Investing in Youth Infrastructure for Resilient Agrifood Systems

Good morning, good afternoon, distinguished guests, youth leaders, and participants joining us from around the world, both in person and online. It's my honor to welcome you to this exciting main stage session, Investing in Youth Infrastructure for Resilient Agri-food Systems. My name is Nina Adams, and I'm delighted to serve as one of your hosts today as we explore how investing in young people can help build more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agri-food systems for generations to come.

My name is Janita Carlucci and I will be your co-host for today. It is truly inspired, it is truly inspiring to see this room filled with leaders across generations, alongside innovators, alongside scientists, investors, and change makers, all united by a shared commitment to strengthen agrifood systems and supporting the next generation of leaders.

Absolutely. Today's conversation will highlight not only the importance of investing in youth, but also the systems, networks, and opportunities that enable young people to drive meaningful and lasting change.

Throughout this session, we will hear from an incredible group of speakers and community leaders who are translating ideas into action and demonstrating what meaningful investment in youth infrastructure looks like in practice.

To set the scene on the importance of FAO's work in emergency and resilience, as well as the critical role that youth play in advancing these efforts, we are honored to welcome Deputy Director General Beth Bechtel to the stage.

Thanks very much, ladies, and welcome to everybody who's with us here in the room. This transformed Sheikh Zayed Center, it's very talk showish. I like the vibe. I think it's really good. And to those of you who are joining us online, thank you for being with us as well. I think too often, and especially as we are focused here at the World Food Forum and with the Youth Forum itself, we say sometimes a bit too casually that young people are the leaders of tomorrow. But across agri-food systems today, as we think about them, these are people who are already building businesses, they're applying new ideas, they're creating new science and research-oriented projects, and they're ultimately helping their own communities respond to change. And unfortunately, as it was mentioned in the introduction to some of my comments, focusing on situations and settings where we find ourselves working in emergency, fragile, crisis contexts, too many young people are daily affected by the travesties of war. They are consumed in helping their communities rebuild from a weather extreme, whether it's a drought, whether it's a flood, their own communities, their own families lives being completely disrupted. And one of the things that we, I think so importantly here at FAO are working to do is to draw attention to the fact that very sadly, too many of the people who are the most vulnerable, the most food insecure, are connected to agriculture. They're farmers, they're fishermen and women, they're livestock herders. And that means those are families of farmers, which means that children, a young generation, teenagers, young people who are ready to start a flourishing life are affected by all of these uncontrollable, out of their ability to sort of delineate and out of their own ability to change situations. So what does that mean for all of us? A couple of things. One, we need to make sure that we include young people in the listening, understanding, tell us specifically what is needed in these countries where we have conflict or fragile settings. And for an organization like FAO, much of what we do to respond in those types of settings is to provide agricultural inputs and tools. We bring seeds, we bring animal feed, we bring animal vaccines, but we also need to have the ability to listen with dignity and with creativity to how we help build lives again and how we rebuild resilience. I think one thing that I want to also share with this group is that too often when we talk about infrastructure and we talk about assets, we mean very concrete, permanent things, right? We mean tangible things like seeds and water and technology and finance. And all of those are really essential. But I hope that the speakers who come through the course of this session will also talk about policies. we'll talk about institutions, we'll talk about partnerships. These two are part of the fabric or the infrastructure that's needed to make sure that young people are successful. And I think, you know, too often as we as FAO do work with different countries, we are often asked to help build a national agricultural strategy. We're often asked to help build a national pathway to achieve some designated outcome in agri-food systems transformation. And when we're asked to do that, typically very large numbers of our technical colleagues, the expertise from across the whole of this great organization is brought to bear and we put really great plans together. that somehow as we're devising those plans, we need to make sure that the next generation is a part of the plan as the plan is being formulated. We've got to think about employment. We've got to think about livelihoods. We have to think about jobs and economic creation because this is what at a national level when ministers of agriculture and I know there are a couple who are sitting here in the room, I can't see from the lights, but when you are leading a plan your country's future and your agricultural sector's future, it's critical to make sure that young people are not only at the table, but they are included and they are considered, and you have strong components of that infrastructure plan that include their futures as well. The next group of speakers that are coming after me are an incredible group of people who I think have the levers for change. And that's really exciting to me about this session, is that I think you are going to hear from people who can really move us from, it's just a plan, it's just a place for young people to have a voice, to how we really do it. How do we change it through financing, how do we change it through investment, how do we change it through government policies, So I'm looking forward to the next speakers and their contributions and the commitments that I hope they are going to describe and express to all of us, because this space of bringing young people with this infrastructure concept to the areas where we need to build more resilience and get out of cycles that are not letting us help those who are most vulnerable is what we need to all commit to do. Thanks, everybody, for being a part of this session. Thank you, moderators And thank you to our speakers who are going to be a part of a really exciting discussion. Thanks, everyone.

Thank you very much, Deputy Director General Bechtel. Your remarks are always incredibly powerful and inspiring. Thank you very much. What an important reminder of the essential role that FAO plays in agricultural emergencies and building resilient agri-food systems.

Absolutely. And while we reflect on the messages and questions that Deputy Director General Bechtel has posed to us, we want to introduce the evidence for investing in youth.

This evidence comes from experts across generations, spanning research, policy and data.

We want to first welcome Grace Tuari, a member of the World Food Forum Young Scientists Group, to present some of their most recent reports, Resilience Under Pressure, Young Women Navigating Conflict-Affected Agri-Food Systems.

Grace, Welcome to the stage.

Good morning, everyone. So let me begin with one simple but an important question. When conflict disrupts agri-food system, what happens to women and youth? And what allows them not only to survive, but to keep shaping the future of their communities? I'm Grace Tiwari, speaking on behalf of World Food Forum Young Scientists Group. And our report, Resilience Under Pressure, Young Women Navigating Conflict-Affected Agri-Food System, looks at this question through the experience of young women. What we found in our report is that conflict rarely creates a single barrier. Instead, it creates a chain of pressures. Food security and health deteriorate. Mobility becomes less safe. Education is disrupted. Employment becomes more precarious. And access to land and productive resources narrows. And then the inequalities that had already existed before conflict often become even more pronounced. So we see this disadvantage even before we look specifically at conflict settings. Globally, in 2025, 27.5% of young women were not in employment, education, or training, compared to 13.1% of young men. And for girls living in conflict-affected regions, the likelihood of them being out of school was 2.5 times more than anywhere else. So this is not just a story of a vulnerability. Our review also shows that building resilience through saving groups, community kitchens, collective farms, diversified livelihoods, entrepreneurship, and local networks. So from a young woman building a hydroponic enterprise in Gaza to women entrepreneurs adopting agribusinesses in Bangladesh, the evidence shows that women are not simply waiting for recovery to happen, they are helping create it. So perhaps the question that we can ask is not, how do we make women or young women more resilient? It should rather be, how do we build the conditions that allow the resilience they already demonstrate to last? And this is where the investment matters. So our recommendation calls for better age and gender disaggregated data. institutional support for cooperatives and women-led organizations, meaningful participation of young women in program design and monitoring, improved access to land, finance, education, employment, and protection. And let me make this clear to you. This is not just a separate intervention. They are the infrastructure that turns individual effort into lasting resilience. So for everyone who's shaping policy, research, and investment in this room, I would leave you with this one question or one thought. If we invest only after a crisis, that's when we are funding survival. But if we invest in young people, their institutions, networks, and opportunities before and through crisis, that's when we are building resilience. and young women are already demonstrating what resilience looks like under pressure. Our responsibility is to make sure that they do not have to build it alone. With that, I would also like to invite you all tomorrow at our biennial report launch, which is happening at the Green Room at 12:30 p.m. We would all love for you to be there and then also provide your insights and feedback and recommendations to us. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Grace, for sharing the report of the young scientist group. And what a great reminder on the unique constraints and barriers for young women in conflict-affected areas.

