Integration and Resilience of Youth Entrepreneurship Initiatives for Sustainable Food Systems (IRIS)

Background

Benin faces a two-pronged challenge: providing viable economic opportunities for its rapidly growing youth population and supporting the necessary transition to sustainable food systems.

These challenges are particularly acute in the departments of Atacora and Borgou, in the north of the country. These rural areas, marked by poverty, youth underemployment, and repeated climate shocks, are seeing their agricultural systems weakened. Borgou, considered the country’s breadbasket, is experiencing severe soil degradation and growing pressure on natural resources. Atacora, which is more landlocked and mountainous, suffers from its isolation and limited access to markets. In these regions bordering Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria, growing insecurity exacerbates precarious living conditions and exposes vulnerable young people to the risk of marginalization or recruitment by armed groups.

In addition, there is a whole range of structural barriers that further limit women’s access to productive resources and education, or restrict their ability to engage in entrepreneurial initiatives.

Thus, the central challenge is to create a supportive and secure entrepreneurial environment that enables young people—and women in particular—to establish themselves long-term in promising green sectors, while contributing to food security, environmental sustainability, and the social resilience of local communities.