From Youth Priorities to Local Action: Advancing Young Women's Access to Justice in Agrifood Systems (CSW70 Side Event)

Distinguished guests, colleagues and youth leaders, good afternoon and welcome to the site event. From Youth Priorities to Local Action Advancing Young Women's Access to Justice and Agri Food Systems. This event is organized by the Permanent Mission of Ireland in collaboration with the Permanent missions of Chile, Ghana, Italy and the FAO World Food Forum Youth Initiative. We are deeply grateful for their commitment to advancing the agenda of young women's leadership in agri food systems. My name is Angelica Jacome and I am the Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the UN in New York.

And it is my pleasure to moderate Today's discussion with Ms. Marlena Bachmeier. I hope I got that right. Representing the World Food Forum Youth Policy Board, we are gathered during the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. In a moment where the global community is reflecting on the pace of progress, today's discussion brings together senior UN leadership and Member State representatives along with youth leaders to reflect on the importance of intergenerational dialogue and the critical role of the United nations in advancing local youth action. Young women's leadership in agri food systems is often overlooked in the conversations as Agri food systems employs more than 1 billion people worldwide.

Women Women play a central role across the production, processing, trade and food preparation. Yet young women, particularly those in rural areas, often face structural barriers to economic resources, financial services, decent work and participation in decision making. Today we will hear from our distinguished speakers, including young women leaders from Italy, Ghana, Peru and Tunisia, on how institutions can address structural and systematic barriers and young women face how young women's leadership can be meaningfully integrated into policy processes and how global commitments can translate into real change for young women farmers, entrepreneurs and community leaders at the local level. Without further ado, it is our honor to invite our first keynote speaker. We are privileged to welcome His Excellency Ambassador Lukvadur Tapa, President of the Economic and Social Council and Ambassador Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United nations in New York.

And I will add a real youth champion and Agri Food Systems transformation champion to deliver his opening remarks. Ambassador, over to you.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, young leaders, colleagues, at least to join you actually at this very high level event and around the world. We know that these women make up nearly half of the agricultural workforce.

They own less than 15% of the agricultural land. For young women, the barriers are even greater. Limited access to land, markets, credit, digital tools and leadership opportunities continue to hold back their potential and the potential of our agri food systems. Too often, young women remain concentrated in low skilled, low paid and insecure work with limited access to productivity and productive resources and decision making power. These inequalities are unjust, they undermine productivity, they undermine food security and they undermine the progress towards the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Dear Colleagues, Access to justice is not an abstract concept for young women in agri food systems.

It determines whether they can claim their rights, whether they can own the land, whether they can have the access to opportunities and whether they can participate in decision making that shape their livelihoods. Secure land tenure is especially critical. Access to land strengthens economic empowerment, it enhances decision making power and it helps protect young women from structural discriminations. Strengthening legal protections and removing all the discriminatory laws and practices must therefore remain our priority. When young women gain secure rights, resources and and voice, the benefits extend far beyond individuals.

They strengthen communities and they strengthen food systems and they support the local communities. Encouragingly. Young people and young women in particular are already shaping the solutions around the world. I'm delighted to learn that throughout the World Food Food Forum Youth assembly, more than 10,000 young people from over 100 countries participated in a year long global consultations to identify priorities for empowering women in agri food systems. These efforts culminated in the 10 point youth recommendations launched during the 2025 high level political Forum which are now being translated into country level action through the World Forum National Youth Chapters.

I commend the young women leaders present today who are translating these global recommendations in locally grounded actions. These initiatives demonstrate the power of young late and action to advance gender equality and strengthen agri food systems. They are the leaders and they are the partners in shaping the future of our food systems colleagues. Young people bring innovations, they bring energy and they bring resilience to the challenges facing the agri food systems, especially in the context of of climate change and economic uncertainty. Realizing this potential requires supportive policies, targeted investment and inclusive governance.

Transforming agri food system demands a cross sectoral and intersectional approach. Young women must have equitable access to productive resources, finance markets and entrepreneurship opportunities supported by stronger gender responsive and agricultural policies. Partnership among Member States, the UN systems, the civil society and the private sector are vital to scaling youth led solutions and advancing inclusive sustainable agri food systems. As President of the Economic and Social Council, I remain committed to ensuring that youth voices, including the voices of young women, are reflected in global policymaking. ECOSOC brings together governments, the UN systems, financial institutions, civil society and the youth leaders to address the interconnected challenges of the sustainable development advancing the transformation of agri food systems is one of my key priorities as President of the ecosoc.

At the recent ECOSOC Special Meeting on Agri Food System transformations held on February 16, I highlighted the importance of finance, entrepreneurship, innovations and technology for country led transitions. A call to action summarizing key recommendation has been shared and I encourage all the stakeholders to engage with it and support its implementations. Excellencies Dear colleagues, Advancing young women's access to justice in agri food systems is not only about rights, it is about unlocking the potential potential of an entire generation. By investing in young women's leadership, rights and opportunities, we can build more inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri food system for all. I look forward to hearing from the young women leaders present today and learning from your experience.

I thank you so much.

