The Youth Café Attends The UNFSS Independent Dialogue: African Youth As Drivers For Decent Job Creation In Sustainable Food Systems
According to the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, ‘Agriculture is currently the biggest employer in most African countries, and the sector has the potential to create more decent jobs for youth, both as entrepreneurs and wageworkers, on and off farm.’ For this to happen, the right mix of policies and investments by the private and public sectors as well as donors can play an important role to support agricultural and local value chain development that creates farm and non-farm employment for youth while achieving food security.
Recently, The Youth Cafés team attended an event that was organized by the Thematic Working Group on Rural Youth Employment (TWG RYE) of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development (GDPRD) and held on Wednesday, 30th June 2021 14:00-16:00 CET
The Youth Café was glad to be part of this event because one of its key thematic areas focuses on ‘Environmental Preservation and Climate Change’, where the focus is on increasing climate change literacy programs, advocacy for the creation of more green jobs, and creation of a collaborative platform where young people can actively engage and participate in finding solutions to the environmental challenges such as increased investment in the blue economy.
With decent work deficits particularly severe for youth in rural areas, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become vital to equip young people with necessary skills and resources crucial for them to leverage economic opportunities and realize their potential as agents of change. The inclusion of young people in food systems transformation and productive activities is key to introduce greener and more sustainable practices into agri-food systems, foster the just transition and vitality of rural areas, and ultimately unlock the significant untapped potential of this sizable and growing demographic.
Additionally, a coalition for youth in African agriculture will convene youth-led and youth-serving networks, associations and organizations, coordinate youth action, eliminate fragmentation, build skills in the sector, amplify youth efforts, and accelerate their work on the continent.
The goal of the Independent Dialogue to the UNFSS was to raise awareness of issues affecting rural youth and to elicit input on Game Changing ideas on creating quality jobs for rural youth in food systems. The independent debate gave African youth, funders, development practitioners, and governmental and business sector officials the chance to discuss their ideas for addressing specific concerns, as well as sharing best practice experiences. The recommendations gathered were intended to be directly fed into UNFSS debates as well as the ongoing development and cross-fertilization of youth-centered Game Changer ideas submitted to the UNFSS.
The welcome and introduction session was conducted by Peter Wobst from FAO who introduced the background on Rural Youth Employment, insisting that the future of agriculture and rural development was highly dependent on the young generation. Frank Bertelmann from GIZ presented the Context of Dialogue. Keynote Statements were from Youth representative (Network for Youth Development Malawi), Dr. Janet Edeme from African Union Commission and Michelle Nun from CARE USA, UNFSS chairperson AT 4.
The main concerns revolved around the fact that youth account for one out of every six people worldwide. Globally, millions of young people are bound to engage in agriculture. These young women and men will shape the future of agriculture and rural development. Thus, addressing inclusive rural transformation entails bringing rural youth on board, empowering them to speak for themselves with their experiences and ideas, and creating the means for them to connect, share and develop solutions for the challenges they face.
At The Youth Café, we believe that including youth in social dialogue mechanisms and decision-making processes will allow them to participate effectively in the discussion on how enabling conditions for the promotion of decent work and quality employment in rural areas can be improved. It is important to promote active youth participation in relevant policy processes and the international discourse, notably the UN Food System Summit(UNFSS) that could contribute to advancing sustainable livelihoods and food systems.
The Youth Café has over the years given visibility to youth champions leading change in the sector who have proven inspiring for fellow youth and the older generations alike. Young women, as well as other vulnerable youth groups such as indigenous youth, young migrants and youth with disabilities, need specific attention and targeted solutions to unlock their potential. Supporting a conducive environment and boosting youth agency to actively participate in food systems and their governance mechanisms (policy formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation) is of central importance and demands mainstreaming of youth as a cross cutting priority.
The youth centered Game Changer solutions submitted to the UNFSS included; Empowering youth as innovators and change makers for sustainable food systems(FAO)and the Launch of a Coalition for youth in African Agriculture(Nourishing Africa).
After a round of opening statements, participants joined breakout group sessions to exchange their experiences, gather best practice examples and concrete recommendations as input to the presented Game Changers. Each breakout group focused on different perspective questions: How to boost youth agency to actively participate and coordinate action in food systems and their governance mechanisms through partnerships & networks?; How to strengthen youth capacities and skills for inclusion in food systems development and productive activities (wage or self-employment, in and off farm)?; How to unpack the opportunities and constraints for youth in local food system models to take off and respond to local and regional food demands?; and lastly, How to connect youth with opportunities in sustainable food systems by promoting more and better jobs?.
The wrap up based on the discussions, focused on empowering youth through training, mentorship, dedicated services and incentives to enable them to innovate and introduce greener and more sustainable practices into the agri-food system.
The call to action was directed towards making agri-food systems and rural areas attractive to youth by supporting governments to enable a youth-sensitive structural transformation of the sector that makes it more remunerative and youth friendly, and by facilitating the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and resources, such as land; promoting agricultural and rural livelihoods in school curricula; giving visibility to youth champions in the sector for peer-to-peer learning and attitudinal change towards engagement in agriculture while strengthening rural youth capacities for innovation in food and agriculture, by equipping them with the skills needed to uptake new and innovative technologies, greener practices, and spearhead the digital transformation.
The Youth Café works with young men and women around Africa as a trailblazer in advancing youth-led approaches toward achieving sustainable development, social equity, innovative solutions, community resilience, and transformative change.
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