Last year, despite the start of the pandemic, the Rural Youth Innovation Award generated an enthusiastic response throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Almost 600 youth initiatives across 18 of the region’s countries competed for one of 10 prizes.

The success of the award’s First Edition opened the door for a second one, which was launched on 3 March from Costa Rica through a virtual event organized in collaboration with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA). This Second Edition seeks to identify and reward innovative youth-led initiatives to overcome the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the region’s rural communities.

Last year, Una Mano para Oaxaca was the winning initiative in the Education category. This organization presented a post-disaster reconstruction methodology, grounded in traditional uses and mutual help practices, that was implemented after the 2017 earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Perseida Tenorio, one of its founders, participated in the Second Edition launch event.

“It’s a crucial moment in history: every year natural resources are depleted; entire cultures disappear; wars, plagues and hunger put our and our loved ones’ lives at risk,” she remarked. “This is why is so important to have spaces for learning and sharing acquired knowledge. This is why this award is such a good initiative. It gives young people a window of opportunity for them to transform their social context through innovation, education, technology and, above all, love: love for our people, our region, our cultures, our countries and Latin America.”

The Rural Youth Innovation Award is an initiative of the LAC Knowledge and South-South and Triangular Cooperation Centre, based in Brasilia, Brazil. It also has the support of the China-IFAD SSTC Facility.

The candidates must present an innovative and sustainable rural development initiative already in implementation by young people (18 to 35 years old). The initiative has to be an example of good practices or applied technologies and would ideally be replicable – or even scalable – in other rural areas. It must fall under one of the following categories, changed slightly from the previous edition: Marketing and Market Access Solutions; Connectivity Solutions; Financial Inclusion; Recycling and Alternative Energies; and Women’s Empowerment and Gender Inclusion.

Applicants have until 4 April to register their initiatives. A panel of experts will then evaluate them and identify 20 finalists. The 10 winners will be announced in an award ceremony at the end of June. They will benefit from media promotion, in-kind rewards, and opportunities for knowledge exchange.

Despite the pandemic’s effects on the event schedule, the Award Team kept working, motivated by the great response to its First Edition and inspired by the quality of the initiatives coming in from across the region – initiatives that, despite the circumstances the region is going through, seek to take the future into their hands and encourage the development of a society free from poverty and hunger, leaving no one behind.

Once more, the Award Team is pleased to share with IFAD colleagues its enthusiasm for working with and for Latin American rural youth.

By Sooyeon Kim, UNV-Environment and Social Inclusion Specialist, ECG/NEN, IFAD

The Sustainable Agriculture Investments and Livelihoods (SAIL) Programme in Egypt supports empowering women's leadership through various capacity building training and grants for income-generating activities. Maryam Abdel Rehem Abdallah living in Elwafaa village, West samalout in Middle Egypt is one of SAIL beneficiaries.

After the death of her husband, Maryam lived in a challenging economic condition. She monthly received only EGP 300, approximately 20 USD, from the national Takaful and Karama cash transfer programme but had no other income source to raise three children. To support living, she found her way into sewing. She loved sewing since young. She began to teach herself and bought a second-hand sewing machine. Once starting her sewing activity, she faced problems such as finding suitable material at reasonable prices, hiring skilled workers to assist her, and lacking advanced skills to produce high-quality products.

Soon when the SAIL programme initiated in her village, she actively attended various events and communicated with SAIL regional team to learn from what kinds of activities she can benefit. SAIL assisted her by providing advanced sewing training and linked her to the sewing unit in her area to ask for any technical assistance.

Maryam also applied for a grant to expand her business. She was genuinely excited when she passed the first screening step. To receive final approval, she attended professional vocational training, where she learned how to prepare an economic feasibility study, design a business plan and produce a marketing strategy. She also participated in some technical training to make sure she has the basic skills to start her project. After all, Maryam was eligible to receive the grant for starting up her own sewing workshop.

This was undoubtedly a turning point in her life. She began to actively communicate with local shops to research market demand. She was able to make small-scale deals. In the meantime, she prepared a separate room at her house to set up a sewing workshop. She convinced other skilled women in the village to bring their machines to her workshop, work together, and share the income.

Slowly things got better. Maryam succeeded in finding better sources for materials from the capital, Cairo, and signed a contract for cargo services to regularly bring in the materials and distribute the final products outside her village.

Now she has seven sewing machines in the workshop, and three women are regularly working with Maryam. When the production line is busy, three other expert women temporarily join her to lend their hands. Besides, she was able to add other supporting machines for cutting and ironing for a better quality of the products.

The SAIL team is regularly following up with Maryam and provide additional assistance when requested. For example, she asked for further advanced training from the project to improve the products' quality, address market demand, and the basics of machine maintenance to overcome any malfunctions.

"Thanks to generous support from the SAIL programme, I could fulfil my dream. Now I can generate enough income to improve my family's standard of living and continue to support my children's education," Maryam said.

Maryam has become a successful role model in the village. She motivates other rural women to build their capacity and participate in income-generating activities.

"With assistance from the SAIL, I am reaching out to more women who have participated in sewing training sessions and have their own machines. In the near future, we will be able to form production groups and expand our business together. I am truly grateful for this opportunity which enabled me to become a better mother and business owner".

** This article has been produced with the contribution of the SAIL programme team.