LAUNCH AND POLICY DIALOGUE

REGIONAL FAO-IFAD ProjectSTRENGHENING DECENT RURAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

FOR YOUNG WOMEN AND MEN IN THE CARIBBEAN

7 - 9 September 2015 Bridgetown, Barbados

Lesson learned from the experience: Promoting Local knowledge and Rural Youth

Rita Bórquez PROCASUR Corporation

Where we are

What we do1. Learning Routes Programme Latin America and the Caribbean – phase 22. Rural Talents : Virtual Platform and Research3. Rural Youth Entrepreneurs Programme 4. Experiences Systematization and Research

5. Learning Territories

6. ROUTESA

7. ROUTASIA 8. Methodological Training and Technical Assistance on KM and learning/capacity building process 9. South – South Cooperation assistance and programmes

The learning route: an opportunity for development

 • A Learning Route is a continuous

process of training in the field that seeks to value the best experiences and knowledge of institutions, associations, communities and rural families.

• Each Route is organized thematically around experiences, case studies and best practices on innovative rural and local development in which local actors themselves become trainers.

• Through workshops, interviews, conversations and other field activities the Learning Route generates a space for individual and collective learning for both participants and their hosts.

“Talentos Locales” or Local champions

A person with valuable knowledge and abilities or skills in his/her environment, which is recognized by his/her community or organization as outstanding for the ability to lead processes of change with positive impacts in their territory.

LEARNING ON PRACTICE: Knowledge Sharing on Food Security and Income Generating Practices in the Haiti/Dominican Republic

border areas IFAD – FAO – PROCASUR.

• Geographical Areas: Province of Dajabón and Province of Elias Piña (Dominican Republic) and Northeast Department and Plateau Central Department (Haiti)

• Direct Beneficiaries: 64 Grass Root Organizations equivalent to 119 people (67 Women and 53 Men / 35 Rural Young Men and Women)

• Objective: Contribute to improve the means of life, food security and market access of poor families in Haiti and Dominican republic, specially youth and women, that live in the border areas between both countries, through facilitating them access to information and knowledge’s, available within small producers and their associations.

• Identification of the Knowledge Demand, Technical assistance and Training Needs

• Map of ongoing innovations and relevant Best Practices • Promotion of Local Knowledge Management.• Promotion of scaling up Best Practices and innovations through

Learning Routes.• Capacity Building of “Local Talents”• Reinforcement of the Scaled-Up Innovation Plans through Local

Internships• Contribution to implement innovations and best practices

through the co-financing Innovation Plans and Follow-Up the innovation Plans with technical assistance of a Local Talent

Methodological Implementation of the Process

Combining policy dialogue and advocacy with the strengthening of territorial actors in the field.

• Capacity-building through Knowledge Sharing Methodologies that empower Local Talents and Knowledge Innovation Assets available in rural territories,

• Strategies to strengthen the capacities of local teams as a key element to Scale-Up local best practices and innovations,

• Building a network of "practitioners" and promoting peer to peer cooperation.

• Build Knowledge from a Bottom-Up perspective, taking as a starting point the Stakeholder’s context, needs and demands

• Continuous systematizations and evaluation of the processes executed, that offer a bank of Lessons and recommendations for other contexts.

What we have learned

• Links and synergies between Countries -Binational or Regional Perspective- and Institutions generates a bigger impact and continuity of process

• Establishing local pilot actions and systematizing lessons that may be inputs for national and regional policy dialogue

• Relevance of promoting and supporting processes of best practices and innovations adoption, through financing and technical assistance, and that may complement the capacity-building processes

• Effectiveness in the training peer to peer process and the construction of local networks of knowledge as a base to develop innovations that may be tested

What we have learned

LEARNING ON PRACTICE: “Promotion of Entrepreneurial Activities of Rural Youth in Poor Areas of Latin America and the Caribbean” PROCASUR - FIDA (2012 – 2015)

“there will be no future for rural economies unless rural development efforts introduce and retain a young population’s talent and energy” (IFAD, 2010)

• General Objective: Contribute towards poverty reduction among rural youth by improving their access to rural development initiatives that are relevant to their livelihood strategies.

