African Youth Summit on Food Systems, Agroecology Billed for Oct 14-16 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

In the lead-up to World Food Day 2024 the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), a broad alliance of different civil society actors promoting food sovereignty and agroecology in Africa, will hold its 1st One Thousand African Youth Summit on Food Systems and Agroecology come October 14-16 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Summit themed: “African Youth Showcasing Agroecological Opportunities in Adapting to the Climate Crisis to Address Food System Challenges in Africa” is designed to be solution-oriented and will strive to enhance the capacity of young African leaders in policy advocacy to enable them to participate in and influence the integration of agroecology in national policies for climate resilience.

The Summit seeks to establish and strengthen a pan-African platform of young African leaders and practitioners’ food sovereignty and agroecology and encourage collaboration, innovation, and collective action towards climate resilience as well as promoting capacity on sustainability and resilient practices.

A statement by AFSA Secretariat said the Summit was inspired by the understanding that mere discussions and identification of challenges are insufficient to drive meaningful change. Thus, the Secretariat said the convening will go beyond rhetoric by actively seeking innovative ideas, practical recommendations, and actionable plans to address the complex challenges of Africa’s food systems.

“We will explore agroecological entrepreneurship in the context of the climate crisis, technological innovations for adaptation through agroecology, leveraging indigenous and local community knowledge and practices to address issues related to the food and climate crisis as well as approaches to minimizing conflicts in the context of the climate crisis through agroecology, and building resilience through biodiversity conservation in agroecology to cope with the climate crisis,” reads the statement.

The hybrid Summit will be physically attended by 200 African youth leaders from across 50 African countries while over 1000 youth from across Africa will participate virtually. The participants will include farmer groups, entrepreneurs, climate activists, biodiversity activists, local media, and government representatives, among others.