May 3, 2018 - Less than 20% of agricultural workers have access to basic social protection .... myAgro is a social enter
Rural employment A pathway to prosperity or furthering inequalities Conference Rural Inequalities: Evaluating approaches to overcome disparities María Teresa Gutiérrez Technical Specialist on Employment Intensive Investment Unit , International Labour Organisation Rome, 2-3 May 2018
Key Challenges of Rural Youth Employment • Nearly 88 % of the world’s 1.2 billion young people – those aged 15 to 24 – live in developing countries, many of which in rural areas (specially SSA)
• 43% of the agricultural labour force is made up of women, but limited opportunities to obtain quality education and training, the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work and social, cultural and economic constrains • Rural economies are often characterized by high rates of informality, irregular employment and poorly functioning labour market institutions • Conditions of marginalization and disadvantage in the world of work increases their exposure to risk and therefore their level of vulnerability: Inequalities in rights and entitlements • The condition and /or position of individuals or groups within society enhance vulnerability/resilience , being youth iindigenous people, women, children, and the self-employed the most vulnerable
Decent work deficits in Rural Employment • Globally, 8 out of 10 “working poor” (earning less than USD1.25/day) live in rural areas • Less than 20% of agricultural workers have access to basic social protection. • Nearly 60% of the world's child labourers are in the agricultural sector (i.e. 98 million boys and girls) • 3.5 million people affected by forced labour in agriculture • Rural workers face legal and practical challenges in asserting their right to collective bargaining. Worldwide only 10% of them are unionized • Agriculture is one of the most hazardous sectors to work in • Young people in rural areas are typically employed on a casual or seasonal basis, under poor working conditions and with limited or no access to social protection • Rural women generally work as subsistence farmers, paid or unpaid workers on family farms, or entrepreneurs running on- or off-farm enterprises
Conditions of marginalization and disadvantage • Inequalities in rights and entitlements (land, resources)
• Underdeveloped rural infrastructure and services • Gender inequality in accessing the same relations by societal norms and attitudes
• Lack of social protection • Isolation and remoteness, often associated with poor rule of law, absence of the State • Customary laws, internal power relations • Limited access to financial assets • Extended poverty including its extreme manifestations
Enhance RESILIENCE • Rights-based elements • • • •
protective labour laws respect for fundamental rights at work social protection dialogue and participation of workers’ and employers’ organizations • Organizing and empowering rural constituents and communities through the promotion of decent work
• Socio-economic elements • economic diversification • access to infrastructure and services • Access income-generating opportunities and jobs
Key Opportunities for rural youth Employment • Advance rural economies and shape the process of rural transformation • Increased connectivity to urban and foreign markets
• Technological advancements • Value chain connections • Fair trade, supported by growing corporate/consumer social responsibility
• Green jobs solutions • Positive connotations of « rural » (leisure, nature, healthy food, etc.) • Conducive regional/international agendas and initiatives
• Decent jobs for youth contribute to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8, which commits member States to “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”. In turn, this is key to achieving all Sustainable Development Goals.
How to turn these opportunities into decent work? -1 • Giving rural youth a “voice” and a role in their communities • Acknowledge the multiple capabilities and potential of young rural women and men.
• Take into account the views and needs of rural youth, as well as how they will be impacted by development interventions.
• Promoting young women’s empowerment in the rural economy and Facilitating access to productive resources • promoting safe, flexible, female-friendly employment and workplaces for women; • adopting labour law protections and social security systems that prioritize the amelioration of domestic and household working conditions
• Increasing the attractiveness of rural areas for youth and promote green jobs • Transmit a positive image of rural economies and occupations through education and the media. • promoting and supporting the certification of green practices in agriculture for better price negotiation, but ensuring that young people are not inhibited by the costs entailed through support systems such as participatory guarantee systems
How to turn these opportunities into decent work? - 2 Increasing access to appropriate education and training • Include resource management, ecology, OSH, and rights at work subjects in education and training curricula. • Integrate entrepreneurship skills in rural education modernizing existing agricultural curricula by introducing new technologies and increased consideration of sustainability and organic agriculture • Develop/strengthen apprenticeship structures and schemes, including support to informal apprenticeship structures (ILO: TREE Zimbabwe).
Promoting efficient agri-business, value chains and entrepreneurship models • Training, access to credit, mentoring and other BDSs (MKMF Malaysia, ILO: YEF in EA) • Encourage cooperatives run by youth (ILO/COOP) • Stimulate the creation of incubation centres combining different types of agricultural production and services • Encourage micro-credit facilities and community-owned financial solutions for youth (IFAD: FSAs in Sierra Leone; UNCDF and Mastercard in SSA).
Technology for rural youth – preliminary findings * Acces to knowledge: • UjuziKilimo is an agri-tech company started by a young entrepreneur in Kenya. It uses sensors and data analytics to bring precision technology to smallholder farmers to offer affordable real-time recommendations over mobile phones and enables farmers to practise knowledge-driven farming, which increases yields and limits risks. (ILO, 2017). Access to market: • Virtual Farmers’ Market (VFM) is an app-based e-commerce platform supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) Innovation Accelerator. VFM provides a transparent, open and trustworthy space for smallholder farmers and buyers to negotiate fair prices and deals. • Goal: reach 2,500 farmers • Pilot in Zambia in May 2017.
Access to finance
• myAgro is a social enterprise pioneering a mobile microsavings model in West Africa to help farmers save for high-quality seeds, fertilizer, tools, and training to significantly increase their harvests and income
A concrete IFAD / ILO Project: The Taqueem Project Impact research Research to investigate the effectiveness of programmes and policies for youth and women
EVIDENCE BASED RURAL EMPLOYMENT STRATEGIES Capacity development Knowledge exchange and training to equip constituents and project teams with skills and evidence
Evidence uptake and policy dialogue Advocate and promote the uptake of evidence to inform rural employment policy and programming
Annex
Underlying Causes
Dynamic Pressures
Unsafe Conditions
• Poverty • Limited access to resources • Poor Empowerment • Excluding Economic Systems
• Weak Local Institutions • Poor Education • Inappropriate skills • Insufficient investments • Insolvent Local Markets • Environmental degradation • Demographic pressures • Brain drain
• Fragile Physical Environment • Fragile Institutional Environment • Fragile Political Environment • Fragile Economic systems
R I S K
V u n e r a b i l i = t y + H a z a r d
Trigger Events •Severe Climate change •Extreme Meteorological Events •Tectonic Hazards •Socio-economic Instability •Internal/External violent conflicts
Exposure of women to Drivers of Rural Vulnerability Socio economic
Governance & Security
Traditional/marginalized division of labour
Unequal power relation, discrimination, inequitable laws and customary practices
Extended economic informality
Environmental Precarious/insufficient physical infrastructures
Political systems exclude diverse gender/ethnical/regional/cultural groups
Forced dispossession of land/eviction
Remoteness and isolation
Extreme monetary poverty Weak/inexistent labour market institutions/labour inspection/ inappropriate skills
Limited access to education
Internal/external violent (armed) conflicts
Acute forms of climate change and extreme meteorological
