AGRA, in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, is on a transformative journey with Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Agriculture (YEFFA), a five-year program aimed at increasing the participation of African youth and young women's in the African food systems transformation initiative. The program, aims to drive food systems transformation, creating dignified job opportunities for the youth, with a strong focus on female inclusion and participation. The program seeks to foster an environment that encourages entrepreneurship, market access, agricultural productivity, financial inclusion, and youth involvement in governance across Africa.
A major challenge is bridging the gap between Africa’s youth potentials and their access to resources, trainings/mentorships, and platforms for policy influence. Despite their enthusiasm to contribute to African agricultural development, resilience and sustainability, the youth are often faced with barriers such as limited and no access to land, capital, and are often not included in decision-making processes, limiting their ability to fully participate in and influence the agricultural and policy environment.
This side-event convened as part of the Evidence to Action Conference and Exhibition (E2A conference) seeks to bring together diverse young people within the agriculture and agri-food space in Ghana, policy makers and the project implementing partners to discuss and share knowledge on policy actions necessary for empowering the youth in Ghana within the agriculture space; the side-event will also lead to addressing climate change related issue, and ensuring food systems transformation in Africa.
The 2022 climate report on the state of climate in Africa indicated that Africa is still warming faster than the rest of the world, disrupting the already existing fragile agricultural systems in the continent, this calls for a joint action. Africa’s food systems will continue to face challenges due to increased droughts, intense heat waves, storms, rising sea levels, floods, and wildfires. The youth are the most vulnerable to climate shocks, often bearing the brunt of environmental changes that disrupt their livelihoods, education, and future opportunities. Thus, it is important to provide support to the youth and their institutions in developing a comprehensive understanding of the current systems and to jointly formulate the innovations necessary for adapting to climate change.
The need to address climate change related issues in Africa, particularly in favour of youth, has prompted the emergence of various initiatives, projects and programmes in Africa. The goal of the collaboration between Master Card Foundation and AGRA is aimed at mobilizing and empowering young Africans to actively engage in climate action and activities. Through the project we recognize that strengthening these youth platforms and networks will contribute to the identification of jobs within the agri-sector and innovative income opportunities; thereby employing about 1.5 million young people in dignified and fulfilling jobs in Africa's food systems.
The youth convening side-event in Ghana is part of the efforts to involve the Ghanaian youth into this series of African country youth dialogues and networks for collaboration, knowledge exchange, and coordinated among the youth at country level.
The objective of the convening is to promote discussions between young Ghanaians and key stakeholders in the agricultural sector to enhance youth empowerment for a better understanding of needs and priorities and to identify opportunity areas in the sector in the wake of climate change.
The workshop will bring together stakeholders in the areas of food and land use systems – agriculture, SMEs, policy, water, resilience to climate change, natural resources management, sustainable consumption, healthy diets; among others.
The conference will consist of plenary sessions, panel sessions, covering a range of topics related to food systems, including:
