors in the value chain, there are opportunities to build agribusinesses through skills and training, technology and finance in order to improve productivity and add value to products.

The 40 Chances Fellows program will fund four 40 Chances Fellows with the most innovative social enterprise plans that use strategies built on the principles of 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World.  These social enterprises must seek to address issues of hunger, conflict, or poverty and may be established in any one of the following four countries where the Africa Governance Initiative has a strong presence: Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Malawi.

FARA is the apex organization for agricultural research for development in Africa. The FARA Secretariat is the lead institution for Pillar IV of NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) which encompasses agricultural research and technology dissemination and adoption. FARA works closely with sub-regional organizations (SROs) and national agricultural research and extension systems to ensure effective implementation of CAADP activities. FARA is seeking to recruit a qualified individual to join its team as Social Media Intern.

Interview with Sithembile Ndema Mwamakamba, from Zimbabwe, who works at the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) where she coordinates the Youth in Agriculture project. She also manages the Women Accessing Realigned Markets (WARM) project designed to strengthen the capacity of women farmers to influence agricultural policy development in Southern Africa.

"With a greater focus on value chains in recent years, there are now far more opportunities for young people to find rewarding careers in the food and farming sector. However, governments need to formulate policies that capitalise on the energy and entrepreneurship of the youth to successfully attract them to the sector."

CTA’s web2.0 training programme has sparked enormous interest across ACP countries. Organisations and individuals have shown themselves hungry to learn about social tools and platforms which can support their collaborative work, and how social media can be adapted to their particular contexts and needs. But which groups are the most enthusiastic adopters of web2.0 tools, and what impact does that adoption have, in terms of personal development, institutional changes, and new opportunities for beneficiaries in the context of development?

Up to 200 people from Africa are being recruited to participate in the first Annual Africa Youth Assembly. The goal is to ensure that at least two young people from every African country are represented at this event, all with direct experience in youth-led development, so their valuable perspectives and realities provide a new paradigm for Africa’s development.

About 25 young professionals, youth champions from ACP countries and partners from international organizations working on Youth in Agriculture and Rural Development were brought together by the CTA from 14th to 16th November 2012 in Wageningen, The Netherlands, to participate in its Strategic Youth Stakeholder Workshop.

The first part of the workshop consisted of different panels, whereby the objective was to learn from the partners.  To open the day, CTA presented key elements of its 2011-2015 Strategic Plan.

We are pleased to announce the names of the 15 finalists for the YoBloCo Awards – individual category, resulting from the voting process that took place from 5 to 31 December 2011. During this period, for the individual category, we received a total of 2214 votes, from 2080 people (voting for two blogs was possible) and more than 600 comments for the institutional category. This is a great outcome, and we would like to thank voters and everyone again for your support and your interest in this initiative.