Young Scientists Group: Young women navigating agrifood systems in conflict settings

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today's event of the World Food Forum Young Scientist Group Biennial Report. My name is Yui Xie, and I'm delighted to be today's moderator with Nicolas Gollum, a group member himself.

Thank you, Yui, and thank you everyone joining us here in Rome or online all around the world. Today's topic is critical, timely, and right on point. And, uh, we're gonna talking about the experience of, uh, young women navigating agri-food systems in conflict settings. And we are especially going to be launching the latest Young Scientists Group report, Resilience Under Pressure: Young Women Navigating Conflict in Agri-food Systems.

As many of you may know, 2026 marks the International Year of Women Farmer, which makes our conversation particularly relevant. This report examines how conflict impacts young women's participation across the agri-food system, the barriers they encounter, the resilience they demonstrate, and the institutional conditions that neither support or limit their agents.

Over the next hour, we will hear from fellow members of the Young Scientists Group, engage in discussions with practitioners and with experts, and we will be going to, we will be reflecting on evidences that tells us about building more resilient, youth-responsive and gender-responsive agri-food systems.

Before we begin, a quick reminder that we invite you to actively engage with our Mentimeter, as well as a chat in Zoom event for those who join online. The Mentimeter will be shown in the later presentation. You are more than welcome to share your insights, ask questions, and engage with our speakers as our discussion move on.

And now, to open this discussion, It is our great pleasure to welcome FAO's chief scientist, Dr. Charles Spillane, who kindly supported us through the drafting of this report. Dr. Spillane, the floor is yours.

Good afternoon, everybody. It's really great to see you all here in the audience. And really, thank you for joining us today, both here in FAO headquarters, but also online for those of you that are online. And really, why are we here? We're here for the launch of this really important report by the World Food Forum's Young Scientists Group. And as chief scientist, this is a group I'm particularly interested in, I should say. So 2026, when we look at it, marks the International Year of the Woman Farmer. And it's really fitting that we gather today to launch this report entitled Resilience Under Pressure, Young Women Navigating Conflict in Agri-Food Systems. Conflict remains one of the most severe and persistent drivers of food insecurity worldwide. It is disrupting production, dismantling markets, fracturing the social and cultural systems that our agri-food communities depend upon. And according to the 2026 Global Report on Food Crises, conflict has been the primary driver of hunger in 12 out of 33 food crisis countries for more than five years since 2016. The impacts of conflict, they extend far beyond production losses. They reshape labor. They have impacts on access to resources, knowledge systems, markets, and decision-making power. Conflicts affect, they ripple across generations, and they concentrate most heavily on those who have the least power to absorb the conflict, especially young women in agricultural communities who face restricted mobility, they have reduced access to land and inputs, and they have systematic exclusion from decision-making. The global rate of young people not in employment, education, or training in 2023 was 28.1% for young women against 13.1% for young men. That's more than double. And yet, as this report shows, these same young women are also among those sustaining household food security, agricultural production, and community resilience. under the really most difficult conditions. Young women are agents of change. Despite compounding barriers, they sustain food systems, they protect households, and they drive adaptation in crises. So as a scientist, I want to underline another of the report's central messages, that evidence must inform actions. Research, data, and lived experience must inform anticipatory action, institutional responses, and indeed the policies that are built to protect those who are most exposed. The launch, or the report launched today, shows the importance of the Young Scientists Group, as a really, as a working scientific community who are engaging with questions around youth in agri-food systems that are often too often overlooked. by examining how conflict reshapes young women's participation across our agri-food systems, what institutional conditions enable or suppress their agency, and what strategies they use to adapt and persist. They have produced a piece of research that really speaks directly to the moment we are living in today, where conflicts, natural disasters, and economic shocks are really reshaping agri-food systems globally. The Office of Youth and Women, through the World Food Forum Global Youth Action Initiative, has built a platform that has become central to how FAO engages young people. Young people as active leaders, as producers of knowledge, and partners in transforming our agri-food systems. Today's session demonstrates what can happen when we invest in youth and create enabling infrastructures for their meaningful participation. Young scientists bringing evidence directly to policymakers, humanitarian actors, development practitioners, and fellow researchers, all in the same room. So this is really the science policy interface working as it should. So to the authors and the contributors to this report, congratulations to you all on this important contribution. You have pointed towards what anticipatory action, youth infrastructure, and inclusive pathways should look like. while also calling for further research and action to address the clear gap in sex and age disaggregated data. I look forward to the dialogue that follows, including the questions from the room and online, and to seeing how this report's findings can shape further humanitarian and responsive programming. I also look forward to helping advance how FAO and its partners continue investing in the leadership of young women in agri-food systems. So thank you all.

Thank you so much, Dr. Sveland, for such an inspiring remark and for highlighting how conflict influences the world and the importance of youth engagement in addressing today's challenge.