We are now pleased to welcome to the stage Isaiah Sugatan, World Food Forum Youth Policy Board member, to share how the World Food Forum Youth Assembly is grounding policy in local realities. Isaiah, welcome to the stage.

Hi, everyone. Magandang umaga sa inyo lahat. I am Isaiah Emmanuel Sagitan, a public health nutritionist, dietician, and development practitioner. I am also a proud Filipino from the Philippines, which has constantly been ranked as the most disaster-prone country globally. me leading the resilience team is backed by my previous work in the humanitarian sector doing disaster response across the Philippines and providing nutrition support during emergencies. My work is also in the intersection of a rights-based approach where I hope to advocate the right to food and nutrition before, during, and after times of crises and disaster, most especially to children and young people. This is also the first year of a resilience team and with this within the Assembly and thus we are at the division, sorry, within the Youth Assembly and thus we are a division at the robust roadmap aligned with FAO's work. The resilience team, along with my amazing teammates, Ala Osman from Sudan and Felix Kangwa from Zambia, are currently in the process of creating a compendium of case studies which highlights what young people are doing across the world in very precarious situations. Using the data from the Global Network Against Food Crises, our team was able to identify countries in fragile or conflict affected um context but have strong youth leadership these countries have been chosen based on their presence of a wff National chapter the data of the global uh global report in food crisis and the presence of a food conflict as driver of food insecurity through a global survey our team will highlight youth-led resilient agri-food systems work that are looked on first the resilience Focus which is the which we have defined their dependence on how they are able to adapt on their realities. Second, on the evidence of results and impact as seen through either improved food security and nutrition, increased agricultural productivity, among others. And third, young women's empowerment through the presence of women in leadership positions and said initiatives. Fourth, community ownership and social cohesion through meaningful engagement with their communities. and fifth, contribution to the overall resilient agri-food systems work. Their work will also be subjected to an in-person validation through key informant interviews from the community stakeholders and young leaders to better capture their good practices, struggles, and key learnings that are helpful for us to highlight policy implications to FAO member states. We hope for your support as we undergo this process and maybe take a unified step together as a global community to assure that our agri-food systems are not just resilient to our needs through collaborations, investments, and meaningful engagement for our youth. Young people are not just leaders tomorrow. We are leaders today. And we can assure this through assuring our resilient agri-food systems for all. May our efforts bring better health and nutrition to our children and young people. But I mean saramat po.

Thank you, Isaiah, for sharing the roadmap for the thematic Youth Assembly on resilience.

We are now pleased to welcome Helen Martinez, FAO Emergency Program Consultant, to present data from across FAO on youth in emergency and resilience contexts.

Helen, the floor is yours.

Good morning to everyone online and in the room. I'm Helen Martinez and I work in the Office of Emergencies and Resilience and today I'm here to present the context in which youth are living based on the most recent available data that we have. And I would like to start by saying that we are living through the youngest youth generation in decades. We have 1.3 billion young people living in context in low and lower middle income countries, representing 85% of the population. And in this context, of course, agri-food systems are key for livelihoods and economic opportunities. But this is also suggesting that for many young people, they are living in contexts affected by conflict, displacement, climate shocks, and other forms of fragility. So if we see at the data that we have available from the global report on food crisis in 2025, 266 million people face high levels of acute food insecurity across 47 countries with crisis becoming more concentrated and protracted in nature. So if we see this from the perspective of the youngest generation in decades, this means that for most of them, these crises are not short-lived experiences. It is a context in which they are trying to build their futures and their livelihoods. Data is also telling us that 82% of working youth in protracted agri-food systems depend on them for employment. So this means that they are highly embedded in agri-food systems. They are not marginal actors. They are basically the backbone, the productive base of agri-food systems. Because youth are farmers, are workers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and all of this has been already highlighted by our DDG. So what I would really like to highlight with this brief presentation is that we are not only looking at a generation that is highly affected or disproportionately affected by crisis, we are also looking at the backbone of the resilience of our agri-food systems. But at the same time, data is also telling us that 400 million young people will live in contexts in which agricultural productivity is expected to decline. So the work that we do today is key for how agri-food systems will be able to cope with the impacts of crisis. So the question for us is not are we helping people to better cope with the impacts of crisis, but is most importantly, how are we working to create the conditions that will allow them to be the key actors of resilience that will shape better agri-food systems? Because we don't have to see youth as beneficiaries, but as those that are actively contributing to their resilience. So thank you very much. And over to the moderators.

Thank you so much, Helen. These are very powerful, very impactful figures that help to set the stage on the necessity to invest in youth now.

Now, we're pleased to invite to the stage the director of the Office of Small Island Developing States, Least Developed Countries, and Landlocked Developing Countries, Xiangjun Yao. Welcome to the stage.

Thank you very much, moderators. And I am so pleased to be here today together with the youth but also with the critical players who can empower the youth in the future, but also at the current stage. As you know, agri-food systems across small island developing states, SIDS in short, face significant challenges. You can name all these challenges, for instance, climate change, extreme weather, extreme weather crisis, not only the seriousness of this disasters, but also the frequency. I was working in the Pacific for five years, for instance, Vanuatu, one of the Pacific countries. So each year they received this disasters. like a tsunami or earthquake or any other type of disasters. So no exception every year. So those kind of challenges are very, very difficult for the local communities, including the youth, to cope with for their agri-food systems. And also the SEAs have also disadvantages, such as this geographic insulation and also limited access to finance and also markets. And also SEAs rely on heavily the food import from other states as well. Aside that, SEAs should not only be seen through the lens of vulnerability. because the local people, including the youths, they are doing their best to cope with the circumstances, and also they have developed a lot of innovative solutions. Also, they have a lot of very good traditional technologies and innovations from the past generations, but those very good practices are being transferred through the generations quite nicely. So, the question nowadays, therefore, is not whether young people can contribute to resilience, but whether we are creating more favourable conditions and circumstances to allow them to do more and also to do better at a scale. So this is one of the key messages emerging from the C's use policy recommendations for agri-food system transformation. So over the past few months, young people from 15 C's across the three regions, Pacific, Caribbean, and African, have contributed their perspectives to those recommendations. Consultations included young farmers, fishers, entrepreneurs, researchers, climate advocates, indigenous knowledge holders, women leaders, youth from both rural and also urban communities. While their contacts are diverse, their priorities converge around several critical areas. So those are the message I want to convey from this conversation and also consultations we had in the past few months here. So first, meaningful participation in decision making. We hear from our DDG Beth on this, but also the private speakers on this. So the youth are not opportunities for our future, but they should be included in the decision-making processes nowadays and immediately. So the recommendations call for formal mechanisms for youth representations in agri-food systems governance. And also we should assign clear roles and responsibilities to the youth representatives. And also, those decision-making process should be more transparency on how the youth perspectives influence the policy-making process, but also the final decisions, as well as the decisions on the programs that the country and also the players are going to address in the future. So second is about the access to finance. Young entrepreneurs, farmers and fishers often face barriers that conventional financing does not adequately address. So they have very limited collateral and small-scale operations usually. And also, they have some kind of seasonal support, but the support they receive financially are not that consistent and also sustainable. So the recommendations, therefore, call for financing mechanisms that are designed around the realities of the young people and agri-food systems, and also combined with the technical assistance mentoring, and also access to markets as well. Third, investment in innovation and the solutions. Young people across seas are already innovating in very specific areas, including aquaculture, fishery, climate resilience production, food processing, and also other digital means as well. So the recommendations call for stronger support for those innovatives. and also some kind of systematic arrangements like this initiatives through the hand to hand, for instance, that I feel initiated, but also other means that the role of the use can be very well recognized and also they can carry on this traditional knowledge and also innovations. to their own generation, but also pass on to the new generations as well. And also nowadays, this digital connectivity and also digital means should be transferred to the youth and also the youth should be the masters of those new solutions and also the new means. So, ladies and gentlemen, what I would like to emphasize here is that the CEAS Youth Policy recommendations are not a simple list of the request directed towards institutions. They provide a very important perspective on what enabling conditions and infrastructures young people need in order to contribute to resilience. So they also offer an opportunity for governments, international organizations, development partners, and also other stakeholders and the players to reflect on how existing policies, programs, and investment can create more meaningful pathways, but also generate more tangible results for young people to contribute. Investing in young people means a lot. And young people can access and contribute to the food system. So we see the evidence already in these days, but they can play bigger roles and also significant roles at the current stage and also in the future. As we reflect on these recommendations, I'm very pleased to invite Isalam Thomas, representing the World Food Forum Youth Chapter in Trinidad and Tobago to join me on stage so we can hear directly from the youth, but also through this consultation in Caribbean and also in other regions. So I would like to invite you to the stage, Issarrah, and also I think other young people who were in were engaged in the consultation can also add your very valuable inputs to this discussion. I thank you so much and you are welcome. Thanks.