Those thoughtful reflections on the role of young women in their communities in agri food systems transformation and overall sustainable development. I would also like to highlight the fact that you mentioned all the actions that are done through the FAEO World Food Forum Initiative that is really a youth action led process looking for tangible steps to move things forward and to unlock the potential of youth and in particular young women. And I personally attest to your commitment to bringing youth to all the discussions within the Economic and Social Council. We've been working very closely together in this regard. Now we turn to welcoming remarks from His Excellency Ambassador Fergar Mithin, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United nations in New York.

Also another champion of youth, Ireland has been particularly engaged in this agri food systems transformation process with youth supporting the International Year of the Woman Farmer and supporting hundreds of youth, especially young women, to access opportunities for leadership and meaningful engagement in agri food systems. And Excellency, the floor is yours. Thank you.

Thank you very much Angelica and President Locke, my good friend Felipe and fellow UN Delegates. It's a real pleasure for me to be speaking here at this event to discuss the topic of advancing women's access to justice in agri food systems.

I sincerely want to thank the FAO or FOUL World Food Forum Global Youth Action Initiative for convenience and also thank our youth delegates Carla Fouciardi Wallace and Ashton Maloney and also our former youth delegate David Giles, who's now working in Rome on these very issues and he's been inspiring us. I also want to thank Chile, Ghana and Italy for co sponsoring today's events with us. This is a really important issue for me personally and I'll tell you why. My father was born in rural Ireland in the 1920s a long time ago and he was raised on a very, very small piece of land, a small farm, and when he was 10, his father died. My grandfather and his mother desperately wanted to keep the farm.

She had three young children, but she had no access to financing, she had no access to role models, and above all, she had no access to justice. Because a local farmer really pressurized her again and again to sell the land and give it up. And she had no support and she had no options. And it was a matter of profound regret to my father and it meant his life was maybe harder than it had to be. So this is very personal and I think, you know, for Ireland, you know, we love to mesh our domestic experience and domestic policy and our foreign policy because they're linked and this is very real for us.

It's a very real issue for us that young people, and young women in particular, have access to the careers they want, have, have access to the financing, have access to the role models, have access to the training and have access to justice. So that's just a little personal anecdote before we start. It's really important to see so many young people here. The UN is 80 this year and it's probably showing its age a little bit. It's under pressure for a variety of reasons and it needs your engagement as young people from across the globe.

It needs your energy, your innovation. And I don't mean that in a token way, I really mean that it's vital that we have your involvement and your engagement, both at home in the FAO and here in New York. And it's a pleasure for Ireland to have worked with Felipe last year on the Youth Summit. And we never saw that as just a one off engagement, but as a continuing piece of our work here at the un. So I just want to thank you for being here and for engaging.

I. I know it hasn't been easy to get here this year. I know numbers are down, visas, financing, but you are here and it's important that when you are here, you use your voice to make good trouble. To quote previous US politicians, good trouble is very important here at the un. Ireland's co sponsorship, as I said, of the International Year of the Young Women Farmer, reflects a national commitment to advancing gender equality across the agri food sector. As I said, we have a proud history of farming, with agriculture sitting at the centre of our economy, our culture and our rural identity for generations.

As I spoke about, we are particularly conscious that women can play a particularly crucial role in agriculture, food production, but very often they do not benefit from, they do not accrue the benefits of their labour so to put in the work but don't gain the benefits. Women are often excluded from farming related decision making in the household and in the community and face barriers when accessing land finance and training. Therefore, we very much welcome the World Food Forum's 10 point U recommendations on empowering young women in agri food systems. It's a really, really important set of recommendations. We'd particularly like to thank the WFF's National Youth Chapters for their efforts in localizing the youth recommendations by developing country level action plans that respond to structural, social and legal barriers faced by young women in agri food systems, including barriers related to land rights and access to justice.

The big challenge, whether at the UN level or local level or national level, is translating policy recommendations into action. But it's really crucial that we do so. We find a way to unlock the potential and to implement recommendations such as these which draw on real experience and can be really empowering if implemented at all those levels. So we're looking forward to today's discussion. We're going to be here for the entire session.

We want to thank all of those who organize this event and keep up the good work and keep coming here despite all the pressures and obstacles and keep raising your voice. Thank you.

Thank you very much Ambassador Mithin for sharing that personal perspective, showing how a past in, in the past, you know, this lack of support and role models can really be a real barrier for women and how we have opportunities such as this discussion today. The CSW and in particular the International Year of the Women Farmer which is not only 20, 2026 it start, it's the momentum is starting from 2026. It's a collective action to continuing action. As you mentioned, it's also a collective effort that we need to do this all together. You also highlighted the aspect of good trouble pushing the boundaries.

I think at least in fao this is a bit of why we created the World Food Forum. I have a preference particular job. I can only I have a set of ways and I have to, you know, think inside the box to a certain degree. But the youth that participate can really push those boundaries and make us, you know, drive that change that is necessary to move on. Thank you very much Ambassador.

Once again it is now my distinct pleasure to invite our final keynote speaker for this segment, Dr. Philippe Poulier, Assistant Secretary General for Youth affairs in his role. Dr. Poulier, who's not stranger to all of you in the room, lead's effort to strengthen the United nations engagement with young people worldwide and to institutionalize meaningful, not token, as the ambassador from Iowa mentioned, participation across the United nations systems. Dr. Pohlier, the floor is yours.

Thank you and good afternoon to everyone. I'm very pleased one more year to be with you in this space.

I'm Felipe. I'm the head of the United Nations Youth Office.

