There are few wage-earning opportunities for the 223 million unemployed or underemployed youth in developing and emerging economies. Many of those young people are in rural areas where the local economy is largely agricultural. Agripreneurship – entrepreneurial activity in agriculture – increases youth employment while teaching them the hard and soft skills they need to manage enterprises profitably and sustainably. This improves their revenue, reduces business failure and fosters innovation in the agrifood systems of tomorrow. The brief explains the principles of investing wisely in such programmes for maximum benefit. This publication is part of the Investment Briefs series under the FAO Investment Centre’s Knowledge for Investment (K4I) programme.
The achievement of the first two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – end poverty and hunger by 2030 – requires substantial investments. To fully contribute to sustainable development, both public and private investments should be perfectly aligned with the SDGs. In this context, empowering youth to invest in their own farms and businesses along agricultural value chains should be a key component of sustainable development-centered investment promotion and mobilization strategy for three reasons: the improvement of food security; the promotion of the added value of food products; and the improvement of employment and economic well-being. This strategic planning tool can help propel investments by young agri-entrepreneurs at national or regional levels, and help ensure their sustainability. It analyses the current environment and overall conditions young investors face while offering practical solutions to overcome the main challenges identified. The strategic planning tool also helps ensure that decision-makers take ownership of the results through a participatory and inclusive process. The strategic planning process consists of four steps: 1. Identify which actions to prioritize (promising agri-food chains; target areas and groups of young people with the potential to become successful agri-entrepreneurs and who need help the most); 2. Analyse the current context, institutional, policy, legal, and incentive frameworks as well as existing services which help young agri-entrepreneurs make sustainable investments in the agricultural sector and food systems; 3. Develop a common vision of the optimal situation for young agri-entrepreneurs investing in agri-food chains; and 4. Develop practical solutions to enhance sustainable and responsible investments by young agri-entrepreneurs.
Measures that empower young agri-entrepreneurs should be a key component of a sustainable development-centred investment promotion strategy. The very realization of future generations’ food security, the sustainable transformation of food systems and the combat against unemployment and distress migration all depend upon the successful implementation of strategies that make the agri-food sector more attractive for the youth. This, in turn, requires smart policy responses that will help young investors overcome the numerous barriers they face – access to finance, land, information and technical services, to name but the most crucial ones.Since 2017, FAO has provided support to African and South-East Asian countries in identifying key challenges for young agri-entrepreneurs and good practices through participatory capacity analyses and strategic planning processes which were carried out with, and for the youth. This report summarizes the main findings and lessons learned from FAO’s work with eleven African countries – Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Conakry, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Uganda. It identifies key challenges and policy recommendations regarding youth’s access to finance; land; technical services and information; as well as the engagement of youth in policy-making processes. The report also contains a set of five overall key policy recommendations for the empowerment of young agri-entrepreneurs.
The Investment guidelines for youth in agrifood systems in Africa, developed jointly by FAO and the African Union Commission (AUC) through a multi-stakeholder and participatory process, highlight the importance of youth as change agents and key stakeholders contributing to sustainable agrifood systems. The guidelines aim to accelerate investments in and by youth in agrifood systems by providing practical guidance - including tools and examples - to design, develop, implement, monitor and evaluate youth-focused and youth-sensitive investment programmes and to engage youth fully as partners in the entire process. The guidelines were prepared with the support of the AUC and FAO Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) “Partnership to Support AU’s Strategies on Social Protection, School Feeding and Rural Youth Employment” of the FAO Regional Office for Africa (RAF) and from the Investment Centre (CFI). This publication is part of the Investment Toolkits series under the FAO Investment Centre's Knowledge for Investment (K4I) programme.
