The Youth Café is honored to be invited to participate in the FAO/AUC "Investment Guidelines for Youth in Agri-Food Systems in Africa" virtual workshop on July 13, 2021. As a youth-led and youth-serving organization pushing for youth inclusion in important decision-making processes, we look forward to learning from the incredible panel and provide our input to inform the final Investment Guidelines for Youth in Agri-food Systems in Africa document. In order to support this initiative further, four members including, Malika Pyarali, Maureen Amuhinda, Stacey Kamau and Patricia Mulunga of The Youth Café team will be volunteering as rapporteurs for the group discussions. During which time they will assist the moderator through the breakout sessions by taking detailed notes on discussions and recommendations, finalize the PowerPoint and present the groups key points at the end of the session. The targeted outcomes from this workshop are to increase knowledge of and interest in the guidelines, get suggestions to improve the content and format of the guidelines, and to get ideas on how to best utilize and promote the guidelines.

Through multi-stakeholder engagements and in-depth country case studies, a draft Investment Guidelines for Youth in Agri-Food Systems in Africa has been produced by FAO in partnership with the AUC. The goal of this handbook is to serve as a resource for governmental and private sector partners, including financial institutions, civil society actors, youth-led organizations, and enterprises across the region, who want to encourage more investment in job creation and agricultural growth in rural areas of Africa. On this note, FAO and the AUC are co-organizing a virtual technical validation workshop aimed at providing a platform for participants to share views and provide final recommendations towards the finalization of the Investment Guidelines for Youth in Agri-food Systems in Africa document . It will also give participants the chance to examine effective, realistic, and novel entrance points for the Guidelines, as well as possible approaches to using the tool in various African nations to boost youth engagement in agri-food systems.

As highlighted in our three-year strategic plan, The Youth Café seeks to build a world on the collective principles of solidarity, justice, equity, universality, inclusion, human rights, diversity, and the integrity of the planet. We believe that actively participating in events such as these is an important contributing step towards achieving this goal.