 Thank you so much. Good morning. Good afternoon and good evening to all of you who are joining from around the world for this very timely conversation about the power of youth for agricultural transformation with the views from sub-Saharan Africa. We have approximately 650 colleagues who are joining us virtually from all around the world. And while we wish we could meet in person, the silver lining in all of this is that these virtual events allow us to engage with so many more leaders fighting the good fight at global, regional, national and local levels. So thank you so much for joining us. My name is Nabiha Khazi Hutchins, and I'm the founder of the International Development Agency Humanitas Global, which works on the front lines with partner institutions to build community resilience, improve youth development outcomes and hunger and malnutrition in our lifetime. My class is proud to serve as a secretariat for the movement to advance school-based agricultural education, and I'm honored to facilitate this discussion. I'd like to thank the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Alliance to End Hunger for co-hosting this event. A few quick housekeeping notes and we will get to it then. I hope that today's webinar is being recorded and it will be shared with all participants after the event. The event is also being live streamed on Twitter via the handle at FAO North America. You can also add your questions for panelists via the Q&A box. And what we ask is if you will please address your questions to specific panelists and include your organizational affiliation and country from where you are joining us. You can also add comments or share any reports on the subject being discussed via the chat box during the webinar. And please tweet about the event. Due to the time limitation, the longer bios of the participants will be shared via the chat box as will be mentioned and you'll see that pop up as we speak. With that, it's my pleasure to introduce Belendra Sharan who's the director of the FAO North America office. Director Sharan and the entire FAO North America team have been incredible partners with so many organizations and I personally want to extend my gratitude to director Sharan and his team for bringing forward important topics, relevant voices that enable informed and collaborative action to feed and nourish our world. Director Sharan, I'll hand it over to you to make your opening remarks. Thank you, Navya. And a very warm welcome to all the participants joining us from various parts of the globe. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening to all of you, wherever you're from, and to all the panelists also who are with us from various corners of the globe, Asia, Africa and everywhere. And a warm welcome to her Excellency, Dr. Banda, former president of the Republic of Malawi for raising this occasion, taking time out and agreeing to share her views, thoughts and ideas on how to take this important issue of youth and agriculture and the power of youth in bringing about innovation and agricultural transformation forward. Thank you, Dr. Banda for joining us. We all know the importance of this topic, especially due to the changing demography today in the world as per the 2019 data between the ages 15 and 35 we have nearly 2.4 billion young men and women accounting for 31% of the global population. That's a huge number and sub-Saharan Africa is no exception, with nearly 76% of the region's population below 35 years of age, mounting to nearly 380 million young boys and girls or young men and women. This is a huge number and it can be looked at and seen as a burden or it can be seen as a potential and a demographic dividend. And I really at FAO we wish to see it as an enormous potential to be harnessed and a demographic dividend to be drawn upon. What's most important of course is that we need to promote better jobs for youth and that is an urgent priority. And this priority has been confirmed by having specific targets for youth in the sustainable development goals. It has been confirmed by Africa's government in the 2014 Malabu declaration in the Africa Development Bank Strategy, Jobs for Youth in Africa. So there is an agreement that we need to employ youth gain fully. And what better way to do it than through sustainable development of sustainable agriculture and food value chains which can and which has the potential of absorbing and giving remunerative jobs to youth. While agriculture has the potential, the youth also have the potential, the energy, the enthusiasm to really innovate to absorb innovation and to change and transform agriculture. So it's an integrated two-way process. Will a transformed agriculture attract youth or will the youth transform agriculture? So this question needs to be answered and I think in my mind the answer is very clear, it has to be both. So we need to work both from the pull and the push factors to ensure that youth in Africa really take to agriculture. And I'm sure to speak to these issues, these questions and such like, we have a fantastic panel with us. We have an absolutely outstanding keynote speaker, Dr. Banda, to give our views. And I for one, I'm really looking forward to listening to all of them and learning from them, understanding the issues that face the sub-Saharan African youth and how, and the path forward in taking them out of drudgery, poverty and food insecurity and malnutrition. So with that, let me hand it back to Nabiha to take the proceedings forward. Nabiha. Thank you very much, Director Shiran. Africa has prioritized agricultural and rural transformation is central to achieving equitable progress at scale. And the timeliness of our discussion today is rooted in many of the factors that Director Shiran has shared with us. Today, we are in need of deeper global and multi-sectoral collaboration that works for