Rome, 12 December - FAO and the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) joined forces to guarantee that future farmers, pastoralists and fishers can meaningfully contribute to decision making processes about food and agriculture.

The 4-day training applying participative learning methods was successful in increasing young food producer’s knowledge on viable tools and governance mechanisms related to food and agriculture, and in opening up a space for the young IPC members to exchange experiences and engage in dialogue with FAO representatives, sharing ideas, concerns and proposals.

As a result of the training, while recognizing the heterogeneous needs among rural youth, young participants and FAO representatives agreed to continue dialogue on key global issues such as agroecology and sustainable agricultural practices, migration and decent youth employment, and youth participation in policy dialogue.

Partnering with youth for rural development

As part of the training, FAO staff provided the young participants with insights into the different modalities FAO is partnering with civil society organizations and possible solutions that can be tailored to their own context. IPC young members also learned about existing FAO’s initiatives and tools targeting rural youth.

By recognizing the key role played by civil society in general and rural youth in particular in the fight against hunger and food insecurity, FAO has developed a dedicated Strategy  which provides a framework and a set of complementary tools for the collaboration between FAO and civil society organizations. Youth are one of the twelve constituencies  identified as main groups of FAO beneficiaries.

With the aim to empower rural youth and to ensure them decent employment in rural areas, FAO offers field-tested and tailor-made educational methodologies which helps youth to gain job-relevant skills for agriculture and off-farm activities. FAO facilitates youth participation in producer organizations to involve them in policy dialogue, and promotes start-up funding opportunities for rural youth to engage in agriculture.

FAO also advocates rural youth needs at global level as an active member of the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD) facilitating the opportunity for youth to voice their opinions and think together about what they can do to achieve sustainable development.