On May 22, the AgriProFocus Network, in close collaboration with the Food & Business Knowledge Platform,  facilitates the third Community of Practice (CoP) around Youth in Agribusiness and food systems, entitled “Changing food systems and the power of youth – How do youth-led organisations organise themselves, and (how) can we support them?”

Youth needs to be involved in agriculture, to create employment, build up livelihood opportunities and engage in community development. We all agree. The assumption is that youth can act as change makers within their communities. There is a host of interventions to support them, from developing their skills to getting them organised. Despite, barriers persist for young people to succeed in agriculture. However, what do we know about how young people organise themselves and try to change food systems and how they work? There is much we can learn from youth here, from the diversity, the creativity and the organisational approaches through which they work and contribute to change and innovate food systems.

In this 3rd Community of Practice meet-up, Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation (WCDI) would like to share with you the insights of two recent studies on this issue. The first one being “Youth in Agricultural Cooperatives: Opportunities & challenges” by the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), WCDI and the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD). The second study, by WCDI, is still ongoing. It concerns a scan involving over 100 youth-led organisations, exploring how young people are organising themselves and try to influence elements of the food systems. We like to share some first insights and discuss with you about some of the questions the scan raised. Your experiences and insights will help us taking this research further!

Do you want to know more about this event? Would you like to take part in this meet-up? You can register via this link.

In case you have any questions, please contact Babs Ates or Rolf Schinkel  for more information.