Global Youth Forum Opening Ceremony

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Welcome, everyone, to the opening of the 2026 World Food Forum Global Youth Forum. It's great to see this room bringing together young people, leaders, partners, and communities from around the world. I'm Yisa Kellher, and I'm joined by Ray Fung Shu, Isabella Kankawana, and Danola Oladapu, and we'll be your hosts this morning.

The opening is about one big idea generational renewal in 90 food systems not simply one generation replacing another but making sure each generation has the knowledge opportunities voice and support to shape the agri-food systems it inherits.

Yeah and you the young people in the room you're already doing that you're building businesses you're generating knowledge you're protecting food cultures you're developing solutions and you're leading change in your communities. The question is how we build the conditions for that leadership to actually grow and last.

And that is what we will explore this morning through three connected ideas, capabilities, agency, and systems.

Capabilities, the knowledge, skills, identity, and foresight that prepare the next generation. Agency, the opportunity to turn ideas into action, participate in decisions and lead change. And systems, the institutions, partnerships and networks that make youth action possible at scale.

Together, they help us move from talking about youth as a future to working with young people as partners in transformation today. And with that, it's our honor to welcome the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Teodong Yu, to officially open the Global Youth Forum. Director General, the floor is yours.

Thank you for putting me a little bit higher, first time after seven years. You see, the young people also learning not that fast. Dear honourable guests, dear young colleagues and friends, welcome to the 2026 Global Youth Forum. Welcome to all the young friends, including young at heart, who have joined us today, both in person and online. I just come from the Indigenous Hub together with the Honorable Vice President of Ecuador. I highly appreciate her. Within five months, she paid her second visit to FDU. I think she made a historical record, and she is young, of course. I said to her, "It's your future." It might be partly my future because we are running out, fading out. As always, all the young at heart friends, we're learning from you, interacting from you, and also we are growing together. We need to grow, even young at heart people. Don't create your gap, far distance from younger generation, and then you start to complain younger generation. That's all the mistake, young and hard people, you should remind yourself and avoid. Even with your kids, with your relatives, with your students. Sometimes you complain them, but most likely, you made a mistake because you are not on the right side of the history. And young people, most kids, they are on the right of the history. This forum has a special meaning for me. When I started the Youth Committee, I wanted young colleagues to have a real voice, real responsibility, real opportunity to shape our organization. And also, I especially recognize the first time UN Secretary-General nominated youth representatives at the SG level. Also, he joined us today. Would you stand up? You're on behalf of the Secretary General. We change the business from the youth, lead by youth and for youth. Because without the FA Youth Committee, 2019, I remember 9th of September. And then we established the October 15th FA Women's Committee because October 15th is the International Day of the Rural Woman. People only celebrate the day October 16th, but rarely celebrate the International Women's Day or Rural Women's Day. So I specifically established the FA Women's Committee on that day. It's a marked history day. So that ambitious gave rise to the World Food Forum, initiated by my ideas. But who is it implemented? It's implemented by youth committee first, led by chair, chairman, of course. Maybe one day, chairwoman. Chairman is still-- I didn't see him, Maximo Torero. He is somehow we call the CEO for this forum, but I never nominated him because if we nominate him, I had to pay him another salary. It's his volunteer job, right? Also, women's committee chair is here, is here. So it's volunteer. I don't give the title, you know. And the youth people took that idea and make it their own leading to the Global Youth Forum. A forum that over the past seven years has grown into a global platform, connecting young people across the continent, country, region and sectors. From the beginning, young people have not simply participated in the World Food Forum, they have owned the movement. From the headquarters to the country offices, from the divisions to the technical bodies, from the government officials to the non-government organizations, and from the castle to the civil society. That's the power from the youth, because they are open, they are simple, relatively, not as experienced as some senior people, but it's very good for leading the change. And because the choice of investment This year, we already choose that it's innovate today, nurture tomorrow. Again, who is going to benefit tomorrow? It's you. You have brought ideas, energy, innovation, and most importantly, concrete action that made this movement what it is today. I'm so delighted to join you, not only speak on behalf of you, and also to celebrate together with you, because your success ensure our senior generation, young at heart, will be more vivid, more vigorous in the future. The innovation, not only about technology, it's about people, about the new ideas, new partnership, and new generations bring their knowledge, creativity, leadership to the challenges we face. Our agroforestry systems are changing rapidly, and if they are to remain efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable, they need to innovate and renew. Every generation must build on what has come before, bring new knowledge, skill, idea and leadership. That is a generation renewable. You are the producers, entrepreneurs, scientists, innovators, educators, consumers, community leaders, decision-makers of the next generation. And you are already shaping the transformation of our agri-food systems. But talent, ideas, and ambition alone are not enough. We must create the conditions that allow young people to enter agri-food systems, contribute to them, and lead their transformation. This means access to knowledge, skill, finance and technology, opportunity and the resources to innovate and become entrepreneurs. Service-oriented providers. Any of us is a service provider, like myself. As a service provider to youth, to young at heart, to all the partners, to all the members. If didn't change, you thought you are DG, you are big boss, no, you transitioned, yes. But now I consider myself is a service provider. Any in the digital world, anyone you can contribute a little bit of service to this society, make this world more beautiful, more bright. That means access to knowledge and skills, finance, technology is so important to have a meaningful voice in the decision that affects them. For young women in particular, this means more than just having a seat at the table. It means being able to influence the decision, shape the priority and lead the change. We know that transforming food systems requires investment in infrastructure, but it also means investing in the people who will carry that transformation forward, because we cannot ask young people to transform agriculture without creating conditions that enable them to do so. That's why there are so many lip service of the necessary conditions. Trust you, let you do it. And you learn it by yourself. You learn it by practice, not learning by talking. Learning by talking is the first step. You should end up with a result and deliverable. Otherwise, your learning is not complete. A lot of people have no experience, but they have so much knowledge because they are theoretical professor. Professor knows a lot of things, but they didn't have time to practice. But the FO staff, in general, we need a lot of doers. with the professionals. That's the nature of FAO and that's the career of FAO staff, especially professional staff. Young people, including young women, are already innovating, building business, advanced science and technology, leading communities and contributing to the decisions that are shaping our agriculture system. And through our World Food Forum Youth Initiative, we are putting this commitment into action. That's why the FAO and our members established the Office of Youth and Women. It takes a little time, but it's your decision. First in the UN system, we have regular budget support, the Office of Youth and Women, seven PWD posts. It's a little bit of fighting, process, but we win. because we are on the right of the history side. Yeah? Now they look around, why is so dynamic? Because not only because of the, we have the staff office of youth and women, because of empower youth and women who are younger than 50 years old. And also we trust our young at heart people, make most of you, 90% or 95% people are work happily here to deliver and best and professional, best and if a mandate. not only based on a command or instruction from the manager, senior managers. We must ensure that we can do more and better. We must remove the barriers, expand the access to the knowledge, secure finance opportunity. And we must build a stronger connection between youth, people, and also institutions, and network, and the partnerships that can help realize their ideas and solutions at scale. You can try small scales, but it should upgrade scale. We call on the government and all our partners to work with young people with sustainable commitment. Global action started at the local level. Transformation cannot happen only here in Rome. It must happen in the country and the communities, in school, in university, in academy, in farmer, in fishery, in rangeland, in laboratory, in business, in the international forum, and institutions where decision-making or consultation. Not only decision-making, and also consultation. You should involve. You are here, you will be there. That's a proverb I learned from English. Someone didn't come, that's your loss. Because you are not here, after three times you lost what we discussed during past three times. I know a lot of people say, oh, I come, I don't want, even so close to their room, they didn't come. That's your loss. It's not my loss. A lot of politicians, they far away keep this from the society because they didn't engage them. They didn't have the dialogue with the young people. After three years, three times, you lost it, you didn't realize it unconsciously. That's the reality. More you come, more benefit, more learn, more influence from you, interaction. We are human beings. Human beings, there are two natures. One is biology nature, one is economic social nature. That's the makes human being different from intelligent animals. That is why I'm so pleased that this year the network of the World Food Forum National Youth Chapter has expanded to over 100 chapters. There's been more than 100 members that have the National Chapter on Youth. I know all the politicians, they will take credit to support the youth. I have no money, but I have an idea. I have a global movement. Now, the more and more politicians support this National Youth Chapter. That's a good outcome, what I designed and aimed. Bring this global movement closer to the young people and the community around the world. This chapter is to connect global ambitions with local actions. This is how we move beyond the individual event and project towards sustained action and continuous generation renewal. Dear young friends and young at heart, Friend, the World Food Forum belongs to you. You have been driving it from the beginning, and now I ask you to take it further. Continue to connect, learn from, and challenge each other. Build new partnerships, turn dialogue into action, and ideas into solutions. FAO will continue to stand with you, because we firmly believe that investing in young people is an investment in the future of our agrofood system. Invest today, nourish tomorrow. Invest in young people, we have a brighter future together. Thank you.

Thank you, Director-General, for opening this year's Global Youth Forum. Do you want to give the Director-General another round of applause, everyone? So before we look ahead, let us look at how youth action has grown across countries, communities and regions, and how it is contributing to generational renewal in agri-food systems. For this, we've prepared a short video, so let's take a look.

Transforming agri-food systems requires a new generation of ideas, leadership and action. Across countries, communities and sectors, young people are innovating, building businesses, generating knowledge, leading in their communities, and developing solutions. But their action alone is not enough. Lasting change requires enabling infrastructure and systems for young people to contribute and lead. Knowledge and skills, pathways to livelihoods and entrepreneurship, a voice in decision making. networks, partnerships and investment, and institutions that recognize them as partners. This is youth infrastructure. For six years, the World Food Forum has worked to build and strengthen it, growing into a year-round global platform for youth action. In 2026 alone, It reached a new scale. More than 1 million people reached, 32,000 directly engaged in learning, dialogue, solution development and action across 176 countries. More than 100 national youth chapters turning global connections into country and community action. And World Food Forum platforms connected more than 230,000 people, exchanging knowledge, forging partnerships, and opening new pathways for collaboration. Together, these results show a global network taking root, a network that enables young people to participate, contribute, and lead. This is generational renewal. Not simply replacing one generation with another, but ensuring that each generation has the capabilities, agency and systems it needs to move our food systems forward and create opportunities for those who come next. Because investing in young people is not only an investment in the future, It is an investment in transforming our food systems today.

As we've just seen, Youth Action is growing across countries, regions, creating new opportunities for young people like you to contribute to a generational renewal in our food systems. as much of that action comes to life at Localedo. This year, we are proud to welcome more than 35 new World Food Forum national chapters. further expanding a global network where young people can connect, organize, drive action in their own countries and communities. To mark this moment, please join us in welcoming Mr. Kazuki Gitaoka, Director of FAO Office of Youth and Women.

Thank you so much, Isabella. And I'm going to use the lectern. because we have just seen some of the major results that were achieved over the past years in terms of aggregate numbers. But it's my pleasure that for the first time we are actually putting all of these numbers together and give it much more meaning. So for the first time, and perhaps we can see that also on the screen in a second, we can actually see how FAO's engagement with young people around the world is developing and what we have been actually achieving in one place on the FAO website. This is, I think, is going to be put on tomorrow or the day after. So this dashboard of the Office of Youth and Women brings together all the programmes, national youth chapters, networks, policy work and engagement activities that gives us a shared picture who we are engaging, where we are engaging and through what initiatives we are actually doing that. So everything you see here is drawn from our Office of Youth and Women knowledge management and monitoring system and it brings together a cumulative record of all of the activities that are happening in country, by youth, for youth. And you see there are a lot of details. I'm not going to go into any of these major details, but on top you see the cumulative numbers. But of course you can go much deeper. You can go really activity by activity. You can see what is being done, how many people have been engaged, where it exactly happened, which partners were part of it. And with that, we hope to really clarify a lot what we are doing around the world in the Office of Youth and Women. And with that, I'm coming to the much more exciting part, which is the new national youth chapters, the 35 that the Director-General just announced, that have been created this year and are launching now here in this plenary hall. And for the first, we will go region by region. For the first region, I would like to invite the Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean here on stage, Renee Herrera Harker. Welcome. Renee, what's your message for the youth in your region?

I'm going to speak Spanish. I'd like to greet all the young people, young men, women, all of you, and I'd like to invite you to get actively involved in the supply chain of agriculture. Young people have the leadership, they have creativity, they have the imagination, and they have a daring attitude to develop businesses, and today that is the challenge before us.

Youth who is present here to invite you to continue with this courage of guiding and leading as entrepreneurs you are and investing with the support of our public sector as well as the private sector to strengthen the value chain of agriculture, food and nutrition. This is your opportunity and you are guiding us for the good future we expect to have. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Renee. And now we are coming and please, we will have certificates. We will start with the roll call of the new chapters from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Brazil.

Welcome, Brazil.

Jamaica.

Jamaica.

Mexico.

Mexico.

Trinidad and Tobago.

Trinidad and Tobago. And with that, I also invite all the other chapters already established in the region to join us on stage and take a photo with the assistant director Jeff, regional director. And next up is the Africa region, and it's my great pleasure to invite Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for Africa, Abebe Haile Gabriel, here on stage. And I hear Abel, you have a lot of fans already. What is your message to the youth?

Good morning. It's a great pleasure to join this launch of the new World Food Forum National Youth Chapters. and to warmly congratulate the young women and men who are joining this growing movement across Africa and beyond. Today, we celebrate a stronger youth-driven platform for transforming agri-food systems. At FAO in Africa, we have made a commitment not simply to speak about youth, but to create space for youth leadership and meaningful engagement. We are living up to that commitment. During the 34th FAO Regional Conference for Africa, for the first time, young people from across the continent participated in a structured consultation process that helped inform ministerial discussions and regional priorities. We are continuing this approach through initiatives such as the Africa Forum on Harnessing Science and Innovation for Agri-Food Systems Transformation that will take place in a couple of weeks from now in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where youth voices are helping shape the future of Africa's agri-food systems. We are also taking bold steps to support young people as entrepreneurs, innovators and job creators. Through our growing network of national youth chapters, capacity building initiatives, and partnerships across the continent, we are helping young agripreneurs access knowledge, leadership opportunities, and platforms for action. But let's be clear, this is only the beginning. The real measure of success will be our ability to sustain this momentum, scale investment, and ensure that young people are not just beneficiaries of change, but architects of Africa's agri-food systems transformation. To all our new youth chapters, congratulations. We look forward to walking this journey with you and learning from your leadership.

Thank you.

And now we are coming to the chapter launched this year in the Africa region.

Benin.

Benin. Welcome, bienvenue.

Botswana.

Botswana.

Burundi.

Burundi.

Comoros.

Comoros. Welcome.

Democratic Republic of the Congo.

DRC, welcome.

Eswatini.

Eswatini.

The bond.

The bond. PMV. Lesotho.

Namibia.

Namibia.

Nigeria.

In Nigeria.

South Tommy and Principe.

South Tommy and Principe. Welcome.

Senegal.

Senegal.

Togo.

And Togo. And now I invite all of the existing African chapters as well. Please join us on stage together with the Assistant Director General. And please squeeze in the middle because there are so many and to take a photo with all of us. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, baby. And now we are coming to the Asia and Pacific region. And for that, I invite Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, Alois Duhong, here on stage. There's a bit of traffic jam. Okay, once more and applause for Alois. Thank you. And what is your message to the youth?

All right, good morning, everyone. Good morning. Please, raise your voice, young people. Good morning. Good morning. All right, thank you. So first of all, it is my great pleasure to be standing in front of all of you here. So across Asia and the Pacific region, young people play a vital role to transforming our agricultural system to become more resilient, more inclusive, and sustainable. It is essential that we empower young people. amplify their voices and provide them with meaningful opportunities to lead and to shape this transformation. In this spirit, it is my great pleasure to warm welcome the new World Food Forum National Chapter established across Asia and the Pacific region. FAO's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific It is committed to strengthen its support to national youth chapters. We are working closely with FAO country offices to expand opportunities for youth-led initiatives, build partnerships, and ensure that young people have a stronger voice in policy dialogue and decision-making. As a concrete step towards this commitment, I have invited representatives of the national youth chapters to participate as an observer in the 38th Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific. providing an important opportunity to bring youth perspective into regional policy discussions. So again, I warmly congratulate all the new national chapters on this important milestone. I look forward to seeing your ideas, energy, and leadership translate into meaningful action, creating new opportunities for young people to shape the future of a global system in their countries and across Asia and the Pacific. I thank you.

And with that, we are coming to the launch of the new chapters in the Asia and the Pacific region.

Malaysia.

First up, Malaysia. Welcome.

Mongolia.

Mongolia.

Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea. Welcome.

Singapore.

Singapore.

Solomon Islands.

Solomon Islands.

Timor Leste.

Timor Leste.

Tonga.

Tonga.

Vanuatu.

Vanuatu. And of course, I also invite all the established chapters from Asia Pacific also to join us on stage for a group photo with the Assistant Director General. Please join us here. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you so much. And now next up, We move to the Europe and Central Asia region and I invite Virel Guttu, Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia to join me here on stage. Virel, your message to the youth.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. I also feel on this stage much younger. Well, distinguished participants in this event, it's a great pleasure, great honor also to be here with you today. I'd like to address just a couple of words probably to the younger colleagues in this room. We definitely raise the level of youth in our organization very high. This year, for the first time, Youth voice was heard at the regional conference very, very, very loud. And we were very proud we managed to have them very present and very active in the regional conference for Europe and Central Asia. And today, I'd like to address these words to the young youth chapters. We wish you to be the ambassadors from the present into the future world, our ambassadors from present to tomorrow and to the futures. I'd like to wish you a lot of health, curiosity, passion, and as all ambassadors do, diplomatic immunity into the future. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mirel. And with that, we are coming to the launch of the new chapters in Europe and Central Asia.

Albania.

First up, Albania.

Greece.

Greece.

Serbia.

Serbia.

Tajikistan.

Tajikistan.

Ukraine.

And Ukraine. And of course, I also invite all the existing chapters in Europe and Central Asia to also join on stage for a photo with the Assistant Director General. Thank you, thank you all. And thank you, BRL. Selfie time, okay. Thank you all. And with that, we're coming to the next region, the Near East and North Africa region. And for that, I invite Assistant Director General and Regional Representative Hakim Alkher here on stage to welcome the new chapter in the region. Hakim, your message to the youth.

Well, thank you very much.

Let me say, "Salaam alaikum, sabah al-khair." Good morning, everyone.

Well, let me start by saying thank you for being here and maybe from something from my heart, we see what's happening in the region. The region is going through tremendous challenges and it's only the natural ones that we know, not only those, climate change, drought, water scarcity. increase of population, shortage of food, depending on imported food, but also protracted conflicts and wars, and expanding by the day. And this pushes where the engagement of youth to ensure our future, that have a better secured food.

Is not a privilege.

It's a must, and we really need to ensure that the future for the region and the future populations is well secured by the food engagement at this stage. I'm very grateful to all the youth in the region. We have a long journey with three countries started this kickoff of Egypt was on the lead together with Mauritania and Qatar, then followed by Jordan, Iraq, Libya, and other countries. And now we have Tunisia to recognize today, but we also working on very soon launching of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Algeria that are coming very soon. I had the privilege, Kazuki and colleagues, to launch the chapter in Egypt, which was built on something uniquely that FAO did called the FAO model. And it is following the same concept of the UN model, but it's focusing on food security with the young people in the universities. And they transformed themselves to be the chapter of Egypt, and they are the lead. And one unique thing that we do in the region, that these chapters, the well-established ones like one in Egypt and others, they provide extension for learning for the other new chapters from the other countries in the region. So we want to promote that as we go. And we thank you for this opportunity. We welcome them here, assure them for our continued support, and inshallah, together, we will make sure that we have a bright future.

Thank you.

Thank you, Hakeem. And with this, we are coming to the official announcement now of the new chapter in the Near East and North Africa region.

Tunisia.

It's Tunisia. Welcome. And as was said before, we are waiting for a number of other countries that are building at the moment in the region, but we have a lot of existing chapters and I invite all of the existing chapter leaders as well from the Near East and North Africa to join us here on stage for a photo with the Assistant Director General. Yeah, another round of applause. Thank you, thank you so much. And with that, we are coming to the last but not least, to the North America region. And it's my pleasure to invite Jocelyn Brown Hall, Director of the FAO Liaison Office for North America, here on stage and give your message to the young people in North America.

Good morning, everyone.

Bonjour.

We have the two official languages in North America region are French and English.

I'm Jocelyn Brownhall.

I'm the director of the North America LEAS and office. And it's an absolute pleasure and delight to be able to have these youth chapters in North America. One might wonder, why do we need youth chapters in Canada and the United States when these are two of the most productive agricultural systems in the world? Why do we need to have youth? Well, I'll say that all of the farms that I've visited in the last five years that I've been in this position, every single farmer that I've spoken to, from Alberta to Maine to Mississippi to California to Ontario to British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, all of them say, I don't know who is going to farm my farm next.

So, with the average age of.

Farmers in North America about 60 years old, it is that stark reality that we absolutely need youth in agriculture. I did not have the privilege of growing up on a farm. I had to learn everything about agriculture after my studies. So for those of you who are from North America.

Who are part of agriculture and part of our youth chapters now, you have a huge step up.

On me on that one.

It is a fascinating area.