I've been in this role for a little bit more than two years now. And something I've learned in these two years and three months is really that the power and the capacity of our office to transform systems stands in a larger movement that is outside there with all of you. And that's why for us, it's very clear that the role of our office is not about representing youth voices or a youth agenda which is as diverse and much more as the faces of all of you in this room. It's really for us how we can use the UN as a platform and how we can drive institutional transformation in the UN to have more young people being able to bring their voices, their perspectives, their skills and their capacity to these organizations which is mandated to serve the people of the world. So in that journey, I think we found in FAO a very good partner.

We found in FAO an organization that is really placing young people at the center, establishing a youth office, a youth and women's office, creating initiatives like the World Food Forum, Youth Initiative and really showing others how co leadership looks like when it's about working with youth. And I'm also always thankful to share some space with both the president of ECOSOC and and the ambassador of Ireland because they are really a good example of how leadership looks like when there is really an intention to trust in youth. And we will be very soon president hosting, you will be hosting another ecosocute forum which hopefully will be also a very large platform for young people from very diverse origins joining this and thank you also to Italy, Chile and Ghana for really supporting this space. So we are here at the csw. So this platform is also a very critical opportunity to really play on how we can strengthen access to justice for women and girls.

But especially in this discussion when it's about the inclusion in agri food systems because young women play a vital role in agri food systems across regions as producers, as entrepreneurs, as innovators and as community leaders. And agriculture remains as one of the most important sectors for youth employment globally. So always when we are talking about this issue, let's also consider that especially in some parts of the world and particularly in rural communities, however, the reality shows that for many young people, and especially for young women, participation when it's about decision making, when it's about financial discussions of agricultural systems, is still limited. And despite the contributions of these young women to food production, to the rural economies and the community well being, many young people, many young women are continuing to face unequal access to land, to resources, to finance, to education, as very clearly both the president of FECUSOQ and also the ambassador of Ireland highlighted. So really addressing these inequalities is not also important in terms of gender equality.

It's really critical if we want to strengthen sustainability of agri food systems and if we really want to have resilience when it's about our societies. So young people's inclusion, and especially girls and young women's inclusion, not only as beneficiaries of the policies, but really as partners in shaping the policies, in shaping the problems that affect their lives and livelihoods, is very critical. And you, all of you, and the different speakers that will really enrich this discussion will be bringing your perspectives on board into these topics. And the critical challenge always is how we transform these global policies, these global commitments, into local action. And that's where I think FAO also has been extremely innovative in terms of models.

And that's why the World Food Forum, the national chapters of the World Food Forum, become a real practical way of, of bringing these global commitments, these global discussions, into local action. But before wrapping up, allow me to insist on the point of the participation and how critical it is for the UN to continue to be an organization fit to purpose, to continue to be an organization fit to future that the UN is. And please, it's true, stop accepting as a reality that the UN is inefficient. That is not true. The UN is changing lives across many parts of the world.

It's still an imperfect organization. Of course it is, because it's complex, because it's about bringing 193 governments together. And it's more complex in terms also of making that participation to be inclusive, bringing the communities. But, but if we really want to continue to be fit to purpose, we really need to put young people and future generations at the very center. And that's why institutional participation becomes so critical.

And next Monday, after a very long process, anchored and grounded in the pact for the future, our office, with partners with youth organizations, and hopefully with the support of many member states that want to champion this principles to become action, we'll be launching the core principles for meaningful youth participation. Setting standards, setting a compass in terms of how we can bring this to action. But these principles are not for the un. These principles are for everyone in this room, for our organizations, from the civil society to the private sector to the governments themselves, in terms of driving and really moving from just working with young people as beneficiaries into working with young people as partners. And also, why not imagine to have co leadership models across regions.

Thank you very much.

Thank you Dr. Polier for those inspiring remarks and reaffirming the mandate and the commitment of the United nations as, as a whole, but in particular your youth office in bringing the diversity of the youth agenda to drive the institutional change needed bringing in these perspectives, fostering partnership with everybody, you know, with young leaders, young women, also between countries, between the UN civil society, private sector and the importance of inclusion of young women in agri food system, which I think has been stressed by everybody just to drive that change. Overall, this has been a very interesting keynote session. We've really hit many issues. I think we're all quite on the same page. The importance of addressing the structural barriers for women's full participation in agri food systems, having these inclusive partnerships with young women for young women and to have more spaces like these to bring in youth perspective and for it not only to be, you know, a one off, it's a continuing project.

So I thank you very much and I'm going to hand it over to Marilena who will go to the next segment of the program. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Angelica. And thank you also for all our keynote speakers. It's really great to have such strong allies on our side.

And also welcome from my side also hello to everyone. Good morning, good evening, good afternoon. Everyone's joining online. As mentioned, my name is Marilena Bachmeyer. I'm a representative of the Youth Policy Board of the World Food Forum and I'm the lead of the Young Women Empowerment thematic area.

So I have the pleasure to moderate our panel discussion today with young leaders here by my side. And today's panel discussion we want to focus on how youth input fed into the CSW 70 from an agri food system perspective. So to start with, I would like to walk you a little bit through about the processes we had in preparation for the International Year of the Women Farmer as well as for the csw. So over the past year the Youth assembly conducted in depth consultations and preparatory work leading to this important year. And we were engaging with young people from all over the world to identify priorities which are empowering young women farmers and advancing access to justice and gender equality.

