FANRPAN Country Case Studies on Current and Emerging Youth Policies and Initiatives with a Special focus on links to Agriculture

Day 2 – Presentation of case study by youth consultants
The first half of Day 2 was comprised of some presentations on the different projects being run by FANRPAN, followed by the presentations by the node coordinators, giving updates on the situation in their respective countries. These presentations gave the young consultants present at the workshop an over-view on the work being done by FANRPAN and on the present situation of the different nodes in the 16 Southern African countries. The second part of Day 2 was dedicated to the presentations on the case-studies being carried out by the young consultants. Each consultant had 15 minutes to present their work being done so far regarding current and emerging policies on youth and agriculture, their perception on agriculture, the incentives being provided to youth in agriculture and the opportunities that exist (or may exist) for them in this sector. After their presentation, the node coordinators were given the opportunity to ask them questions on their case studies, or give comments and suggestions on how the case study can be improved. This gave the youths the chance to interact with the experienced node coordinators and they were very helpful in providing valuable information on where to concentrate more or how the work can be improved in general. One of the youth consultants was not present on Day 2 and was supposed to present his work on the following day. 

Me and the other youth consultants from South-Africa and Malawi

Day 3 – Discussion on case study and way forward
Day 3 started with the presentation of the last case study from Swaziland. After his presentation, the consultant was exposed to questions and comments from the floor like the previous day. Following this presentation, the node coordinators were subjected to a training session, and on the other hand, a review on the case study was conducted in parallel with the youth consultants from the 6 Southern African countries by the coordinator of the project from FANRPAN. Each point in the case study was discussed in detail,  and the consultants highlighted the challenges that they faced while conducting their respective case studies and examples from the different case studies showed that despite the difference in country size, population, contribution of Agriculture in the country’s GDP etc., there were lots of similarities when it came to policies on youth and agriculture, their implementation and incentives being given to youths in agriculture. The consultants were highly encouraged by the CEO of FANRPAN, Dr. Sibanda to make use of Web 2.0 tools like Facebook and Twitter to reach young people and get their perception on agriculture, taking into consideration the current changes in this sector (like the CAADP, G20 and other changes at the National Level). By the end of the day, it was agreed that the consultants now needed to work as a team, share information and ideas on the case studies, rather than competing with each other. The consultants also discussed on how they will be working together in the future as a team, taking into consideration the distance as each one will be working in his/her respective country. A communication means and other ground rules were set and agreed by all.

This meeting was beneficial and is a new initiative that was very much appreciated by the youths as each consultant comes from a different country and background and despite these facts, this case study has brought them all together to achieve a common goal. They would be learning from each other and share their knowledge and ideas. The aim of this new team is to strive for excellence and come up with the best possible case-studies that would be revealed in a single report during the FANRPAN Regional Dialogue in September 2012, in Tanzania. 

Below is a brief profile of the consultants working on the case-studies: