The failure of rural economies to deliver decent work to their young people affects national economies, threatens political stability, nurtures extremism and causes socially and economically disruptive migration. Globally, youth are two to three times more likely than adults to be unemployed.

The food system challenges require simultaneous action across different sectors and concerted efforts of diverse players in food systems. While past efforts inclined towards boosting gricultural production, today’s focus has shifted to influencing transformative changes to the entire food systems continuum, from production and processing to marketing and distribution, using innovative solutions. Sub-Saharan Africa has been facing unprecedented challenges that affect the sustainability of food and agriculture systems, putting food and nutrition security at significant risk.

Ce rapport de recherche, produit par Charline Rangé, porte sur les économies de plantation de la République de Guinée et interroge la place du foncier rural dans les trajectoires d’autonomisation socio-économique des jeunes dans un contexte de compétition et de marchandisation foncière.

L’étude analyse l’accès inégal aux terres des jeunes ruraux dans le contexte d’intensification des systèmes de culture et de diversification des activités (transformation, commerce transport) de la région de Guinée forestière.

The Continental Land Policy Initiative, now the African Land Policy Centre, has made tremendous progress in generating knowledge on land governance since inception in 2006. A key milestone was the formulation of a Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa in 2009 upon which the African Union Declaration on Land Issues in Africa was prepared and endorsed in Libya in July 2009.

Land and natural resource tenure security is a central yet often neglected area for economic development and poverty reduction in the developing world. Land is fundamental to the lives of poor rural people. It is a source of food, shelter, income and social identity. Secure access to land reduces vulnerability to hunger and poverty. There are some 1.3 billion extremely poor people in the world, struggling to survive on less than US$1.25 a day, and close to a billion continue to suffer from chronic under-nourishment.

Securing land rights of all including the youth to allow for investment is very imperative. This is because access to land is very fundamental to ending extreme poverty especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa where agriculture remains the economic backbone of majority of households.  To this end, access to fair and timeous land disputes resolution mechanism to adjudicate and resolve disputes which create tenure insecurity is critical. This study investigates land dispute cases and the resolution mechanisms among the youth land holders in the Techiman area of Ghana.

According to a 2008 World Bank Report, Uganda is among the countries with the youngest population and the highest youth unemployment rate of 83%. During the reading of the 2011/2012 budget of Uganda, the then Minister of Finance recognized that because of the high levels of unemployment, the Ugandan economy can only absorb 20% of its youth. Owing to this, this demographic has often been described as a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.The above notwithstanding, Uganda is blessed with an abundance of land and land-based resources which remain largely underutilized.

Africa is a continent of youth. However, its high rates of youth unemployment linked to high levels of landlessness suggest a close correlation with youth poverty and access to land. This paper presents the perspective of an approach for capacitating youth through research on land and natural resource tenure in Eastern and Southern Africa.