In agri food systems. And you will also hear a little bit more about it later. So we drive these actions in close collaborations with with the World Forum's national chapters which we already heard about. These are self organized national youth platforms which are aligned with the missions of the World Food Forum and they are convened by local actors and networks and they act as a bridge between the global platforms and the communities on the ground. So in this important year, the Youth assembly will continue to amplify the recommendations in global spaces.

And in line with the priorities of the International Year of the Women Farmer, we will deepen specific topics through consultations, while at the same time we work closely with the national chapters and they will adapt these priorities in locally adapted initiatives and actions. And now I already talked enough, so I will now start our conversation with the panel. So I first want to introduce our panelists. To start with, we have Nada Sarmel from the World Food Forum Youth Policy Board and she's also a CSW 70 young leader and she has recorded a video message for us. She was supposed to be here, but as many other gender advocates, she unfortunately cannot join us today in person because of the restrictions of the airspace in the Middle east and it's not safe to her to fly during the recent escalations.

But we are very happy to still have her here with a video message and we surely will hear and see her more in future engagements. Then we have also with us in the room Karla Fushadi Wallace, who is the UN Youth Delegate for Ireland. Then we have with us Malkia John who is the Executive director from Saudi Salama, which is a feministic digital platform which is transforming how survivors of gender based violence in Kenya access help. And we have two representatives of the national chapters of the World Food Forum. We have Francesca Antonucci from the World Food Forum's Italy Youth chapter and Anna Paula Guillen from the Peru chapter.

Thank you so much for all of you that you're here. So, to begin with, Nada will share some details about how the World Food Forum Youth assembly gathered youth inputs under agri food system dimensions of access to justice for young women and in particular how these consultations were conducted, what key priorities emerged and how they are articulated within the CSW 70 process. So please, let's hear from Nader. In her video, the word Food Forum youth has. Ensuring that youth voices meaningfully inform global policy processes is central to our work.

For our contribution to CSW 70, we designed the consultation process to be as inclusive and participatory as possible, recognizing the diversity of experiences among young women in agri food system Building on our year long global processes in 2025 through which engaged over 10,000 young people from more than 130 countries countries and culminated in the Youth Recommendation on Empowering Young Women in Agri Food System launch at the High Level Political Forum in view of the 17th Commission of the Status of Women, we organized targeted follow up consultation focusing specifically on access to justice and land rights for young women. To reach as many young people as possible, we used multiple engagement platforms. This included an online global consultation bringing together youth voices from over 50 countries. These tools allowed us to capture both quantitative trends and deeper qualitative insight from young people across region. The consultation itself was structured around key themes affecting young women in agri food system.

Participants discussed informal and precarious agriculture work, barriers to land ownership and tenure, security and cross cutting issues related to human rights, intersectionality and access to gender justice. These discussions were completed by survey inputs that capture lived experiences, policy priority and concrete recommendation. So first, young women are essential actors in agri food system, yet they remain structurally excluded from the resources and rights needed to fully participate. Across regions, participants highlighted persistent barriers to land ownership, decent work, finance, agriculture inputs and representation in decision making process that shape their livelihood. Second, there is a clear gap between legal commitments and lived realities.

While many laws recognize gender equality, discriminatory norms, weak enforcement and corruption often prevent young women from claiming their rights to land, fair label condition and legal protection. Third, participants emphasize the disproportionate burden of unpaid care and substances labor carried by young women, particularly in rural communities. Although essential to sustaining household and food production, this work remains largely invisible in policy framework. Another key priority raised was the intersection between climate justice and gender equality in agri food system. Climate change acts as threat multiplier, increasing food insecurity and paid labor and vulnerability to to displacement and violence, especially for young women in climate and conflict affected areas.

Many adaptation and climate finance program also unintentionally exclude young women due to land ownership and collateral requirements. In many of these contexts, young women are frontline actors in maintaining food security during crisis, whether responding to droughts, flood and conflict related disruption. Yet they often lack access to resources, technology and decision making power needed to strengthen community resilience. Participants also stress the importance of data monitoring and accountability. The lack of reliable disaggregated data on young women's access to land, justice and economic opportunities makes it difficult to measure progress, ensure accountability and design effective policies.

These priorities informed the youth led recommendations submitted to the CSW 70 process advocating for stronger legal recognition for young women as rights holders in agri food system, improved enforcement mechanism, expanded legal aid for rural young women and greater investment in leadership, legal literacy and climate resilient opportunities. This consultation process was not only about gathering inputs, but about ensuring that young women themselves shape the solution. This paper reflects the voices of thousands of young women across agri food system who, despite facing climate shock, conflict, poverty and institutional inequalities, continue to sustain food system and support community resilience. Our collective responsibility now is to ensure that these voices translate into concrete policies, enforceable rights and real opportunity for young women everywhere. Our call to action is clear.

Include young women decision justice system, invest in youth led solutions and ensure that access to justice reaches the fields, farms and rural communities where so many women sustain our food system. This is why today's meeting is so important and why the collaboration and support of countries such as Ireland, Ghana, Italy and Chile is so appreciated. Today we're not only here to share the priority, we're here to discuss how we build the bridge between priorities and action. Because ensuring access to justice to young women in agri food systems starts today with the choice of listening to these priorities and continue in the next days, weeks and months by investing in youth led solutions and safer for more equitable and just future for all women and girls. Thank you.

