World Food Forum at the HLPF 2021: side-event on youth and agri-food systems transformation

Speakers' bios

QU Dongyu, who took office on 1 August 2019 as Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, has spent his life working on how to make sure the world is fed.

Born in 1963 to a rice-growing family in China’s Hunan Province, Qu studied horticultural science at Hunan Agricultural University and then plant breeding and genetics at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He later added environmental science to his knowledge portfolio while earning a PhD at Wageningen University, in the Netherlands.

Before coming to FAO, Qu served as China’s Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, where one of his achievements was to promote inclusive and innovative development and make sure information and communication technologies (ICT) were available in rural areas so that more than 400 million farmers could use their smartphones as a new farming tool. As Vice Governor of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, one of China’s landlocked and poorest areas, Qu formulated action plans aimed at poverty reduction, disaster reduction and prevention, women empowerment, agritourism and mutual learning platforms designed to boost trust between ethnic groups.

Qu says he represents the combination of an “Asian soul” and a “global mind”. Recognized for scientific innovation as a young scholar, Qu has for 30 years been involved in international exchanges and orchestrated major events including the World Potato Congress, the International Rice Congress and the International Conference on Plant Protection, and participated in multilateral initiatives such as the World Trade Organization and the G20 as well as numerous bilateral initiatives involving Asia, Africa and Latin America. He has also directly helped design flagship South-South Cooperation projects with FAO and the World Bank.

Read the complete biography here. Watch the Director-General's video message here or watch the key highlights here.

H.E. Fabiana Dadone, Minister for Youth Policies, Italy

Ms. Fabiana Dadone, born on 12 February 1984, holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Turin. As a political activist, Ms. Dadone has worked to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.  

She was elected at the 2013 Italian general election with the Five Star Movement. Throughout the 2013-2018 parliamentary term, she was a Member of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the phenomenon of mafias and other criminal associations. She also joined the Committees on Constitutional Affairs, Affairs of the Office of the Prime Minister, Home Affairs, Organization of the State and the Civil Service and Elections.

In 2015, she became the leader of the Five Stars Movement’s Parliamentary Group in the Chamber of Deputies.

In 2018, she was elected for a second term and, in 2019, she became Minister of Public Administration. During her mandate, she introduced significant measures of digitalisation of the Italian public administration. Ms. Dadone is currently responsible for youth policies in the government of Mr. Draghi. 

Read her statement here. Watch the key highlights of her intervention here.

H.E. Shamma bint Suhail Faris Al Mazrui, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, United Arab Emirates

Previously, H.E. Shamma worked in Private Equity at ADIC. She also worked as a public policy analyst at the UAE Mission to the UN, as a Policy Analyst with the Prime Minister’s Office, as a Research Analyst at the UAE Embassy in DC, and as an Education Policy Researcher at Tamkeen.

H.E. Shamma holds a M.P.P with Distinction from the University of Oxford (2015), a B.A. in Economics with a concentration in Finance from NYUAD (2014) and was the UAE’s first Rhodes Scholar. She lives in Abu Dhabi with her husband and their son, Abdullah.

Read her statement here. Watch the key highlights of her intervention here.

Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth

Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake was appointed as the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth in June 2017 at the age of 26. In this role, Jayathma works to expand the UN’s youth engagement and advocacy efforts across all four pillars of work – sustainable development, human rights, peace and security and humanitarian action – and serves as a representative of and advisor to the Secretary-General.

Originally from Sri Lanka, Ms. Wickramanayake has worked extensively on youth development and participation, and has played a key role in transforming the youth development sector in her home country. Prior to taking up her post, Ms. Wickramanayake was instrumental in creating the movement for civic and political engagement of young people, especially young women in Sri Lanka named “Hashtag Generation”. Previously, she advocated for global youth development on an international level including as the first ever Sri Lankan Youth Delegate to the United Nations and as the youth lead negotiator and member of the International Youth Task Force of the World Conference on Youth 2014 where she played a critical role in mainstreaming youth in the Post-2015 Process and in the establishment of World Youth Skills Day.

On the occasion of this event, Ms. Wickramanayake said: “To give the world the best chance of achieving a sustainable food future, it’s time to let youth lead the transformation of food systems as true equals.”

“Young people's leadership, as seen in the global youth movement, is agile in its nature and puts inclusivity and justice at its center. When youth lead the transformation of agriculture-food systems as equal partners, the world has a better chance of achieving a better food future: one that leverages from systemic change while remains central to grassroots principles. It's time to let youth lead."

Watch the key highlights of her intervention here.

