IV. CAPACITY ASSESSMENT WORKSHOPS: IDENTIFYING CAPACITIES NEEDED FOR YOUTH TO CARRY-OUT AND BENEFIT FROM RESPONSIBLE AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENTS – Institutional Set-up for RAI

Three workshops were conducted from 19 June 2019 up to 21 June 2019 to assess the capacity needs of the youth sectors in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam to enable them participate in and benefit from responsible agricultural investments in their respective countries.

The first workshop was aimed at identifying existing institutions and coordinating mechanisms that are involved in the policy-making processes related to agricultural investments in each country; discuss the roles that these entities, organizations and coordination mechanisms currently play, and which additional roles they should ideally have; and, assess the participation of the youth in the said policy-making processes.

The second workshop looked into strengthening and or creating policies, laws, strategies and incentives related to agricultural investments in each country, and assessed the need to strengthen or develop new such laws, policies, etc. to further involve the youth.

The third workshop assessed existing organizations in each country to determine if they were providing the services needed by the youth to be able to participate and benefit from agricultural investments.

The results of the Capacity Assessment Workshops were discussed by Mr. Marlene Ramirez in the next section of this report.

V. SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF THE CAPACITY ASSESSMENT WORKSHOPS

Ms. Marlene Ramirez, Secretary General of AsiaDHRRA, presented a summary of the results of the Capacity Assessment Workshops.  She discussed the following points:

·       Definition of “youth” – The general consensus in the reports on the definition of what constitutes “youth” focuses more on “age” which is from 15 to 35 years old.  Although such age range provides a good representation of the youth’s ability to adopt and learn new technologies and skills, defining what constitutes “youth” should not only consider physical age but also the characteristics, capacities and demographics of “young people” in a given sector, in a given country.   

·       Institutional set-up – The workshops have indicated that there are existing formal structures (i.e. committees, TWGs, etc.) for the implementation of existing laws related to agricultural development.  There are also existing mechanisms, platforms and networks in each country but there seems to be no cross-sectoral coordination (GO-PO, GO-NGO, etc.) among these mechanisms.  Although there are youth organizations in existence, these organizations, however, has limited or no focus on the youth in the agriculture sector.  Similarly, there are numerous support services available for the agriculture sector in each of the countries but, again, none of these give attention to the youth in agriculture.

·       Laws, policies and Incentives – The workshops have also indicated that there are numerous good laws and policies related to agriculture.  However, the issue is more on the full and effective implementation of such laws and policies.  There also seems to be sufficient laws and policies focusing on the youth but none dedicated for the needs and concerns of the youth in agriculture.

·       Organizational Capacities – There are numerous public and private organizations that provide agricultural services (e.g. trainings, credit, insurance, etc.) in the countries represented in the workshop.  However, the youth sector in general has very limited access to such services mainly due to strict requirements (e.g. collateral) and procedures, high interest rates for credit, lack of awareness of availability of such services, and lack of enabling policies.  Again, most of these service providers do not proactively focus or work with the youth in the agriculture sector.