Monrovia – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MYS) and Partners is expected to launch an Aquaculture Project valued at US$492,000 aimed at addressing challenges for youth unemployment in Liberia.
The project expected to be launched early July 2016, will address the challenges and constraints of unemployment faced by Liberia’s youthful population over the years.
The Aquaculture project is based on a request for technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, by the Liberian Government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
According to an FAO Communication to FrontPageAfrica, the Technical Cooperation Project titled “Creating Aquaculture Enterprise for Youth Employment, Poverty Reduction and Food Security,” will build the capacity of approximately 600 vulnerable youths in aquaculture development in Margibi, Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount and Bomi Counties.
Accordingly, the project is a part of FAO’s Strategy Objectives 2, 3, and 4 in fostering developments in rural Liberia.
“It is also aligned with the United Nations Development Framework (UNDAF) Pillar II: (Sustainable Economic Transformation) and at the same time contributing to the FAO Country Programming Framework (CPF) for sustainable agriculture development” the communication maintained.
At the same time, forty (40) youth from across two of Liberia western regions, Grand Cape Mount and Bomi Counties are expected to benefit from a ten-day agriculture training seminar on the provision of economic development through youth employment, entrepreneurship, and improved nutrition and poverty reduction, an exercise which begins on June 27, 2016, the statement intoned.
The training is an extension of an Aquaculture seminar that was conducted in Compound 2, Grand Bassa County from June 13th to the 23th this year.
According to FAO, the ten-day seminar will bring together officials from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Bureau of National Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture along with young Liberian entrepreneurs and key stakeholders to speak about development of small business skills in these sectors.
The training further looked at developing small business management skills, gender wealth creation opportunities, and developing the potentials of young people for a sustainable aquaculture entrepreneurship.
Participants of the seminar are expected to acquire improved methods of fish farming and hatchery management techniques, and better business development strategy.
Meanwhile, FAO has indicated that a training guide developed at the end of the first session will be used as a reference tool for youth aquaculture in Liberia.