World Food Forum (WFF) – a youth-led movement and network to transform our food systems

1-5 October 2021. The World Food Forum (WFF) – a youth-led movement and network to transform our food systems. 

This event gathered youth to drive awareness, foster engagement, and mobilize youth-led action in support of agri-food systems transformation. The event is the first major follow-up to the United Nations Food Systems Summit, which happened in New York last week.

The world currently produces enough food to feed everyone the world, but last year more than 810 million people went hungry. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the number is growing. An increase in threats like pests, plagues, conflict, and climate change is also worsening the global food crisis. The World Food Forum is empowered by the Youth Committee of FAO. It was created as an independent network of partners tasked with forging a global movement to restore agri-food systems.

This recurring forum features a range of events, including Youth Action Assemby, Innovation Labs, Educational Activities, Cooking, Film and Music.

Extract of the programme:

01/10 International Innovation Award for Sustainable Food and Agriculture 

Since 2018, FAO and the Federal Government of Switzerland encourage innovation by publically recognizing best practices through the International Innovation Award for Sustainable Food Systems. The award does not only acknowledge digital innovation, but also new or existing products or practices that are used in a specific context, to increase effectiveness, competitiveness and resilience.

Category A - The Award for Digitalization and Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems (Category A) recognizes innovations that impact more than one level of supply chain and strengthen the link between farmers and consumers.

• Ifarm360 is awarded for leveraging technology to enable investors to crowd-fund smallholder farmers in Kenya. In addition to access to finance, Ifarm360 offers smallholder farmers crop advisory and supervision, as well as farm inputs and equipment such as solar irrigation kits. Ifarm360 also guarantees market access through a network of aggregation hubs - physical structures located within farming communities – that enable bulking-up of produce to meet the demand of large off-takers

Category B - The Award for innovations that empower youth in agriculture and food systems (Category B) recognizes innovations that empower youth (under 35) in agriculture and food systems.

• Access Agriculture AISBL has been recognized for enabling young people in local communities, acting individually or as a team, to use solar-powered technology to show farmer-to-farmer training videos in local languages in remote villages with no electricity or internet access and poor mobile signal. The ERAs are equipped and trained to use the Digisoft Smart Projector which contains all Access Agriculture videos in more than 85 local languages. Access Agriculture has proven to be a valuable tool for farmers who can access this paid service, boosting the incomes of farming families, while also improving the environment, using agroecological principles.
• Bountifield International is awarded for offering young people in rural areas new opportunities as postharvest technology entrepreneurs who can provide a fee-for-service to farmers allowing them to process, preserve and sell their crops. Bountifield’s ‘business in a box' model equips them with the necessary technology, access to financing, and information they need to drive agri-business value addition, reduce food loss and increase growth across rural Africa. Bountifield works with local suppliers to develop and disseminate manual threshers and multi-crop grinders to women farmers, including women groups engaged in value addition.

02/10 Transformative Research Challenge Awards Ceremony

The WFF Transformative Research Challenge jury panel was chaired by FAO Chief Economist, Máximo Torero, who also judgde the Better Life category. Jury panelists included: Ismahane Eloufi, Chief Scientist at FAO and judge for the Better Environment category ; Longbao Wei Qiushi chair professor of applied economics and agribusiness, Director of Food and Agribusiness Management Institute, Zhejiang University and judge for the Better Production category; Milka Sokolović, Director General of the European Public Health Alliance and judge for the Better Nutrition category.

Better Production

• The pursuit of sustainable pork production: a metabolic approach 
• Prebio-tech: scaling alternative protein with prebiotic 

Better Nutrition

• Addressing the demand gap for sweet biofortified with low cyanide content cassava varieties for the fresh market segment in Nigeria
• Utilizing natural variation to create healthier and more nutritious food

Better Environment

• Development of spatially explicit decision support systems to identify unexploited lands for sustainable cropland expansion responding to future food demands with minimum environmental impacts in Benin
• Understanding irrigation behavioural change as a result of adopting water saving technologies - a Case Study from Jordan

Better Life

• TRANSNUTCARE - nutrition care for transgender community
• Eradicate Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) and improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers in developing countries. Evidence from Senegal

05/10 from 9:00 to 10:00 am Youth transforming world’s food systems- (EU/CIRAD/FAO)

Since 2020, national governments and food systems actors in 50 countries have collaborated with the EU, FAO and CIRAD to carry out participatory food systems assessments in support of the transition to more sustainable food systems. 

This side event focused on the youth aspects of the Rapid Food Systems Assessment results which have identified a set of sustainability issues that emerge across regions; and singled out some levers for continued engagement of youth in a sustainable and dynamic food system. 

This side event brought together young people who are currently being innovative in food systems and implementing game changing actions in their fields to discuss the impact of their work on their communities and the recommendation and inspirations they can provide to other young food systems actors (current or aspiring).

• Pooja Khosla, moderator, economist, former. Worked for the Andhra Pradesh Drought Mitigation Project (APDMP):
• 
  Siny Samba, food processing engineer, co-founder and CEO of “LE LIONCEAU”: https://www.le-lionceau.com/en/about-us/
• Gilbert Mwale, co-founder of an agricultural e-commerce company called eMsika in Zambia: www.emsika.com
• Dr. Ibne Ali is a young and dynamic veterinarian, dedicated to supporting young people engaged in livestock activities in India and across the globe https://www.youtube.com/c/AlisVeterinaryWisdom/about
• Derval McLean, President of the Cascade Farmers’ Association, in Jamaica.

Resources:

• Bhutan early insight (July 2021); 
• Madagascar early insight (September 2021); 
• Burkina Faso early insight (September 2021); 
• Nepal early insight (September 2021) 
• Burkina Faso country profile (in French)

OTHER EVENTS

• 04/10 Youth Action Assembly Workshop on creating youth consultative processes in agriculture and food policy (YPARD) (8:30-10:00)
• 04/10 The importance of plant health and the role of youth in transforming our agri-food systems (IPPC) (12:00-13:00)
• 04/10 Growing entrepreneurs for sustainable and inclusive food systems (SIANI/Sweden) (13:00-14:00)
• 04/10 How can we attract youth into agriculture? Exploring youth as drivers of agricultural economic growth in Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and beyond (Clinton Foundation) (16:00-17:00)
• 05/10 Coordinating Youth Action: Toward a resilient and sustainable food system in Africa (Nourishing Africa) (08:00 - 09:00)
• 05/10 Opportunities for Youth in Africa: Innovative local transformation and value addition of production through digitalization (FAO/UNIDO) (13:00-14:30)