Good morning everyone. So, as previously mentioned, I am a food scientist and chapter lead of the Trinidad and Tobago, new chapter. Well, Trinidad and Tobago, So climate change is not a theory. We actually experience the brunt of it, even though we are one of the smallest contributors to it in the world. Our current food system is not sustainable. We remain heavily reliant on food imports, while growing climate risks from heat stress to droughts to floods threaten our ability to produce food locally. And the part we don't talk enough about is about us, who we will-- we, the young people, who will be living the longest with the consequences. And many of us, many of the young people in my country don't see farming as an opportunity to tackle our greatest sustainability challenges as a society. And many of it see it as risky, unrewarding, and they look for their future elsewhere. And when they leave, we lose our next farmers, our innovators, our entrepreneurs. And to build resilience is not something that we can depend on the invisible hand of the market economy to fix. It's something that we need to build on our own. It needs infrastructure, spaces, networks, skills, and opportunities that young people need to lead the transformation instead of waiting to inherit the problems of our current system. And that is what our chapter in Trinidad and Tobago is exactly trying to fix. Alongside partners like FAO at the Ministry of Agriculture, the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Corporation, and the World Food Program. Youth in governance should not be a niche or a cool thing to do. It should be the new normal, a new paradigm for transformation of food systems both locally and globally. So my invitation is simple. Don't just invite young people to watch, but actively involve them. Bring them to build and let resilience be built with them. Let them be co-creators in our sustainable future that we all share together. Thank you.

You've got quite the fan base. Thank you very much, Azai Thomas, for sharing those youth recommendations. And thank you also, Director, for your remarks earlier on and for sharing the process behind the consultation and the outcomes of it. Thank you very much. We should work to keep these in mind as we further our discussions.

But there is an important question behind the evidence we've just heard. What do we actually need to invest if we want to young people to contribute to resilient agri-food systems not just today but across generations.

Here to answer it is local youth action specialist Javier Bravo who is joining us on stage right about now.

Welcome.

Is this on? Okay. Well, thank you very much for the question, Nina. And at the Office of Youth and Women, our answer is very simple. For us, it's youth infrastructure what matters. When we talk about youth, when we talk about infrastructure, we often tend to think about roads or irrigation systems. And while these are essential investments to agri-food systems, we think physical infrastructure alone cannot guarantee lasting transformation. We also need successive generations with capabilities, opportunities, and institutional support to use these assets over time. This is why we see youth infrastructure as a strategic investment in continuous generational renewal. Especially when we talk about youth infrastructure, what we really mean is ecosystems. It's an ecosystem of institutions, policies, investments, capacities, and partnerships. that enables successive generations of young people to enter, remain, contribute, and lead, and continuously renew agri-food systems. At this office, we approach the investment through three interconnected pillars. Number one is capabilities. Young people need the knowledge and skills to prepare for meaningful roles in agri-food systems. This includes learning, build their activities to anticipate emerging risks, understand changing opportunities, and generate new knowledge and solutions. Number two is agency. Capabilities alone are not enough. Young people must be able to turn their ideas into concrete action through innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership, and meaningful participation in decision-making spaces. This also requires addressing structural barriers that disproportionately affect young women and other groups of young people. Number three is systems, and this is what enables individual capacities. and turns them into concrete impact. Young people need systems that connect them and their opportunities and sustain their contributions over time. This is how these three pillars work together. We have the capabilities that are preparing young people. We have the agency that enables them and act and influence as decision makers. And then the systems that embed their contributions within agri-food systems. Our proposal is not to create another set of isolated youth programs, but it is to connect knowledge, evidence, partnerships, and local action to embed youth engagement within these institutions, policies, and investments that are already there in the agri-food systems. Ultimately, investing in youth infrastructure enables continuous generational renewal, and continuous generational renewal is what is driving the agri-food system transformation that we want to see. This is not only an investment in young people, but in the long-term resilience of the agri-food systems. And the question now that I would like to ask to the next panelists coming after me is, how do we translate this investment logic into concrete political commitments and financial investments? Thank you so much for your time. And now over to Janet and Nina.

Thank you, Javier, for sharing that great intervention. We are now pleased to introduce our first panel for the day, political commitments for youth and agri-food resilience.

And please welcome this segment's moderator, Janet Kimani, emergency and rehabilitation consultant with FAO's Office of Emergency and Resilience, supporting the Global Network Against Food Crises. Janet, it's an honor to have you on the stage.

Good morning everyone and welcome to our panel. I am pleased to introduce Mr. Andreas von Brandt, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations Agencies based in Rome. Ms. Magdalena Gavez Juma, Spanish Agency for International Development Corporation. Ms. Luna Bernal from FAO Colombia. Mr. Ahmed Mobin Qazi Zada, Program Manager of Gate of Hope Afghanistan, who will be joining us virtually. And finally, Mr. Garang Makair from the World Food Forum South Sudan Youth Chapter. Thank you. Thank you all for joining us. Let me begin with our first speaker. Germany has been a long standing partner in advancing food security, climate resilience, and sustainable rural development. Mr. von Brandt, how is Germany demonstrating leadership in building resilience across agri-food systems, particularly in the face of growing climate, conflict, and economic shocks? And importantly, how are these high-level commitments being translated into opportunities that empower youth to become active contributors to resilience in their communities?

Yes, thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you for the invitation. I think a lot has been said, what I would actually completely agree with. There is one issue that unites us all across north and south, east and west, and I've seen it at the G7, I've seen it at the G20 discussions, which is farm succession and youth and bringing people into the agricultural business. And the young colleague from Trinidad and Tobago has just mentioned that. How are we ensuring that people stay or even come to agriculture? We have in Germany this phenomenon at the moment, which is already a good development, a good start, that more and more people want to study again agriculture, but then they want often to work in fancy international organizations somewhere else. And, you know, getting up at 4 o'clock to milk the cows is something else. So we have to find ways to do actually both, but I think it's already a start, and I could mention a lot of activities. We have programs for young agribusiness entrepreneurs. And we have a youth chapter in our yearly flagship event, which is the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture to happen this year again, or next year in January, where youth, again, is not only giving a platform, but is involved from the beginning and will be then heard and will present recommendations as you have been doing here. And then also in our development policies, including with FAO, we have projects on youth entrepreneurs, agro-entrepreneurs, particularly targeted at job creation and youth. And I can only underscore what has been said. I mean, it is about learning from young people, different approaches, different methods, different way of thinking, you know? It's not just to give them a platform and say, here, you can talk. So I really appreciate what FAO has done over the past years to galvanize this energy, galvanize new ways of thinking, new ideas, because let's face it, I mean, the planetary boundaries, all the problems of climate change, it's all related to future generations. So if we take future generations seriously, we take also these issues seriously. And if there is a lot of singing and dancing and helps to galvanize that, I'm happy to support it. I would say, though, that it's not just the singing and dancing. It has to be serious, and I see a lot of seriousness here. It has to open new ways of communication, maybe with new stakeholders, with new avenues. And I'm not pretending that we have found the silver bullet in Germany, but we are joining these forces. We're also working on developing a chapter with FAO. It's not that easy, and it's not that easy that we are against it or so, but that we have a lot of domestic organized youth initiatives already, but we're getting there. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. von Brandt, for that answer. and for also highlighting the importance of co-creating with the youth to give them meaningful agency, not just a seat at the table, but an actual voice to the design and implementation of everything going on. And you've also mentioned the importance of the partnerships with other stakeholders. And another important stakeholder in this conversation is development partners. And so I'll move on to my next speaker and pose this question to you, Ms. Magdalena. So the Spanish Corporation Master Plan and the priorities of the Spanish Fund for Sustainable Development guide ICED's work towards cooperation that is more people oriented and focused on strengthening resilient food systems. Miss Gavis Juma, how are these priorities being translated into concrete interventions for youth in resilient food systems? And could you share an example that illustrates ICED's commitment in this area?

Well, thank you very much indeed, first of all, for giving me the chance. I'm going to speak Spanish. Give me the chance to speak to you. I'm very happy that you've invited the Spanish Fund for Sustainable Development Fund. Thank you for giving me the chance to take part in this. It's a real pleasure to be part of this forum in terms of the wonderful speakers you have and the very interesting subjects that you're dealing with. So let me try and explain exactly how the Spanish Sustainable Development Fund is working to generate opportunities for young people, for forming agricultural systems, agri-food systems. I have a presentation I'd like to show you here. Let me show you the priorities we have and the external cooperation mechanisms we have are focusing on this master plan in terms of the actions, how the instruments work and the priorities that are based on this triple transition, ecological, economic and social. Here are some of the priority sectors for us, which I think are really important in terms of agri-food systems, particularly for young people. And of course, that involves education, the importance of training, capacity building, and the work that's being done on official systems, and also a specific program I'd like to highlight that the agency is putting forward. which is gaining life skills to provide capacities and skills for young people so they can have decent jobs. We've also talked about women and the gender approach is one of our flagship approaches in Spain. So we're looking at specific and cross-cutting approaches this is involved in water and sanitation programs of course. We're also talking about the climate crisis and how this is causing poverty and food insecurity and of course the bet on sustainable systems which can help communities and finally of course the work that's also ongoing in rural systems in food, food security and multi nutritional approaches. Perhaps we could just move on to the next slide. Thank you. Now I am from the Spanish Fund for Sustainable Development, as you know. Let me say a few words about how we're working in this fund. It's a fund which is basically for financial cooperation and the aim is to improve the social and economic development of countries. Funds are transferred to the public and private sectors. Some of them are reimbursable, some are not, some are grants, some are loans. This is based on the funds, when they are in fact loans, they are at very advantageous conditions and the aim is to improve the productive structure of the areas and to provide very important support to people who are really helping to build these networks. I think it's very important to also highlight that we're talking about improving financial resilience of the populations. That is front and center of our approach. This isn't the same in every area. And also microfinance is a very important approach in areas where there is less interest, let's say rural areas, rural populations, we talk about young people, women, and that's a very important aspect. And also the fundamental role that's being brought in to all of this concerns training and knowledge management. This is an example that we're developing. We're about to start this approach in this quarter in the northeast of Brazil. in the state of Sierra, it's one of the most arid areas of the planet where climate change is really being felt very seriously and 25% of the population are suffering from food insecurity or high risk of poverty. So the work that we're doing from the fund involves both the public and the private sector. The private sector is very often working hand in hand with international funds. We have various cooperation agreements, IFAD, the World Bank, and the EGFIC. The whole purpose of this is to pool our resources, pool our energies, and from IFAD, what we're doing all of this to try and build up these working methods. and roll them out. Of course, what we're aiming to do is to improve climate resilience and production of these groups. And also there's a very important component, which is training. Let me highlight, I don't think I've got very much time left, have I? But let me just highlight that in this project, there is a component for management of knowledge On the one hand, it aims to improve and increase training to build on the pilot schemes to be based around the projects themselves. And we're also looking to systematize this whole system, fostering it across different triangular cooperation programs. That is all the time I have. Thank you very much for letting me speak. I will be happy to provide any further information if required.

Thank you, Ms. Kavis. Thank you for that intervention. It is very encouraging to see concretely how development partners are implementing youth priorities in their resilience agenda and using a multi-sexual and intersectional approach. So this is very encouraging to kind of see concrete actions that move beyond policy statements to real interventions. Thank you. I would like to now steer the conversation. I'll just take these off. I'd like to steer the conversation now towards the country level to see how these youth priorities are being reflected at the country level. So through the World Food Forum, the national chapter in Colombia, the country office has been supporting some of the interventions. So the next question will be to you, Ms. Bernal. Could you share how Colombia's FAO country office has supported national youth chapter and how engaging young people has contributed to resilience and recovery efforts in communities where you work?

Thank you for your questions. From the FAO office in Colombia, we have supported the chapter from its very first steps, not only by promoting its official launch, but also by helping connect it with universities, other youth networks, and key stakeholders, and also public institutions such as the Ministry of Agriculture. Our objective has been to ensure that the chapter is not an isolated space, but rather a platform with real capacity for advocacy, collaboration, and impact. We also funded a consultancy to help young members develop their 2026-2027 action plan and internal regulations. Although they had guidance, this was an entirely youth-led exercise, reflecting their own priorities and aspirations, and we hope it can serve as a reference for other chapters across the globe. In addition, we have promoted youth participation in high-level forums, such as the International Conference on Agrarian Reform that was held in Cartagena, because we believe young people must have a seat at the table where decisions affecting their territories and futures are made. Perhaps our most significant achievement has been the formulation and approval of a Technical Cooperation Program, or TCP, that will contribute to consolidating and strengthening the chapter. From the outset, we wanted young people themselves to identify the priority activities and the funding they needed to advance their agenda. At the same time, we're promoting an institutional strategy to mainstream youth perspective throughout FAO's project cycle. And we also support it as a regional program for Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and to strengthening youth financial inclusion. Regarding the second part of the question, experiencing Colombia demonstrates that working with young people is one of the most effective ways to strengthen resilience and recovery within communities. We work in territories affected by climate related emergencies, food insecurities and food insecurity and armed conflict. In this context, resilience is not built solely through infrastructure or assistance. It is built by strengthening local capacities and fostering leadership that remains rooted in the territory. We have seen that young people have a tremendous interest in learning, building skills, and leading community processes. When we train youth community facilitators in risk management, anticipatory action, or agricultural production, we're not simply training one individual. We're building lasting capacities within communities, enabling them to respond to crisis more effectively and recover more rapidly. These investments also generate long-term results. Many young people who begin as community promoters or local facilitators go on to pursue technical or higher education and later become professionals working at local development organizations, including FAO itself, sometimes. This means that investing in youth translates into local leadership, generational renewal, and long-term sustainability. This is especially important because although rural areas are experiencing aging populations, many young people genuinely want to remain in their territories. What they need are opportunities, access to knowledge, technology, financing, and the conditions necessary to build a dignified and fulfilling life project. For this reason, our main lesson is very simple. When we invest in youth capacities, leadership, and participation, we're not only strengthening young people, we are strengthening the resilience, recovery, and future prospects of entire communities.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Pernal. Reflecting on what you've just said, two words come to mind, which is community and continuity, in the sense of you've highlighted how when these youth interventions are community-informed, community-led, community-owned, this ensures their continuity. So it's not just for resilience today, but resilience tomorrow, which is also key to the youth population. So thank you very much. I would like to now turn to our online speaker, Mr. Ahmed Mohmed Gazizada. who will be joining us virtually. Thank you, thank you, Ahmed, for joining us. You've been working to engage and mobilize youth around common priorities. Have we lost him? Oh, he's there. Ahmad, you've been working to engage and mobilize youth around common priorities. Looking ahead, what mechanisms or platforms are most effective for ensuring young people are not only participating in resilience efforts, but they're also organized, connected, and collectively able to drive change. Over to you, Ahmed.

Thank you. It's a great pleasure to be part of this valuable webinar. First, let's start with an introduction that I'm representing a group of youth-led organizations that currently we are working together to set up the very first national youth chapter in Afghanistan. And actually, Afghanistan is a country where mostly lights seem dark and paths to building somehow infrastructure seem forgotten. But today, when discussing in this panel, I'm not here to describe the darkness. I'm here to share the lights that we have found. And that is the exact mechanisms and the opportunities that we have found to build the infrastructure for you. I will answer your question with a short history. A few months ago, we conducted a youth-led foresight among youth in Afghanistan. And we asked all youth to imagine their community's future in 2000-- up to 2030 or 2032. The only answer was coming about food, agriculture, hunger, markets, and jobs were kept coming again and again. That's where we started building. On later on, on 12 August 2026, we met international on International Youth Day event. We met Nepal Youth National Chapter and FAO's Office of Youth and Women. There we discussed and we knew that the Youth National Chapter is a good mechanism to have the voice of youth in the international support. like we knew that most more than 100 chapters are around the globe and in our neighborhood like Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan have the same National Youth chapters but we had not. So we started building and Nepal on that meeting shared their journey with us. We shared our farming situations, our opportunities and our challenges with FAO and as well as with Nepal. FAO confirmed that Afghanistan in Afghanistan, it is possible to have a chapter. So since then, just we kept gathering the partners, the youth-led organizations to establish the very first mechanism or the very first WFF national youth chapter in Afghanistan. And just last week, we had a wide consultation call among Afghan youth-led organizations. And next, we will write some concept notes and send them to FA1 as well as WFF to somehow get a step-by-step publicly advertised. But coming to the point that these mechanisms mostly have some risks to be organized in such contexts like Afghanistan. To be honest, in places like ours in Afghanistan, building youth infrastructure or mechanisms means building protection into it from day one. So we built our four pillars as answers for the four risks that we are also identified a few months ago during our foresight initiatives. The first risk that we are mostly encountering is the social stigma. We in Afghanistan have many young Afghan people, their families, that see farming as a last choice, not their future. Our answer, our solution, our mechanism, our pillar for tackling this risk or for mitigating this risk is education and awareness. But how? It is like doing some campaigns and social and real role models through schools, communities and mosques. Why do we do such kind of initiatives or why have we considered this pillar? Because we want to change how young people and their families see agriculture. If their minds are not changed, so we cannot even work the first step for them. The second risk that we are mostly considering in Afghanistan, and we have identified them already, is women's exclusion. As we all know that young women face real safety and cultural barriers currently in Afghanistan. Our solution and our pillar under the WFF National Youth Chapter is women's leadership in food. That this pillar will start the safe spaces and women-led activities like kitchen gardening and other some tiny activities to somehow make women to lead, not just to attend. And the third risk that we mostly identified was the lack of access. Young farmers in Afghanistan have no way to reach buyers beyond their villages, and they mostly sell their products at lower prices. This keeps them demotivated, and they do not go to farming again. That's why we considered we build the third pillar as digital skills and e-commerce. This will be a mostly discussable pillar so we can discuss them later. But how we consider or we build this pillar, we will build this pillar to connect young farmers to online, local, international markets. That is the innovation that we need to take and to somehow value the real products that farmers in Afghanistan, especially the young farmers, or having. Our fourth risk was having no voice. I mean that young people in Afghanistan have no voice in agri-food systems. And for tackling this or for mitigating it, we have the pillar of youth advocacy. At the intersection of three previously mentioned pillars, we will earn the trust of communities on the implementation of the fourth pillar, we will make young people trustable for the communities that young people can shape the future of farming in Afghanistan. Somehow, maybe all the people in the room are thinking that how youth infrastructure is actually mean to us or what are the mechanisms that is meaning as to go forward with youth building. We mostly do not see youth national chapter and other infrastructures for youth as a building or a single project. We see it as a seat that did not exist in Afghanistan. And now currently, this national youth chapter that is being built is owned by many organizations, is controlled by none, and is safe enough to join, even from the hardest places from Afghanistan. So my final call, or last but not least, to somehow answer all the questions in just one call, that as a country rich in traditional farming knowledge, we have found a gap, and you are now building the bridge. And I truly believe from my bottom of the heart that with innovations and preparations for the future, we can nourish tomorrow and bring lasting change. Thank you. And I'm here for the final session.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Ahmad. And congratulations on the work of establishing a national youth chapter in Afghanistan and the momentum already building around this. And importantly, also, this being the International Year of the Woman Farmer, you've also mentioned the important role that women in Afghanistan are playing in the agri-food systems. So thank you very much for those interventions and for giving us a hopeful insight into youth, not just as beneficiaries, but as active contributors to resilient systems. Thank you. Our final speaker brings another important dimension to the discussion, the link between resilience, peace, and economic opportunity. Welcome, Mr. Makar.

