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The Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) was called upon to make a submission at the Regional ‘High Level Multi-Stakeholder Policy Dialogue, 2024. The dialogue took place from the 6th to 9th August 2024 in Lilongwe, Malawi under the theme “Policy towards Transforming Africa’s Agriculture and Food Systems.”
The dialogue generated nuanced discussions among various stakeholders in the agri-food space on the pathways to transform Africa’s agri-food systems. The topics that were discussed included: Improving and Increasing Production Sustainably; Building Resilience in Agriculture and the Food Systems; Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture and the Food Systems.
The Regional Coordinator, YPARD Africa spoke in the plenary sesion of the first day on Policy Pathways to Transformed Food Systems. This discussion explored the policy pathways necessary to achieve these goals, focusing on innovative frameworks, regional and national coordination, and the role of various stakeholders, including governments, development agencies, and young professionals in agriculture. Kofi Acquaye took the opportunity to share some insights and strategies in driving policy reforms and implementation for a more resilient and equitable food system. As part of his submission, he highlighted the Role of the Young Professional in shaping Agricultural Policies.
The role of the youth in shaping agricultural policies was presented in four folds:
The documentation of our experiences as youth within the agrifood systems helps provide evidence-based information to feed into policy formation or reforms. This can be done through approaches such as Experience Capitalization as was carried out through YPARD, FARA (TAAT-CDTO) and IITA’s Continental Youth Workshop in which cases of youth engagement initiatives were drafted through an experience capitalization process to inform the development of a practical and realistic action plan to strengthen youth initiatives for technology deployment..
Youth can push for reforms that support youth to thrive in agriculture and agribusiness. Arrangement of partnerships with like minded partners to strengthen and augment the voice and youth for inclusion in policy development. This kind of alliances creates space to allow for combined efforts while boosting the strengths of the various organizations.
Also, It is important to package the youth’s vision of technogies and innovation for interpretation and inclusion in policy formulation. The youth should take up the challenge through foresight to generate and prove the technologies and innovations that reduce the challenges within the agri-food systems. . The development of new methods and practices can be translated into policy recommendations. This is one way of influencing policy direction towards a tech-driven and yet sustainable system.
Youth assist with the interpretation and transfer of policy to our peers through the work we do.
(eg. discussions in the YPARD Café- a virtual/hybrid space of experience sharing and knowledge exchange among young practitioners in the agriculture and food systems sector. The goal of the Series is to open up a space for audiences to engage with ongoing agricultural projects and discuss agrifood systems topics with experts from different organizations. The Series also covers technical sessions aimed at promoting capacity building on different themes.)
As youth we have the responsibility to tell our story ourselves and to challenge the status-quo while showcasing the ways in which we have navigated the complexities. Youth have the responsibility to get involved in the evaluation processes determining the effectiveness of policies.
(African youth are already engaging in a critical analysis of the Third CAADP Biennial Review as well as in the Fourth Biennial Review process. These young professionals are engaging in seven out of the nine Thematic Working Groups designed around the Commitment Areas of the CAADP Biennial Review.)
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