AGRA is a not-for-profit organization working with African governments, other donors, NGOs, the private sector, and farmers to improve the productivity and incomes of resource-poor smallholder farmers in Africa. AGRA aims to catalyze an inclusive agricultural transformation in Africa by increasing incomes and improving food security for millions of smallholder farmers in Africa. For more information about AGRA, please visit www.agra.org.

At the adoption and endorsement of the AAYS by the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment, AUCDARBE was tasked with the importance of developing specific indicators on youth agribusiness and ensuring its integration into the CAADP Biennial Review (CAADP BR), such that countries will be able to report on it and account for the implementation of the AAYS. This ToR is a bid to respond to the request of STC through the development and implementation of the Youth Agribusiness Performance Index.

There is a lack of credible data on youth work opportunities and youth agribusiness interventions in many African Countries. Brookings (2021) notes that there is limited or non-availability of data, which has made it a challenge for the Government to design youth work opportunities related to programs and interventions. Where data exists, aggregating this across the continent and analyzing the patterns and trends remain challenging. The lack of a uniform data protocol and variable definitions for youth in agribusiness makes it difficult to do cross-country comparability.

At a continental level, there is no performance index for tracking the progress made by countries from the current and future initiatives to engage young people in Africa’s food systems. Yet the CAADP Biennial Review (BR) process provides an opportunity to track youth employment and give adequate prominence to youths in Africa’s food systems. The youth employment indicator under Commitment 4 (performance category 4.3) focuses on an outcome. Still, it does not track any factors that contribute to it, such as access to productive resources or possession of necessary skills and competencies.

In this regard, the Africa Union Commission in collaboration with AGRA, conceptualized and developed the “Youth in Agribusiness Performance Index” (YAPI) aimed at providing a consistent methodology and approach comparable across the AU Member States to monitor and report on country youth agribusiness performance through the CAADP BR process/mechanism. The “Youth in Agribusiness Performance Index” (YAPI) is a single score-based measurement tool that provides “a bird’s eye view” of the health of youth work opportunities and employment within the agrifood system space that can be used across the continent and integrated within the CAADP Biennial Review process. Key indicators and parameters have been defined within 5 domains of YAPI and have been socialized with stakeholders during regional AAYS dialogues across the five regions of the continent and the Island States.

These objectives are primarily guided and aligned with the principles of the African Agribusiness Youth Strategy (AAYS) and the CAADP Biennial Review (BR) process with a focus on:

The scope of work for developing the Youth Agribusiness Performance Index (YAPI) is comprehensive and multifaceted, aiming to ensure a thorough and effective implementation process. The first step will involve:

i. Conduct a literature review that analyses existing research, reports, and gender-disaggregated data on youth involvement in agribusiness across Africa over the past decade to identify critical trends, gaps, and opportunities that will inform the delivery of the YAPI framework.

ii. Define the indicators’ weights to appropriately reflect its importance of each indicator and their aggregation to an index

iii. Assign mathematical weights to indicators and domains based on their significant impact on the success of youth agrifood performance.

iv. Develop a technical note baseline for YAPI based on the pilot in select AU Member States.

v. Update YAPI framework with the weighted indicators and values on the domains

vi. Update and refine indicators: Review and update the existing youth employment indicator under Commitment 4 of the Kampala CAADP Declaration. Propose revisions or replacements to ensure the indicators accurately reflect the factors contributing to youth employment in agribusiness in the Kamapala CAADP Strategy and Action Plan (2026- 2035).

vii. Work with the existing consultancy on data collection tools for use by Member States in reporting on the YAPI parameters.

viii. Engage stakeholders and validate framework: Collaborate with technical working groups, including BR-TWG 4, to define YAPI and incorporate it into BR tools. Present the updated framework, indicators, and data tools for validation and feedback to ensure they meet stakeholders’ needs and expectations.

ix. Enhance reporting and documentation: Develop comprehensive reporting and documentation for YAPI and integrate into key BR tools, including the Technical Note, Guidelines, and Country Reporting Template, a stand-alone YAPI report and integrated into the CAADP BR report under the section related to AU decisions. This will ensure transparency and facilitate effective monitoring and evaluation.

x. Provide training and support to AU Member States to facilitate the national-level implementation of YAPI.

xi. Facilitate dissemination and critical feedback: Organize two continental webinars to disseminate YAPI and gather input from various stakeholders.

xii. Work closely with the existing consultancy to integrate YAPI into national data systems: Collaborate with technical organizations and National Statistics Organizations to ensure the seamless integration of YAPI indicators into national data systems. This will enhance the capacity of Member States to track and report on youth agribusiness performance consistently and accurately.

b. Experience, skills and competencies:

c. Report writing skills and language proficiency

• Proficiency in English. Knowledge of other working AU languages would be an added advantage (Arabic, French, Kiswahili, Spanish and Portuguese). The consultant should indicate language proficiency in the CV.

AGRA works to achieve a food secure and prosperous Africa through the promotion of rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers. Smallholders--the majority women--produce most of Africa's food, and do so with minimal resources and little government support. AGRA aims to ensure that smallholders have what they need to succeed: good seeds and healthy soils; access to markets, information, financing, storage and transport; and policies that provide them with comprehensive support. Through developing Africa's high-potential breadbasket areas, while also boosting farm productivity across more challenging environments, AGRA works to transform smallholder agriculture into a highly productive, efficient, sustainable and competitive system, and do so while protecting the environment.