Unemployment rates for youth are three times higher than for adults in all world regions, and a vast majority of unemployed youth are young women. Among people who do have jobs, youth have a higher incidence of working poverty and vulnerable employment than adults.

Youth also face serious barriers in accessing land, credit, and other productive assets for establishing their own livelihoods, and many young people lack the right to representation in workers’ unions or producers’ organizations.

At the same time, today’s young people are on the front lines of the transformation of agriculture and food systems. They are coping with the effects of environmental and climate change, which are likely to accelerate and intensify during their lifetimes.

These problems have been exacerbated by the social and economic impacts of COVID-19, which has put lives, jobs, and livelihoods at risk and is having serious effects on both food supplies and demand worldwide.

Already prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, young people were growing up in a world not on track to achieve the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to food security, a world where a third of the population is affected by at least one form of malnutrition.

Global inequalities persist and grow, and there is increasing concern over the crisis of youth employment within and beyond agriculture and food systems, henceforth referred to simply as “food systems”.

This fragility presents profound consequences for the realization of the human right to food, employment, a healthy environment, and overall well-being, not only for youth but for all generations.

In October 2019, at its 46th session, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) to prepare a report to review the opportunities for and constraints to youth engagement and employment in sustainable food systems.

This report articulates a conceptual framework to understand the role of youth as agents of change in the transformation of food systems. The report analyses policy themes, such as employment, resources, knowledge, and innovations, to articulate recommendations to enhance youth’s role in food systems and contribute to meeting SDG 2 targets and the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The report assesses the opportunities and challenges for youth engagement and employment in food systems to be part of an urgent re-adjustment of social and economic life towards an economy of well-being.

This approach envisions re-balancing relations between humans and living nature — especially in the face of climate and health crises — towards upholding the right to food, dignified and rewarding livelihoods, and relationships based on cooperation and solidarity.

The goal of “living well” requires a holistic perspective, challenging business-as-usual approaches to economic growth and acknowledging that youth transitions and their engagement in food systems are shaped by the intersections of multiple factors and structural constraints.