FAO supports rural youthwith alternatives to migration in a number of countries through fostering decent rural employment in sustainable agriculture and agribusiness along value chains.

For instance, in Senegal, the FAO fostered productive investments to create decent farm and non-farm jobs for rural youth in migration-prone areas. This project promoted productive investments in agricultural and rural development in migration-prone areas through the engagement of returnees and diaspora. The project had a strong focus on improving the evidence base to harness the potential of migration for rural development, and on capacity development for national and regional stakeholders.

In 2017, FAO organized four regional consultations, covering the whole of Senegal, where governmental partners, service providers for migrants, financial institutions and civil society groups identified constraints for returnees and diaspora to invest productively in their areas of origin, and developed a roadmap to overcome these challenges. In 2018, a peer-learning/capacity development workshop was organized for technical service providers that support migrants; it focused on providing support to returnees and diaspora to set up businesses in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. At national level, a consultation process was put in place to bring together a wide range of stakeholders with the aim of improving policy coherence between migration and agricultural and rural development.

In El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, FAO partnered with the National Governments of these countries, and with  ECLAC to convene the main experts of the region and the main international and national organizations working on the issue to establish an alliance on migration. Understood as a public regional good, the alliance is available to support the governments in the development of strategies and public policies oriented to the revitalization of rural territories, and the creation of opportunities and alternatives to migration. Through the alliance, some knowledge products are being prepared that place emphasis on the link between migration and territorial rural development.