Conflict is the most significant drivers of food insecurity around the world, and most of its profound impacts remain underexplored. And this report helps shed light on those experiences while putting at the center evidence-based solutions.

We now have the privilege of hearing directly from some of the Young Scientist Group members who helped lead this year's report. Cara Christa and Isnawati Idayah, the floor is yours.

Across the world, young people are shaping the future of agriculture systems.

Even in the face of conflict, young women continue to produce, sustain livelihoods, support their communities, and drive change. Their resilience is not only individual, as it grows when institutions invest in the capabilities, opportunities, and systems that enable young people to lead. The World Food Forum Young Scientist Group brings together early career researchers from around the world to generate evidence that informs more sustainable, inclusive and resilient agri-food systems. Over the past year, the cohort has worked across disciplines to explore one critical question: How does conflict shape the participation, agency and resilience of young women in agri-food systems? Through an interdisciplinary approach, the report examines how conflict affects access to resources, decision making, institutions, and opportunities across agri-food value chains. But it also looks beyond vulnerability. It pays special attention to how young people adapt, innovate, and build resilience under pressure, and how stronger institutions, inclusive governance, and youth-responsive policies can amplify these efforts. The findings show how resilience is specially built through infrastructure and investments that enable young women to participate, lead, and transform agri-food systems, even in the most challenging context. This report is a result of a collaborative effort by the World Food Forum Young Scientist Group. It demonstrates the power of youth-led science to build more resilient agri-food systems for the current and future generation.

Okay, so I'm Isna Wati Hidayah and Kiara Krista. We are from Young Scientist Group World Food Forum. Before we talk or discuss deeper about the methodology, data, synthesis, and findings, we would like to say to all people in the world, our friends, family, that now they are especially young women that struggling and relying so much on a system in conflicted area in Palestine, in the R.C., in South Sudan, in Ukraine, in many more. We see you, we hear you and you matters. And today we would like to invite you to fill in this equation. What first word that come to your mind when we talk about the young women's resilience? Investment, brave, resilient, determination, strong, resistant, creative, vital, critical, patience, and a lot of important things that we send to them that now surviving in their own. Next. OK, so when we talk about this one, Nowadays, young women especially, they are already living in disadvantageous society by itself because they have the multiple burden, limited resources and stuff. And now when they are living in the conflict affected areas means that the inequality is deepening. They are facing the hunger and then gender-based violence, economic precarity, care burden, and then also safety and survival, displacement, social isolation, trauma, unsafe mobility, and also lost education. And the fundamental challenge that we have is that now they are missing in the data or very limited available, especially basic sex and gender, sex and age disaggregated data sets. It makes our It makes them very hard and become risk to be excluded from the policy-making processes. And they are missing from the evidence, and the study is very underdeveloped. That's why here we would like to explore more about this one. And please, Ciara.

Thank you, Islam. So our report is structured into four main chapters, and each of one look at, takes a different angle of young women in agri-food systems affected by conflicts. So first of all, we explore how young women experience the consequences of conflict. Next, we explore how they respond to conflict and build resilience, exercise resilience. What are the enabling factors? What are the conditions that make this resilience possible? And finally, we ask, what are the policies and programming that create the conditions for young women to participate, engage within agri-food systems before, during, and after conflicts. So if we look closely at some of the findings from our literature review, we find that conflict does not impact young women through one single channel, but through multiple interconnected pressures that interact with pre-existing inequalities that young women face before any conflict began because they are women and because they are young. So conflict makes things harder for them in terms of employment, access and control over land and other productive resources for their food security, for their nutrition and health. It also exposed them to more violence and increased the likelihood of young women for education to interrupt more than compared to young men. Young women do not just experience the consequences of conflict, but in our report, you will find many interesting examples of how young women exercise resilience, how they respond to conflict and transform, adapt. While there are many forms of resilience, our literature review identified that young women exercise resilience mainly at the individual and community level and through the economic dimension of resilience. So young women, they make very difficult choices to secure food and safety for themselves, but also for their children, for example. But they also rely on their community. And you will see some example of how young women get together and collectively participate in the production of food, of livestock, but also share skills and knowledge. And then young women also try to diversify their livelihood to increase their sources of income. And for example, they combine agricultural work together with other income-generating activities. Finally, in our report, we also really wanted to highlight that resilience is not just something that young women can exercise on their own, but actors and some conditions are important to make sure that this resilience is transformed into something that can last in the long term. So we highlight how inclusive governance, for example, is important, but also social protection, collective action, fair access to employment, and humanitarian assistance are all, like, they all play an important role in making sure that young women young women have their livelihood protected, their immediate needs are met, and there is space and possibility for them to recover.

