With the start of the year 2026, the newly reactivated YPARD Germany Chapter joined members of the YPARD Global team at the 18th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) hosted in Berlin, Germany. YPARD Germany Co-Country Representatives - Arnaz Dholakia and Pritha Mandal - traveled from Hamburg, Germany to mark the second official engagement of the national chapter, share their vision, and engage with the diverse stakeholders at GFFA.
The GFFA presented Arnaz and Pritha their first opportunity as YPARD Germany Co-Country Representatives to join the YPARD GCU team at the exhibition stand. They learned about YPARD Global’s engagement and contributions towards the WYNA programme, which aims to centrally position women and youth in the African agro-food system, advancing the goals of the KCOA network.
Arnaz and Pritha were inspired by the stories of fellows supported by the WYNA programme. Funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the WYNA programme supports women and youth in a number of African countries to develop and enhance their unique solutions towards building a sustainable and community-focused agro-food society. Starting from small-scale mushroom production to producing a locally sourced drink from Hibiscus flowers, the projects of these fellows demonstrated YPARD’s missions of community engagement, leadership training, and green livelihoods.
At the GFFA convention, Arnaz and Pritha engaged with diverse participants who visited the YPARD exhibition stand. They introduced the chapter’s objective of gauging youth involvement in German agriculture and working to enhance it. When interested stakeholders enquired of their plan to achieve this objective, Arnaz and Pritha discussed their unique approach: YPARD Germany hopes to engage with (youth) farmers who are involved in German agriculture to understand their motivation behind being part of this sector. The team then aims to convey this motivation to a broader section of German youth by organizing relevant workshops, knowledge cafes, and farm visits. Through this positivistic approach, YPARD Germany ultimately hopes to enhance youth involvement in the German agro-food system.
The GFFA provided a key opportunity to YPARD Germany to meaningfully network with key stakeholders in the agrifood systems sector from all over the world. They discussed how their research led them to reactivate YPARD Germany in July, 2025 with colleagues from GIZ, including Laura Perschell, Stephanie Zeiss, and Florian Peloschek. Apart from GIZ representatives, Arnaz and Pritha also engaged with researchers, project managers, working professionals, and students from governmental and academic institutions across Germany. These included representatives from the German Office for International Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training (GOVET), Netherlands Food Partnership (NFP), the Alfred Wegener Institute’s (AWI), Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, and GFA Consulting Group GmbH in Hamburg, Germany.
The networking platform at the GFFA supported YPARD Germany to increase their professional connections, with the aspiration to develop meaningful collaborations and exchanges with GIZ and other partners as they move forward with the national YPARD chapter.
Along with other stakeholders, the GFFA, and specifically the Cooperation Market, saw a number of student attendees from various universities across Germany. Through their engagement at the Cooperation Market stand, YPARD Germany thus got the opportunity to converse with potential new members for the national chapter.
Arnaz and Pritha spoke to interested students and early-career researchers from universities as well as research organizations based in Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Bonn, and Münster. Talks centered around joining YPARD Germany in several active roles - Advocacy & Policy, Community Engagement, Social Media, or the very interesting “Design My Role”, which Arnaz and Pritha like to call the attractive DMR.