Multicultural, multidimensional, and I urge you to.

Press people such as myself, the older generation, with new ideas, new energy, new ways of thinking. You should disrupt our system with new technologies and change the way we have our agri-food system in North America, around the world. Since it is also the International Year of the Woman Farmer, I want to do a special shout out to the women youth in our room. Because in case you didn't know it, male farmers, the women are really the drivers of the agri-food systems. With that, I welcome you to the World Food Forum and look forward to all of the energy and the ideas and the passion and the disruption that you are going to create this year and in the future. Thank you.

And with that, we are coming to the launch of some Canadian chapters, provincial chapters, and yeah, the video is going to play in a second. And here it is. Welcome.

Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia, Canada.

Quebec.

Quebec, Canada.

British Columbia.

British Columbia, Canada. And now I invite all the others that may still be in the audience from Ontario here on stage, which is really the Canada chapter. Thank you so much. And another round of applause for North America. And of course, all of this travel of so many people, so many young leaders would not have been possible without the financial support of the of the government of Ireland that actually supported the travel from the global south to the World Food Forum this year. And now it is a great pleasure for me to jointly announce something very exciting. It's the it's a new partnership. that has been fostering over the years. And this partnership is now really taking a lot of shape between the FAO Office of Youth and Women and the United Nations Youth Office. And for that, I invite the Assistant Secretary General for Youth Affairs, Philippe Paulier, to join me here on stage. And we will explain a little bit what we are trying to do. and how we are trying to forge this partnership around youth leadership, youth participation, and a better future in agri-food systems. Felipe, the floor is yours.

Hello, everyone.

It's really a great pleasure to be with you, and thank you, Kazuki. Thank you for your team's leadership under this very clear vision from the Director-General to really push to have a stronger youth infrastructure within FAO across agri-food systems, which is definitely one of the most critical choices and investments the global community and countries need to make for sustainability and for renewal. When we talk about youth, this is not a marginal agenda. When we look into the world, we are living in a very youthful world. 2.6 billion people have between 15 and 35 years old. And this is not simply a demographic. It's really a reservoir of ideas, of energy, and of talent. Young people across regions are scientists. They are working within agri-food systems. They are farmers, they are producers, and they are also entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, business entrepreneurs. And young people have proved themselves, have proved societies that they are changing the most critical challenges across regions and across realities. So really, the question for us for people like me, for people like you, Kazuki, that we work for this UN family, is really how we create and we continue to advance that infrastructure across the system that allows us to really make this renewal not just a will, but a reality. And this is what FAO has been doing for the past years. The World Food Forum has grown into a platform which I would say is an example for the whole of the UN system. And I wish that more parts of the UN family continue to lead by example like FAO has been doing. So really for us, as the mandated office within this big UN ecosystem, to have the possibility to strengthen our partnership with FAO, UN Youth Office on these three levels, which are really about advocacy, to continue to place young people at the center of agri-food system. which is about action and how we connect global agendas with the local realities through this infrastructure of national youth chapters, but also through the role of the broader UN system through resident coordinators across 132 UN country teams. And it's really also about accountability. It's really about how we continue to create, as you've done for FAO, this dashboard where we can see what is actually happening. So we can continue to really shape policies, so we can continue to influence how resources are allocated, and especially so we can continue to make our institutions accountable for the people they serve. So really, for me, as head of the UN Youth Office, it is a great pleasure to strengthen our collaboration, to take it to a second level, I would say. And to the young people in this World Food Forum, we had a chance to speak with some of you in a closer space on Saturday's morning. But I think the most important thing is that, please, Keep showing up as you do. Keep trusting in this UN global community and keep challenging us. We need that for institutions to be better because institutional and generational renewal will not simply happen because a generation arrives. It will happen when governments, when global institutions, we invest and when our institutions are really open to make participation to move from consultation into real influence. So thank you very much. Muchas gracias. And Kazuki, real pleasure.

Thank you so much, Felipe. And let's have a quick photo for history.

Yes, absolutely.

And with that, back to the moderators.

Thank you, Kazuki and Felipe, and to all the regional representatives. And congratulations once again to all our new national youth chapters. What we've just seen reflects two important dimensions of generational renewal, creating opportunities for young people to organize and act in their own countries and communities while building stronger partnerships and institutions to support and connect that action. Now we have the honor of welcoming Her Excellency Maria Jose Pinto, Vice President of the Republic of Ecuador, to share her reflections on the importance of investing in youth and continuous generational renewal in our food systems. Your Excellency, the floor is yours.

To all the leaders of the world, to the ministers of the different countries, and to all the young people present here today.

Privilege and an honor to be here with so many young people from around the world, united by a shared vision for the future. And I must say, as a woman, it makes me especially proud to see so many young women leading these movements, raising their voices and driving change in their communities across the world. You are not just leaders of tomorrow, you are already shaping the world today.

In a few years from today, many of you will be standing where I am today. You will be leading institutions, managing businesses, building public policies, and making decisions that will define the future of your countries. But there's something that I would like for you to remember. You mustn't wait to become leaders in order to start building the future, because the future is already in your hands. And one of the greatest opportunities that you have before you is to transform the way in which we produce our food, take care of our land, and guarantee that every child has the nutrition that they need in order to grow, learn, and develop their entire potential. I come from Ecuador. It's a small country when it comes to area, but it's extraordinary because of its biodiversity, its agricultural richness, its culture and traditions. And I'd like to share with you something I'm sure that many of you will recognize in your own countries. For generations, we grew up believing that the way to success was very clear. It was about going to university, getting a degree, building a professional career, and forging ahead. And yes, of course, education is crucial. It's fundamental. It opens doors. It broadens our horizons. And it provides us with tools to broaden our dreams and fulfill them. But when was it that we began to believe that building a better future meant leaving behind the countryside, the land, and our communities? Why can't a young person become an engineer, a business leader, a scientist, or a technology expert and at the same time build an extraordinary future in the community in which they grew up? I really believe that we need to recognize the true value of something we must never, ever underestimate: our land. the people that work that land, that knowledge that goes on and is passed on from generation to generation, the communities that for generations have protected their seeds, traditions, and their connection with nature. Because agriculture is a whole lot more than a mere economic activity. It's about having an identity, belonging, and having opportunities. And It is the future of our planet. And this future needs each and every one of you. It needs your creativity, your energy, your ideas, your ability to transform and especially to challenge the way in which things have always been done. I want more young people to discover an agricultural world of opportunities, a space to innovate, learn, use technologies, have access to international markets and generate prosperity, a space where they can continue staying connected to their roots, and where this is a source of pride and opportunity to build something extraordinary. Because the future of agriculture is filled with opportunities, and this future belongs to young people, to all of you. Let us think about the opportunities that we have today. Artificial intelligence, technology, scientific research, and global connectivity are opening doors that earlier generations couldn't even imagine or glimpse. And now imagine putting together all of these tools with the wisdom of those who have tilled the land for generations. Imagine what we can achieve, what you can achieve. because having strong roots doesn't mean staying in the same place the whole time. It means knowing where we come from while we decide where we want to go. In Ecuador, we deeply believe in the potential of our young people. Under the leadership of our President, Daniel Noboa, we are fostering initiatives like Agro Joven, Mi Primer Empleo with FAO, and the strengthening of technical education to connect young people with real opportunities in agriculture and other sectors of our economy. We want them to discover that their talents. We want them to develop their ideas and have the necessary tools to convert their dreams into reality. I also wish to link up this conversation with something that's very dear to my heart. When we speak of agriculture and food security, we generally speak of production, exports, investments, and international markets. And of course, this is all very important. But at the end of the day, at the end of the entire system, there are people, there is a family, there is a child. And this child represents the future of our communities, of our countries, and of the world in which we, or that we are all building together. In Ecuador, we have made the prevention and reduction of chronic child malnutrition a national priority because we know that the first years of life determine everything that comes later. A good nutrition provides children with the right foundations to grow, learn, and fully develop all of their capacities, and this is where everything connects and comes together. When a young person sees or finds opportunities in agriculture, when a rural community prospers, when we produce nutritional food and that food is on the table of our families, we're doing a lot more than simply strengthening a food system. We are investing in the potential of generations to come. We're building a future where agriculture generates opportunities, communities grow stronger, and the cultural identity of country is celebrated, and children, more children, can grow healthy and well-fed. That's why, for me, speaking of food security also means talking about early childhood, education, identity, and belonging. And you, young people, have an extraordinary opportunity to lead this transformation. Imagine a world in which a young person continues with pride the work of their grandparents, but using the tools of the 21st century, where rural communities become centers of innovation and opportunities, where ancestral knowledge and modern technology work together, where every child has the opportunity to learn, grow, and dream without any boundaries or limits. This is a future worth building, and you are the generation that can make this come true. That's why I'd like to go back to where I began. In a few years time, a lot of people here today, a lot of you, will be making decisions that today are being made by those of us who have the responsibility to lead. But the most exciting part about all this is that you already have the power to transform reality. And that's why you're here today. So When you go back to your countries, please bring back more than memories from this forum. Bring back ideas. Bring back partnerships. Connect with your communities. Listen to those who work the land. Feel proud of your roots. And especially, have the courage to convert these ideas into actions. And to those of us who have the responsibility of being leaders today, we also have the obligation to open doors, generate opportunities, and believe in everything that this generation can achieve. I dream of a world with strong roots, a world in which young people feel proud of their identity, where rural communities prosper, and where more children grow healthy and well-nourished. And I firmly believe that you can make this true. Because this entire potential already exists. It is in the land, it lies in the knowledge passed on from generation to generation, it lies in the technology that you have within your reach. And especially, it lies within each and every one of you.

Ready there. Own it. Unlock it. Make it grow. Because the future we all want to see, it's already in your hands. All the future starts today. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Your Excellency, for those powerful reflections. It's our honor to welcome Her Excellency, Madame Sita Oligui Nguema, First Lady of Gabon, to continue this conversation on investing in the next generation. Your Excellency, the floor is yours.

Representatives of international institutions, partners, and above all, dear young people from all the regions of the world. It's with great respect and a real sense of hope that I take the floor before you today. We come together to answer a question that affects every nation, every family, every generation. How will we feed the world of tomorrow? The theme that brings us together invites us to answer that question with ambition, innovate today, nourish tomorrow. But behind this ambition, another question needs to be asked. A simpler question, and perhaps an even more essential one. Who will feed tomorrow? Who will grow the crops? Who will transform? Who will be entrepreneurial? Who will invent new solutions? Who will take care of our land, of our resources, and our communities? A large part of the answer is here right in front of us today. It's in this room. It's in our youth. Ladies and gentlemen, we sometimes talk of youth as one population category amongst others, but the numbers force us to look at them differently. Today, around 1.2 billion people in the world are between 15 and 24 years of age. This is around 16% of humanity. By 2030, this number will be almost 1.3 billion. And this evolution will have a particular geographic characteristic. In Africa, in particular, the population of 15 to 24-year-olds could rise by more than 60% by 2050. These numbers are not just demographic, They talk about education, employment, innovation, stability, production, and transfer. Above all, they talk about millions of young women and men who will need to be able to find their place in the economies that we build today. Because such a large generation cannot be considered as an audience to talk at, They must become a force for production, innovation, and decision-making. We often talk of youth as the future, but the future is not built with promises. It's built with skills, opportunities, trust, and responsibilities. Young people are not a promise for tomorrow. They are a responsibility of today. And this responsibility belongs to all of us. It belongs to governments, to international institutions, to the world of science, to investors, to businesses, to communities, and to everyone who today can open a door to transfer knowledge, to finance an idea because we cannot ask a generation to build tomorrow without opening the door for them. We need to open that door for them. And for that, three things are essential. Training, because innovation requires funding and training. Financing, because a good idea without funding often remains an unrealized opportunity. And finally, trusting. Trusting young people to be entrepreneurs. Trusting young women to lead. Trusting a whole generation to take part in making the decisions that will determine their future. Training, financing, and trusting. These are not just three slogans, they are three conditions to transform this demographic potential into a human and economic force and strength. Young people, Nelson Mandela reminded us that sometimes a generation is called upon to be great. To this generation seated before us today, I'd like to say this. Your greatness will not be measured only by what you will invent. It will also be measured by what you make possible for others, by the capacity of an innovation to improve a life, by the capacity of a business to create an opportunity, by the capacity of a piece of knowledge to be transferred, by the capacity of a success story to open a door and a path forward. This is how a generation really transforms its era. And this is also how we need to look at agriculture. No longer simply as a sector where we need to look at the next generation, but a space for ambition, a space for knowledge, a space for innovation, for the creation of wealth, a space of dignity. In many regions of the world, land still feeds families. It needs to feed ambitions, your ambitions. No young person should consider agriculture as the only thing they can do when all other doors are closed. producing, transforming, distributing, inventing, these are the jobs of the future. This goes to knowledge and this is a way for empowerment. And this is particularly important for young women because when we give a young woman the tools access to funding, we don't only change her future, we change a family, a whole community, and we prepare a whole generation for the future. Ladies and gentlemen, the innovation we're talking about today should never just be looked at in abstract terms. We need to make sure that all of these innovations can improve lives. Investment needs to be really transformative in rural areas. Innovation is not just about what we invent, it's about what we make possible. So, in my opinion, those are the big responsibilities of our generation towards the new one. creating conditions, opening the way forward, transferring and investing. And we need to place trust in them to move forward. To those here today, I'd like to say this: don't wait for us to appoint you as the generation of tomorrow. You are already the generation who is acting today. Cultivate your ideas, develop your skills, dare to take the plunge, dare to serve. And when your time comes, when your turn comes to open a door for someone else, do that. Because we need to allow others to advance as well. And to those of us who have responsibilities, our duty is just as clear. We must not just leave a world to the youth. We must leave them with the power to be empowered and have an impact. This is how we prepare for the future. This is how we invest in the future generation. This is how we build more stable, dignified, and better prepared societies for the challenges that lie ahead. So, let's innovate today, let's feed tomorrow, but above all, let's not forget about those who will have the responsibility to transform this ambition into a reality. Innovate today, feed tomorrow means trusting those who will have tomorrow in their hands. Young people, the world of tomorrow will not be fed without you, it will not be built without you either. I thank you.

Thank you, Your Excellency, for those inspiring remarks. Okay, guys, we now have a very special performance to mark the opening of this year's Global Youth Forum. Please join us in welcoming the voice behind the 2026 World Food Forum anthem to perform it here for us today. We have... Thank you. We have a young singer-songwriter from the beautiful Puerto Rico, and he's going to bring the joy of the Caribbean directly here into our plenary. Please, ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome Kedron Alves to the stage.

Hey, Kedar, how are you?

Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. It's amazing to have you here. I am so excited for your performance. I am so incredibly humbled and grateful to be here. Amazing. Thank you so much. Do you have a few words you'd like to share with everyone before I hand over the stage?

Hello, everyone. Hello, World Food Forum.

My name is Kedar Aviles.

I come from the beautiful island in the Caribbean called Puerto Rico, and I am incredibly humbled and grateful to be standing here today as this World Food Forum Anthem Artist, hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. I never imagined that one day I would be standing here today, and it's incredibly an experience that I will never forget. I am proud to represent the youth of my island, Puerto Rico, and everyone who has ever dreamed of a brighter future. Music has always been my way of connecting with people, and having this extraordinary opportunity to use my voice to bring people together, to inspire others, and to encourage a positive change is something that I will carry with me forever for the rest of my life.

Thank you so much, muchas gracias.

Amazing, Cedric. Thank you so much. Thank you. Cedric, I'll let you take it away.

Are you singing with me?

No.

If you know the song, please sing with me.

Musica, maestro.

Hey.

Oh.

It starts when you try Bring down the walls and leave the past behind Innovate today, nourish tomorrow And you will witness the good days Where there will be no more sorrow We're gonna build a brighter day and come together. All generations planting seeds and watch them grow.

Youth will rise and lead the way for a better world.

We're gonna live a brighter day. With resilience we rise Stand strong and tall And let our voices unite Empower today Sustain tomorrow And build a world that we can follow tomorrow we're going to build a brighter day and come together all generations plant these seeds and watch them grow you will rise and lead the way.

We're gonna leave a brighter day For a better future Let it nurture And feed the future.

'Cause we're gonna build a brighter and come together. Four generations planted seeds and watched them grow. Youth will rise and lead the way for a better world. We're gonna leave a brighter day. We're gonna live a brand new day We're gonna live a brand new day Thank you so much. Muchas gracias.

Wow Well done, that was amazing. Wasn't that amazing?

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Cadward. I don't know how we're going to top this, but let's give him a huge round of applause. Thank you so much, Cadward. Thank you. Thank you. That was incredible. So now we're going to shift gears a bit. We're going to begin with the first of our three conversations on capabilities. We're preparing the next generation, right? Generational renewal starts with people being prepared to participate and to lead. This means skills, education, and of course, also identity, culture, knowledge, and the ability to anticipate change.

And we will look at the capabilities from three angles, food, culture, and belonging, intelligence and foresight, and learning and skills development. To explore these things, please join us in welcoming our panelists. Lilith Mahambelala, member of the World Food Forum Youth Chefs Program. Harry O. Crowley, Head of the International Development at the UN and SDG unit of the Department of the Agriculture, Food and Marine of the Ireland. Welcome on the stage. Ana Aviles, FAO Youth Policy Specialist. Welcome. Priscilla Ebeden, from Blue Africa and the WFF Educators Network. Welcome on the stage. And Daniel Foster, co-founder of the Global Teach Ag Network. Welcome on the stage. Let's give them a warm applause again.

Thank you. So let's begin with something deeply personal and universal. food. Lile, food is deeply connected to culture, to identity, to a sense of belonging. As a young chef, how can young people draw on food heritage and traditional knowledge while also reimagining them for the future?

Good day, everyone. My name is Lishema Mithala, and I am from South Africa. For me, food heritage is not only about recipes. It is about memory, identity, land, and the people who taught us how to eat. Growing up in South Africa, food knowledge around me was generally passed down informally, and this would be through our grandparents, our communities around, and neighbors. And this was knowing what grows where, which season, and how to prepare something nourishing but simple. And I think one of the biggest challenges we face today is young people are.

Becoming more disconnected from this food knowledge.

And I think when we lose that connection, we not only lose recipes, but we lose knowledge about our land, biodiversity, and our identity. And that is why I started a project called Ox Seeds, which is a culinary youth-led initiative where food becomes the entry point for conversation around nutrition, food choices, and culture. In South Africa, there are communities that are experiencing food insecurity, but there are traditional foods and indigenous.

People's foods that grow so well around us.

And they are so undervalued. And the question is not simply, how do you preserve these foods? But it is also, how do you make it accessible and desirable for the next generation? And I think one of the biggest assumptions we can make is thinking that young people don't care about these traditional foods. I just think they simply haven't been given the opportunity to explore these foods in a way that speaks to them. And after doing these workshops around my project, 80% of the participants reported cooking with.

These crops for the first time.

I think I want more young people like myself to leave the room feeling like these ingredients belong on my.

Plate, in my future, and therefore I have to protect it.

Yes.

Thank you. Thank you for your insight. So our roots matter, but so does our ability to look ahead. Agri-food systems are changing quickly, and preparing the next generation also means understanding what may be coming next. And next question, Harry. Arlan has been strong supporter for engaging youth meaningfully in agri-foods transformation. How can investing in youth, in their agency and in hearing their perspectives inform the decision of today and agrofood system in tomorrow?

Well, good morning, everybody. And it's a great pleasure to be here representing Ireland. This is the World Food Forum, particularly the Youth Forum has been a very important aspect of the World Food Forum for Ireland. And we have been a supporter and a funder of the Food Forum since its inception six years ago. And maybe I'd like to take you just a quick run through of how we've experienced this development. I suppose in the early days, it was a, when we talked about youth engagement, there was the single token young person in the room. and to tick a box. And can I just say, it's absolutely brilliant that I'm the single token old person in a room of all the, and it feels good. But later then it became a dedicated, we used to have a dedicated youth panel, but instead of integrating, they were an add-on. They were a youth panel for young people talking among themselves. I think we've moved on now where young people are being integrated more formally into the mainstream of panels. And that's good and we welcome that progress. But our experience tells us that the invitation to young people to participate is only the first step. The first Food Forum here was held online, so we'll just over that, I mean there wasn't anything, but since then, Ireland has supported 500 young people from 100 less developed countries to travel to and participate in the World Food Forum. And And that complements our own national delegation of six or seven young people that we've brought here every year, and we have again this year. And just to say, I think there's about 140 young people from around the world who are here today, and we're very proud that you have accepted our funds and our willingness and our invitation to come here today. But one of the things that we noticed was that the young people were always keen. They're absolutely keen and they absolutely have the skills to contribute. And what they have lacked is the means to travel, to take time off from school, from college, from work, or even to secure a place on a national delegation, which is very difficult at the best of times. So Inviting young people without giving them the means to accept the invitation changes very little, to be frank. And closing that gap is the responsibility of government. That's the bottom line. The governments have to acknowledge and stand up and pony up the money for young people to come, because otherwise we are going through the motions. So on specifically on your question, I would argue that young people often see change in agri-food systems before the rest of us do. They're, you guys, your aspirations, the barriers that you face, the careers that you choose to leave behind, tell us where the new risks and the new opportunities are emerging and well before then they actually show up in the data. Foresight tells us that knowledge, helps us use that knowledge to test whether the investments we make today in skills in land and finance and innovation will serve the generation that inherits these systems. And that requires government to hear from young people when the priorities are still being set. Ireland faces that challenge at home today. Fewer than 5% of our farmers are under 35 and almost four in 10 are over 65. We have substantial supports in place and our Commission of Generational Renewal in farming has made 31 recommendations which we are implementing. But I would like to make one practical suggestion to fellow member states. Our delegations to events like these are getting smaller as resources become limited and budgets tighten. And when places are being limited, it is inevitably the young people who are benched. They are the ones who are being asked to stay at home. We must resist that. Bringing young professionals to fora like this lets them see how multilateral institutions work and where their own expertise will make a difference. In the six World Food Forums that we have attended, young people have never once failed to turn up without an abundance of hope, of passion, and of ambition. The people who will feed the world in 2050 are young today and we owe them more than just an invitation. We owe them the means to take their place among the policymakers of today and to have a real say in the decisions that they will live long after older guys like me have retired into the background. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Henry, for your insight. And next question I would like to ask Anna. So based on this need and the importance of including youth voice in dialogue and decisions that shape aquifer system transformation, how are FAO and the Office of the Youth and Women addressing this challenge?