Thank you so much Nada for highlighting what all the young women from all over the world shared about their priorities. And your reflection clearly demonstrate how youth led action can meaningfully inform global policy spaces and how they formed this conversation in agri food system Perspectives on Access to Justice. And I know that she's not here, but she's joining us online today, so. And I know how much motivation and heart and sweat she put into this word. So let's give her another big round of applause.

And yeah, maybe one more thing. Talking about access and Chesters, we should also have representative of Ghana here today who could also unfortunately not be able to be here because she has had visa barriers. But we are happy to have a representative from Kenya who joins instead of her. So I would now like to turn over to our panelists in the room and I also should please inform you to keep your interventions to four minutes each. And I would like to start with you Carla.

So the UN Youth Delegate Program is a key mechanism for youth engagement and multilateral processes. In this role, how do you ensure that your advocacy in spaces such as the CSW and its priority area is informed by the perspectives of young people who are traditionally underrepresented in Multilateral forums. And secondly, how would you see your role in making sure that young people from your country are aware and engaged in consultative mechanism such as the World Food Forum Youth assembly and the CSW 70 Global Adolescents and Girls Consultations? Thank you so much. And thank you to all of the organizers of today's side event.

It's a tremendous honour to be here and as well to address those important questions. So I'll start by saying dear Eve Gordje and hello to all friends and colleagues here today. My name is Carla Fashardi Wallace and along with my co delegate Aisling Maloney, we are the UN Youth Delegates for Ireland. And in our role as youth delegates, our advocacy is really guided by three pillars. First, we engage with you young people from across Ireland, both in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland.

We meet them in their schools, we work with them through non formal education and we also engage with them online. Secondly, we fulfil a representative role where we have the opportunity to amplify the voices of young people in Ireland here at the un. And it is our responsibility in turn to ask questions, to challenge our representatives and ourselves, and importantly, to learn. Thirdly, it's our role to then bring what we have learned and worked on in these international spaces back to the young people of Ireland. We are, as we see it, a link of information to enable young people at home to engage in mechanisms such as the World Food Forum Youth assembly, building that bridge from the local to the national and then on to the international.

So how then do we fulfil that mandate in a space such as csw? In February this year, we held a consultation with young people from across Ireland, with each person bringing their expertise of their own lived experiences and among the topics discussed. We asked them what gender equality means to them and I'd like to share some of their priorities and in their words to improve access to reliable information and support services, particularly in rural or marginalised communities. To promote diverse positive representation across genders, in media, in leadership and in public life. To strengthen international action to prevent and address gender based violence, to ensure legal standards, to protect trans rights, to guarantee universal access to quality education for all, to increase global investment and research in women's health and to eliminate child marriage worldwide.

These are some of the messages upon which we as youth Delegates attend csw. Young people in Ireland and young people across the world want to live in a world that is demonstrably improved by the Sustainable Development Goal goals. It's clear to young people that gender equality is intersectional. It requires strong mechanisms that provide access to justice. It requires economic commitment, it requires quality education, and it cuts across all issues because gender rights are human rights.

Not only that, but young people see gender equality through an international lens and have the capacity to demand action on issues that do not directly affect them. To young people, it is intuitive that you reach out your hand to the furthest behind first. That's why the voices of young people must be heard and acted on in spaces such as this. And in that regard, we again thank the organisers for highlighting the important topic of today's event. Because the World Food Forum, Youth assembly and the youth chapter's stand as incredibly positive examples of what meaningful intersectional programs look like that are designed by young people and made for young people that enable us to work with partners and stakeholders from local levels to international institutions.

And I'm inspired to hear from colleagues on the panel today about how that works in action in your local community communities. And so as youth delegates, this empowers us and our youth delegate colleagues from around the world to engage with young women, particularly in our rural communities, and support sustainable pathways for youth leadership and access to justice, and in particular in agri food systems. Gaurav, Maghrib, look forward to hearing the rest of the panel. Thank you,

Thank you so much Karla for those important insights on representation and inclusion. And I also really think that like creating strong local and global mechanisms for youth engagement is so essential to really ensure that youth voices move beyond only consultation to really sustained and meaningful participation in decision making spaces. And that's also exactly what we try to do with the Youth assembly and the World Food Forum. So let me briefly recap last year recommendations and reflect with that the importance of elevating local youth voices to global platforms. So we really wanted to create a youth led action plan that covers the diverse voices and perspectives.

Because when we talk about justice, I think like one of the key basic elements is having the right to have your voice heard. So in the process we collaborated closely with youth led organizations and the World Food Forums national chapters to really try to reach and assure that all the young people are reached that are normally left out of these global policy spaces. So that local networks and organizations could like, yeah, take in all their networks and get in as many voices as possible. And with that we were like really able to cover the lived realities and challenges of young women from all over the world. Nada said it in the beginning that over we got voices from over 100 countries and now we are able to soundboard key priorities in spaces like These and try to advocate for more just as agri food systems and what all the insights we get made clear is that if we talk about justice for women, it is essential to recognize and uphold their human rights.