Thank you. Thank you, Janet. It's a great pleasure to be here on this panel, and thank you for the opportunity. And to our audience in here and those online, please receive my greetings from the South Sudan Youth Chapter. Like been mentioned, my name is Garang, and I'm the link between the youth chapter and the government. Over time, I think my colleagues here have really captured some important things, the idea of capacity building, the issue of resources, and the issue of infrastructure, and also decision making. And so I'll take it and show you how these two are interlinked. In South Sudan, resilience is not just a concept. It is about whether a family can plan again after a flood, whether a young person can find livelihood instead of being forced into negative coping mechanisms, whether a displaced family can safely access a market, and whether communities can rebuild trust after years of conflict. From our experience in a local place where we are actually piloting one of our projects, in Jonglei State, Kolobor, one thing is very clear. Young people are not waiting to be called upon to be part of the solutions that we are looking for. But they are already building it. Young farmers, fishers, young women, and displaced youth are managing seed banks and saving groups, supporting farming and fishing activities, maintaining community infrastructure, contributing to nutrition programs, and helping communities resolve disputes. But there is an important lesson from all these experiences. Inviting people to participate is not enough. If we want young people to rebuild resilience, we must give them the resources, opportunities, and authority to turn their ideas into actions. From South Sudan chapter, I would therefore highlight three main pillars that will help us foresee this. One is the finance. Young people and community-based organizations need better access to funding. Many local organizations face barriers to registration, banking, complex reporting requirements. And in fragile settings, finance must be simpler, more flexible and agile, and designed around local realities. Second is the infrastructure. Young people cannot rebuild and resilient livelihoods without infrastructure to support them. In Bore, for example, community infrastructure such as ***** for flood, ponds and feeder roads have helped protect agricultural production. Infrastructure is not separate from resilience. It is part of resilience. And third, decision making. Young people must have a genuine voice at the table where decisions are made. And by that we just don't mean being invited, but actually having their voice to be able to shape some of those decisions that are made at the tables. That means including them in agricultural committees, local institutions, program governance not simply as participants, but as people with real influence over priorities and resources. And this must include young women, displaced youth, other young people who are often left out of decision making. There is another lesson that we should not overlook. Investing in young people's livelihoods can also build peace. When young people from different communities work together through markets, agriculture, community initiatives, and local dialogue, they build relations. They build trust and social cohesion. In fragile communities, this connection can just be as important as the economic opportunities themselves. So our message from South Sudan is simple. Do not invest in young people. Invest in their ability to lead. Give them access to finance. Give them a voice in decision making. Give them the infrastructure they need to build. create opportunities for them to build livelihoods, and above all, trust them to be part of the solution. Because resilience cannot simply be delivered to communities, it must be built with communities. And if we are serious about building a more resilient food system and a more peaceful future for the young people of South Sudan, then we must help them lead it. Thank you, grazie, and santi.

Thank you, thank you very much. touch on very many important points. And again, the point that we keep coming back to is that young people need genuine agency. They need actual power and influence over the decisions being made. And it's been great to hear from a very contextualized, localized context where these interventions do have to be context informed and context specific. So thank you very much from that perspective from Bora. And thank you to all our panelists. This panel has brought together different perspectives from governments, international organizations, country context of FAO, and even World Food Forum chapters, and of course, from Gate of Hope in Afghanistan. Whether we discuss development, cooperation, post-conflict recovery, or peace building, meaningful youth engagement requires political commitments to systems that enable young people to thrive. Thank you all for joining us, and thank you to our panelists.

Great. Thank you so much, Janet. Thank you to all of our panelists. Can we give them another round of applause? Thank you. So we've heard today that young people are already driving resilience in their communities and that governments, development partners, and youth-led organizations are making important commitments to support them.

Across the discussion, a common theme emerged. Meaningful youth participation does not happen by chance. It requires investments in systems, networks, capacities, and opportunities that enable young people to contribute and lead.

And this brings us perfectly to our second panel. I see we have a few people who are heading out and maybe a few people who wanna join. So we welcome you to get situated, but we wanna talk in this next panel about how financing can help to strengthen the enabling environment for youth leadership and action in agri-food systems. We're now pleased to welcome the second panel, financing youth infrastructure.

And joining us as moderator for the discussion, please welcome Mr. Cyril Ferrant. We'll just give a couple of seconds for some of our members to exit.

Thank you.

We have people coming in to sit so that we can proceed. All right, Cyril, please, welcome to the stage. Thank you very much. Please give him a round of applause.

Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. I am hoping I'm not the source of people leaving the room. That would be very, very scary on my side. My name is Cyril Ferrand. I'm based in Kenya, working for the Subregional Office for Eastern Africa. And it's a privilege to be here today, of course, with this group. And over the past couple of years, before I introduce panelists, allow me just to make a small remark. Over the past couple of years, I've been engaging personally with a number of young people. And you know, Africa is the continent of young people. And I have to say that talking to youth group, youth leaders, startups, SMEs led by young people, there is one clear thing that is emerging from the conversation. the one message they are passing us is as FAO don't look only in finding job for young people in agriculture but enable young people to lead to lead basically agri-food economies and I think that a mantra that is in my mind for the past couple of years is really about enabling young people and youth to lead the future of agri-food system and it starts today it's not only about number of job we create in Today, on financing use and use investment, we have a number of panelists. Our first panelist is Peter Unnemeier. Peter, you are here. Peter is working for the Global Environment Facility Secretariat. Peter, please join us. Sit wherever you feel more comfortable. They are the same seat, it's just the position that's different. Our second panelist today is Mr. Mark Costadellas. Mark is working for the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD. Mark is here? I don't know if Mark is here. I don't see him, so okay. He's online. Okay, very good. I saw that only one speaker was online, but good to know that we have Mark online as well. Our third speaker is Sarah El-Heshen. Sarah is working for the American University of Beirut. Sarah, nice meeting you. We spoke a little bit before and it's very nice to have you with us. And our fourth speaker, I know is online, is Mr. Ndukon Clinton Koyo, who is working for the World Food Forum Cameroon Youth Chapter. You are present. So it's my mistake. You see, I'm not a good moderator as Janet before, and I'm really sorry for that. But now, good to have you. If you can sit maybe next, and I will use the fourth chair. So thanks to all our panelists. It's not gender balanced, but that's OK. Don't feel isolated. I know you will be eloquently representing the group and the conversation on you. So let me ask my first question to you, Mr. Inouye, to you, Peter. I think we have heard and we spoke about it in the previous panel and throughout the morning about basically the impact of climate shocks and the impact it has on the resilience of agri-food systems. How can environmental finance mechanism, such as GEF, better engage and support youth-led initiatives? And precisely in more detail, what role does youth infrastructure play in ensuring that young people can meaningfully contribute to climate resilience?