Thank you so much. And also thank you to Harry and Ireland for their longstanding support of the World Food Forum. As Harry was just speaking about the importance of bringing young people into these spaces where decisions are being made that help shape their future, that is actually something that we've been working on here at the Office of Youth and Women, trying to create a system that brings young people's voices into agri-food systems decision-making and that builds on the infrastructure that already exists within the World Food Forum Youth Initiative. such as the Youth Assembly, which is a structured youth-led mechanism that ensures the meaningful and sustained engagement of young people in agri-food systems policy and governance. In 2025 alone, more than 15,000 young people took part through surveys and consultations. Year after year, the same barriers and constraints kept coming up across regions and across teams being access to finance, skills, and trust in institutions. And that is exactly where something new here is coming up called the Agri-food Youth Pulse, and that's where it comes in, in a way to hear from young people regularly and directly on a wide range of topics about how they see agri-food systems and their own future in them. Each pulse will be short, with a handful of questions asked the same way every time. through platforms young people already use, like social media, such as Instagram and Facebook, with no app to download. That will let us see how their views will be able to change over time.

Thank you so much. As Harry and Anna just explained, there are opportunities out there, but you know, these opportunities can only be useful if people actually have the capabilities to respond to these opportunities. So I come to you now, Priscilla and Daniel, I'll start with you, Priscilla. If we want young people to contribute to the transformation of agri-food systems, what actually needs to change in education and skills development to better prepare them for the opportunities and the challenges ahead?

Thank you. I think one area we need to focus more on is intergenerational and intragenerational translation. And what that means is how young people learn from older generation to and with other young people and how they can relate that knowledge back home. When we talk about renewed, renewable, agrifood systems, we are far too focused on intergeneration, which basically is how young people learn from older generation, but we tend to focus less on intrageneration, how young people learn from other young persons. For many young Africans in the room, we would agree with me that our first point of contact with an agri-food system is not in a classroom, it is at home. We learn from our grandparents, our parents, our family farm lands. We learn the names of crops, water system, rainfall patterns, and often in an indigenous or local language. But then formal education begins and that knowledge is given another language. We go to school and we experience it. It becomes the terminologies in schools become more technical. The language used, sometimes the examples as well, are geographically distant. Capacity building programs, which are designed for communities, are designed far away from home. Sometimes you ask youths, these youths are able to explain this concept from formal education very well in conference languages or policy tables, but they are unable to translate it back to a grandmother, a grandparent, or another youth back home. For me, Ultimately, I believe one of the things that needs to change is the cohesion between intergeneration and intragenerational knowledge translation and how my organization does that, Blua Africa, is through the Boat Fellowship. Boat Fellowship is a United Nations endorsed project that not only do we do capacity building programs, but we also do it in indigenous African languages. We ensure that our fellows go back home After they are trained, they contextualize whatever training it is we give them on ocean and fisheries. They contextualize, they implement in an indigenous African language. That way, we best believe that we are not only connecting academia, but we are connecting academia with digital entrepreneurial skills. We are connecting academia with what we inherit from home. And that, I believe, is one way that we are able to solve the problem. Thank.

Thank you so much, Priscilla. You're so right. We need to be able to translate what's happening here to the grassroots. So, Daniel, from your perspective, what needs to change? Oh, my gosh.

Didn't it just share brilliant? It's awesome. I am so honored to be on this stage with these individuals, wonderful reflections, and all the individuals in this room. It's truly an inspiration. But unfortunately, I guess there's a cold, hard dose of reality. The dose of reality is that we not only need 10x, but maybe even 100x of more of you, of more individuals to tackle these wicked challenges. And that challenge is not to prepare youth, as we talk about generational renewal, for the jobs today, but rather the challenges that will come tomorrow. So how do we build, sustain, and continually renew a pipeline of human ingenuity and innovation in agri-food systems? That's the wicked challenge. Now, the theory of change that the Global Teach Ag Network works with, with great partners like the education team in the Office of Youth and Women, as we build out spaces like the WFF GTAN community, the theory of change that we believe in is that the architects of this youth infrastructure that we're talking about, that the enabling environment required for that pipeline I just mentioned, that means we have to take care of the curators and the caretakers takers, I'm talking about teachers, that teachers matter, that teachers matter because they know communities, that local knowledge you just mentioned, the indigenous language, they know how these global issues that we're kicking can actually play out in the real community. Students, teachers matter because they know students, they know their hopes and fears, their aspirations and their trepidations. And honestly, their superpower, Harry, I bet you had a teacher like this too. They can look us in the eye, see into our soul, and see possibility and potential that perhaps we don't even see in ourself. That's inspiring. Teachers matter because they know communities, because they know students, but they're also, teachers matter because they're catalysts for change. They will help action occur. Now, the question that comes to us as we think about these primary, secondary, tertiary educators is what on earth are we doing as institutions to align and help them with this enormous responsibility that we've laid at their feet as a society. That is a huge challenge. And I think that we have to talk about taking this knowledge and discovery from labs and lecterns into lives. We have to think about not only aligning institutions, but yes, and investing in individuals. We have to think about purposeful investment in relationships, connecting scientists and economists to these educators who have that very specific knowledge and capacity and expertise. And when we do this, I challenge you all to think about the multiplier effect, that this is really exciting. When we provide educators a space and opportunity to be engaged and connected and inspired, ladies and gentlemen, a program may impact a cohort, a project may help a community. When I invest in a teacher and help them Class after class, day after day, year after year, exponential sustained change of this concept of generational renewal. So, I mean, the challenge is clear. We have to build the pipeline. We have to sustain the pipeline. We have to continually renew the pipeline. And what we can't forget is that at every single stage, Teachers matter. How are we helping them? I hope that this week we have dialogues and meaningful conversations to partner, to find a coalition of the willing, to intentionally invest in teachers and help them. Because together in community, we can build the future that we want. We can truly have generational renewal in agri-food systems. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Isn't the energetic and passion And that brings us to the end of the first panel. Thank you to all our panelists for sharing their reflections. And please, let's give them applause again. And culture can ground us. Foresight can help us anticipate change. Education and skills can help us respond. together they build the capabilities that make generational renewal possible.

Yeah, absolutely. But before we move from building capabilities to empowering young people to act, we're going to stay with culture for one more moment. To introduce our next cultural segment, please join me in welcoming Erica Lau. She is a British Malaysian photographer and filmmaker exploring environmental issues, culture and the relationship between people and place. Erica's film, The Tide Keepers, won best focus in oceans on oceans in the 2026 World Food Forum Youth Film Festival so we now have the pleasure of hearing directly from her and seeing a short trailer of the film festival Erica the stage is yours when you're ready

Hello, everyone. My name is Erica Lau, and together with my co-director, Lola Lee, we are the proud winners of the Best Focus on Oceans category at this year's World Food Forum Youth Film Festival. In the early days of my career, I worked as an oncologist and research assistant. Research and evidence shaped the foundation of my understanding of the world. And facts were how I communicated it. But to the average person, facts can sometimes feel distant, polarizing, or even preachy. So over time, I've learned that stories, on the other hand, are how we contextualize our facts. They draw us in. They make us care. Have you ever wondered how communities are keeping centuries-old food traditions alive in a changing world? Or how indigenous knowledge continues to shape the way that we grow, harvest, and share food. Or why, every single day, a group of foragers in Cornwall heads down to the sea to harvest one of the ocean's most ancient plants. See? Now I have your attention. Stories are what make us human, and to be human is to be an accumulation of the stories of our past. to take charge of the stories of our present and to build more hopeful stories for the future. We as filmmakers are stewards of stories, and we're so excited to share these stories with you this Tuesday at 6:30 in the Sheikh Zayed Center. If one of our stories speak to you, please take it home and share with the communities. That's how stories transcend boundaries. Without further ado, please enjoy the trailer.

Stories shape how we understand the world.

They influence what we value, what we question, and how we choose to act.

Storytelling is more than a medium. It translates complexity into understanding, elevates diverse and often unheard perspectives, and opens space for dialogue.

Across the world, young filmmakers are documenting the people, the places, and the ideas shaping the future of agri-food systems.

Thank you so much, and we hope to see you there tomorrow.

Thank you so much, Erica. Thank you for sharing this trailer. and you will be able to see the rest of the Youth Film Festival finalists on Tuesday evening. So we have spoken today about the role of the culture in shaping identity, belongings and the future of the agro-food system. And culture is something that we have to experience. So before our discussion, please join us in welcoming the Pontes Mostovi of the tourist, a young Serbian dance group for a special performance, please enjoy. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Let's give a round of applause to them, please, to travel all the way from Serbia to this. And we've now heard how capabilities give people and culture experience. Young people also need agency, the space, resources and opportunities to turn ideas into action and to influence the decisions that affect them.

Yeah, no, absolutely. So our second conversation moves from being prepared to actually being able to act through innovation, leadership, meaningful participation, and the participation of young women. To explore these themes, please join us in welcoming Miriam Truss, the project manager for the Food Systems Innovation Challenge and the Youth Food Lab Global, Wageningen University and Research. Second, we have Blessing Sunday, young innovator from the World Food Forum Youth Food Lab. and then we also have Pedro Duval, Deputy Secretary General of the International Youth Organization for Ibero-America. We also have Leona Tusa, member of the World Food Forum Youth Policy Board. And last but not least, Sityembele Banda, participant in the 2026 AgriFood Leadership Education Program on Young Women and Malawi National Youth Chapter and Leader. And pardon me, would you have One more, Naina Khaim, member of the World Food Forum Young Scientist Group. Let's give them all now a warm, warm, warm welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you. Welcome to the stage. Let's start with the journey from idea to opportunity. Miriam and Blessing, here's the first questions to you. So young people have ideas and solutions, but turning them into real opportunities can be difficult. What does it take from moving from an idea to solution that can create lasting impact in agro-food systems?