Yeah, and there is five priorities to support young women resilience. The first one is that to make sure that they are feasible, especially in creating the intersectional gender and age disaggregated data. And then in first what they already do. So we need to support all the initiative that supporting the people that living in the conflict and then being young women. also need to be bring them to the decision making processes. So we need to listen to them and how to make the decision very young women friendly and support them. And then the next one to secure the rights and opportunities, improve the access to land, resources, education, and also market opportunities. And last but not least is to promote the gender transformative governance here, which is include young women in land, water, and food system governance. So we hope that this report can open door a little wider so we can make their voice grow louder and then their stories shape the decision. Research is even a little just of their burden. And because we believe that resilience should not asking them to endure more, but we should support them in any means to endure less. So this is the least that we can do for them.

So we just Today, we just briefly give you an overview of our report. But please scan the QR code here and go through the report, and you will find so many interesting example studies from great literature or peer-reviewed journals that explain and really highlight how young women are impacted, but also how they show greatest capabilities to cope with conflict. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chiara and Isnawati, for this insightful presentation. The findings that you have shared provide us with a proper reminder that women are not only victims in conflict areas, but are also orchestrating the sustainability of agri-food systems that they are surrounded by and supporting their communities in order to create pathways to resilience even despite the challenges that they are in.

Yeah, exactly. And what stand out to me the most is the evidence that over 147.4 million food insecure people are living in conflict affected countries with young women particularly exposed and how young women, they work collaboratively to face with those challenge. And perhaps equally important was the identification of critical evidence gap that still need great research, investment, and policy attention. And this is exactly what our next segment will explore.

For our next session entitled Dialogue on Evidence Gaps, What Resilience Requires and What Comes Next, we are bringing together experts, practitioners and young scientists group members to reflect on the report's findings and discuss how evidence can drive meaningful action.

To moderate this discussion, please join me in welcoming Naina Khayum, member of the World Food Forum, Youth Young Scientists Group. Joining Nina on stage are four distinguished speakers, bringing diverse perspectives and expertise across gender equality, youth engagement, land rights, and agricultural innovation. Please welcome Dr. Nicole Den Haan, Director of CGIAR Gender Equality and Inclusive Agriculture, who brings over 20 years of experience in agriculture and international development. With a focus on gender equality, women's empowerment, rural livelihood, and natural resource management. Up next, we have Ala Osman, member of the World Forum Young Policy Board, and who focuses her career on advancing resilience, land reclamation, and the transform of rural economics with hands-on experience as the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation.

To represent the Young Scientists Group, it's my pleasure to welcome Dr. Mayumi Sato, researcher and practitioner in land rights, environmental protection, social justice, and restoration. Last but not least, Dr. Gabriella Hernandez, researcher in agriculture biotechnology with a background in pharmacy and molecular biology.

Nina, over to you.

Thank you so much. And thank you, everybody, for being here and online. And I'm very excited to ask questions from this panel and sort of learn a bit more about what we found in the report and the intersections with other work that our panelists are a part of. And I would also like to invite the audience here and online to submit any questions you would like me to ask the panelists through the Mentimeter. So to start off, I'm going to ask Nicole if you can tell us a little bit about yourself and your work with CGIAR, the Gender Impact Platform, and also the report that's coming out, Gender Equality and Inclusion in Food, Land, and Water Systems in 2050. If you can touch upon how that report kind of connects with the finding of the report that the Young Scientists Group wrote. Thank you.

