![\"Group](\"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Group-photograph-of-the-IFAD-CARE-training-participants-and-their-facilitators.jpg\")
<\/a>\nGroup photograph of the IFAD CARE training participants and their facilitators.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\nThe workshop, attended by scholars from IFAD, identified priority countries (Benin Republic, Cameroon, DR Congo, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia) and provided an opportunity for supervisors and IITA scientists to review young scholars\u2019 research proposals, and strengthen awardees\u2019 research capabilities to deliver the expected outputs of their research projects on youth engagement in Africa based on the principles of qualitative research methods. This is expected to contribute to the development of a new paradigm for knowledge creation that will lead to the growth of effective policies and agribusiness development in Africa.\n\nSpeaking at the opening ceremony, IITA Director for the Eastern Africa Hub and Leader of the Social Science and Agribusiness Research Group,\u00a0Victor Manyong<\/a>, stated that the training targeted youth because they are the future drivers of Africa\u2019s and the world\u2019s food systems and markets. \u201cThey can only achieve this by improving their research skills and problem-solving competencies and developing abilities in research for development (R4D) to inform future action plans,\u201d he said.\n\nThe knowledge gap in understanding factors influencing youth engagement in the rural farm and non-farm economy in Africa hinders the formulation of appropriate policies and investment plans. The main assumption is that investments targeting youth self-employment in Africa can have much greater impact by ensuring that data and information, evidence, experience, and lessons learned are used to influence policy and decision-making.\n\nStudies and surveys have shown that most researchers in sub-Saharan Africa lack key skills needed for effective decision-making relating to youth participation in the rural sector. This exposure would enable the awardees to enhance their research skills to provide empirical evidence on factors influencing youth engagement in agribusiness and bridge the knowledge gap.\n\nIn giving an overview of the CARE scholarship and its usefulness, IITA Capacity Development Office Head,\u00a0Zoumana Bamba<\/a>, emphasized that the training is beneficial and important to the scholars as it aims to improve the availability, exchange, dissemination, and use of research findings in the field of agribusiness to support economic growth and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. He added that this can be actualized by strengthening the capacity to generate, appraise, and disseminate evidence-based results to significantly increase the contribution of policies to economic growth and an enabling environment for rural youth.\n\nDuring the plenary session, presentations were made on characteristics of good research design, sources of research problems and qualities of a good research problem, quantitative methods in economic and social research, introduction to data management, and introduction to open access. The session also incorporated the presentation of research proposals by the scholars after which discussions on ways forward were held with their supervisors.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 2\u20136 June, IITA organized a workshop for the 20 successful fellows that qualified for the research grant for \u201cEnhancing Capacity to Apply Research Evidence (CARE) in policy for youth engagement in agribusiness and rural economic activities in Africa,\u201d funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":16178,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[1686],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[32],"news-type":[],"hub":[61],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[196],"class_list":["post-16177","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ifadiita-careiita-news-no-2442","location-nigeria","hub-western-africa","item-year-196"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/16177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/16177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25758,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/16177\/revisions\/25758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16177"},{"taxonomy":"science-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/science-area?post=16177"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=16177"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=16177"},{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=16177"},{"taxonomy":"hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub?post=16177"},{"taxonomy":"crop","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/crop?post=16177"},{"taxonomy":"impact-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/impact-areas?post=16177"},{"taxonomy":"item-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/item-year?post=16177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}