Yeah, thank you so much for your question. First, on a personal note, I'm so overwhelmed of all the youth that is present here. Over 30 years ago, I was in your position. I was a youth leader. I was invited to fora like these, but we were only five people and we were overwhelmed with all the older people and we were a little bit shy. And now it's the other way around. So I'm very honored to be here now. One advice to you guys, don't waste time on shyness. If you have to find out who is here and approach them, right? I think everybody here is willing to talk to you guys. So having said that, I'm representing academia. More specifically, I'm working for the Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. Since three years, we are organizing a food systems innovation challenge together with partner universities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. What does it mean? Well, we all have our own student teams. So all the universities, the 17 universities that participate, they have their two student teams that work on an innovation in a local context. We provide them with seed funding, so they all get 1,000 euro to start, because you cannot have action without some money, of course. And so they can do some trial and error. We provide them with mentorship, we provide them with online workshops. And every year there's a finals in Wageningen, we just had it two weeks ago. Blessing was there last year, she was one of the top six teams, you will hear from her later on. Also, like around four years ago, I see Kasuki sitting here, the wonderful team of the World Food Forum, they came to us like, okay, we have all these challenges, but what is the next step? How can the student teams at work also continue with us? So we had some brainstorm and a lot of talks, or not even that many talks, actually, because we were very fast. We said, okay, let's start an incubation program together with World Food Forum, with Wageningen University and and with EAS and I think our delegation of EAS is sitting there. Can you make some noise? Yeah, so 30 years ago I was president of EAS. I hope there are also alumni here, so you have to reach out to each other, okay? You promise me? So Youth Food Lab was born four years ago. It's our fourth cohort. On Wednesday here this week, we have at 4:30 our Youth Food Lab events in the Sheikh Zayed room. I want to invite all of you to come there. Okay, I know we are running out of time, and so I will wrap up now. What's next? We are building ecosystems globally, but also on a national level. And I've seen in the program that we have some wonderful speakers coming, ministers of agriculture from Senegal and Nepal. We are working with universities in your countries in the Food Systems Innovation Challenge. So I would like to have a conversation later on on how we can build the ecosystem in your countries around challenge-based learning, around incubation. So having said that, yeah, thank you very much. I will stop here and then I will give the floor to my-- Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Good morning, distinguished guests, fellow young innovators, ladies and gentlemen. I am Blessing Iyesunday, a young innovator from Nigeria and a member of Millet Mavins, a team exploring the conversion of finger millet into value added products and creating opportunities across the food system. What does it take to move an idea to a lasting impact? It takes three things. One, identifying and real world problems. Second, you have to create scalable products and then create an ecosystem that will enable these solutions to scale. An idea needs to leave imagination and meet reality. Our journey through the Food System Innovation Challenge and the Youth Food Lab has taught us exactly this. We are also grateful to our mentor, Professor Ogunlade Grace Anibasa, who has taught us to combine creativity and research to create impact. Validation alone cannot create impact. Every solution needs people to test it. It needs market to sustain it. It needs knowledge that would strengthen it. And partners that would help it move beyond a promising pilot stage. And this is why we the youth cannot take this journey alone. We need linkages, we need bridges that would connect youth with partners, with collaborations, and most importantly, with also mentoring. And this is what will help to move an idea to a lasting solution in the ecosystem and world at large. Thank you. Millet Marvin's is open to collaborators, researchers, partnership, and we welcome you to our exhibition booth happening on Friday by 11 AM. Thank you once again and good morning.

Thank you so much What I love about that was Miriam said, don't waste your time on shyness and Blessen went ahead and told you exactly what she's going to be doing on Friday. I hope everyone will go and see that exhibition on Friday. Innovation is one form of agency, but another is having a meaningful voice in the decisions that actually shape our systems. Being in the room, being invited is important, but participation has to go a lot further than presence. We have the head of the UN Youth Office here who's doing an incredible job in creating those spaces for us as youth. But Pedro and Leona, I really want to know from your perspective as young people, you're increasingly being invited into this policy and decision-making spaces. In your view, what needs to change to move beyond simply giving youth a seat at the table to actually ensure that they can meaningfully influence decisions? And I'll start with you, Pedro.

Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm going to speak in Spanish. Thank you for the question. I did have something prepared. But the discussion has provoked me to talk about something else. I'd like to start with an idea which is very simple. It's the fact that the new international themes and the problems that we have not been able to solve so far including inequalities and hunger, these are transboundary, transnational problems. But there is growing mistrust in international institutions. this is also linked to the role of the participation that societies have in these institutions and youth and the role they have in those institutions so we need to have a frank reflection on these issues but to answer Of course, there's no magic golden bullet here when it comes to ensuring this effective participation of young people. I think that we need to think about a few main things: the social aspect, the financial aspect, the policy or political aspect, and the institutional aspect. From the social point of view, If we want participation to be effective, we need to have social organization of young people and we have to have this idea of collective work so that no one is just representing themselves, but they can represent many people in any space. When it comes to financing, we need to finance young people so that they can participate effectively. If we look at official development aid, only 0.5% of this funding goes to youth projects. Same goes for climate funding. Without financing, we can't have effective participation of young people from a policy or political point of view. We need to have training, trust, intergenerational exchanges, and policies where this new generation can play an important role and from the institutional point of view, firstly, it's important that countries have strong youth structures which are representative with proper funding and from the institutional point of view at the international level, We need to have permanent structures and channels for participation that allow for these spaces to exist. And so we don't just have voices that are heard, but proper participation in decision making. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Pedro.

Your focus on finance, you are so right. You know, without finance, we are not able to actually implement this change. So from your perspective, Leona, what do you think needs to change?

And warm Pacific greetings to you all, and thank you so much for the question. My name is Lenona. I'm a proud Pacific woman, and I stand here carrying the teachings of my elders and the sacrifices of those who came before me, who paved the way for young people like myself to have a voice in spaces like this. In our Pacific communities, we understand that leadership begins with service. We learn from our elders, we serve our families and communities, and recognize that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. I think that this connects deeply to the question that we are discussing today. More young people, as you mentioned, are being invited into policy and decision-making spaces, but we need to ask ourselves, are we simply being invited into the room or are we actually being trusted to shape what happens in it? Because having a seat at the table means very little if our voices are heard but never acted on. We need to move beyond one-off consultations and create systems where young people are involved from the very beginning, where we can help set priorities, where we influence decisions and see our contributions reflected in the outcomes. And this is especially important for young women, for indigenous youth and traditional communities whose experiences and knowledge are too often overlooked. As Pacific peoples, we know that knowledge does not only come from institutions or formal education. It's carried by our elders, our communities, our cultures, and our land. Our traditional knowledge has sustained our food systems, protected our biodiversity, and helped our communities adapt for generations. Young people are not just the leaders of tomorrow. We're already leading, we're already contributing, and we're already creating solutions today. But we should not have to do it alone. We need meaningful intergenerational partnerships where the wisdom of our elders and the ideas of young people will come together. It's not so much about replacing one generation with another, but it's about learning from each other and recognizing that every generation has something valuable to contribute. Through my role on the World Food Forum Youth Policy Board, I've seen the importance of creating opportunities for young people to contribute to global conversations. The World Food Farm Assembly has been instrumental in this regard, providing a space where young people are not merely consulted, but meaningfully engaged, listened to, and given pathways to influence policy dialogue and action. The true success of the Youth Assembly will not be measured only by the voices it amplifies today, but by our collective commitment to sustain it as a living mechanism for generational renewal. ensuring that young people and future generations continue to have a meaningful seat at the table where the future of agri-food systems is shaped. So ultimately, we need to stop treating young people as guests in decision-making spaces and start recognising us as partners. Because meaningful participation is not just about being heard, it's about being trusted, it's about having influence and being part of the decisions that will shape our lives and will ultimately shape all of our futures. Faafetai tele lava.

Thank you. Thank you so much for your insight. We are leading and we are the tomorrow. And beyond these remarks, it's important to also know that agency must be inclusive. And now I have a question to many talent, young men, talent and ambitious young women's face major barriers that limit their access to opportunities, resources and leadership. Sitting Bella and Naina from your experience, what would make the greatest difference in enabling more young women to participate, lead and shape change in agroforestry systems?

Thank you for that. First of all, let me start by saying that I'm so happy to be here in the International Year of the Woman Farmer, because I am also a young woman farmer. So I have seen that the biggest barrier that women face in assessing opportunities is often cultural. Most women are seen as supporting actors and not leads or decision makers, which is a very big problem. And unfortunately, it's a problem that starts at a tender age. Most young women are groomed from a tender age directly or indirectly that their voices are not superior, which is a problem. And for me, one of the most powerful ways to change that is by equipping young women with knowledge and skills to earn and control their own income. And luckily, through ALEP, I was able to transform this into a project that will empower young women in my community. So this will be done by equipping 30 young women from my community where I farm in Chitedze, Malawi, with knowledge and skills to start sustainable poultry production. So with this, the young women will be taught how to produce eggs for consumption at the household level And the surplus of those eggs will be sold for them to generate income. And when a woman earns, we can all attest that when a woman earns income, her confidence grows. And she has a greater power to actually make decisions in the community. But economic empowerment alone is not enough. Young women still need mentorship. They also need opportunities to grow. So in this International Year of the Woman Farmer, let's move beyond only celebrating when women are participating in the agri-food space. Let's move towards investing in women's leadership. Let's move towards trusting women. And let's put the women at the decision-making tables. Thank you.

