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Young family farmers: acting today for a better tomorrow.
April 2023.- In order to strengthen the implementation of the 2nd Pillar of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028 (UNDFF) on supporting youth and generational change in family farming, the World Rural Forum (WRF) is encouraging the creation of a group of young people from around the world to strengthen their capacities and facilitate access to strategic dialogue spaces on issues related to family farming, as well as the response to major global challenges, such as the transformation of food systems and the sustainability of the planet.
It is clear that it is young people who will sustain family farming in the future, but action must be taken today. The future of agriculture cannot be fully guaranteed unless young farmers have secured and systematic access to agricultural policy dialogue and decision-making spaces at different levels.
As they face the forthcoming effects of climate change and the difficulties of ensuring the profitability of their production, it is imperative that young people become protagonists in policy formulation and implementation processes that will enable them to benefit from adequate conditions for a dignified living off the sector and to face major challenges, such as the sustainability (economic, environmental and social) of the food systems of which they are a fundamental part.
The Family Farming Youth Core Group (Family Farming YCG), promoted by the WRF in the UNDFF framework, is an informal space for dialogue among young leaders from different regional and national agricultural organisations from all 5 continents (Central Africa, West Africa, East and Southern Africa, Asia, Pacific, Caribbean, Central America, South America, Canada and Spain). Through this space, they can consolidate networking, exchange experiences and collaborate in order to promote public policies for young family farmers and strengthen youth leadership at different levels.
Currently composed of a dozen young people, following the identification implemented in coordination with regional family farming organisations (AFA, COPROFAM, PDRR, PROPAC, PIFON, ESAFF, AACARI, ROPPA), the Family Farming YCG offers a unique space to push for the implementation of the UNDFF’s Global Action Plan through pillar 2. Which should be used to facilitate access to spaces for strategic dialogue and to position rural youth representatives as protagonists in family farming negotiations (sustainable food systems or climate change, for example).
4TH NATIONAL RURAL YOUTH FESTIVAL IN BRAZIL
The 4th National Rural Youth Festival: “Sowing resistance and cultivating a new world“, will gather around five thousand young people between April 25th and 27th 2023, in Brasilia, Brazil.
A Family Farming YCG delegation will participate in this training and mobilization space to exchange experiences and initiatives on public policies, food sovereignty, political empowerment and to advocate for rights that improve the relevance of rural youth in the countryside and in policy dialogue and negotiation spaces.
Among the expected results, strategies will be determined to strengthen the joint action of rural youth in political dialogue spaces at the regional and international levels. It is precisely through this perspective that we will seek to articulate some of the results of the National Rural Youth Festival with other international political dialogue spaces.
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