Agribusiness Expert for Rural youth employment in Mozambique

Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world (Human Development Index: rank 180 out of 189).

As the country's most important sector, the agricultural and food economy secures the livelihood and income of more than 5.7 million people (72 % of the economically active population), the majority of whom are women.

However, the sector has low productivity overall and is still strongly oriented toward self-sufficiency.

A lack of knowledge of sustainable agricultural production methods, difficult access to inputs, services (e.g., consulting, mechanization, industrial processing), financial resources and sales markets limits productivity and income potential in the agricultural sector.

These factors make it difficult to develop a sustainable and marketoriented agricultural and food economy. Due to small farm sizes and a low level of formalization of the economy in general and in rural areas in particular, there is little employment and few alternatives for productive employment outside the agri-food sector.

On the other hand, there is good potential for promoting employment in innovative business models within the framework of sustainable agricultural and food systems.

Due to the increasing demand of a growing population and urban middle class for (higher quality) food, there is above all potential for supplying regional and national markets (provincial capitals Beira and Nampula, Maputo) with locally produced food. Currently, only 6 million hectares of 36 million hectares of available cultivable land are used productively. Due to the relatively high diversity of vegetation and climate zones and high intensification and area potentials, there are good opportunities for the production and processing of various food products (fruit and vegetables, oilseeds, small animal husbandry, aquaculture, honey, etc.) as well as export and specialty crops (cashew, (dried) fruits, baobab, moringa, etc.)

The module objective for the country package Mozambique of the global project “Employment in rural areas with focus on youth” (in short: Rural youth employment – RYE) therefore is: “The training and employment situation in rural areas has improved, especially for young people”.

Tasks of the Agribusiness expert

• Responsible for completion of activities as specified under chapter 2, especially on developing and implementing training measures and setting-up inclusive business models
• Responsible for identifying and managing relationships with private and public partners for implementation as well as other partner organisation relevant for access to finance and other necessary framework conditions for entrepreneurs and MSMEs
• Delivering support to existing incubators and providers of business development services to improve their offer towards entrepreneurs and MSMEs in the agricultural sector
• Responsible for results-based monitoring
• Contribute to reporting