Fair and Inclusive Employment Opportunities for Rural Youth Groups

This program aims to contribute to the improvement of policies to increase the provision of decent, fair, and inclusive employment opportunities for young people in rural areas. The output of this program are:

1. The Kebumen District Head’s regulation regarding the allocation of village prosperity land (tanah kas desa) for young people and the potential for trials in selected locations.
2. Formulation of a model for providing information on nonfarm employment opportunities in rural areas (through a halfway house, a “business hub”, or other innovations) and potential trials in selected locations.
3. Also, the program is expected to increase the change in the mindset of policymakers in providing decent work opportunities for young people in rural areas.

In 2018 unemployment in Indonesia has reached 7 million people or around 5.34% of the total workforce (BPS, 2018). Currently, the open unemployment rate for young people is 24.27% of which 11.98% occurs in the age range of 19-24 years (BPS, 2018). The Indonesian government needs to create and provide wider opportunities for decent work for young people.

The agricultural sector has the potential to reduce the unemployment rate of young people, especially in rural areas. However, AKATIGA’s research[1] found that many of the young people were constrained to become farmers because they faced several obstacles. Some of the obstacles are the length of time waiting to access of the parents’ land, the high price of the land (rent/buy), the margin from agriculture tends to be low compared to non-farm sectors, and less innovative farming practices.

Given those young people disconnected with agriculture, then they prefer to migrate. However, AKATIGA’s research (2017)[2] found that the migration experience of young people is not only limited to the success story. But they have also experienced failure, and even worse, being trapped in the vortex of unsafe migration. The experience of failure was caused partly by the lack of information about the targeted job, such as job description, wages, etc.

Today’s rural youth are limited by the horizon of jobs variation they can access. As aforementioned that young people are difficult to get involved in the agricultural sector due to various obstacles. On the other hand, working as a migrant worker also risky. In that situation, the opportunity to access decent work is very important for rural young people so that they are not trapped as unemployed.

Young people need to be informed about employment opportunities in various sectors, both in agriculture, trade, manufacturing, finance, services, and others. They also need to increase their capacity to take advantage of employment opportunities.

From the problems above, AKATIGA with support from KSI (Knowledge Sector Initiatives) is conducting the advocacy research to encourage improvements in fair and inclusive opportunities both in the agricultural sector and non-agricultural employment for youth.

[1] Series of AKATIGA’s research ; Food Independence (2013), Technology and Agricultural Employment Opportunities in Rural Areas (2015), Becoming a Young Farmer (2017-2020), and Let’s be Young Farmers (2018-2020).

[2] AKATIGA’s research in collaboration with Plan International, titled “Pattern of Youth Migration in NTT (East Nusa Tenggara) in 2017.

To achieve the three main objectives above, AKATIGA designed several approaches that will be implemented throughout 2019-2021, consisting of:

1. Conduct a study of employment opportunities in rural areas, both agriculture, and non-agriculture sectors.
2. Policy advocacy on the allocation of village treasury land (Tanah Kas Desa) in Kebumen Regency.
3. Piloting the village treasury land allocation models and the models of information management on employment opportunities in rural areas.