Agrifood Business Specialist

FAO BTN organization mission TBD

Bhutan faces a critical youth employment challenge, with youth accounting for 42.2 percent of all unemployed persons actively seeking work in the fourth quarter of 2025. Hence, youth unemployment is significantly higher than the national average and is increasingly driving outward migration, particularly among educated and skilled youth seeking better economic opportunities. This trend poses risks to Bhutan's long-term human capital development, rural vitality, and inclusive economic growth.

Agriculture continues to play a central role in Bhutan's economy, food security, and rural livelihoods. However, it is widely perceived by young people as an unattractive career pathway. Youth engagement in agriculture is largely characterized by small scale, low productivity, and informal activities focused on subsistence and primary production, with weak market linkages, limited value addition, and low, volatile incomes. These structural challenges reinforce agriculture's image as a high risk and low status livelihood, discouraging youth participation.

At the same time, the agrifood sector offers one of the strongest opportunities for domestic job creation given national priorities on food security, import substitution, climate resilience, and economic diversification. Government strategies envision a transition toward a commercial, high value, market oriented, and technology-enabled agrifood sector by 2035. Youth entrepreneurship is critical to achieving this transformation, serving as a catalyst for innovation, digitalization, and modernization across agrifood value chains.

Evidence suggests that many youth-led agribusinesses in Bhutan are necessity driven, survival oriented, and poorly integrated into value chains. These challenges underscore the need for targeted technical support, mentorship, and ecosystem linkages beyond start-up incubation.

FAO, in partnership with national stakeholders, has supported youth and women entrepreneurship through initiatives such as urban and peri-urban agriculture projects promoting digitalization, value addition, and market access. In parallel, the ongoing GEF-8
project in Eastern Bhutan, particularly under its Eco-Innovate component, is engaging youth in innovative production systems, value addition, and digital marketing.

To consolidate and scale these efforts, dedicated hands-on expertise is required to nurture youth-led agrifood enterprises into viable, market-integrated, and scalable businesses. In this context, support from the Government of Japan through the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) programme, deployed as a United Nations Volunteer (UNV) for Agrifood Youth Entrepreneurship Expert, would provide high value technical assistance aligned with JICA’s priorities on human resource development, youth empowerment, and sustainable economic growth.
To strengthen sustainable and scalable youth-led agrifood enterprises in Bhutan by enhancing entrepreneurial capacities, promoting technology and digital innovation, and facilitating structured integration into agrifood value chains, in alignment with national priorities and JICA’s commitment to inclusive and sustainable development.

Under the direct supervision of Assistant FAO Representative and overall supervision of the FAO Representative and in close coordination with national counterparts, the JOCV/UNV, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

• Support youth-led agrifood enterprises in developing business plans, managing basic business finances, assessing costs and potential benefits, and identifying opportunities for growth.
• Support youth-led enterprises in identifying and using appropriate technologies and practical digital tools for production, business management, and marketing.
• Support youth-led enterprises in improving their products, packaging and branding, and in connecting with potential markets and business partners.
• Document and share good practices, lessons learned, and success stories from supported youth-led enterprises.


Expected Outputs
• Youth-led enterprises receive business-development guidance and capacity-building support.
• Appropriate technologies and digital tools are introduced to participating enterprises.
• Participating enterprises receive support to improve products, marketing, and connections with potential markets.
• Good practices, lessons learned, and success stories are documented and shared.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to:
• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for in-stance in events that mark International Volunteer Day).
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country.
• Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers.
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.