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Youth engagement in food system transformation

 

“Leaving no one behind should be an action to be sustained, rather than a mere catchphrase.” Youth perspective in policy making is considered the top priority according to the most recent Lancet Report stressing five key recommendations for policymakers to harness the potential of 1.8 billion young people around the world, a generation of young people larger than has ever existed before. 

Youth are truly a powerful constituency to catalyse widespread change! 


 

 

The IFSS portal community is listening to youth and believes that driving change will only occur if the next generation is at the decision making table.

In September of 2021, the portal's Youth Engagement Network was launched, along with partners at NutritionConnect.org and the youth led initiative Act4Food/Act4Change. We welcome youth and youth advocates and allies to join in and help support and engage youth in meaningful ways to strengthen networks, share knowledge in a co-learning approach, and build skills to lead their generation in food system transformation for healthier diets on a healthy planet in more equitable ways. 

*watch the full Youth Engagement Network orientation session HERE
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Act4Food/Act4Change community

Act4Food Act4Change is a global youth-led movement promising to ignite a campaign to combat hunger, improve health and heal the planet. The #Act4Food and #The Act4Change campaign takes the form of a simple pledge and list of actions. These actions bring together young people from around the world to focus on personal action and advocacy as a contribution to systemic change - urging all people to act boldly and promptly.

Take the Act4Change pledge!

World Food Forum movement

To mobilize action and identify solutions to address these threats, the World Food Forum (WFF) – a youth-led movement and network - was launched to transform food systems to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular “zero hunger”. The FAO Youth sponsored work focues on engaging and supporting youth to drive awareness, foster engagement, and mobilized youth-led action in support of agrifood systems transformation.

Become a volunteer!

Youth At the Table Conversations

Join into the Act4Food/Act4Change IG live conversations with youth advocates and leaders around the world to meet each other and strengthen your networks. Gain perspective and insights about relevant issues, get ideas for actions / research / collaborations / jobs, and learn about what common issues look like in food systems in different places and contexts.

Join the conversation!

Resources and tools for youth action

Nutrition Connect and the IFSS portal initiative have pulled together some resources to help youth and young people learn more about how they can get involved in shaping our food system, and how youth allies can support them in this work.

Explore resources!

Student blogs on youth in food systems

Hear from students about how to harness the enthusiasm, creativity, and idealism of young people as an important lever to making transformative change in the way public and private sectors conduct business across the food system. Read about the power of youth to start making change themselves, and help amplify their voices and actions to maximise impact.

Read the student blog series

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Youth have a tenacity for life that pushes them to rally around the possibility of a better, more just tomorrow. Young people understand that to make tomorrow fair, we must stand up and fight today through strong advocacy and activism. We consider and strategise ways to fix what is broken.

Maggie Hamilton, Cornell University student
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[The IFSS portal] is an incredible opportunity to get additional resources and support to empower us as youth to move forward and spearhead taking actions around these food systems solutions with skills and knowledge to guide us. This has been a great collaboration and responds to what we’ve been asking for -- resources and support to allow us to move forward as a youth-led movement, working in collaboration and partnerships to make real change.

Dara Karakolis, Global Youth Coordinator for Act4Food Act4Change & The Food Foundation
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We, as youth, don’t any longer have to watch from the sidelines wondering, “when and how can we get involved?” We can get involved in these solutions right now using really empowering sets of tools - like those here on the IFSS portal - and take actions in our own communities . There are no wrong answers, it’s just time to jump in, take action and join together.

Oliver Camp, ​​Senior Associate (Innovations), GAIN
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Across LMICs, access to finance is a consistent challenge faced by SMEs and especially for youth entrepreneurs as they enter into this space. The IFSS portal provides a unique platform where investors and support providers can learn about promising solutions being launched around the world and help to build scale-up for real impact in food system solutions.

Uduak Igbeka, Scaling Up Nutrition: Business Network (SUN Business Network)