• Specific Objectives– Generate and disseminate information and updated knowledge on the rural

youth situation in different countries and territories, with emphasis on the full comprehension of their strategies, demands and aspirations

– Promote an ongoing policy dialogue that favors the interests of youth and rationalize the instruments used by IFAD in the rural context

– Identify and co-finance microenterprises and generate useful lessons in order to improve their role in the territories

• Programe components: I) Knowledge management; II) Policy Dialogue and Promotion; III) Scale – Up and Learning.

Rural Youth Entrepreneurship Regional Programme

• Business idea and employment opportunities must come from the interests and expectations (motivations) of young people, constructed from and with Youth and that decision-making must be accompanied by relevant information and technical assistance.

• Formulation of the business plan must be accompanied technically and include an analysis of assets and opportunities. Ideally linked to previous processes of formation / association.

• Diagnostics to design "profiles" of entrepreneurs, differentiating stages of development support (tramo etareo, asociatividad, mercado) and investment strategies (cycles)

Lessons learned Development of youth entrepreneurship

• Use simple tools (eg talking maps) and guidance on the feasibility and profitability information from local markets and the territorial context.

• Broad view of "rural enterprise" new rurality. Promote and support complementary business linked with the business plans existing in the project area, or areas of territory main production, value chain, rural-urban, agricultural and non-agricultural businesses.

Lessons learned Development of youth entrepreneurship

• Support initiatives "incubators" of youth employment and business (eg, "mentoring" in traditional crafts)

• Promoting agro-entrepreneurs = young and innovative small & medium scale entrepreneurs

• Along priority local value chains (traditionally led by youth, with a developing potential, short cycle)

• Along the whole value chain (inputs supply, processing, marketing)

Lessons learnedAccess to market and value chain

• Connecting farmers - Acting as intermediaries and service providers between traditional producers and wholesalers

• Developing non farm activities (maintenance of equipment, transportation, technical adviser, information broker)

• Integrate new capacities in farm and non farm: youth technical assistances

• Participation to fairs and market events

Access to market and value chain

• Technical support at critical moments, confidence young with technical staff.

• Business skills training based on experiences (pair to pair) and ad hoc specialized technical support.

• Include other issues beyond production: organizational strengthening, finance, management, commerce, leadership, etc ...

• Support the development of life’s strategies among youth, and focus on the strength of an “entrepreneurial profile” (business development as a learning process – not lineal)

• Role of youth in activities not linked to the primary production (innovation) and integrating their new knowledge (practical and academic) to their territories.

Lessons learned: Capacity building

• Relevance of combining different direct finance schemes and technical assistance, based on concreted experiences and peer to peer dialogue.

• Flexible mechanisms to allocate resources to individual enterprises, family or associations

• Comprehensive financial services: adapted to different profiles - needs and supplemented with non-financial support type (eg., financial education)

• Contributions flexible counterpart (material and non material)

• Mechanisms: Seed capital, risk capital, self-managed funds (eg, rotative funds)

Lessons learned: Financing

Lessons learned Associativity and networking

• Promoting associativity, organizational strengthening and Youth Networking(local, national , regional)

• Formalization / association: not as entry requirement, but as part of the process of capacity building.

• Promote integration of young leaders in rural associations• Establishing linkages with Main Stakeholders of the territories,

including the community, family, farmers associations and others that may provide more elements for sustainability.

Working with rural youth

• Rural youth is a strategic segment with capacities and possibilities to contribute towards improved conditions in a context of rurality.

• Specific challenges (access to land and resources, financial services, technical assistance, employment)

• Young people constitute a heterogeneous and diverse group, based on age, gender, ethnicity, territorial dynamics and so on..

• New approach of rural development is needed (age approach, new rurality, territorial approach, intergenerational)

• Create Awareness of the importance of a “Rural Youth Approach” in the Programs of Rural Development and policy design, taking as a starting point the visibility of needs and interests of youth.

• Give them a voice: information and participation

• Raise the image of rural young people and the image of rural life among youth

• Target specifically young rural women • Promote intergenerational dialogue and colaborative actions between

generations (eg., intergenerational contracts for access to and)• Use Flexible Tools and strategies, with a comprehensive and holistic approach• Relevance of territorial approach and access to key assets (land, water, credit,

etc…)• Combine practical needs (affirmative actions) and strategic interest (cultural

change, sensitization, intergenerational dialogue)• Articulation (intersectorial, decentralization, public-private) and policiy

dialogue: Building a “Critical Route”

Working with rural youth

THANK YOU

Together, making it happen!