The growing youth population has enormous potential and is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Yet, youth face many hurdles in trying to earn a livelihood and access decent jobs in agrifood systems.

Young people often face both the challenges of age-specific disadvantages combined with those of the underdevelopment of rural areas.

In many developing countries, young people’s access to quality education and training is often limited; in other cases, education and training systems tend to operate in isolation from the labour market. There are also constraints related to youth’s access to land, natural resources, finance, technology, knowledge and information, with insufficient opportunities for participation in policy and strategic dialogues. All of these factors make it difficult for young people to seize opportunities to improve their lives and contribute to the rural economy.

Furthermore, unequal gender relationships and traditional gender roles entail specific additional difficulties for rural young women.
It is also worth noting that specific rural minorities and vulnerable groups, such as Indigenous youth, youth with disabilities, young migrants, young refugees and others, may face additional challenges and possibly marginalization.