Thanks, and thanks, everyone, for being here, and thanks for inviting me as well. So I'm Nicholeen DeHaan. I'm based in Nairobi in Kenya at the CGIAR, which is a collective group of research organizations. And I start off by saying that is because I think research is incredibly important. I also think in my job it's incredibly important to actually get the new generation of researchers to actually be involved in gender issues and youth issues. So I'm absolutely amazed to see all these young people here. So please do join us. If we don't keep doing the research, we will not be part of the conversation anymore. And for me, that's so important. And that's why this report is so important to actually put it out there. The comment that was made is, you know, making the invisible visible. 15 years ago, we decided to do that with women in agriculture, and it's worked. I mean, just the fact that we actually have more discussions, et cetera, is important. But, and I do put this as a big but, we do not have much data. We do not have much information on women, and especially young women, in agriculture. And I think we need to really start looking at that. And it's not just data, but also frameworks. One of the things we did is in, because of the International Year of Women Farmers, we actually commissioned and wrote a report looking at several aspects of women. And the idea being, by 2050, who's going to feed us? And that's a lot of people in this room. And so we need to set everybody up for success. So we did also include one chapter on women in, young women in food systems. And several of the things that came out are exactly the same as came out in this report. So that's good to see. But I would also like to push us even further. I think we do have a lot of data. We just need to find it again and ask these questions we have, because they're a little bit new questions. A lot of the data was collected not asking these questions, so we can. So that's a good thing. I think there's also a lot of framing and a lot of things we don't understand. One of the groups that we don't really understand very well, for instance, is that group in between. When a woman actually gets married, that actually seems to have a huge impact on her. It's almost more than when she gets a child, interestingly enough. I know everybody's looking at me, "Wow." But if you look at the labor, there's usually somebody in the neighborhood that will take care or help a woman with her child, usually in rural areas. But once she gets married, she has a lot more care activities that she has to do. So that's even bigger of an impact. So we need to start understanding that. Because at that moment, her career, if we call it that, as a farmer is already stopped. She can't continue building it. She drops out for a while and then comes back. So we might have wonderful technologies, but if we don't give women a career and give them sustained time to grow in agriculture, We're still going to have people who don't have the best technology, the cutting edge stuff, because that's part of my job. I always am trying to push that if we're going to work for women and develop technologies for women, let's give them the cutting edge technologies, not let's just pink it and shrink it, as I call it. Just take a male technology and pink it and shrink it. So for me, this report, and especially with conflicts coming up more and more, it is so important. I love the comment that was made, because we often talked about that with women as well in climate change. Women are victims of climate change. Let's move beyond that. Women are agents of change. Women have solutions. Young women have solutions. Give them the space. Give them the ability, provide leadership. And that's what I love about all of this, is actually sitting up here. It took me years to get here, but I see young people already here. Use that. Use that as you build the future. So for me, the report we're launching is a small part compared to what you guys are doing, is actually pushing it as well. So thanks, and yeah, look forward to the rest of the conversation.

Thank you so much, Nicholeen. I think you made some really interesting points, so we will dig further into those. Now I would like to switch to Mayumi from the Young Scientists Group. So, Mayumi, we know that most studies group young women with women or with youth, and so we know very little about them, the young women, as a group. So, what can researchers and organizations do to collect better data about young women in agri-food systems? And what do you think are some of the main challenges or barriers to doing that?

Yeah, thank you. So I think there might be a few reasons why there might be oversight in this data collection, but I just will primarily speak on my own experience. I think many of us who are convened here today are interested in understanding the experiences of young women specifically, but also recognize there is a dearth of this data. I think working in conflict areas with young women specifically, I actually have found that accessing and interviewing young women was never a problem for me. I could interview them. It was really easy for me to work with them and really easy to build rapport. And I think that might have been due to my positionality as a young woman myself. So I think methodologically, in the data collection process, I think having a researcher with a similar positionality, in this case, a young woman from a conflict scenario, would be really important in building rapport and building trust. But I think a major challenge that I have found in my research is that there's also often a main gatekeeper of young women. And it's not young women themselves, but it could potentially be the family or the head of the household, which, for instance, it could be the man of the household who might want to control the narrative or prohibit them from speaking. And sometimes this is also well-meaning. For instance, I am coming as a researcher who's not from this location, and I'm coming into their community asking them questions which can be seen as very extractive, asking them, taking their time, and then producing research, getting credit for it, and perhaps nothing actually contributes back to the host community who spent their time and energy to speak to me. So I think we really need to be cautious of this, and as well for myself, I always think about this, is how do we avoid this sort of extractive layer of research when we do data collection, and I think what we should do methodologically as well is to also adopt more participatory processes so that we're working with young women from the design of the research and also throughout the data collection. I think that if we were to able to include like the household and the community and young women themselves in the data collection process, they would also be more willing to participate in the research itself. So asking questions like, what would you actually like to see from this research? How can this research support your interests? what are the kind of questions that you also want to see addressed as well in this research? I think when we include them in the full research process themselves, we actually can get better data to target young women specifically as a demographic. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayumi. Yes, I think we cannot highlight enough the importance of participatory research, and especially in this vulnerable context. So I would like to ask Ala a question about that our report shows that young women are strong in times of conflict, but they often get little support. So what is the most important thing institutions can do so young women don't have to carry alone. And I would also, after Alla, ask Gabriella to respond to that question as well.

