From Strategy to Action: Youth leadership in agri…

While we currently produce enough food to feed every man, woman and child in the world, there are nearly 700 million people who are hungry, a number which is growing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. An increase in threats like pests, plagues, conflicts and climate change are compounding this global food crisis. The 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report "The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development" identified transforming agri-food systems and nutrition patterns as an entry point to accelerate progress towards the 2030 Agenda.

To mobilize action and identify solutions to address these threats, the Youth Committee of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched the World Food Forum powered by global youth (WFF) – a youth-led movement and network of partners, created for and led by youth, to spark a movement to transform our global agri-food systems and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 2 on "zero hunger" and other SDGs under review in the HLPF 2021 such as SDG 1 "no poverty", and SDG 13 "climate action".

This side event at the 2021 High-level Political Forum (HLPF) aims to give youth a platform to engage in a dialogue with Member States, major groups and other stakeholders and the UN Systems, proposing ideas to deliver on the goals of agri-food systems transformation and building back our societies and economies post-COVID-19, which are essential for the achievement of the SDGs, and jointly identifying partnerships and action necessary to transform ideas into results. It will also provide an initial set of recommendations from youth to global leaders involved in the implementation of SDG 2, stemming from the ECOSOC Youth Forum (April 2020) and an in-depth survey ahead of the HLPF 2021. In doing so, the side-event will also contribute to solidifying and reinforcing the WFF as a permanent independent global youth platform and network of youth-related partners and energize the global youth movement for food, placing young people into the centre of attaining systemic changes in the agri-food system for a better food future for everyone, everywhere.