Tunis/Tunisia — The Agri-accelerator Hub in Tunisia, a programme to support responsible agricultural investment launched with the support of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in partnership with the Agricultural Investment Promotion Agency (APIA) and the National Institute of Agricultural Research of Tunisia (INRAT), has been cited as a "good practice" in providing decent jobs for young people in rural areas.

This programme, which supports agripreneurs and accelerates the establishment of sustainable agricultural projects in Tunisia, was cited in FAO's recent collection of good practices (2023) entitled "Hear it from the Countries, Rural Youth, Action Plan, Best Ppractices". It also includes examples of FAO-supported programmes in several African countries, including Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Tunisia and Zambia.

"Young people are key agents of change with enormous potential for innovation. FAO recognises that young people are already at the forefront of building more sustainable agrifood systems and are best placed to rejuvenate the sector, acquire the knowledge and skills to innovate, adopt new technologies and spearhead digital transformation," says the 64-page publication. https://www.fao.org/3/cc3942en/cc3942en.pdf.

These initiatives and projects are being implemented in support of the first biennium of implementation of the Rural Youth Action Plan (RYAP) (2021-2022) of the Opportunities for Youth in Africa (OYA) Programme.

In Tunisia, FAO, the APIA and the INRAT supported, for a further consecutive year, the selection of 20 young agricultural entrepreneurs from Beja region as candidates for the Agri-accelerator Hub in May 2023. The selected projects are aromatic and medicinal plants and the Thibar black sheep.