Thank you, Nina. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Alla, and I'm originally from Sudan, but currently based in Cairo, Egypt. My work generally focuses on resilience, land reclamation, and transformation of rural economies. So I think when we tend to think about women in conflict areas, we think of it as a problem that has that is like a three-layered problem, right? So the first layer would be political instability or political stability. Wars and civil wars, proxy wars like the one that is going on in Sudan right now and entering its fourth year, displace families. disrupt agri-food systems at their root, right? So, and the group that get left behind in these difficult times is women, and they are left to keep the food production cycle going on. And if you're trying to be very honest, no agricultural program can succeed if displacements keep resetting the clock every other time. So this is the first layer, right? And then comes the second layer to that, which is climate shocks and natural disasters. Is it on? OK, commercial break. And then comes the second layer to that, which is climate shocks and Droughts and floods hit fragile areas hardest, and women are left with no capacity to absorb these climate shocks. So there is no insurance, no surplus storage, and I think conflict and climate compound on each other, and they really weaken the institutions that could help communities adapt. So if these two layers are even manageable, we are left with the real problem, which is the structural barriers for women in food systems. And if you're talking about solutions in these areas, the first one would be secure land and tenure rights. No one would feel comfortable to invest their efforts in restoring a piece of land that they could lose tomorrow or where they can really, really put their efforts on the line. So initiatives like joint tilting or community land agreements or legal contracts that could help women save assets would really, really help in these scenarios. The second one would be, the second solution to that would be also finance restoration, as we call it. To have flexible, flexible funding and microcredit that has not punish collateral rules. And this is a very important issue that we've raised through the consultations that we did in the Youth Policy Board in the thematic area. And collateral rules and the punishment that women fear is really, really one of the hindrances that stop them from trying to engage in agri-food activities. and then to connect them with markets and to help equipping them with the right technical tools that they could help for them to boost their profitability and for them to sustain their lives more. I think, and also just to voice out what my panelists have also said, it's also very important to help lighten the care burden that is on women in these difficult times. Child support programs also help in these difficult times. clean waters, energy access, everything that could help lighten the care burden of a woman helps them invest their time and effort in something that they-- in their agri-food activities and help them sustain their lives better. And I think, just to conclude, these three layers compound-- reinforce each other. So solutions must work across all three. So peacebuilding, climate action, and direct investment in land, finance, market access, and leadership for women as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Ella. And Gabriella, if you also want to reflect on this question about what institutions can do to support young women.

Thank you for the question, Naina. For me, the most important thing institutions can do is to stop designing support for young women without them. Because when we review the evidence, we can see that young women are already finding solutions, even in the hardest situations. For instance, in Yemen, they are acting as water mediators for the communities. And in Gaza, others are producing food with hydroponics. And elsewhere, they are creating saving groups, cooperatives, and also sharing farm work in order to look after each other. So I believe that institutions don't need to start from zero, and instead they can build on what young women are already doing. However, building on it means staying with young women for a long run, because we identified that too often projects run for a few months, and then it ends, leaving young women alone again. So that's why we need more long-term projects that support the groups that they are creating, like the cooperatives or the saving groups. And at the same time, we need to listen to young women's voice because they need to be included on the table when programs are evaluated and designed, considering that what actually stops them to participate in this kind of conversations is very practical. For example, no flexible hours, no childcare, no safe transport. So I truly believe that the best support that we can give women is not the one that is designed for young women, but with them.

Thank you. And just building on that point Gabriella made, I would like to invite all the panelists to quickly reflect on this question. Our report says that young women should help design and check programs, not only receive help. So what does real participation look like based on your experience and expertise? And how can we make sure it's not just for show? So maybe, Nicholeen, you want to start?

Sure the other ladies have much more better things to say. Now, I think with participation, and I've thought a lot about this because being a sociologist, I'm always like, how do you get people to part? I think we should start with respect, actually with respect for what people are doing. I don't think we, I always say, you know, we talk a lot about farmers, but if I was a farmer, we'd be hungry because farming is difficult. It's not easy, and I think we need to start with something like that to actually understand and respect what people are doing, and then start, like you say, designing with. And I always talk about let's talk with people, not at people, and it's the same here. Let's talk with people. Let's try to understand them. But I think also on the participation, like I said, having the right data is still important, because I remember a while back One young person came to me and said, what about this? What about my voice? And I'm like, your voice is important, but you need the data to back it up. Because then it's not just your voice, and then more people will listen. So for me, that's still one of the very important things. Get the data, get the frameworks, not just the data, but also the frameworks. Because those can help us have a conversation. As long as we can't have a conversation because we don't know what we're talking about, it's going to be difficult. But again, non-participation, start with respect. Everybody has something to bring, and everybody needs to participate in solving the world's problems, and especially people in this room. If we don't do that, we could be in trouble.

I think I would also second what Dr. McLean and my panelists have also said. I think real participation means real inclusion when it comes to the project cycle, design, monitoring, evaluation, with real formal roles just to avoid the program being extractive, as Gabriella said, and to avoid, I think, tokenism. We should state upfront which decisions do they control, show how their input changed the program, and track adoption of their recommendations. I think it would be very, very beneficial to have a track practical recommendations that are based on women that we've consulted or that took role in the project.