So, thank you. The name again, my name? Cyril. Cyril, thank you very much, Cyril, for the great moderation, but also Thank you for the invitation. This is a great privilege. I have to rush to another panel and then come back. So I made it on time, which is great. Let me just start by reminding who I am and where I work and why we were brought in this panel, because it's also very important to set the context. So I work for the Global Environment Facility. We call it GEF. We are one of the multilateral environmental funding mechanism, actually. And we were born at the eve of the Rio Convention in 1991. And since then, we've been in the business. And our role is basically to support countries and partners to provide funding in terms of grants for countries to meet their commitment under different UN conventions. So if you can look at that, it means that our mandate is actually broad. So we look after biodiversity and all of these kind of things. So now, when you talk about climate shocks and all of this, we know this. This is the evidence, the increasingly threatening agri-food systems in the world, affecting food security, all and all and all. So, and Now the question is, how do we support really youth and what is this role of this infrastructure? So let me look at this in a few perspective. So from the JAF perspective, one of our most important shift that we need to do and to make is actually from moving from seeing youth as a beneficiary of resilience to recognizing them as the strategic partners in building such resilience for nature, positive and food systems. I think this is the most fundamental part because the environmental finance can support youth, but in our perspective, they can support youth in three ways. I heard many of these, so I will skip the other one, so I will just stick to three ways. One way is improving access to finance. The second one is reducing the risk that young entrepreneurs face. I think many of you here are entrepreneur and you have many of the risks that you face. And the last one is basically creating pathway to scale successful solutions. So those are the three-way that we want to support. And the job through the investment, through integrated programs that we have under the food system, and many of our programs, we are trying really to achieve that. I will go with an example. We have one very important project that we are implementing that we call Global Microfinance Initiative. The Global Microfinance Initiative, we put in $10 million, and the $10 million is really to support youth. We are piloting it in five countries. What do we do with that money? So we work with financial institution to develop products tailored to young entrepreneurs with helping them adopt climate smart and biodiversity positive practices. And we have learned few lessons. It's still just the underway, the three years underway in the things. But what we learned is that the finance is most effective when it invests not only in enterprises, but also in the ecosystem that allows those enterprises to grow. And then this brings me to your second question in terms of infrastructure. The first question is, let's define that infrastructure. What is that infrastructure? Because sometimes we think the infrastructure is basically that physical infrastructure, but it's not just physical infrastructure. What we believe in that infrastructure is actually, um, enabling systems of skills. networks, digital connection, innovation hubs, producers organization, market linkages, and participation in decision making. I repeat that last one, participation of youth in the decision making. I think we're making some of these mistakes. Maybe you are too young to be in this seat, but to participate in a decision making is very important. Because without these foundations, I think finance alone will not deliver long-lasting impact. We have another, I bring another example. We have a big program that called Food System Integrated Program that I manage. It's about $285 million led by FAO and IFAD in 32 countries. One of the things that we did was let's look at all the partners that can contribute in the transformation of the food systems. And we identify one group, it's called WIPAD. I don't know if YPAD folks are here. YPAD, yes. So YPAD is sit in the governing body of our food system program with a dedicated budget line so that they can mobilize youth in the programs, also in different countries. So let me conclude that So if we want a resilient agri-food system, we must invest not only in soil, forests and water, but also in the next generation that will manage these resources. So investing in youth is not a social add-in or add-on. I think it is a strategic investment in long-term environmental sustainability, resilience, and sustainable development. So I will stop there.

Yeah, thanks a lot, Peter. I know it's a difficult exercise when you are constrained with time and you have a lot to say, but thanks very much for your contribution. And I like what you said in introduction. I will not summarize what you said after, but when you said that youth is not beneficiary, it's a partnership, I think that it's not, and I think it's a very, very important way of looking into investment and financing. So thanks a lot, Peter. Let me go to our second panelist, who is online. Now I understand he is online. Mark, I think that through your work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, you have seen basically firsthand the opportunities.

Ambitious young people. I wish I was in this room with you, but I know for a fact every young person wants to strive, wants to grow, wants to really build an own existence. So the ambition is not a problem. The ambition that we should put ourselves ahead to is that we need to create a financing system that really adapts to the young entrepreneurs that it wants to stimulate, it wants to grow, rather than adapting an existing system to the realities of those youth.

Thanks, Mark. I mean, thanks, very powerful messages. And obviously share the same views from Kinshasa to Nairobi. I think that we are on the same page here, which is good. Let me turn to you, Sarah, because we have been talking about very practical work that we do, but you're a researcher. And I think that practice and research are working in tandem. And I think it's important that we also look, zoom out a little bit and look into what research is telling us. and what is your basically understanding of which investments have the greatest impact potentially and where important gaps still remain on the investment we make on news. So basically, what can you tell us about the value of investing in news infrastructure in particular and what are the consequences of news organization and networks being expected to deliver, but sometime not receiving the sustainable support that they deserve.

Yes, so thank you. Thank you for the opportunity of being here. First, let me introduce the unit that I'm presenting here, which is the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit at the American University of Beirut. So being part of a research institution or university, We work in both worlds. So we try to motivate young people to study agriculture again, as my previous panelists were talking. So we always try to encourage young people to study agriculture. And at the same time, we do developmental rural projects. So we see that investing in youth infrastructure means more than just funding. So it means supporting youth with the skills, knowledge, the capacities, the mentorships, the networks, and market linkages, while also giving them a chance to share their voices. So as Mr. Peter was saying, we always see them as the core and partners in development. And we aim to do that in all of our developmental projects at ESDU, either through engaging them in stakeholders and governmental meetings or by creating local hubs in the rural regions and helping them become the local leaders there. And on the other hand, we also encourage them to incorporate technology such as AI, climate smart practices and such in agriculture just to make agriculture interesting again and not seen as traditional and not economically stable. So this helps young build the sustainable livelihoods through their communities. But of course, this comes to the next part of your questions because it requires sustainable support and sustained support. So when they are working or we are working in a position where the support is a very short term, short duration, and we are expected to deliver long term results, this leads to discouragement or like a loss in motivation and interest in work. instead of making a real impact. So in our unit, we always try to build a continuity and sustain the support beyond the fund, either by connecting to markets, networks, or even supporting the same group of young people in different initiatives or projects to help them develop their skills even more and more to become leaders and entrepreneurs at the end. So in summary, if you want to recap, if we expect sustained support from youth, we should give them sustained support. If we expect sustained results, we should give them sustained support.

Thanks a lot for that, Sarah. And I can only, again, from the experience in East Africa, what we are witnessing is a number of huge groups that are forming or an MSME startup. The problem is not so much the incubation, because there is a little bit of microfinance for incubation, is sustaining the effort for the acceleration. What we call the missing middle in financing for young entrepreneurs and I think that this is a real issue that we have to address there. They are basically too mature for microfinance and too risky for proper finance success and I think that the sustained support is necessary and unfortunately we see 80 percent of the youth group disappearing and because there are not assistance for them or just said leadership for them. So thanks for that, Sarah, I think very good. Let me turn now to one to our last speaker of this panel. And now we're talking to you, Clinton, as a representative of the World Food Forum Cameroon Youth Chapter. Your group has benefited from support to expand its activities, engage with more young people, right? How did the investment strengthen your chapter's impact in particular, and what additional form of support would help in particular youth-led organization move from implementing projects to become really sustainable institutions in future? And that's a little bit what we have just been talking about with Sara.

Okay, thank you, Cyril. It's a pleasure for me to represent the Cameroon Youth Chapter and share perspective of young people across Cameroon, including communities affected by crisis and insecurity. I would like to thank the government first of Cameroon through the Ministry of Agriculture for supporting the institutionalization of the chapter. I would equally like to thank the FAO and the Office of Youth and Women for their support that they have been giving us for all this while we were established. I equally want to thank the country office, FAO country office representative, Mr. Antonio Querido, for his amazing support and pledge. Just to tell you that our being here on this platform was as a result of his support, and he has pledged to see that he walks us through this. I would like to share from my experience, one of the biggest challenges is not the lack of ideas or the willingness to act, but is the access to the right kind of financing. You led organization are often closer to communities, understand the local challenges, yet we have not yet secured, yet we struggle with the access to resources needed to turn these ideas to sustain action. The World Forum Chapter Cameroon has completed its legal, tax, and banking registration, but we have not yet secured any dedicated funding for our activities. Much of our work is relied on membership, own resources, in kind support, and even based on contributions. This is particularly challenging in conflict-affected areas where conventional programs and outreach are difficult to implement. However, our experience in the Northwest region and other regions of Cameroon shows that financing designed along local realities can work very well. Through the cornhouse model, which is a program I implement with the other youths in the northwest region of Cameroon, smallholder farmers stored maize as collateral instead of providing external assets. More than 30,000 kilograms of maize were aggregated, and over $5,000 in collateral backed by loans were provided to 175 farmers including 131 women this model achieved a 100% payment rate while participating Farmers increase their income by up to 27% by uh avoiding distress sales this demonstrate an important principle that The question is not simply whether young people can access finance, but whether finance mechanism recognize the asset, knowledge and realities we already have. I would like to highlight three priorities here.