As we heard like included access to land, access and control over land, finances, education, decent work, just to name a few. And most importantly what also had been mentioned a lot today is in the process of transforming these systems to more just an inclusive one. Young women must be engaged as co designers and decision makers in shaping policies and programs, not just as beneficiaries. And this morning I had a powerful intervention from a young woman from Sophia who is also here in the room with us today. And I was sitting there and just nodding while she was speaking till I got dizzy.

And I think like her quintessence is that we really must to shift the question from how can we teach girls about rights? To why are girls not part of the conversations? So as we move forward we really must emphasize translating commitments into tangible action. So for this reason let me move right away to my KIA for my next question. So you have experience in international bodies such as the W7 and youth advisory boards, but also on the ground experience working on water scarcity, environmental pressures on women and girls.

So how do you see global policy discussions translating into concrete actions at the community level that advances access to justice for young women? And where does this process tend to fall short and what mechanisms are needed to better connect with youth priorities with locally led responses Community protection systems.

Thank you Marilena for that question.

As you have briefed, I sit in international spaces, global policy forums and sports faces through youth advisory boards. I was part simatina there. She's the W7 Secretariat. I was part of the advisor since G7 in Italy to Canada and now in France. I contribute to gender equality conversations, climate resilience and youth participation.

But at the same time I lead Saudi Salama which is a Kenyan feminist and youth led organization that is looking at protection systems for women who are, you know, sorry to be able to participate fully in in the economy and in this case in agri food systems. We are running a climate and care project down in Kenya in two rural communities looking at how climate pressures are increasing, you know, as days go by, as Zada had said, increasing care burdens on women and girls and also looking at how do we support survivors because as we know the denial of rights and the denial of land is a form of economic violence. Right. So how do we then assist survivors of this violence as they are participating in the economy to access Legal support to, to access psychosocial support in any form of support that is needed. Now from that perspective, then global policy discussions then are able to translate into action when they strengthen the local systems through which young women actually access justice.

Now access to justice in this case starts way before even appearing in courts, right? So in many rural courts context it begins with if someone or a young woman in this case trying to participate in agri food systems is denied rights, do they have local organizations around them to support them? You know, can they safely disclose harm? Can they, you know, are they able to, to be given protection services, legal aid and psychosocial support? To give you context, a lot of economic violence, especially in the Kenyan conflict context, and I can speak for it, is a lot of women and they're trying to, you know, inherit land from maybe their fathers and all that they are denied by the basis of them being women or being young women specifically.

Which means then we are hindering their participation in agri food system in, you know, in climate processes and all that in mitigation, in, you know, adaptation in all these process. So it means then for Saudi salama, we have tried to, you know, have entry points into the referral pathways for survivors of economic violence, for women farmers and for anyone who wants to participate. Now climate pressures continuously now are increasing. You know, they are shaping how justice pathways look like through the project. In Isiolo and Kitui we have seen a lot of with now drought coming in and because we work in very drought prone areas, we've seen women and girls walking longer distances to fetch water and experiencing violence in the journey.

We've seen also, you see all these climate pressures are also again as Zara had said, they are increasing care burden or even economic stress in household and that has been seen to increase violence. So these also same pressures will determine if the girls still continue to stay in school. We've seen a lot of increase in school dropout in this rural context. Yes. And so it will eventually then influence if girls continue to participate equitably in agri food systems.

Now again, environmental stability also plays a role in protection systems. We have, we are doing some land and resilience work in Turkana and partnered with, there was irrigation scheme, a very big one that was being done. But the international funding withdrew. So communities were left, you know, without the project and everything. And surprisingly community mobilizes, they mobilized resources and now they are working on land now and through a shared system.

So this type of intervention then is continuing to strengthen young women's participation in local Agri food systems, while it's also now reducing economic stress that often drives, you know, vulnerability and exclusion. Now on the question on where does this process fall short, we sit here in the global policy spaces. We make commitments, member states make commitments, make very beautiful policies. But the translation of these policies into lived community realities is where we are missing. There is either a translation error, let's call it error, translation error, even during implementation, when we are looking at even agri food policies, when you're talking about climate policies, they most of the time Ms. You know, to recognize the nexus.

I've been having a hard time exploring explaining how gender based violence and climate and agri food systems also connect. So we are treating this problem as just like siloed issues, right? We talk about participation of women but not talking about how violence is hindering them from participating in the process. But all hope is not lost. So there are three ways we can continue to, you know, make this practical for local realities.

And one of the thing is because for most local organizations they are still not resourced or very lowly resourced yet the ones doing the work, they're the ones doing the work in community. So looking at partnerships, community organizations that are working in this context, but also looking at climate programming and recognizing, you know, these next and introducing these nexus and protection systems in agri food and climate programming. Yes. And to just do reporting and referral pathways strengthening if women feel safe to participate in these systems. Right.

Then there will be more participation of them. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much Makia for sharing your experience experiences and especially highlighting like the need to not work like in siloed areas, but thinking it all together and due to time I will cut my transition speeches and we'll move right to our next speaker, Anna Paula. I know from previous conversations that the Peru chapter is working on development on financial literacy for agribusiness toolkits addressing young women, especially those with care responsibilities. Can you share how this project is grounded in youth priorities and give more details about what your project developed in the WFF Youth chapter of Peru and how do you think it contributes to more just present and future for women in agri food systems?