agriculture and youth, as Director Shiran has said both. Reshaping our food system and the agricultural landscape requires a youth-centric lens, and agriculture enables the right of young people to achieve their full potential, and youth will drive and sustain the change that Africa sees as for itself. The power of youth-led agricultural transformation is formidable, because without it, we are going to fall short in our goals to save lives, to end poverty, end hunger, revolutionize learning, and so much more. We promise we would achieve all of this in our lifetime, and this is a promise that we must keep. There can be no better and more steadfast advocate for youth agricultural development and rural transformation than her Excellency, the former president of the Republic of Malawi, Dr. Joyce Banda. You can see her bio in the chat, but among her tremendous achievements and impact, President Banda has not only been intentional in putting youth at the center of her policy agenda as president, but has also been undeterred throughout her distinguished career in building pathways for youth to learn, thrive, achieve, and prosper throughout their lives. We are honored to have you here, Your Excellency. Thank you so much for joining us today, and with that, I will hand it over to you. Thank you very much Nabiha for that introduction. It's a privilege and honor for me to be among such a distinguished panel. I thought maybe I should start by saying every time I see Nabiha, I see her on a farm, but that's how she grew up. And again to say that in the year 2000, I turned 50 years old, and I became very clear in my mind at that time that it was time for me to begin to step aside to ensure that the next generation takes the lead. I then formed what I called the Young Women Leaders Network in Malawi, believing that in this intergenerational process, this crusade to empower young people in Africa, it will be nothing about young people without the young people taking the lead. So as I participate in this discussion this afternoon, I'm very much aware that I'm 70 years old, but I also believe that it is the philosophy for Africa for us to work together with young people to create space. It's a moral obligation for me to make sure that the challenges we face of having no role models, no voices for us, must not happen to the next generation. We must fight for them, and it is my duty to do that until the job is done. I'm thrilled that the Humanitas Global is serving as the secretariat for the school-based agricultural education. And I'm proud to lend my voice to this important work that supports Africa, Africa's development goals. I'm very grateful to the FAO, the Alliance to End Hunger and Humanitas Global for inviting me to be part of this discussion today. I also want to thank the esteemed panelists, thank them sincerely for the perspectives they will bring and to all attending for your time and commitment to this issue. I wish everyone good health and continued resilience in this time of COVID-19 uncertainty. May we build back together and better. The topic of the role of youth in transforming agriculture is very important. Having youth at the table to shape and drive change today and into the future is not only something that is simply good to have, but rather is something that we must whether we like it or not. As I was reflecting upon this panel, and what I would say for the renewed actions and commitments, I was inspired with the realization that each of you, those of you attending and the guests who are speaking are already doing so much to bring youth forward and elevate and support them to the greatest heights. But let us recognize something. We need young people. In fact, we may need them more than they need us. It is youth who have the bold ideas. They are the effectors of change. They are who hold us accountable and ask the purest of questions to ensure justice, health and opportunity for all. And as I talk and refer our youth in this manner, I also must inform all that the youth have just changed the destiny of our country. We have just made history. We have removed the president who was there for a year. And they have sold justice, they have raised their voices. I have so much confidence and hope and belief in the youth of Africa that the energy they demonstrate in every sector will take us forward and prosper as a continent. We need youth in order to achieve the ambitious goals of our future. We must harness the power and talent of young people from the earliest of ages in the name of humanity, prosperity and equity. Our time to do this is now. Our world is as is my beloved Africa is young. Four in 10 people of 42% of the global population are under the age of 25. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to almost 1 billion people. And more than 60% of Africans are under the age of 25. By 2050, it is estimated that the population of the region will likely double and half will be under the age of 18. This poses both a challenge and an opportunity. The outcome of this boom in population and the role of youth depends upon how wise we are in this moment. There's no doubt that with population growth, there will be greater strain on natural resources. The agricultural landscape and our food system. But let us remember that Africa's youth possesses something that is undeniable. We have to achieve, innovate and improve the outcomes of their lives and of their communities. I have spent my entire life working with youth. I have invested in youth given authentic credence to their voice and many policy decisions informed by the answer to the question, is it good for young people? We come to the answers to this question by listening to the young people themselves. And that is what I hope we will do, because Africa has a big board agenda. It has put education, agriculture and innovation as the drivers of