Thank you and good morning or afternoon everyone. My name is Naina Qayyum. I'm from Pakistan and also part of the World Food Forum Young Scientist Group. And to answer your question on enabling more young women to participate, lead and shape change in agri-food system, my response kind of adds on to what my fellow panelists have said here. So I just have a few points to share. One is to start early. Engaging young women from early on in leadership development process is very important to ensure they are empowered to take on leadership roles in the future. And this includes curated skill development programs through educational institutions that can help young women gain the practical skills needed to meaningfully participate in agriculture and associated sectors. Secondly, it is important to ensure that laws and regulations do not systematically disfavor women in accessing basic assets such as land and financing to participate in agri-food systems. And there needs to be public and private partnership with intentional outcomes for young women to make sure they can access the resources and timely skills they need to continue engagement in agri-food activities. Young women's time is constrained by childcare, household labor, and water and fuel collection in some context. And childcare options and flexible labor laws can enable women to participate in agri-food activities without having to make choices between family and financial gains. We need to give special consideration to young women in vulnerable contexts. As highlighted in this report by the Young Scientists Group, which is launching on Wednesday, October 14, in the green room downstairs in this building, so please attend, it's in the afternoon, young women in conflict-affected settings are disproportionately negatively affected. And on the other hand, they also demonstrate immense resilience, both at an individual and community level, to ensure that their households and community has access to food where possible. And this pathway of development needs to be acknowledged further and investments should be made to make sure that young women, especially in conflict areas, have the skills and infrastructure to complement their resilient solutions. Last but not the least, giving seat to young women at all tiers of policy making is very crucial. It is hard to find solutions without proper representation. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Can we just give them a huge round of applause as they please take their seats? Thank you, thank you so much. Agency is truly what turns potential into action, the ability to innovate, to participate, to lead, and to shape change. And congratulations, you've made it to the final stretch. Just one more conversation. If you need to stretch a bit in your seats, please do, because next we have a really, really interesting final conversation. It's about enabling environment around youth action and how we make meaningful youth engagement sustained rather than occasional. So to explore this with us, please join us in welcoming the Honorable Gita Chaudhary, Minister for Agriculture, Forest and Environment of the Government of Nepal. His Excellency Cheikhou Oumaba, the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Livestock of the Republic of Senegal, the Honourable new Minister. Sonia Deirdre Suka Eni, Representative of the World Food Forum Solomon Islands Youth Chapter. And last but not least, someone I know very well, Rahaf Abu Malai, Representative of the World Food Forum Jordan Youth Chapter. Can we give them a huge, huge welcome as they please take the podiums behind us. Welcome.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And we're beginning the role of the governments, institutions, and partnerships. Minister Chaudhary and Minister Baar. What can governments do to build stronger connections between young people, institutions, partners and opportunities so that youth engagement becomes a sustained part of the agri-food system transformation rather than a series of isolated initiatives?

Thank you very much.

Let me speak in French, please.

Ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I'd like to thank you for having asked me this question regarding the role of young people. And as government, how do we view the contribution of young people? Well, I'd like to make reference to the experience of Senegal here and tell you That I'd like to go back to what was said earlier on by the First Lady of Gabon when she said he was going to feed the world. It's going to be young people for Africa, young people, because if you take the example of a country like Senegal, we have over 60 percent of the population that is made-up of young people. So we need to share and believe in our youth, but not tomorrow, today, especially. And we believe that in our public policies, we need to begin by establishing a framework that is an enabling one to give people, young people, their rightful place. That's all for now. I'll come back to the other points later.

Thank you so much. excellencies, dear young friends and colleagues, I'm honored to join this conversation because it is not only about youth policy, it is about the future of agriculture and kind of country young people will inherit and lead. I came from Nepal, from Tharu community and ordinary farming family, I did not begin my journey in a traditional political establishment. I began as a lawyer and advocate working on human rights, access to justice and concern of communities whose voices were too often unheard. I also work with the young people through young institutions and advocacy. So when I say you deserve a meaningful place in public life, I speak from experience. Agriculture is the backbone of Nepal's economy, contributing about one-fourth of the national GDP and engaging more than three-fourths of the population. Yet, although 0.4 to 0.5 million young people enter into the labor market each year, agriculture is not their preferred choice. and around 3 million youth are working abroad. Our new government is therefore committed to attracting and retaining youth in agriculture through new knowledge, innovative ideas, strong leadership, science and technology, investment and decisive action. This is the pathway to transforming our agri-food system. We look forward to partnership, investment, collaboration and coordination from all partners towards this club, this call. Nepal is going through major change of guard. Our present political chapter has been shaped by the aspirations and energy of young citizens who ask for change, accountability, and government that looks to the future. The political movement now leading our government to its strength from young lead demand for different kind of leadership. Today, Nepal is led by one of the youngest prime minister, and I am privileged to serve in a cabinet in which young leaders, including young women, carry major national responsibilities. For us, therefore, youth leadership is not a slogan. It is something we are practicing in a government. But political representation alone is not enough. The real test is whether this generational change reaches a young farmer, entrepreneur, or student in a rural community. When I travel across Nepal and meet young women and men, what I see very clearly is our young people do not lack ideas, ambition, or energy. What they often lack is system that connects their ideas to institutions. and finance, technology, knowledge, and market and opportunity. So the responsibility of government is not simply to create more young activities, it is to build that connecting system. And I see four priorities. First, we must listen also and also engage young people from the start. Too often young people are invited when plans are already written and decisions are almost complete. If we genuinely want them to transform agri-food system, they must be involved earlier when priorities are identified, policies are set, and investment are designed. We should not only invite young people into our agenda, we should give them space to help shape the agenda. Second, we must make agriculture a sector of opportunities, innovation, and entrepreneurship. When a young person looks at agriculture, she or he should see much more than traditional farming. They should see technology, agribusiness, processing, value addition, climate situation, research, and innovation in Nepal. Many young people look outside their communities and sometimes outside the country for opportunity. We must make our agri-food system a place where they can build a dignified and hopeful future. That means connecting government with the universities, farmers, financial institutions and the private sectors. developed partners and most importantly young entrepreneurship themselves. The third, we have to move from projects and institutions. The completion may identify an excellent innovator and a training program may build skills, but what happens afterwards, who connects that young innovative to finance, who help her test and ideas. who connects him to a market and who stays to help them when the project ends. The government must create an enabling environment in which these connections continue beyond the individual projects and became a part of how institution works. Finally, young women must be at center of this transformation. Globally, 91% of young women in agri-food jobs work in more vulnerable employment in Nepal. As more men go abroad, more farm holdings are headed by women. As a young woman who moved from legal advocacy into the national leadership, I know institutions must open doors and then trust women once the enter to our partners in this room from United Nations agencies to the private sector, financial institutions and universities. I have one request, let's co-invest in young agripreneurs, mentor them and share the data what works. Do not see young people only as beneficiaries of agri-food system transformation, see them as partners, investors entrepreneurs and the leaders of the transformation. And the measure of our success is this, can a young women or men in a rural community look at agriculture and say, there is a future for me here and I can help it, lead it. That is transformation, that is the transformation Nepal believes in and that is the transformation we should work towards together. Thank you.

Thank you so much, honourable ministers, for those incredible case studies into Senegal and Nepal. In the interests of time, we are going to breeze through now. to go to Sonia and Rahaf, and I'll start with you, Sonia. From your experience in the national youth chapters, what have you seen, you know, they spoke from the government perspective, but we want to know how it actually impacts young people, right? What enables young people to turn these global ideas and these commitments into practical action that responds to the needs and the realities on the ground in their communities? Sonia, please.

Thank you. Thank you for the question. First of all, let me introduce myself. I am Sonia Soarikeny from Solomon Islands. For majority of you who do not know, Solomon Islands is in the Pacific Islands. It took me two days to be here. Yeah, thank God. Okay. All right. So for me, turning global commitments to local action starts with understanding what people are actually experiencing in their communities. Part of my motivation to establish the Solomon Islands National Chapter comes from what I've seen in my own village. Our rural people work hard, to produce food, spending long hours in their gardens. And this is greatly challenged by the impacts of climate change and further challenged by getting their produce to the markets. Sometimes transportation costs outweigh the profits that they would make from selling it. This made me realize that transforming agri-food system is not just about producing food, It is about helping people to turn their ideas, their hard work into better livelihoods. In 2024, my professor shared with me an opportunity to represent University of South Pacific at the Lewis 2024 UN model in this very building, where we discuss the true cost of food security. It opened my eyes to the wider challenges within our food system. But beyond what I learned, it gives me courage to believe that I too can contribute to bring what I learned back home. I began asking myself, how could I create opportunity for other young people to contribute as well? Through my work with Solomon Islands Knowledge, Action and Sustainability for Resilient Villages, Youth Incubation in Solomon Islands, I have seen young people facing limited livelihood opportunities, high transportation costs, and the effects of climate change. These experiences have reinforced my belief that solutions must respond to people's actual circumstances. So from my experience, three things matter. First, we must start with local realities. Global commitments only become meaningful when they respond to the challenges communities are actually facing. Second, we must need trust and need collective action. Young people need space to connect, share ideas and work together. We may not all be experts in solving everything, but we do have something to contribute. Third, young people need resources and meaningful opportunities to participate. Through our chapter, young people volunteer their time. and sometimes use their own finances to attend meetings and contribute to activities, while balancing school, work, family and other responsibilities. Their commitment is there, but without resources, even the best work plans remain on paper. In the Solomon Islands, our geographical location spread makes participation even more challenging. Young people in rural communities and other provinces can face additional barriers in joining national conversations and decision-making spaces. We must ensure that young people's participation is not limited by where they live or what they can afford. They need opportunities to influence decisions alongside the resources and support to turn their ideas into actions. That is why Solomon Islands National Youth Chapter, we want to bring young people together, connect their skills and their ideas, and build partnership with communities, government, and develop partnership to contribute to a more sustainable and resilient agri-food system. And this I believe that through the chapter, we can create that We are still at the beginning of this journey, but we want to build a platform where young people are not only heard, but trusted and included with resources to help shape solutions. And perhaps this is where we need to start. Someone believed in my potential and gave me an opportunity, and that experience helped me to believe I could contribute. Through this chapter, I want to help create that same opportunity for young people, because young people do not just want a seat at the table. We want the opportunity to help shape the decisions and, more importantly, the resources to turn those decisions into actions. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Because of how pushed we are for time, I'm going to give you the last word, Rahaf. From your work and your experience in the Jordan chapter, can you just share with us perspective?

Thank you so much.