Hello everyone, My name is Ana Paul Allen and I'm the representative of the World Food Forum in Peru, specifically of the line of youth women empowerment and education and culture. I'm really happy to be here because I think it's really important to generate more awareness about agri food systems. So I'm really happy to also let you know what we are doing in Peru. And also what you also can reply in your own organization.

So in the line of youth women empowerment, we address a lot of elements and barriers that women suffers every day. For example, the economic gap. The economic gap is really big. And we are going to fight also for the inclusion of women in financial education. Because when we promote this type of education, they can also access to market, they can empower their own decision making.

And also I think that they also can improve their own resilience in agri food systems. And related to the projects that we have, we will implement a decentralized project across regions of our country to combat gender violence and strengthen the economic empowerment of women with agricultural business. And also we choose these regions because they had the highest level of gender violence cases. So also we will estrange the public policies to related to gender issues through youth platforms as the World Food Forum, such as also in partnership with local governments. And it's also think it's really important to alliance with youth organizations because together we are really stronger.

And also we will use our toolkit so that more young people can replicate these projects and that we are carrying on in our own regions. At the Word Forum in Peru. Our project on financial literacy for young women in agrifan systems is not only designed in isolation. We are going to design this toolkit through our project that we are going to make decentralized in our three regions. And also it's directly grounded in identified limits access on financial education tailored to agribusiness realities.

And also we have identified some key elements that is like the structure, burials to credits and especially for young women with outline tantals, the double burden of entrepreneurship and unpaid care responsibilities which limits time mobility and also access to training. The toolkit that we are going to develop is practical accessible to financial literacy toolkit for young women in agri food systems and also especially those balancing product work and care responsibilities. The toolkit that we are going to develop in the next months includes the basic financial planning adapted to seasonal agriculture income. So this type of information are going to adapt to the context. Also cost calculation and pricing strategies for small scale producers.

Also savings are reinvestment models for micro business. There's like all the elements that we are going to make on the toolkit and we are going to develop the project. And also I think it is important to advocate in these public policies we can make a strategic alliance with our local government so they can make the public policies with the gender focus and intersectional focus. So in that way, and only that way we can make A real change. And also this type of work are really being collected with your priorities because it recognizes like insertional barriers.

In Peru, young rural women often face limited land ownerships, informal labor conditions, gender bias in credit allocation, and also time poverty due to impaired work. In the World Food Forum in Peru, in the national chapter, we have like more than 100 volunteers that are really happy to contribute to this type of initiative. And also they are really happy to contribute with local governments, with youth organizations and with the FOUL office there. So that is all the work that we do in the workforce Forum. Thank you,

Anna Paola, for sharing and this week I heard a lot that we already have a lot of the solutions for the issues out there, but we need to scale them. And I think the toolkit sounds like an amazing tool to actually do that. So thank you for that. And now I move to our last but definitely not least speaker, Francesca. The Italian chapter's work related to young women's empowerment is strongly linked to education opportunities and closing the aspiration gap.

What impacts do you believe you have generated or aim to generate through your work in terms of opportunities and access to justice? Reflecting on this, what have been the key challenges and most effective practices?

Thank you so much and thank you to the organizers for having created this space today. Excellencies, delegates and fellow change makers, it's an honor to be here representing the World Food Forum Italy chapter and especially the gender team of the chapter. My name is Francesca Antonucci and as the leader of this dedicated team, I'm here to present a practical instrument for systemic change, which is the Empowerment Kit for Youth in Agri Food Systems.

Our work stems for the thousands of voices heard in the 2025 Global Consultations in Italy. We localized this mandate through a nation serving. We found out that information gap is a massive issue. Italian youth don't lack talent, they lack a roadmap for young women. This is especially exacerbated by a sector that remains structurally exclusionary.

Hence, we have understood that transformative education is the key area to work on. Our empowerment kit is hence a tool designed to dismantle the double discrimination of age and gender. But let me be clear. While this tool employs gender lenses and indeed is gender responsive, it is designed for young men too. We need alliances to change a system that quite frankly, is no longer fit for the purpose.

Alliances are needed and we provide indeed maps of career paths youth don't even know existed, alongside essential guides on financial literacy, on land rights and leadership. As lack of information is the problem, we will bring this kit to Young people. We are taking it directly to universities and schools during the International Year of the Woman Farmer to ensure that the next generation is equipped with gender lenses from day one. And I'm also very happy to announce that it will be available from April 2nd when we will launch it through a dedicated event at FAO headquarters in Rome. This is especially critical because data from the Italian Observatory for Female Entrepreneurs show that women led farms are at the forefront of diversification.

Women don't simply grow food, they are at the forefront of diversification. The lead in agriculturalism, educational farms and social agriculture. We are moving from talking about empowerment to actually providing the tools to achieve it. And education in this sentence is really the key, key to justice. While reflecting on our journey, our vision for the project that we have called Seeds for Change is to triple a ripple effect across the Italian agri food landscape.

We are not just distributing this kit, we want to build an ecosystem of awareness. First, we aim to strengthen leadership, self confidence and and agency. We want that young women don't see themselves just as spectators, but as protagonists of the green transition. Also, we aim to challenge the gender stereotypes and also create a direct bridge to network and resources. And finally, we aim to inspire through direct interaction.