Quickly, if you can. Sorry, I don't want to cut you off. Thank you.

First, make financing more accessible. Small youth organizations should not be excluded by requirement designed for much larger institution. Small grants, seed funding, innovation funds, and dedicated youth finance windows can provide an important entry point. Secondly, provide flexible long-term financings. Resilience cannot be built through six-month funding cycles. Organizations need time to build trust, adapt to the changing condition, and establish solutions that communities can sustain. Third, invest in organization, not only projects. Youth-led organization needs support to strengthen planning, monitoring, documentation, financial management, ensuring their results become visible, credible, and fundable. In conclusion, it is equally important. In Cameroon, 75% of chapters beneficiaries are women and young people. Finance must reach those who face greatest barriers to accessing conventional funding. Our message is simple. Do not ask young people to innovate. Give them the financial condition to sustain and scale their innovation. If you want a youth-led solution to contribute to resilient agri-food system, financing must be accessible, flexible, patient, and designed around local realities. This is how we move from promising initiative to lasting resilience. Thank you, Cyril.

Thanks a lot. It's a very powerful statement. Yes, please. I think it's great. We are reaching the end of our conversation, but I think that There is a lot of convergence from Beirut to DRC, to Cameroon, to Kenya. I think that it's quite interesting to see what we are seeing. Investing and working with youth is not a project. It's really a journey. It's a trajectory that we must embrace. And we have to be aware of it from the very beginning of what we are doing. So we don't have to projectize the way we invest, but really have a plan and accept some risks and basically introduce a lot of flexibility. Thanks a lot to our all panelists and please join me again in thanking them. Nina and Janetta, back to you.

Thank you so much.

All right, thank you so much, Cyril. Thank you so much, Janet, for our first panel. Thank you all for staying with us. So can I get one clap for everyone who's here, can hear me, who's still with us? Can I get maybe two claps, do we think? Great, thank you so much for this energy in the room.

All right, and now to close out today's session and to speak to the joint commitment to empowering youth, we are pleased to introduce Rain Paulson, who's the Director of FAO's Office of Emergency and Resilience, and Mr. Kazuki Kitaoka, who's the Director of FAO's Office of Youth and Women. Please, welcome to the stage to deliver your remarks.

So, you don't want us to stand so far apart, right? This is a partnership, so we stand in the middle, I suppose. I don't know, Ray, do you want to start with some reflections of this really powerful session? I was really inspired.

Yeah, me too. And We're going to maybe go off script, both in the interest of time, but also more importantly, I think, just to react in some ways to these important messages that have been communicated. And just to say, this joint commitment that exists from OER side, I know from the Office of Youth and Women's side, around more systematic, more meaningful involvement of youth in resilience activities. This is something that is why we have the session that we have today. But more importantly, as we heard from people speaking today, I think these messages have come through loud and clear, right? This can't be about talking to youth. It's about youth not just talking to us, but youth at the decision making table in our programming. And I was struck, colleagues, by not just the examples that were given, but the candor that was used to share also some of the challenges that are experienced, right? And our colleague from Afghanistan talked about the darkness and the light. The good news is there is plenty of light. I have to say, as I'm talking off script now, and I think it's right to be self-critical, we, as an Office of Emergencies and Resilience, haven't done enough, don't do good enough to have systematic, meaningful integration of youth throughout the programming cycle in all of our activities. And that's something we are certainly going to prioritize with the support from the Office of Youth and Women. So I really want to thank the candor with which everyone participated. I also want to say before I hand over to Kazuki that we talk about things that are priorities. it was really, really key for us to have this session today included, and I want to thank Kazuki for the partnership around that. I'm really, really proud of the colleagues and their contributions, and what we heard Helen say in terms of substance, the excellent moderation that Janet gave to one of the panels. I mean, these are, you know, these are tangible expressions of how important this topic is to us, but there's a lot more that needs to be done. There are good things to build on, but I think we really transform the way we're doing this work around youth in crisis contexts and to strengthen resilience. Thank you, Kazu.

Thank you, thank you, Ren. And Just to reiterate, this partnership is extremely important to us as well. In particular, we started the work on youth infrastructure just a couple of years back because we realized that both at the national level and also in international multilateral decision-making tables, sometimes we are very tokenistic. We're bringing one Hey, sa test. When you.

Hello? Okay, hi everyone. Welcome to this fantastic event. Colleagues, all of our guests and participants here in Rome and those connecting from around the world. It's my honor to welcome you to the celebration of the second anniversary of the For Better's Course Initiative. My name is Lauren Phillips and I'm the director of the Partnership and UN Collaboration Division. And I'm going to be facilitating today along with my colleague, Tayla Hano, from the Office of Youth and Women.

Thank you, Lauren. It's a pleasure to share the stage with you for this very special event. And it is our pleasure to welcome you to the celebration of the second anniversary of the FAO4BETTER Courses initiative, officially launched by our Director General during the World Food Forum 2024. And today we have the pleasure of having with us our Deputy Director General, Maurizio Martina, who's going to highlight how investment in inclusive education, capacity development, and global partnerships is expanding the reach of our FAO For Better course.

Maurizio, the floor is yours.

Thank you.

So, okay, fantastic. Good afternoon, colleagues, distinguished guests. It's a great pleasure to be here and happy to contribute to this important event because I think this is one of the most important programs that we managed in the past two years. It's a great pleasure to welcome you in this mainstain event. And I have to say immediately that as FAO, we recognize the urgent need to strengthen the capacities, share knowledge, and transfer skills. And this is an essential part of transforming agri-food systems, helping achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals and developing the next generation of leaders. And in this context of evolving needs and increasingly complex global challenges, innovative approaches, methodologies and practices are super critical. And this approach underpins the FAO e-Learning Academy, which hosts and implements the FAO for Better courses initiative. Today, we, as a FAO e-Learning Academy, offers over 1,000 free multilingual and certified courses as a global public good. And the academies are high quality learning opportunities, having power, the shareholders and the professional worldwide. These sustained investment in human capital is generating meaningful and measurable impact across agriculture, food safety and quality, natural resource management and related sectors. Allow me to share an insight into its global impact so far. Governments around the world are increasingly drawing on FAO e-Learning Academy learning resources to strengthen their capacity for policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation, while supporting actors throughout food value chains. It has reached more than 1,200 universities and supported by creation of almost 200 master's degrees programs worldwide. Farmers organizations, non-governmental organization, and civil society organizations for enhancing the capacities on their personnel and constituents using FAO e-learning academy courses. It's had over 60 million views over the past year and more than 2 million registered users since its inception. The FAO Learning Academy has established itself as a global leading platform for knowledge sharing and capacity development. However, it's also important to recognize that the Academy's remarkable global reach and impact are the result of an extensive collaboration efforts involving more than 1,000 participants and partners across the world. Our multi-stakeholders approach and collaboration with governments, academic and research institutions, donors, local partners, institutions are essential. And together, we deliver targeted impact and value at scale that FAO could not achieve operating alone. I would like to conclude by expressing my sincere