About FAO News Multimedia Main topics Statistics Members Publications

FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in New York

STI Forum Side-event organized by WFF: Youth-led Innovation

Reflections on the Interventions & Closing Remarks by Vincent Martin, Director, Office of Innovation, FAO

08/05/2024

  • Thank you. Firstly, I want to start by acknowledging the outstanding contributions of the young innovators and scientists who are driving positive change in agrifood systems in collaboration with FAO and the World Food Forum.
  • A special thanks to Carol Bellamy, Chair of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund and former Executive Director of UNICEF, for her inspiring opening remarks. And to Ambassador Lasseur for your valuable insights and for the continued support from the Kingdom of the Netherlands to empower young leaders.
  • I would like to applaud the youth-led initiatives and the innovative approaches to transforming agrifood systems that have been showcased at this event, including:
    • Wetlands4Nepal – who have developed their project in the World Food Forum's Youth Food Lab Incubator programme in partnership with Wageningen University and Research. Thank you as well to the Kingdom of the Netherlands for their generous support of this programme;
    • Also to Zebra Cropbank – the winners of last year’s World Food Forum Startup Innovation Awards powered by Extreme Tech Challenge. It is critical that we support young entrepreneurs like Buffy to create these game changing innovations in support of ending hunger and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
    • And further, on the research side, congratulations to Nancy Nson Nswal winner of last year’s Global One Health special prize in the WFF’s Transformative Research Challenge - hosted by Wageningen University and Research and FAO. I am glad to see that her research proposal is continuing to get support from both organizations. It is critical that we give young researchers the opportunities and resources to bring their new ideas to life;
    • And finally, I want to congratulate the WFF Young Scientists Group for their work. I look forward to reading your upcoming report and to welcoming you to the World Food Forum this October where I know you will play an active role in our FAO Science and Innovation Forum throughout that week.
  • I am also looking forward to seeing the impact of the WFF-UNIDO Youth Startup Accelerator Program and the opportunities it will bring to innovative, youth-led projects looking to solve the issue of food loss in various contexts around the world. This shows the power of collaboration- when we bring together the expertise of UN Agencies like FAO and UNIDO to support talented young people, the impact can grow exponentially.
  • At FAO, we have prioritized technology and innovation as two key accelerators in our FAO Strategic Framework. Indeed, science and innovation can be a powerful engine to transform agrifood systems and end hunger and malnutrition when accompanied by strong institutions, good governance, political will, enabling regulatory frameworks, and effective measures to promote equity among agrifood system actors.
  • I would urge the wide range of stakeholders who are joining us in person and online at this year’s STI Forum - including governments, private sector and civil society organizations, academia, investors - to continue to support youth and youth-led solutions, and to foster an environment that empowers young people to lead, to innovate and to become drivers of positive change.
  • And for the young people watching today, you have seen several ways where your ideas can receive concrete support and resources. I urge all young agrifood systems researchers with an innovative idea to apply to this year's WFF Transformative Research Challenge where there will be more than USD 200 000 in research grants and prizes available.  And for young entrepreneurs and youth-led startups that are transforming agrifood systems, I encourage you to apply to the WFF Startup Innovation Awards, powered by Extreme Tech Challenge, and with partners like FAO and UNIDO. This competition gives young leaders and entrepreneurs the platform, exposure and support to scale up and develop their initiatives so that they can fulfil their full potential.
  • Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to all the participants, speakers and organizers for their valuable contributions. I invite you all to join us in October in Rome for the fourth World Food Forum, including another session of the FAO Science and Innovation Forum. Let us work to empower the next generation and to positively transform our agrifood systems together.  Thank you.