Young people engaging in agricultural entrepreneurship in developing countries face several challenges. Above all, they lack adequate access to important resources and opportunities. These include land, credit, farm inputs, agronomic and vocational training, insurance, and lucrative markets. Addressing these challenges requires answers to some key questions: Which factors drive the success of youth entrepreneurs in developing countries? What type of business ‘ecosystem’ is best suited for their development? What roles should the various stakeholders play in making youth entrepreneurship flourish nationally? How can young people expand their start-ups to become small, medium, or largescale businesses? To answer these questions, the International Food Policy and Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) developed a conceptual framework. This framework classifies contextual and driving factors that contribute to the success of youth entrepreneurship. There are four broad categories for intervention: policy, institutional, technological, and individual capabilities.

The challenges and opportunities facing the Nigerian youths demand rethinking of new ways of doing things. Youth unemployment and underemployment are at a record high. More than ever, the Nigerian youths are in dire need of finding other avenues to explore in pursuit of life endeavors. Youth employment, underemployment, and unemployment are serious concerns for our society, civilization, and the nation. Ehiobuche and Madueke took a different approach to discussing and presenting a practical approach to youth entrepreneurshipfrom the notion of a shared responsibility for the change of mindset from falling into the victims theory dimensions to intelligent ventures and resilience. Their model presents insight on how a paradigm shift among the youths and the society in general from job search to business development may well lead to entrepreneurs and self-productive citizens. The authors hope to inspire, inform, and encourage todays youths to become tomorrows entrepreneurs, leaders, and good citizens. Making the transition from seeking employment, unemployment, or underemployment to self-employment/entrepreneurship is the primary purpose of this book. The topics include the following: Conquering personal and cultural roadblocks to entrepreneurship Shifting mental and physical focus from employee to employer Avoiding common pitfalls in starting and running a sustainable small business Making the best out of being a youth The authors urge the Nigerian youths to avoid falling into a victim mentality and start their paradigm shift into the mindsets of entrepreneurs.

Engaging burgeoning youth populations in developing country agriculture is seen as an important strategy toward effective, efficient, and sustainable food system transformation. Yet the policy, institutional, technological, and capability barriers and ways to overcome them for successful participation of youth in agriculture are not fully understood. We use a conceptual framework that identifies key pathways to prosperity for youth and classifies contextual and driving factors that contribute to the success of youth engagement in agriculture. The framework comprises four broad categories of strategic interventions: policy and socioeconomic environment; institutional; technological/business infrastructure; and individual skills and capacities. In the context of this framework, we then present insights from cases of youth participation in agriculture in five countries: Guatemala, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Uganda. The countries and cases were purposively selected as part of ongoing research on youth engagement in agriculture. Policies and strategies play an important role in creating an enabling environment for youth engagement in agriculture, including by fostering transparency and accountability in the policy system and promoting youth engagement in the private sector through agricultural extension and other services. Institutions and intermediaries provide financial support, training, and access to market for youth entrepreneurs. Support in these areas should be strengthened. Systems approaches, such as multi-stakeholder platforms, provide holistic support to young agripreneurs (entrepreneurs in agriculture), but require effective coordination. Similarly, information and communication technologies can play a facilitating role by providing platforms to network and receive updated market information but need to be significantly scaled up. Individual capacities can drive youth engagement in agriculture and agripreneurship but must continue to be built up through expanded education and training on technical and functional skills. As policymakers and program managers search for interventions that can promote youth involvement in agriculture in their own countries, the insights from the five countries examined that are presented in this paper may be useful for identifying context-specific challenges and pathways to successful youth engagement in agriculture in their own countries. The framework presented here can be applied to study youth engagement issues in any country or in sub-national, decentralized contexts to generate evidence to guide the design of youth-in-agriculture development programs. There is a need to support, strengthen, and implement the driving factors identified in this paper for expanding youth engagement in agriculture.

Without energy, there is no well-functioning economy, besides facing social risks. This book provides a systemic approach to energy in Mexico and its relations to the USA arising from the energy reform of the former. It covers the transition from fossil fuels to a low-carbon economy, relying heavily on renewable sources and mitigating climate change risks. Several human knowledge disciplines and topics are covered in the book, including public policy, economics, transboundary issues, electricity and thermal energy, residual biomass use, distributed energy systems and its management, and decision-making tools. An analysis is considered regarding energy issues interaction in the Mexican-USA border, which differ in both countries from pricing and policy, and the work and research that has been developed for transboundary energy trade.

This handbook examines agricultural and rural development in Africa from theoretical, empirical and policy stand points. It discusses the challenges of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and assesses how poverty and other development concerns can be addressed in rural communities through agricultural transformation. Additionally, the handbook extends the Post-2015 Development Agenda and it emphasizes the importance of the agricultural sector as it is closely related to the issues of food sustainability, poverty reduction, and employment creation. The contributors suggest multiple evidence-based policies to develop the rural areas through the transformation of the agricultural sector which can significantly benefit the African continent.

Entrepreneurship has attracted global interest for its potential to catalyze economic and social development. Research suggesting that certain entrepreneurial mindsets and skills can be learned has given rise to the field of entrepreneurship education and training (EET). Despite the growth of EET, global knowledge about these programs and their impact remains thin. In response, this study surveys the available literature and program evaluations to propose a Conceptual Framework for understanding the EET program landscape. The study finds that EET today consists of a heterogeneous mix of programs that can be broken into two groups: entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship training. These programs target a range of participants: secondary and post-secondary education students, as well as potential and practicing entrepreneurs. The outcomes measured by program evaluations are equally diverse but generally fall under the domains of entrepreneurial mindsets and capabilities, entrepreneurial status, and entrepreneurial performance. The dimensions of EET programs vary according the particular target group. Programs targeting secondary education students focus on the development of foundational skills linked to entrepreneurship, while post-secondary education programs emphasize skills related to strategic business planning. Programs targeting potential entrepreneurs generally are embedded within broader support programs and tend to target vulnerable populations for whom employment alternatives may be limited. While programs serving practicing entrepreneurs focus on strengthening entrepreneurs knowledge, skills and business practices, which while unlikely to transform an enterprise in the near term, may accrue benefits to entrepreneurs over time. The study also offers implications for policy and program implementation, emphasizing the importance of clarity about target groups and desired outcomes when making program choices, and sound understanding of extent to which publicly-supported programs offer a broader public good, and compare favorably to policy alternatives for supporting the targeted individuals as well as the overall economic and social objectives.

This book offers novel and contemporary thinking of entrepreneurship and change. It espouses the distinct but reciprocal nature of both concepts to unravel high levels of transformation, both in terms of social structures and social relations, inherent in new venture creation. It provides insights from a theoretical, educational, and industrial context with emphasis on holistic approaches to change. Each chapter illuminates distinct elements of the entrepreneurial landscape and the importance of learning, creativity and innovation as tools for practice and knowledge management. This book is an essential resource for practitioners, researchers, and policy makers because it provides new outlooks and dimensions on the transformational powers of entrepreneurship and change.