Angel Financing for Entrepreneurs will give you the information you need to understand how angel investors think, as well as how to identify investor expectations, understand the investment analysis process, and prepare for post-investment requirements. Written by Susan Preston, an experienced angel investor, worldwide speaker and consultant on angel financing, and former Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneur-in-Residence, this hands-on resource, explains the factors that determine how private equity investors spend their money and what they expect from entrepreneurs. For example: Most venture capitalists do not invest in seed or start-up financing rounds Investors typically require seasoned management, with successful start-up experience Investors are looking for entrepreneurs with passion for their ideas and the willingness to take and apply sound advice Business plans must be well-written with detailed financial projections that extend 3–5 years Investors are looking for a clear path to profitability in the business model Entrepreneurs must have developed a corporate structure that is clean and uncomplicated And much more
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the agri-business/small and medium investment schemes (AGSMEIS) in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of the AGSMEIS on youth entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach - This paper adopts a survey research technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, as it is essentially crosssectional, describing and interpreting the current situation. A total of 1,200 respondents were sampled across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Findings - The results from the use of a combined propensity score matching (PSM) and logit model indicate that AGSMEIS initiative generates significance gains in empowering youths in enterprise development, and if enhanced will help many young people become entrepreneurs. Practical implications - This suggests that AGSMEIS initiative can facilitate youth's access to credit and help them become owners of small and medium enterprises. Social implications - It implies that investing in young people for small and medium enterprises could bring Nigeria into the modern economy and lift sub-Saharan Africa out of poverty. Originality/value - This research adds to the literature on youth entrepreneurship development's debate in developing countries. It concludes that targeting the young people in AGSMEIS should form the foundation of public policy for entrepreneurship, poverty alleviation, and economic development.
This book focuses on the contested nature and competing narratives of food system transformations, despite it being widely acknowledged that changes are essential for the safeguarding of human and planetary health and well-being. The book approaches food system transformation through narratives, or the stories we tell ourselves and others about how things work. Narratives are closely connected with theories of change, although food system actors frequently lack explicit theories of change. Using political economy and systems approaches to analyze food system transformation, the author focuses on how power in food systems manifests, and how this affects whom can obtain healthy and culturally appropriate food on a reliable basis. Among the narratives covered are agroecology, food sovereignty and technological innovation. The book draws on interviews and recorded speeches by a broad range of stakeholders, including international policymakers, philanthropists, academics and researchers, workers in the food and agricultural industries and activists working for NGOs and social movements. In doing so, it presents contrasting narratives and their implicit or explicit theories of change. This approach is vitally important as decisions made by policymakers over the next few years, based on competing narratives, will have a major influence on who will eat what, how food will be produced, and who will have a voice is shaping food systems. The overarching contribution of this book is to point toward the most promising pathways for achieving sustainable food systems and refute pathways that show little hope of achieving a more sustainable future. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and policymakers interested in creating a sustainable food system which will ensure a food secure, socially just and environmentally sustainable future.
The Chinese economy is growing at an unprecedented speed, and one of the emerging trends is angel investment. It is an area with tremendous potential for growth. Compared with the more mature markets in Western countries, however, angel investing in China is still at an early stage, due to a lack of incentives and insufficient policy support.By delving into existing literature on China's angel investment and conducting interviews with leading angel investors for China and abroad, Prof. Liu Manhong and Dr Wang Jiani — both scholars on and practitioners in the angel investment market — try to provide readers with a detailed picture of China's angel market: What is going on in the market? How should the government formulate relevant polices? And, perhaps more pertinently, what should investors know if they have invested in or are going to enter this market?This book will be very useful for scholars and researchers on China's angel market, as well as those 'angels' who would like to tap its full potential.
This book complements the textbook Investment Valuation and Appraisal - Theory and Practice. It contains exercises and solutions often used at academic courses about investment evaluation around the world. Using the sample solutions for the assignments, the learning progress itself can be checked by students. Thus, this book enables students of business administration to prepare for exams in self-study. In addition, it is ideal for practitioners as an illustrative object for concrete quantitative business problems and their solutions.The book covers tasks in areas such as static investment evaluation methods, dynamic investment evaluation methods, selection of alternatives and investment program planning, optimum useful lifetime and optimum replacement time and investment decisions in uncertainty. The book closes with a mock exam and its solution as is typical at universities. Solutions are shown in an Excel sheet which is available online.