Pramisha is a climate justice and sustainable food systems youth advocate from Nepal. She has an experienced history of following UN negotiations, lobbying and influencing decision from youth perspective. She is also a research enthusiast and aspires to build a better world for everyone, with her learnt skills, expertise and experience. Pramisha is also part of International Youth Climate Movement (YOUNGO) and Real Food Systems.

Major Group for Children and Youth

Children and Youth constituency to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Mustapha Diyaol-Haqq is the co-founder of Okuafo Foundation. A social enterprise that is providing farmers across West Africa with low-cost precision agriculture services. Okuafo Foundation works on delivering real-time AI powered early pest detection through its smartphone app, Okuafo AI. Using the app, farmers can monitor their crops for pests and take sustainable actions that do not only ensure the protection of the food, but also protects the environment from harmful chemicals through wrong pesticide use. 

With Okuafo Foundation’s shared device program, a farmer is selected as a lead and given a smartphone with the Okuafo AI app installed and he or she serves a community.

Giacomo Molteni, Young change maker and youth advocate, Bites of Transfoodmation (BoT)

Originally from the state of Michigan in the United States, Giacomo has since studied finance in Switzerland and environmental policy in the Netherlands. His passion for food and strong interest in the potential for positive systemic transformations led him to focus on understanding how the intersection of finance and policy can create sustainable, equitable, and regenerative food systems. Giacomo currently works as an ESG Analyst at a private equity firm in Paris, France, while remaining an active member of the Bites of Transfoodmation project and young change maker network. Giacomo will represent Bites of Transfoodmation as a young change maker and youth advocate, having worked on the development and concretization of the group’s vision and project outputs since its inception.

Maureen is a Nutritionist in Kenya who is passionate about the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 and is a member of the UN Food Systems Summit Action Track 1 leadership team. She is the founder of a social enterprise called Tule Vyema.

She rolls up her sleeves to do what she loves best – fighting hunger, malnutrition and poverty. Her efforts to raise awareness of proper feeding habits and improve food security in her community has enabled her to impact over 2,000 community members by equipping them with nutrition knowledge through nutrition education talks and improved food security through training young women to cultivate indigenous vegetables on vertical gardens in over 800 low-income earning households.

Her transformative work through Tule Vyema has been recognized by local and global organizations such as UNESCO MGIEP, Food Tank, Croplife International, Oxfam and Global Changemakers.

Jim Leandro P. Cano, Global Focal Person, YPARD; Chair, Youth Alliance for Zero Hunger; and Member, 16th High-Level Panel of Experts United Nations Committee for World Food Security

 Jim is an agvocate for mainstreaming youth engagement across food systems processes, as well as digital agriculture. He serves as a Board Member to the professional organization for agriculturists in the Philippines - Philippine Association of Agriculturists (PAA), and also the science-policy think tank that hosts National Scientists and National Academicians in agriculture and related sciences - Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines (CAMP). 

Jaee Sanjay Nikam is the Coordinating Lead Author for the GEO6 for Youth report. In the past, she has worked as a Research Fellow for the various GEO products including, GEO6 and UNEP's Making Peace with Nature report. For her full time job, she works as a Research Associate with Stockholm Environment Institute. Her key focus areas are circular economy and youth advocacy, where she is responsible for conducting and managing Asian country case studies for multi-country projects. Prior to her current position, Jaee has had experience with working with environmental consultancies, NGOs and IGOs in six countries. She holds a Masters of Science and Technology in Environmental Technology Management from Arizona State University.

Access the GEO6 for Youth report here. 

Sadie Red Eagle, Research Associate at the National Congress of American Indians

Alberta is the Chair of Y20 Italy, the G20 engagement group for youth. She is the Founder and President of the Young Ambassadors Society, the association aimed at fostering civic engagement of young people with the support of the Italian Government and Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She works in the financial sector and she holds a MSc in Economics from Bocconi University. 

Dr. Rachel V. Brown is a 30 year old proud Jamaican woman who has recently began as a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism. In 2020, she earned her PhD from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona with a thesis focusing on the impact of Social Media Activism, she earned her Master's degree in Law from Wake Forest University, and her Bachelors degree from the University of Southern California. She is the Co-founder and Executive Director of the Every Mikkle Foundation and the Vice President of Global United Diaspora. Her work has taken her to 31 countries where she has conducted projects in many fields including ending hunger, the environment, youth advocacy, women's empowerment, health, culture, education, the performing arts, and sports. In 2019 she was named one of the Caribbean's 30 under 30. She has also served as a Global Youth Ambassador for A World At School since 2015. Dr. Brown is an activist who believes we have the power and duty to heal, protect, and restore our earth and its people by first educating others and then implementing impactful changes.