OYAProgramme

The “Opportunities for Youth in Africa” (OYA) programme was developed jointly by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in response to a dedicated call for accelerating efforts in the area of job creation for African youth, especially through agribusiness and entrepreneurship development. The development objective of the OYA programme is to increase decent employment and self-employment opportunities in agriculture and agribusiness for young women and men through improved individual skills and competencies, strengthened agricultural value chains and food systems and reinforced institutions supporting youth employment creation and entrepreneurship development. The programme proposes an integrated approach for the promotion of quality rural on- and off-farm employment and self –employment opportunities for youth in agriculture and agribusiness in Africa, following a three-folded approach to: i. Increase employability of prospect employees and capabilities of self-employed youth through improved transversal competencies and technical, entrepreneurial, business, and digital skills related to on- and off-farm business development and to better access to productive resources (especially finance); ii. Strengthen the competitiveness of targeted agricultural value chains and agri-food systems, meaning the robustness (viability), the efficiency, and the level of innovation, towards the creation of decent employment and self-employment opportunities and the establishment and upgrading of youth-led agribusinesses and SMEs in agriculture; and iii. Support more conducive policy, institutional and programmatic frameworks at national, sub-regional and continental levels through enhanced capacity and knowledge of institutions to support decent youth employment creation and entrepreneurship development in agriculture and agribusiness.