these development goals. I'm referring to the African Union agenda 2063. The driver's seat are young Africans and we must prepare them. If we ensure education is accessible and inspiring and that the teachers are supported with training and deliverable wages, we can transform learning outcomes. We embed agriculture in two pathways that reach youth from the early years through schools and vocational programs, students become agricultural change agents. If we are intentional about putting innovations in the hands of youth, so they can test, experience and see the results of these innovations, youth not only become the adopters, but are the ones who influence those in their community circles. For Africa to harvest the benefits that the agriculture and youth makes us can offer, there is an urgent need to change the mindset of what agriculture is. When youth have the opportunity to go to school, they do not see agriculture as a career. Why? Because all around them they see farmers, especially women doing backbreaking work in the field. They see poverty associated with the agriculture and peas and farming. They see agriculture as the last resort option. In the past 10 years I've sponsored about 1500 students going to university, most of them to the University of Agriculture here in Malang, to the College of Agriculture here in Malang. And it has been extremely difficult to persuade them to create their own jobs after graduating. In fact, they will go change and go into teaching and other professions because of these same reasons. We therefore need to change mindset. We need youth to see agriculture as a viable and profitable business opportunity. One that builds up communities is valued across the continent and creates jobs. There's so much potential to build up agriculture, but we have to start from the early years and shift the paradigm. We have a massive responsibility to encourage young people to take on agriculture's serious careers. How do we do that? One, governments must have the political will to embed agriculture advances in the hands of today's farmers and our future farmers through community school and other spaces. And we must do so in ways that are also responsive to needs of women and girls. Two, when I talk about women in agriculture, women and girls in agriculture, I ask the question, particularly as an African woman leader. Why is it that an African woman to the land, plant, tend to the crop, harvest, store, process, cook, and then eat last and least. These are some of the things that we must discuss. And it is only young people who will change that mindset. Two, learners investing innovations, technology, and better quality inputs also have the responsibility to invest in building youth-centered pathways for uptake. For example, we need to mainstream the mechanization of agriculture, scale access to better seeds, and improve post harvest practices. To do that, we need young people to experience and see the impact first hard. Number three, the youth need to be trained as business leaders. While being exposed to the power of agriculture, they are important leadership, professional, and life skills that agricultural training and education can offer. But this training and education must be rooted in a business-oriented model. And four, we must lift up the youth voice and grant them the platform they deserve, the global, regional, national, and local levels. We must embrace their power because youth have the answers. And as I've said earlier, now onwards, there will be nothing about them without them. We have a responsibility to reach youth directly where they live and learn so that agriculture is transformed from something that is viewed as the work of the poor to something that is the pathway toward prosperity. There is one thing I know. It is that when our investments, policies, and programs reflect a set of values that are youth-based, the results are certain. When young people are part of the solution, they are an unstoppable force for justice, change, and achievement. I am inspired and encouraged by the work of each of you. Youth are the fuel of agriculture transformation, but agriculture is also the fuel for our future. The young people of Africa have never disappointed me, and we must not disappoint them. I remain steadfast in my commitment to agricultural development and the development of young people and rural communities in Africa and around the world. I stand in solidarity with the talent joining us today to change our outcome for the better. I will work shoulder to shoulder with you. Indeed, until the job is done, thank you for the opportunity today. Thank you so much, Your Excellency. President Banda, powerful and inspiring as always. And you've also set us up to dive in deeper on how we can catalyze the power of youth and the investments and the commitments that you note are required. So with that, let us move into our panel discussion. Your chat function again will include the speaker bios, please use that I already see some great interaction underway, but use that chat function to share your perspectives and your own experiences, and then the Q&A function to post any questions which will have space for toward the end. Thank you Your Excellency for joining us. Thank you. So I'd like to kick things off hearing from Dr. Hamadi Jop. And Dr. Jop comes to us from the African Union Development Agency AUDA NAPAD, which is the implementing agency of the African Union. And Hamadi, you have your finger on the pulse of policy landscape. You're tracking the views of heads of state across the continent, given your role at AUDA NAPAD. And I'd love to talk a little bit about the broader policy landscape. Of course, we know that we have a growing youth population across Africa, and agriculture is viewed essential to economic transformation of the continent, but we wonder if the two are