I would say to build on what Gabriella said, I think that the programs that I've seen succeed, I guess it's hard to measure, but in terms of the ones that I think have been sustainable are the ones that were either done in collaboration or done under the volition of the young women themselves. I think there is sort of like a historical undercurrent of like development and humanitarian agencies who have kind of imposed a paternalistic model or sometimes even a historically colonial model where they come in with a preconceived notion of this is what I think will work and you know this is what I think should be implemented rather than really understanding is that actually what young women want. And so I think allowing young women to define or co-define that themselves is incredibly important and I think that's starting to change a bit in the development space but I think that we need to center that much more. And I would say say also additionally, I think it's important that we have a level of fluidity and flexibility in how these programs are implemented. Obviously, in a very fragile situation like a conflict-affected scenario, there is very little stability, institutions are very weak, and so things are very fickle, so I think we have to be very adaptable. And just in one example of my field work, when I was working with young women during war or just after, they did not even think about pursuing education, formal education, because for them it was just not, they were not in the right headspace. But then two years after, then they were starting to come back and then discuss, maybe I want to start going back to school and maybe I want to improve my formal education and training skills. So I think we have to really follow up with young women on a longitudinal level, as you said earlier, to make sure that we're understanding their needs and priorities over time. Thank you.

For me, real participation means sharing power and not just sharing the same space. One thing science has told me is that the best solution always comes by doing the right questions. And the right questions always come from the people who actually lives with the problem every day. And a clear example of this comes from my country, Guatemala, because during our internal armed conflict, many indigenous women suffered sexual violence. And today, there is an organization that is working with them. And what makes the difference in this kind of organization is the way it's done, because from the start, The program was shaped according to women's demand, and later they were the ones who actually asked for it to continue. And now, survivors and their children are acting and training as community facilitators, and even the schedule is agreed previously with the women involved. So in other words, They are not just receiving help, they are leading it for their communities, and that's how real participation and empowerment really looks like.

Thank you. Yeah, I love that idea of not sharing just the space, but also power. I would like to stick with the Young Scientist Group members here. We have a question from the audience, which is, what was surprising from your research in the report? Did you expect the findings you encountered? If any of you want to reflect on that.

Sure, I guess I can go first. I suppose there was quite a bit of overlap between my PhD and this report, so maybe perhaps less so. I would say I think there's a lot of challenges, like going back to the sourcing of the data. To me, I guess the biggest surprise was that it just, the data collection hadn't been done on the intersection. Because for me, like when I was in the field, it was like, it was really centering, like the voices of young women was a really critical demographic for my research. So to me, I guess I started interrogating it. Is it institutional failure? Is it a mandate that's not prioritized by organizations? I started thinking about why does this gap exist? Because it could be multiple reasons, like many fold. I would say that's a sort of major finding that came out when I was doing the research. And then I think also in terms of the recommendations, how few safeguards there are specifically for young women. I think there's a lot of increasing gender mandates. and provisions to bring the rights, center the rights of women to the fore. But I think it's pretty shocking and concerning that for young women in conflict settings, how little consideration there has been of them, in particular with regards to safeguards. Yeah.

Maybe the main problem that we found in this research was that Well, the problem is not that young women are in there. The problem is that our data systems were never designed to see them. And I'm talking about how institutions, governments, and organizations design the research. To start with, many surveys collate information about household, and they usually ask the men, the father or the husband. As a result, what young women does inside the home simply disappear. So I think if we want to support young women, we first need to see them, to collect the correct data, and we first need to count them.

Thank you. Very important. And I would like to ask Nikoline and Alla a question from the audience. What should institutions such as CGIAR, FAO, and universities do differently to give young researchers more meaningful role in this work.

She's giving it to me. I think there's a multitude of things, of course. I also feel, and I know this is going to sound a little bit different, but I also feel that we have too many layers deciding on us at the moment. If we really want to know what's going on on the ground, then let's start there. And I always love having young postdocs, because they're the ones that actually go out in the field and actually do the research and know what's going on. And I think that's where we need to start listening to those people more. I think that, and put up a system that allows us to listen to that more. The world is getting more and more complicated. We have more and more accountability, but it seems like we're losing what's really going on on ground. And I think that's where university research organizations can also help by making sure that that's reflected. Question again.

What can organizations like CGIAR, FAO, universities can do to help young researchers do more work in this area of conflict-affected populations?

I think it's a very, very complex issue that needs collaborative work, and I think we can all work to what's in our capacity. And I think, just from my experience and what I think is really, really needed to tackle this problem, the first would be to the cross-sector collaboration and humanitarian development piece coordination, because even when we try to implement any basic project, for example, in Sudan or in Egypt, we had to reach out to other organizations, to the IOM, to UNHCR, to any other organizations, for them to do what they do best, so they can give us the chance to do what we can do best. So I think that's also that's a really, really important point that we can focus on and that the organization can focus on. And the other one would be for us to shed light on sort of like physiosocial support and social cohesion. That would also help save time and effort. I think, yeah, that these are the two things that I think about when.