Often the resources do exist, especially in our country, but they are invisible. So we want to. We also worked very hard to encapsulate all the relevant information in this kit. And one of the greatest challenges that we have found while working on this project was doing it as a youth led association without a dedicated core funding. So we had to retrieve time, balancing our professional and academic level lives while doing this job to drive systemic change.

This highlights a creole barrier. We may be invited to the tables, but we are rarely funded to get there in response. Our most valuable practices, our alliances with our tool. We want to demonstrate that by involving young men and institutional leaders, we ensure that the burden of change does not fall solely on the shoulders of women we want to empower. So we have the blueprints, we have the tools, but we need more than an invitation, we need institutional investment and we ask you to join us in building this basic today.

Thank you for inviting us and thank you for your attention.

Much, Francesca. And it's been really inspiring to hear like how these global policy recommendations processes can be translated into local action. And we also know for instance that the Nepal national chapters are localizing actions through for instance skills development workshops in their community. And many more chapters are localizing these initiatives. And every young person is welcome to join their countries or start a new chapter.

So Please. I hope many of you are inspired today as well. And with that, I want to close the panel discussion and hand back to you, Angelica.

Thank you very much, Maria Elena. I think it's been a very rich discussion with, where we've seen concrete local examples where young, empowered women are really acting as agents of change in their own countries, their own communities, to enhance the access to justice for women, young women in agri food systems. And this is particularly important as we celebrate the International Year of the Women Farmer. And I encourage you, as Marilena did, all of you, to get in your own chapter, or if you don't have a chapter, to start one up. It's really a great, great movement.

Unfortunately, we're running a little bit over time we've had, but I think it's been important to hear the different perspectives across the table. We've spoke about that, that that's an important part of the exercise. I would encourage those of you that do have questions to approach panelists outside the room and they may be able to answer the questions. To close this this session, I am inviting another champion of the agri food systems and young women, which is Italy. And our final speaker is Mr. Luca Frattini, the Coordinator for Women Peace and Security and Youth Peace and Security at the Ministry of Foreign affairs and International cooperation of Italy.

Mr. Frattini, you have the floor.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon to everybody, colleagues, distinguished speakers, dear young leaders, let me begin by thanking you all for this insightful discussion. I think today's exchanges have highlighted the importance of ensuring meaningful access to justice for women and girls, including within agri food systems, where strong structural barriers often continue to limit equal opportunities. As we have heard today, women play a vital role across agri food systems, contributing significantly to agricultural production, food security and rural livelihoods.

Yet many young women continue to face persistent obstacles, as we've just heard, in accessing land, productive resources, resources, technologies, markets and decision making processes. Addressing these inequalities is therefore essential not only to advance gender equality, but also to build more inclusive, resilient and sustainable food systems. I think the discussion has also clearly demonstrated the importance of youth leadership, which, as you rightly said, dear Director Angelica, I happen to be a champion of in my national capacity as YPS coordinator, but also as Deputy Director for the United nations and human rights, which I think fits very well in this picture. And by the way, we'll have another event tomorrow morning in this very room on young women and specifically on their role in leading change to peace and justice. That's how young women are important to us.

What you are able to do, in my humble and personal view is you are capable of shaping a better reality both locally and internationally. On the national side, let me say that Italy remains strongly committed to advancing society sustainable and inclusive agri food systems. Just to mention one example, together with Ethiopia, Italy Co organized the UN Food System Summit +4 stock taking moment in July 2025 in Addis Ababa, which provided an important opportunity to reflect on progress, strengthen international cooperation and mobilize investments to accelerate the transformation of food systems systems with particular attention to Africa and to the role of partnerships and innovation. This commitment is also reflected in Italy's long standing partnership with the Rome based UN agencies fao, IFAD and wfp, headquartered in Rome where by the way, I served as Deputy Permanent Representative and Vice Chair of the Committee on World Food Security a decade ago. So it's very good to be back in this environment.

Sorry for the personal note. Italy firmly believes that empowering women and young people is essential to transform agri food systems and to achieve food security for all. In this spirit we support initiatives such as the World Food Forum Italy Food Youth Chapter which in partnership with the Italian National Youth Council Council, promotes youth participation and leadership in sustainable agri food policies. Another takeaway from today's event is that young women's contribution to sustainable agriculture extends far beyond the lands themselves. Through your resilience, knowledge and leadership, you and also the young women farmers, strengthen rural communities, promote sustainable practices and help ensure food security for present and future generations.

Finally, evidence clearly shows that empowering young women in agri food systems, also through education and capacity building as well as localized resourcing, brings far reaching benefits. It improves food security, it strengthens community resilience and it supports the prosperity of society. Societies recognizing and supporting their role is therefore essential to building more inclusive and resilient agri food systems across the world. I thank you very much for your attention and I fully support with all my heart, believe me, this process and this event. Thank you.

Mr. Fattini for the commitment of Italy and your personal commitment to this cause and for stressing the real role of leadership of young women in shaping a better reality, more sustainable, more resilient agri food systems, peace and as well as many other benefits that you mentioned. Thus far, I think we've had a very rich discussion. We've had great keynote speakers, great panelists, great concluding remarks. So I think all in all this has been a very important and inspiring event for all of this. I'm not going to say anything further because we're way over time.

But I'd just like to thank you all for coming, and we look forward to seeing you soon in spaces such as this one. Thank you.