"This paper characterizes the structural and rural transformation of the Asia and the Pacific region (APR), highlighting the implications for rural youth opportunities and challenges, and identifying and elaborating on the characteristics, opportunities and challenges related to rural youth inclusion. Nearly half of the population in Asia is urban, with the proportion projected to rise to 59 per cent by 2035. Except for China, the majority of youth still reside in rural areas. Youth labour force participation is higher in rural than urban areas, and for males than females. Rural youth in countries with low structural transformation and low rural transformation continue to rely on agriculture for employment; in countries with high levels of transformation, a majority of rural youth are now employed outside agriculture (though it is still the biggest contributor to rural youth employment). About one fifth of youth in Asia are not in education, employment or training. More than 86 per cent of employed youth in Asia and the Pacific are in the informal sector, greater than the proportion of informal employment among adult workers"--Page 4 of cover.

This paper characterizes the structural and rural transformation of the Asia and the Pacific region (APR), highlighting the implications for rural youth opportunities and challenges, and identifying and elaborating on the characteristics, opportunities and challenges related to rural youth inclusion. Nearly half of the population in Asia is urban, with the proportion projected to rise to 59 per cent by 2035. Except for China, the majority of youth still reside in rural areas. Youth labour force participation is higher in rural than urban areas, and for males than females. Rural youth in countries with low structural transformation and low rural transformation continue to rely on agriculture for employment; in countries with high levels of transformation, a majority of rural youth are now employed outside agriculture (though it is still the biggest contributor to rural youth employment). About one fifth of youth in Asia are not in education, employment or training. More than 86 per cent of employed youth in Asia and the Pacific are in the informal sector, greater than the proportion of informal employment among adult workers.

This policy brief is one in a series led by Chulalongkorn University with support from the Office of the Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Thailand, in partnership with FAO. The series was initiated to support the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Work Plan on Education, 2016–2020 implementation while Thailand was Chair of ASEAN in 2019 under the theme: “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability.” The Briefs offer critical interdisciplinary perspectives on agri-food systems from social and sustainability sciences. They are fully aligned with the regional initiative on Food System Transformation and are meant to support the work engaged with ASEAN. This brief focuses on the need for HEIs, international agencies, regional organizations and governments in Southeast Asia to do more to assist youth and tertiary students by providing adequate programmes, curricula, research and extension services. It highlights that it is critical to consider youth as an active partner and to fully include them in better documenting and evaluating youth and student issues while scaling-up best practices. It advocates for improved university services in rural communities to catalyze a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agro-ecological systems.

Today, the global youth population is at its highest ever and still growing, with the highest proportion of youth living in Africa and Asia, and a majority of them in rural areas. Young people in rural areas face the double challenge of age-specific vulnerabilities and underdevelopment of rural areas. While agriculture absorbs the majority of rural workers in developing countries, low pay and poor working conditions make it difficult to sustain rural livelihoods.

Rural youth constitute over half of the youth population in developing countries and will continue to increase in the next 35 years. Without rural transformation and green industrialisation happening fast enough to create more wage employment in a sustainable manner, the vast majority of rural ...