Thank you so much. So my last question to the panelists here is that looking at global initiatives such as the International Year of the Women Farmer, what are some of the priorities to consider in supporting young women vulnerable to conflicts in participating in agriculture or agri-food systems at large? So maybe if you want to just highlight one priority you think that should be considered?

I think the priority should be that everybody, whatever resources you have, and I'm not talking about money, whether you have space, whether you're at a table, whether you have any space-time, whatever, to actually help us figure this out. I think that is the priority because it's with all of us that we're going to make a difference. It's not just one or two people. And everyone in this room can do part of that. then we can make a difference. I really believe that. So please, whatever space you have, use it.

Okay. I think one of the points that really, really stood out to me was from a panel that I attended yesterday. It was for Miss Irini from the ELP program. And she, we emphasized how important it is for women to have like extension services for them to focus on, profitability for them to focus on, retaining their interest in staying in the field of agriculture. And I think any capacity building, training, extension services, any effort in the enlightening the burden of care for them would really, really help in retaining them in the sector and making it more profitable for them and helping, empowering them in general.

I would say, I think going back to my first point about building trust and relationships and also building solidarity, I think we need to see it as more of like a long-term commitment rather than treating young women in conflict-affected scenarios as like beneficiaries. And I also think we need to, I know we are talking about the kind of findings and the research and we're talking about how we've seen a lot of these similar findings in different research reports, but I also think if we work with young women directly and not just through surveys, but through qualitative focus group discussions or interviews, we might be able to find out what their barriers are beyond the ones that we know of in research. Just as one final example, I would say one time when we were in the field, we had thought that young women were not on the land because they thought the land wasn't arable or they were scared of violence or they were scared of warfare. But then in fact, when we interviewed them, we found out that it was because they didn't have enough money to period products and then because they were on the period they couldn't go onto the field. So I think that there are certain things that we are maybe perhaps overlooking and I think that we can really only uncover what it is are the true barriers or perhaps like what are the limitations of why they aren't able to be on the land if we don't actually speak to them directly. So I would say valuing that as well.

I believe that the International Year of Women Farmers is a great opportunity, but only if it reaches young women living in conflict who are often the most invisible. That's why the first priority should be visibility, because right now they almost disappear from the data. And if we can see them, we cannot support them. So that's why I believe that if this year leaves young women more in control of the resources and more visible, it would totally make a difference.

Thank you to all the panelists here, and thank you, audience, for your participation, your attention, and your questions. And I would like to invite you all to please read the report. And also, the application for the next cycle of Young Scientist Group is open, so if anybody here is interested, so please do consider applying. Thank you so much for your time, and thank you.

Thank you so much for all the panelists. Thank you for such a fruitful discussion. The dialogue tapped on several important themes, most importantly, the importance of having the right type of data in order to initiate the proper conversations, the importance as well of community land agreements as a protective mechanism for women in land tenure, and also about the importance of institutions in building on the existing work that was happening on community level by women instead of reinventing the wheel with every project and so on and so forth. But the most important thing as well is that evidence alone is not enough. It needs partnership, it needs collaboration, it needs investments, and it needs also the will in order to translate it into action.

Exactly, Nicolas. As we begin to conclude today's event, it's now our honor to welcome IFAO's Deputy Director General, Ms. Beth Bicktor, to give the closing remark.

Ms. Bicktor, thank you so much for joining us today. The floor is yours.

