1) Powerful words by Salina Abraham (of the International Forestry Students’ Association) on the Global Landscapes Forum 2015 in Paris. Every so often I am part of discussions and panels on youth empowerment and employment and it is startling how non-youth (let’s say anyone above 35) dominate the discussion. It is a bit like launching a girls’ council in Saudi Arabia, without any females attending.

2) A great lecture/webinar by Thomas Jayne, professor at Michigan State University on the rise of Medium-Scale Farms in Africa. Some highlights for me:

• the proportion of medium scale farms is significant (around 45+% according to current datasets but this percentage is probably underestimated)
• we don’t know exactly how this will affect the multiplier effect (i.e. increasing agricultural productivity which in turn increases demand for non-agricultural goods and services and therefore contributes to overall job growth in the urban areas)
• there is only a small percentage of smallholders who are able to upgrade to this class of medium scale farmers (but they merit our attention)
• employment creation by medium-scale farmers is likely to be limited

3) This is pretty cool: Nigerian hackers turned into entrepreneurs.

4) A new bulletin by the Institute for Development Studies completely dedicated to youth employment and entrepreneurship in Africa.

5) Three recent panel discussions on youth and agri-business can be found here

6) A decent synthesis report on ‘Boosting youth employment in Africa: What works and why?’

7) And finally a wonderful TedTalk by Rutger Bregman contributing to the flurry of literature and opinions on Universal Basic Income.