A report released by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on October 25, has outlined the barriers preventing youth from unlocking the potential of this emerging sector and explored the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs and the opportunities that await them in the bio-economy.
Bio-economy can be defined as the production, utilisation, conservation, and regeneration of biological resources, including related knowledge, science, technology, and innovation, to provide sustainable solutions such as information, products, processes, and services, within and across all economic sectors, and to enable a transformation to a sustainable economy, according to the International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy.
The report also defines bioeconomy jobs as positions that contribute to knowledge creation, products, processes, and services in all economic sectors, which promote the use of renewable resources and the transition towards a sustainable economy.
So, how can these young people be adequately supported? What exactly is needed to support them? What are the key challenges and opportunities for youth to enter the bio-economy? And what is the current situation of the bio-economy that we need to build on in the future, parts of the report read.
ALSO READ: Rwanda, FAO in joint bid to protect biodiversity
Barriers and challenges
As per the report, education must adequately prepare youth with knowledge and skills for the bioeconomy unfortunately, it is not.
"Initial findings indicate that one of the main barriers to greater youth inclusion in the bio-economy lies in the current education systems, which do not sufficiently support the development of a labour force with interdisciplinary skills.”
A decline in vocational training can lead to a technical workforce shortage in the bio-economy.
"In sub-Saharan Africa, over the past five years, enrolment in bachelor’s degree programmes, for both genders, has increased. In contrast, over the same period, enrolment in vocational training programmes for both genders has declined.”
Lack of data and decision-making power
"Of the existing 60 bio-economy strategies worldwide, only 32 countries and three regional (European Union, East Africa, and the Nordic Countries) bio-economy-related strategies address at least two youth-related goals in their policies,” the report states.
However, as confirmed by the study interviews, bio-economy entrepreneurs face additional barriers related to the novelty of the bio-economy sectors. Those barriers include a significant lack of information on what the bio-economy is and what it entails, related market and growth perspectives, and the lack of regulations and procedures.
ALSO READ: FAO boss on Rwanda’s journey to achieving food security
Furthermore, little attention is given to rural development in public policies: Of the bio-economy-related strategies that were analysed, only 46 per cent of the European strategies including those of the European Union, 67 per cent of the Asian strategies, 60 per cent of the African strategies including the East Africa strategy, and only 20 per cent of the Americas strategies include the ambition to transform rural areas.
However, the report shows 10 potential areas including agriculture, forestry, fishing and aquaculture, food, beverages and other agro-manufacturing, bio-based textiles, wood products and furniture, paper, bio-based chemicals and pharmaceuticals, plastics and rubber, liquid biofuels and bioelectricity.
As for how to move forward, the report also emphasises that "unless action is taken to harness the opportunities for youth employment and entrepreneurship and address the barriers, neither young people nor their countries will realise their full potential in the bio-economy.”
"There is a huge potential to accelerate sustainable and youth-inclusive bio-economy development by building on existing knowledge products, sharing lessons learned, and forging partnerships to avoid duplication of efforts. Overall, an acceleration of existing efforts is needed,” FAO noted.
According to a youth participant in a session led by the Bioeconomy Youth Champions during the Global Bioeconomy Summit (GBS) in 2020, "By 2050, the bio-economy should be so normalised so that we will not have to talk about it.”
Reports also indicate that, currently, young people make up 16 per cent of the global population, and 88 per cent of them live in developing countries.