Hello, everyone. It's never how I like to come into a room to give closing remarks when you haven't had the time or the ability or the luxury of sitting through all of the incredible presentations and speakers that you have already heard from. So know that I am going to do my level best to I think give you some comments and some thoughts that maybe follow very directly from the panel that just was here on stage, so eloquent and I think so committed and so deeply direct with all of us about what it is going to take for us to together try to bring more attention and awareness to the issues that are quite unique for young women in conflict settings. Why am I here speaking to all of you? And it's not just because I'm another member of the leadership team who got an assignment in the middle of the World Food Forum to come be a part of an event. I'm here because I am the only member of the senior leadership team that's a woman. I'm here because I come from a multi-generational family farm in the Midwest of the United States that my little sister operates today, the first woman in our family to run our farm operation. I'm here because I oversee FAO's work in emergency and conflict settings. And I'm here because I'm also the chair of the FAO Women's Committee. So I care very deeply about all of the topics that have been discussed and all of the points that have been raised by the speakers who came before me. I have had a very unique experience here in FAO in the last six years that I've been here. When you grow up on a farm, when you grow up on a farm in the Midwest of the United States with abundant rain, with enough capital, with enough access to technology, with the ability to own your own land, I will admit, it's a very different upbringing and a very different context than the farmers that FAO works with on a daily basis in all regions of the world. But there is still something about being a farmer that connects every one of us who are a part of agriculture. And I did not fully expect when I arrived at FAO that the Director General would give me the portfolio of working on FAO's emergency and resilience responses in some of the most conflict-ridden, complicated, and struggling countries in the world. I didn't expect to be the first FAO Deputy Director General in decades to travel to travel to Somalia, to travel to Haiti, to try two weeks ago to get into Yemen, but security was tightened and they would not let me go, so instead I went to Lebanon. And in all of those places, I have very special and very emotional memories of sitting with women farmers, with young women, with women staff who are a part of the FAO team in each of these countries. And I need for you to do more than just respect one another in the situations that we are talking about today. It's exactly the right message, but what I need you to do is I need you to really try to understand and imagine the scope of hardship and pain and fear that young women in these types of settings have, that they are losing every opportunity for their future, that they are losing family members, and that the situation that they find themselves in is simply becoming normalized. And they don't want to be forgotten. So I need this room of young scientists to keep stepping forward, because what you bring is the intellectual, evidence-driven-- I'm not a scientist. I'm a political economist. I would not claim to know much, Charlie, about the scientific method and the rigor of making sure that we tackle issues with that type of evidence-based, validating, let's bring all of the information to bear, and let's not just make political judgments about certain situations. What you are doing is bringing that exact kind of intellectual firepower and validation to a topic that I worry is being set to the side, is not being prioritized in the way that it is or should be. What I'm also, though, saying to you is I need you to put your heart into this. I need you to get a little emotional about these circumstances and these peers and these friends and these brothers and sisters who are trying on a daily basis to still be doing something meaningful and that they love. I try on a regular basis to think about, how do I change behavior? How do I change my own? How do I change my colleagues? How do I change mindsets? How do I talk about this more? How do I share more stories? One of the things that I demand on every mission that I take is that I meet with, in these conflict settings, I meet with women. And I will tell you, it's not always a front-of-mind part of the planning of my trips and my missions. Most of the directors who are in these countries are men. Most of the relationships that they have with complicated national governments, sometimes de facto authorities who are not even fully recognized and have their own views about the place of a woman in their country. Many of the farmers are villages of men. And so I have to force my own team on a regular basis to say undeniably, you will find a place in my program where I meet with women. I meet with women staff, I meet with women farmers. I need to see the dynamics and the circumstances that they are experiencing. You may not have those same exact moments or opportunities. It may be something that you're seeing via news alerts. It may be something through social media. It may be something through other networks. But I need you to try to understand the real situation of Afghanistan, of Sudan, of Gaza, of Ukraine, of Yemen, and put yours-- it's so hard to imagine. If you haven't seen complete destruction, if you haven't seen rubble, if you haven't seen bombed-out orchards of olive trees, if you haven't seen-- the concept of what another person is going through is really hard to project. And so I so deeply appreciate all of the suggestions from this last panel about what do we do to change our behavior. And some of it is personal, some of it is institutional, some of it is research-driven, and all of it is relevant and applicable. But I need each and every one of you in this room to really think about the person, the individual, the woman who is living through a situation that is just unimaginable. And if we do that together, and we bring all of the rest of the thoughtfulness and the heart and the commitment and the brain power that I know exists in this very room, we'll make progress. And I hope that some of you in this room will also take opportunities to think about more than science. Think about future political leadership. Think about future policy leadership, because those are also some of the most fundamental problems that we are facing today, because that's why we're finding ourselves in the crises and the conflicts that we're in. So instead of also only thinking about how we study the circumstances, let's not accept conflicts and crises as our new normal. Their situation shouldn't be normalized, nor should the circumstances that each of these countries continue to find themselves in. So with that, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for how much heart and how much effort you all have put into not only this report, but to your contributions to food and agriculture around the world, and especially young women. It means a lot to all of us. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Bector, for sharing your personal experience and for encouraging young scientists, for addressing the challenges that young women are facing. As a young woman myself, I feel really, really inspiring. And thank you again for helping us close our today's event by such a powerful note.

And thank you to everyone who participated in this discussion today, panelists, speakers, young scientists, group members, partners, and audience. And we would also like to iterate that the report reminds us that Women in conflict settings are not beneficiaries of support only. They are leaders, they are agents of change, they are innovators, and their view is indispensable in order to shape the future of agri-food systems.

If today's sessions has sparked your interest, we encourage you to read the full Young Scientist Group report. Resilience and Pleasure, Young Women Navigating Conflict in Agri-food System, which you can find by scanning the QR code on left side of the screen.

And if you are interested in this topic even more, you can join us in Austria room at 2:00 PM for the session called Women in Agri-food Systems, Breaking Barriers at the Frontlines of Crisis. And finally, we invite you to use, to give us your feedback on the session by scanning this QR code in order for us to improve for the sessions in the future.

Thank you all for joining us today.

Enjoy the rest of the World Food Forum and see you in the next sessions. Ciao.

Thank you and goodbye.

Bye-bye.