Agrifood systems can drive employment expansion across Africa

At the recent Malabo Montpellier Forum, the Malabo Montpellier Panel launched its 18^th report. It argues that agrifood systems can generate the productive jobs needed for Africa’s rapidly growing youth population, provided the right policies are in place to accelerate transformation and ensure that these jobs are productive, resilient and accessible to all.

Job Harvests: Policy Innovations for Inclusive Agrifood Employment in Africa examines employment in Africa’s agrifood systems and rural economies through the lens of structural transformation, analysing the constraints and enablers of inclusive agrifood employment. Drawing on case studies from Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Rwanda, the report highlights scalable institutional and policy innovations and programmatic interventions that have driven progress in economy-wide labour productivity, structural change, and the creation of decent, quality jobs.

Decent jobs

It is estimated that around 70 million young people in Africa are not currently in employment, education or training, and that by 2040, Africa will need to create around two million jobs a month to absorb new entrants into the labour market. The central challenge is to create employment that is productive, secure, resilient and inclusive, particularly for youth and women.

“Africa’s employment challenge is not about the absence of jobs per se; the quality of employment matters. Safer workplaces, fairer opportunities, stronger skills systems and more resilient livelihoods are essential to ensuring that agrifood transformation improves lives,” said Dr Ousmane Badiane, Co-Chair of the Malabo Montpellier Panel and Executive Chairperson at AKADEMIYA2063, presenting the report.

Structural transformation needed

In order to address interconnected challenges – including demographic pressures, climate change, weak infrastructure, insecure land rights, limited access to finance and fragmented policy implementation –accelerated structural transformation and a renewed focus on skills and entrepreneurship was needed, Badiane maintained. Only under these conditions could agrifood systems drive inclusive employment and broader economic transformation.

The report’s analysis highlights an integrated action agenda linking productivity growth, value chain development, rural industrialisation, digital transformation and skills development.

Call for a dual approach

“A dual approach is called for to harvest the jobs: indirectly creating jobs by accelerated investment in agrifood system productivity, and directly creating jobs with labour-intensive public works building productive rural infrastructure,” said Professor Joachim von Braun, Co-Chair of the Malabo Montpellier Panel at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany. Von Braun added: “The African Union Kampala agenda calls to foster agrifood system growth, and we note in the report that already more than 20 African countries invest in rural public works programmes, which were so important for jobs and transformation in China in the past, and also in India.”

Evidence from case studies

The Report’s case studies show how impactful government action can create a more enabling environment for improved labour market outcomes, particularly for youth and women in agrifood systems.

In Ethiopia, initiatives such as the Agricultural Growth Program (AGP), the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) and the Rural Job Opportunity Creation Strategy (RJOC) have strengthened agricultural development, skills, livelihood diversification and labour market participation. Agricultural Commercialisation Clusters have improved farmers’ access to services, aggregation and markets, while the Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) has attracted approximately 740 million US dollars in investment and created nearly 90,000 jobs in less than a decade, many of them for young women.

In Nigeria, improved employment planning and job matching have enhanced labour market coordination, while specialised agricultural universities and the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme have equipped young people with skills for modern agrifood value chains. Between 2015 and 2024, the Bank of Industry (BOI) mobilised more than 7 billion US dollars in catalytic capital, financed over 5.4 million enterprises and contributed to the creation of more than 15 million jobs. Through targeted financing for women, youth and rural enterprises, BOI has expanded inclusive agrifood entrepreneurship and strengthened linkages between smallholder farmers and processing facilities.

In Rwanda, the Chief Skills Office and the TVET Board have improved alignment between training and labour market needs through employer engagement and demand-driven skills programmes. The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has strengthened the business-friendly environment, attracting investment in agribusiness, agro-processing, horticulture, dairy and logistics. Rural transformation has been supported by the Girinka (One Cow per Poor Family) programme, which had distributed more than 460,000 cows by early 2024, helping increase milk production to over one million metric tons. The programme has raised livestock productivity, boosting daily milk yields by about 50 per cent. The National Agriculture Insurance Scheme has enrolled more than 650,000 farmers and disbursed nearly 3.5 million US dollars in subsidies to protect against climate and other shocks.

Targeted policy interventions

Expanding inclusive agrifood employment across the continent can be supported through targeted policy interventions that

• position productive agrifood employment at the core of national development strategies;
• equip youth and women with the skills to transform agrifood systems;
• address informality and strengthen worker protections;
• mobilise innovative financing and private investment;
• build digital ecosystems to support rural employment and agrifood innovation;
• invest in labour-intensive rural infrastructure to create jobs and strengthen rural economies and
• harmonise labour market statistics across countries.

Recommendations

The Malabo Montpellier Panel’s recommendations below draw on the experiences of the three countries and the key factors underlying their success:

• prioritise agricultural productivity growth as the foundation for broader employment transformation;
• ensure that skills development is demand-driven and directly connected to growth sectors;
• strengthen employment policies to advance decent work, productivity, and inclusive labour markets, and advance occupational safety and health systems to improve job quality;
• expand and strengthen the quality of public works and integrate with social protection;
• strengthen one-stop business support institutions to lower barriers to enterprise growth, increase formal job creation, and expand digital labour and market information platforms to improve job matching and market access;
• strengthen high-level institutional coordination to support integrated employment outcomes.

Kampala CAADP Strategy and Action Plan as a guiding concept

The report states that with implementation of the Kampala CAADP Strategy and Action Plan (2026–2035) underway, African countries have an opportunity to strengthen agrifood systems as engines of better jobs, food security, poverty reduction, climate resilience, industrialisation and inclusive growth. This will require coherent policies, capable institutions, sustained investment and inclusive implementation.

(ZEF/sri)

More information:

Link to original article at ZEF Website

Link to report

Further reading:

Rural 21 issue 3/2024: Boosting entrepreneurship 

Rural 21 Dossier on "Employment"

Rural 21 Dossier on "Youth"