How to do note: Youth access to rural finance

IFAD’s mission is to invest in rural people, with the objective of overcoming poverty. Young people have increasingly become a priority target for IFAD as part of the agency’s fight against rural poverty (IFAD, 2014a). One major reason is that youth poverty is linked to poverty at the household level because the status of the household very often defines opportunities or barriers to education, type of employment and income-generating opportunities and, consequently, to improved nutrition and health.

A stronger understanding of the transitions in the lives of children and youth, and related household poverty dynamics, is central to investing in appropriate projects to address rural youth poverty and opportunities for impact (Misra, 2014 ).

Rural youth, in particular, are often excluded from financial services and require innovative interventions to improve their access to appropriate financial tools. A key reason for this prioritization is that access to financial services is considered a vital strategy to help young people grow assets and contribute better, and for longer, to rural productivity, thereby improving their economic options for the future.