Rome, 18 June 2019 – Effective
policies and investments are urgently needed if the world's poorest countries
are to offer a future to hundreds of millions of marginalized young people
living in rural areas, according to a new report released today by the United
Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The
2019 Rural Development Report - Creating opportunities for rural youth shows
that about 500 million young people, about half of the youth population of
developing countries, live in rural areas. This number rises to 780
million when semi-rural and peri-urban areas are included. These
young people are prone to poverty and inequality and are held back by a series
of constraints, including lack of training and skills, limited access to land
and credit, scarce availability of inputs and restricted links to social
networks.