For me, I think the key is not to make young people not only participant in global commitments, it's about how they can be co-designers and implementers of what those commitments needs and align with their own communities. From Jordan's experience, I believe four things make the difference and make it possible: youth ownership, local evidence, strong partnerships, and a clear pathway from ideas to action. First, youth ownership. national youth chapter became meaningful because when young people help identify the problems, create their own solutions, decide what action should look like in their communities, the chapter developed these consultations and this makes the difference. Jordan's chapter has been building based on consultations with government stakeholders, youth activists, communities and different active in their communities because they wanted to be built based on evidence and based on the needs of their community. Second, local evidence matters because global priorities such as food security, climate resilience, sustainability, and sustainable agriculture looks different in every context. Let's talk more about Jordan. In Jordan, water scarcity is not an abstract issue. It's directly affect all of us. all the communities from livelihood, agriculture, rural development. That's why our chapter makes collectively with the community, not just to make actions, but also to empower them from hydroponic trainings to sessions for students from different advocacy campaigns. We have built all of these activities with having one main goal to make impact in their communities. Third, young people need an enabling ecosystem around them because a good idea of course, is not enough. What is enough? If the young person have a mentor, have a technical support, have someone who's supporting him and have a good connection, that make the difference for our young people. And that's what we are looking for as a chapters. If we can talk about the national chapters in different MENA region countries, hackathons, ideas, solutions that have been bringing on the ground, but when we are looking to the end results, what is the result? Let's give you a small example from Jordan chapter. We have done a hackathon for more than 175 applicants. We got funding for part of them to create their own solutions, sustainable their ideas, because what we are believing as a Jordanian national chapter, it's not about empowering youth, about make sustainable way for them and for the colleagues to continue in their path. And finally, we need continuity. Youth action should not be ending when a forum ends. This is not the goal. It should move from dialogue to skills, to experimentation, to investment, because policies, communities, impact, it's all allocated with how much we invest in our youth, how much we trust on them, and how much we give them the space to be actually in their communities as a heroes because the youth is not about saying speeches, it's about how they can be more active in their communities and make the difference. This what I have learned through my experience from working with young leaders as a climate advocate for more than four years. I have worked with a lot of youth, young leaders in different countries in the region. What I have recognized the youth, what they need, believing in their ideas, give them the space to be active in their community. So if you want to make global we have to reach the community level. We have to listen locally, invest in young people, connect them to the good partners and give them the right to be always active in their community. That is how a global commitment becomes a local solution and how our young people can actually be a participant in food systems and also to be a co-creators in their communities. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. We're a little bit run out of time, but let's give a little more time for Minister of Gender.

Equality, please.

Thank you very much. At the end of what I've heard, plus what I heard this morning, there are three things I'd like to say. If we want to support young people from the point of view of our government, we do need to establish an institutional framework. We need to have a legal institutional and political framework because the needs of young people need to be taken into account in our policies. And now I'm going to go back to what they said about their experience at the local level. We need to make this local. And then financing. I think the dignitary from Gabon spoke about the need to finance young people. Today, in our public policies, we need to into account their concerns, not tomorrow, but today. In my country, Senegal, over 60% of the population is young. And so necessarily, our policies need to have young people at the heart. The time has come for us to consider them. We have the good fortune of having a president of the republic who's relatively young. And that is a great opportunity because he really can listen to and understand the needs of young people. Now, regarding that framework, we have a law that makes it possible to define the structural reforms that will enable young people to be considered in public policies. That requires a definition of a strategy, a youth policy, in the rural world. And so this means that today we have to make sure that the way that we achieve food sovereignty depends on young But when we speak of youth, we speak of production, which is quite heavy. And we haven't really invested much in mechanization. And there are a lot of post-harvest losses and waste. And instead, young people can change that. The extraordinary thing about Africa, and I will speak of Africa, young people leave the country to come to Europe and to stay in agriculture. culture. They start harvesting. And today, with climate change, Africa has an extraordinary range of opportunities, not because of its rich soil, but because of so many opportunities to transform all of these chances into real initiatives. Let me conclude by saying that in Senegal, with the support of FAO and other partners, we have started to organize cooperatives and make them strong. So why don't young people involved in tech, in the tech industry, also get involved in agriculture? Because agriculture, after all, is about processing and about e-commerce. Finally, we're developing a strategy for the youth. And this is an opportunity, and here I'd like to invite all partners here, not to work on tiny projects and then... end it there. We need to scale things up. We need to really support young people because we need to move towards peace. We need to make sure that our countries can work together in a peaceful and sustainable manner. I'd like to congratulate FAO and all of the UN for the amazingly important role that they play. Thank you.

Thank our panelists as they please leave the stage. Thank you so much. It's so great to see the partnership between government and youth. So now we welcome back the rest of our co-moderators as we wrap up this event.

Thank you so much to all of our panellists again. Thank you, guys. And we'd also like to take a moment to have a special thank you to our fantastic interpreters as well, who's making it possible for all of us to participate in this fantastic event. And that brings us to, I suppose, the three parts of our opening together, capabilities to be ready, the agency to act, and the systems that enable action for lasting change and impact. That is the foundation of our continuous generational renewal. It's not just a single event or handover. It's really an ongoing process of preparing, enabling, and connecting generations. And the World Food Forum has been building that space for six years now, bringing generations together around action, innovation, knowledge and investment.

To reflect on that journey, it's our pleasure to welcome Mr. Maximo Torero, FAO Chief Economist and Chair of the FAO Youth Committee, for his reflections on six years of the World Food Forum Youth Initiative. Maximo, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And this is a special moment for me because this could be the last time I am with you as the head of the youth committee. So let me start with two words which I want to bring today to this closing, which I have been hearing as much as I could today. The first one is about energy, and the second one is about imagination. Why I want to bring the word of energy? You know, around 15 years ago, I went to Senegal, to the field, and I met with a young entrepreneur trying to build a livestock industry. He had bought with all his resources, after he worked in the financial sector, 20 cows, and he wanted to develop the sector. And how much this young guy was learning and trying to accelerate the process was amazing. Energy was amazing, like the energy we have seen today. Then I moved to my country, to Peru, which has gone through a huge revolution in the agricultural sector, especially in fruits and vegetables, which are one of the key exporters in the world. And I was amazed to see how young people were in the field, having new job opportunities, coming from universities which before they will never be able to realize what they have learned and studied in the universities. Last week, I was in Uzbekistan. And seeing how by a technological transformation of the cotton industry, by automizing how you collect the cotton in the field, has released an enormous amount of youth to go to universities to learn on agriculture and to be able to come back then to the field to do value added. It's a huge energy that we need to push. And finally, when I go to China and see on the deep science how much youth is involved in technology, in gene editing, and all the things that we need in the agricultural sector really brings to me an enormous optimism that we can do a lot. But listening to the discussion this morning, I also was thinking about the word imagination, as I mentioned at the beginning. Six years ago, when the World Food Forum began, we had to imagine something that did not yet exist, a global space where young people will not simply be invited to listen, but will have the opportunity to shape the future of our agri-food systems. A space where young people could question us, challenge us, propose new ideas, build solutions, and above all, act. Today, that imagination has become a reality. Young people have taken this forum and made it their own. They have created partnerships, developed innovation, built networks and take ideas from Rome back to their countries and communities and institutions. Just seeing the energy around FAO is amazing. And this is not just now, today on the World Food Forum. The youth office that has been created has accelerated that process. And this matters because the real value of the World Food Forum is not measured by what is said during one week in Rome. Let me underscore that, it's not just talking. It is measure what happens afterwards, when an idea becomes an investment, when a discussion becomes a partnership, when a young entrepreneur creates a solution, when a young farmer adopts a new technology, when a young person enters the decision-making space and changes the direction of decision. That is what we really call impact. And that's what I have seen in the last years of my time in this sector. And that is why our message to young people must be very clear. We don't want you only to participate. We want you to act. In many cases, you don't need us to act. You can act by yourselves. We want you to imagine the agri-food system you want to inherit and then help us to build them. Because imagination matters, and matters a lot. Before we can transform a system, we must first be able to imagine something better. Imagine an agri-food system that attracts young people, equality in women for the same skills, not only hardship. A rural area where young people see opportunity and not just problems and hardship. Imagine farming that uses technology, data, artificial intelligence, and innovation to create productive and rewarding careers. Imagine agri-food systems where young entrepreneurs can build businesses, where women and young people can lead, where healthy diets are affordable, and where producing food does not come at the expense of our natural resources. Imagine a future where every young person can see a place for themselves in the agri-food systems. A future that attracts youth, includes youth, and is shaped by youth. And a future that delivers something very simple but fundamental: good food for all, for today and tomorrow. Because we need to assure it tomorrow, too. But, colleagues, imagination alone is not enough. The next question must always be, how do we make it happen? How do we turn the future we imagine into policies, investments, technologies, enterprises, and institutions? How do we move from the idea to implementation, from aspiration to action, from a pilot to a project at a scale? That must now be the core of the World Food Forum and the Youth Forum and the Office of Youth and Women. And this is also why we have learned an important lesson over the six years. Simply inviting young people into the room is not enough. Participation must be accompanied by agency. Young people need knowledge and skills. They need access to finance. They need technology. They need networks and mentors. They need access to markets. And they need a real place in decision-making. Institutions, therefore, also need to change. At FAO, we are trying to demonstrate that this is more than just words. We created the Office of Youth and Women, which was not an easy task for FAO. because youth and women cannot remain peripheral to the transformation of the agri-food systems. I don't know if you realize how important it is. This is forever. This is an office that is operating here and the regular program and will continue. And through the World Food Forum, we have helped establish more than 100 youth national chapters. This is something that we imagined and now is a reality. We started with few of them, but this is bringing the agenda beyond Rome and closer to the countries and communities where it matters. It's not here where it matters, it's in the countries. This is important because transformation cannot happen only at the global meetings. It happens in countries, in communities, where people need to improve the way they produce. And that is where we need to work to identify their problems and continue to fight. Six years ago, we were building a movement. Now, we have built a result. So, colleagues, let's keep working hard. I am sure we will succeed. And please, imagine Bodley and trying to find an agri-food system that will work for all of us. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Maximo. Thank you. Such emotion. For those reflections, what we have heard and seen this morning sets a stage for what is still to come, because this WFF Youth Forum has just started. Over the coming days, ideas we have discussed here will come to life across different sessions for the Youth Forum.

You can join Youth Assembly sessions where young people from across regions will bring forward their priorities, perspectives and recommendations for agrifood systems. You can meet young innovators, entrepreneurs through the Youth Food Lab, Startup Innovation Awards and the Transformative Research Challenge and see how ideas are being turned into practical solutions.

You can explore culture and food heritage, meet young chefs and see how identity and traditional knowledge can help us imagine the future, not only preserve the past. You can connect with educators and students working on the skills and learning that the next generation need. And you can hear directly from young women who are leading change while challenging the barriers that still limit their access, participation and opportunity.

Absolutely. You will also meet representatives from more than 100 World Food Forum national youth chapters, young people taking this work beyond Rome into the communities around the world. You will hear from young people about the incredible work that they're doing while facing major shocks in their agri-food systems, from environmental crisis to conflict and economic pressures. You'll have the opportunity also to discuss directly with governments and partners on their plans in advancing intergenerational partnerships. We had a about that earlier, and investments for generational renewal around the world. Please take these opportunities.

So our invitation for this week, it's simple. Participate, ask questions, and share what you know. Listen to the perspective different from your own, and build connections that connect after this week. And above all, work across generations. Because generational renewal, it's not something young people can deliver alone. And it is not something institutions can design for them. It has to build together.

So thank you again to all our fantastic speakers and panelists. Thank you to all of you for joining us here in Rome and around the world. And welcome to the 2026 World Food Forum Global Youth Forum. Yeah, we can give that a round of applause. We wish you all an inspiring and action-filled week. We kindly request that you make your way out of the plenary hall as quickly as possible so we can quickly get ready for the grand opening and we hope you have a great week everyone. Look forward to connecting with you.