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.

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.

This publication is intended to assist field practitioners, youth organizations and other stakeholders to identify binding constraints and viable opportunities to youth engagement in value chains that can translate into greater youth inclusion. Considering youth heterogeneity and inequalities, the youth sensitive framework for value chain analysis gives guidance to assess factors that push and pull youth into employment and entrepreneurship in value chains. The youth-sensitive value chain (YSVC) analysis is a starting point for youth-inclusive agricultural value chain development, since it identifies entry points and key actions expected to bring about the desired increase in employment and business opportunities for youth within a more attractive agriculture sector.

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.

This catalogue aims to improve the dissemination and outreach of FAO’s knowledge products and overall publishing programme. By providing information on its key publications in every area of FAO’s work, and catering to a range of audiences, it thereby contributes to all organizational outcomes. From statistical analysis to specialized manuals to children’s books, FAO publications cater to a diverse range of audiences. This catalogue presents a selection of FAO’s main publications, produced in 2020 or earlier, ranging from its global reports and general interest publications to numerous specialized titles. In addition to the major themes of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, it also includes thematic sections on climate change, economic and social development, and food safety and nutrition.

Sustainable Entrepreneurship stands for a business driven concept of sustainability which focusses on increasing both social as well as business value - so called Shared Value. This book shows why and how this unique concept has the potential to become the most recognised strategic management approach in our times. It aims to point out the opportunities that arise from putting sustainable entrepreneurship into practice. At the same time, this book is a wake-up call for all those companies and decision makers who underestimated Sustainable Entrepreneurship before or who are simply not aware of its greater dimension. Well structured chapters from different academic and business perspectives clearly outline how Sustainable Entrepreneurship contributes to solving the world's most challenging problems, such as Climate Change, Finance Crisis and Political Uncertainty, as well as to ensuring business success. The book provides a framework of orientation where the journey might go: What can a successful concept of SE look like? What are the key drivers for its realisation? What is the role of business in shaping the future of our society? The book also presents best practices and provides unique learnings as well as business insights from the international Sustainable Entrepreneurship Award (www.se-award.org). The Sustainable Entrepreneurship Award (short SEA) is an award for companies today who are thinking about tomorrow by making sustainable business practices an integral part of their corporate culture. Companies that receive the SEA are being recognised for the vision they have shown in combining economic and sustainable responsibility.

This book presents an overview of the key debates that took place during the Economic and Social Council meetings at the 2007 High-level Segment, at which ECOSOC organized its first biennial Development Cooperation Forum. The discussions also revolved around the theme of the second Annual Ministerial Review, "Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to sustainable development."--P. 4 of cover.