Youth engagement in agricultural policy processes in Malawi

Figures & data

Table 1: Organisations included in the study

Government ministry/department/parastatal	Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture
	Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security
	Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development
	Ministry of Local Government – Lilongwe District Youth Office
	National Youth Council of Malawi
Youth-led organisations in the agriculture sector	Farmers Forum for Trade and Social Justice (FAFOTRAJ)
	Foundation for Irrigation and Sustainable Development (FISD)
	Youth Empowerment and Civic Education (YECE)
	Organization for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development Initiative (OSSEDI)
	Youth Watch Society (YOWSO)
	Network for Youth Development
	Lilongwe Youth Urban Network
	Centre for Youth and Children Affairs (CEYCA)
	Counselling of Adolescents and Youth Organization (CAYO)
Other organisations	Trade Line Corporation
	Community Finance

Figure 1: Social network analysis – Malawi youth agriculture network

Table 2: Social network analysis network measures for the sampled agricultural youth network in Malawi

	Size	Ties	Reach efficiency	Broker	Betweenness
Government ministries/departments
Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture	12	44	17.24	44.00	17.50
Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security	10	30	20.27	30.00	32.67
Ministry of Irrigation	3	3	52.17	1.50	0.50
Lilongwe District Youth Office	12	46	17.24	43.00	17.50
Youth organisations
Farmers Forum for Trade and Social Justice (FAFOTRAJ)	9	25	22.06	23.50	33.17
Foundation for Irrigation and Sustainable Development (FISD)	5	12	27.66	4.00	1.50
Youth Empowerment and Civic Education (YECE)	7	19	22.03	11.50	12.00
Organization for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development Initiative (OSSEDI)	3	4	38.24	1.00	0.00
Youth Watch Society (YOWSO)	5	10	27.91	5.00	0.00
Network for Youth Development	6	18	25.86	6.00	5.00
Lilongwe Youth Urban Network	6	18	25.86	6.00	9.17
Centre for Youth and Children Affairs (CEYCA)	6	16	23.21	7.00	9.33
Counselling of Adolescents and Youth Organization (CAYO)	8	27	21.74	14.50	4.42
Other organisations
National Youth Council of Malawi	10	39	18.52	25.50	6.33
Trade Line Corporation	2	2	81.82	0.00	0.00
Community Finance	2	2	81.82	0.00	0.00

Source: Author calculations generated from UCINET, a software package used for social network analysis.

Table 3: Key informant solutions to overcoming networking hurdles for youth in agriculture

Demand side (youth)	Supply side (policy-makers)
Improved networking among the youth for improved information sharing. This would create familiarity and thus be a step to remove the mentality that youth organisations are in competition (for scarce resources and recognition).	Need for a deliberate agricultural sector policy to engage the youth in policy processes. To ensure that such a policy is enacted, the ministry should establish a section under the directorate of the Agricultural Extension Services that focuses on the youth.
	Need to improve access to information such as ministry reports and other documents pertaining to agricultural policies.
Need for deliberate effort by government to involve the youth. This should be facilitated by organisations such as the National Youth Council that are mandated to promote empowerment of the youth but also that have convening power as well the human and financial resources with which to mobilise the youth.	Policy-makers need to have greater interaction with the youth as a separate constituency from other stakeholders in the sector. This can be done through informal dialogue sessions at different levels (e.g. national or local government level through the district commissioners or district youth officers).
	Conduct awareness campaigns for the general population of agricultural policy issues. This will solicit public interests to provide input during the policy process.

Source: Author summaries from key informant interviews with the youth and policy-makers from the sampled institutions presented in Table 1.