Supporting Prosperity through Better Mobility and Rural Reinvigoration

Rerouting farming and rural livelihoods to new trajectories can help tackle increasing youth unemployment and failing food systems. While agriculture must be made more attractive by promoting ‘stepping up’, alternative livelihoods based on allied economic sectors must be considered for ‘stepping out’. Actions can be taken to invest in secondary and tertiary rural industries and improve access to adequate financial services and skills, to enhance automation and tools for more efficient development of agricultural activities, to invest in training and re-skilling of the workforce for rural dwellers to engage in agribusinesses and entrepreneurship, and to create safety-net programmes to prevent ‘falling down’ and ‘dropping out’. These actions must be inclusive of both women left behind in farming, and next-generation rural youths who are increasingly disenfranchised and prone to migration.