Assessment Tools for Youth in Agri-Food Systems
While there is no single assessment tool for evaluating youth engagement in agri-food systems, a number of tools for assessing youth economic opportunities can be easily adapted to the agri-food systems context. Several tools offer youth-specific instruments for collecting data; others suggest ways to engage youth as researchers and data collectors. Overall, a youth and agri-food assessment should:
- Define and understand the specific youth segment(s) that the activity aims to include or target, including the characteristics of each youth segment, their aspirations, expectations, challenges, and opportunities.
- Ascertain how different youth segments are engaged in agriculture and food systems at present, their respective aspirations and expectations, and where in the system there are opportunities for greater youth inclusion or upgrading.
- Prioritize the major barriers (household level, community level, institutional, legal/regulatory, and socio-cultural and gender norms) that are preventing different youth segments from upgrading and/or participating in different functions of the agri-food system.
- Identify the interventions that are needed to align youth skills, interests, and assets with the objectives of the project and with the demand trends of the agri-food system.
Youth-Inclusive Value Chain Analysis and Development: A Concise Handbook
This five-page document provides a set of key questions to ask when programs seek to include youth in value chain development projects. It provides a short example of how these principles were applied to the Kenya Horticulture Competitiveness Project (KHCP).
Guide to Cross-Sectoral Youth Assessments
This guide provides a conceptual framework, instruments, and tools for designing and implementing youth assessments in developing countries. It is intended for use by assessment specialists and USAID Mission staff interested in conducting a comprehensive cross-sectoral assessment of the assets and needs of youth. Although it is not specific to the agriculture sector and it requires some adaptation for agri-food systems programming, it presents a useful set of cross-sectoral youth considerations —including sample protocols for youth focus group discussions — that regularly apply to an agri-food systems context.
Youth Compass: A Strategic Guide to Strengthen Youth Activities
This cross-sectoral youth assessment tool is intended to be used by implementers to strengthen the design or ongoing efforts of a youth-focused activity. More than an analytical tool, the Youth Compass is a three-step, seven-task strategic process for analyzing weaknesses, opportunities and gaps in knowledge concerning a youth activity (or any activity in which youth will be supported); identifying and prioritizing actions to strengthen the activity; and incorporating actions into them. The Youth Compass conceptual framework consists of four areas: Beneficiaries; Enabling Environment; Youth Participation and Empowerment; and Gender Equality. As it is applicable across all sectors of youth programming, it can offer a framework for adaptation to the agri-food systems context.
SEEP Technical Note: Guidelines and Experiences for Including Youth in Market Assessments for Stronger Youth Workforce Development Programs
This learning product presents eight major recommendations on how to make market assessments more relevant for youth, particularly when addressing constraints related to youth skills. While not specific to agri-food systems, it considers relevant issues such as institutional capacity, local context, appropriate tools and approaches, and including youth in these assessments.
Labor Market Assessment Tools: Value Chain Mapping
This Value Chain Mapping tool offers a framework for identifying youth employment opportunities in a value chain. It uses visual markers for identifying entry points for key skill sets and identifies where to implement skills upgrades to maximize available resources, such as through technical education or vocational training.
Including Wage Labor in Value Chain Analyses: A Guide
This labor market analysis guide enables market system practitioners and donors to gain a basic understanding of wage labor opportunities and dynamics within target value chains. The annexes provide sample survey instruments for capturing information about wage labor in target value chains, as well as a sample scope of work for a labor market assessment specialist. This guide is not specific to youth, but by addressing wage labor, it considers a source of income that is often overlooked by agriculture programs — and one that is especially important for young people within the agri-food system.
How Responsive is Your Land Programme to the Needs of Youth? Guidebook on the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) Youth and Land Responsiveness Criteria
The Youth and Land Responsiveness Criteria is a tool for incorporating youth perspectives into land matters at both institutional and program levels through a participatory process. This guidebook provides a short set of guiding questions and assessment practices, as well as a summary of the key land issues affecting youth populations.
Youth Labor Market Assessment North Eastern Province, Kenya
This report from a rapid youth labor market assessment for North Eastern Province, Kenya provides an example of a youth-inclusive value chain assessment. The approach includes a systematic look at employment, self-employment and unemployment; an assessment of the desires and behaviors of youth themselves and comparison with available market opportunities and employer perceptions; and a sector-based analysis of potential youth entry points for employment and self-employment. The product of this analysis is the identification of leading 'youth entry points' within growing value chains that are appropriate for youth skills and interests and characterized by unmet or increasing demand. EcoVentures International has illustrated these entry points within modified value chain maps. Among the eight sectors analyzed, the study looks at opportunities for youth in three agriculture-related areas: agro-processing, livestock, and agro-forestry.
Zimbabwe Labor Market Assessment
This report summarizes the findings from a labor market assessment conducted in Zimbabwe to better inform USAID & DFID on youth employment and entrepreneurship programing. It illustrates the methods by which a data-driven systems analysis can inform rural youth employment programs and policy. The market assessment team assessed overall economic trends and patterns, the resulting demand for skills and workers, and the supply of workers and skills. Given the economic landscape in Zimbabwe, special attention was paid to opportunities in self-employment and entrepreneurship, including those in the banana, poultry, timber, and business services sectors.
Youth and Agriculture in Uganda: An Assessment
This assessment report provides an overview of agricultural growth in Uganda and identifies opportunities for developing youth leadership, skills, and livelihoods. Drawing from a desk review of 90+ secondary sources, interviews with 50+ key informants, and 24 focus group discussions with 400 youth ages 15 to 25, concrete project-level recommendations are provided.