Rural Youth Vocational Training, Employment and Entrepreneurship Support Project

This project covers the entire country, adopting a phased approach so that the project strategy can be tested in the Koulikoro and Sikasso regions and later expanded. Targeting gives priority to young people – particularly young women – who lack technical skills and access to financing for income-generating activities.

By supporting vocational training and microenterprise development, the project aims to facilitate rural young people's access to employment opportunities and attractive, well-paying jobs in agriculture and related enterprises. As a result, they will become actors in modern agricultural value chains that are responsive to market demand and resilient to climate change.

The specific objectives of the project include:

• Improving regional training mechanisms in response to demand from young people, based on the labour market and potential job prospects
• Promoting economic initiatives by rural young people in agricultural value chains and related economic activities, to enable them to gain sustainable access to vocational employment.

Producer organizations were closely involved in project formulation, will be represented as stakeholders on the project steering committee and will take part in project supervision. In addition, they will be tasked with various facilitation and training activities.