meeting successfully. What are those policy efforts and perhaps you could talk about the level of intentionality that you are seeing to bring both young people and agriculture together, as we build a resilient food system. And perhaps you could comment both from a programmatic side but also from the investment side. Thank you Nabiha for giving me the floor and congratulations to Her Excellency President Banda for this powerful speech that really set the scene on what is happening in the continent vis-à-vis agriculture and the youth. From my end, I would like to basically focus on three issues. The first one would be the policy lens of agriculture, what has the head of state committed to, and how they have linked the youth involvement in agriculture. Second, I will try to very quickly discuss about the issues relating to factors that are hindering basically youth empowerment within the context of agriculture in Africa. And then share a few facts because we also have been tracking through what we call our biennial review process, the number of youth who have been involved in different value chains in the continent and just give you a few percentages to see how the continent is doing in terms of getting the youth to be involved in agriculture. So from the policy point of view, our guiding framework within Africa is what we call the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program, which is also referred to as CADE, probably you may have heard about it. When the FAO head, Mr. Bimlendra, spoke earlier and he referred to it as Malabo, which is also another name that we use in the continent to discuss about Malabo. So Malabo has seven commitments in looking at how to achieve sustainable equitable economic development, job creation, poverty reduction, and income through agriculture. Through the Malabo Declaration now, the youth are identified as a centrality in terms of driving the agenda forward. There are three elements into that policy framework that basically speak to the youth. One, there is a commitment for head of state and member state to the African Union to establish and strengthen what they call inclusive public-private partnership for at least five priority agriculture community value chain. So that's the first policy elements where they want to have a strong linkage with small-holder agriculture. The second policy issue is that within that those value chain, they have put a target by 2023 to have at least 30% of participants in those value chain to be youth. And then the last one, the policy basically goal also is to support and facilitate what they call preferential entry and participation for women and youth in gainful and attractive agribusiness opportunities. So this is basically what has been agreed from the policy point of view. However, there are a lot of factors that are preventing this from happening, and those include the issue of access to land, the issue of finance, the issue of resources, the access to regional and profitable market, the issue of productivity, the low productivity of agriculture, and then also some cultural issue linked to the fact that youth are not very attracted to that business. So this basically the first two points that I wanted to address. At the last point now, I wanted to address, I'm sure it will come back into the other when we discuss. To the Malabo, there is a commitment where head of state have agreed to be monitored, meaning that we track the commitment made by the head of state. So if the head of state have said that by 2025, we need to have at least 30% of youth involved in strategic value chain. The African Union have put in place a process that we call the binary review, where we have developed a set of indicators, we track those indicators and we report before the head of state submit every two years. During our last binary review report that was presented before the head of state, during the January, February summit of 2019, about 14 countries have reported on the tracking of those numbers. For example, just give you a few numbers like for example in Benin, at the moment they have 19.9% of the youth in the whole involving strategic value chain in Burundi you have 18%. Unfortunately, Dr. Banda has left but I would have told her that Malawi is one of the country where they have a high rate, they have about 37% youth involved on some strategic value chain. So these are the few elements I wanted to share. I don't want to take too much of the time because I'm sure we'll come back to it in discussing further. Wonderful. Thank you for that backdrop. I think it's very important and you've reinforced that there is the policy commitment. There's more than just words. That's actually written there's traction and action. And you've also noted this investment in agricultural innovation we've seen this across the board across the continent. And we heard Dr. We heard President Banda talk about how innovations are not getting to the field so despite the policy backdrop, despite the investments of the focus on innovation in the region. These innovations, best practices, efforts to transform the agricultural landscape are not getting into the hands of those who can be catalytic in particular young people. So if you could quickly comment, Hamadi what needs to be different now at the moment of time that we're in. What needs to be different at the moment now is that in the 80s, we had a major drop in the 80s 90s of what we call the extension services. The extension services were playing a key role in terms of providing a certain type of skill development for youth. And various basically people were in the real setting to not only be active into the agriculture sector, but also to be entrepreneurs. This has somehow failed to the cracks over time. The ATV trainings are sometimes fragmented. So basically the skill development and agriculture training is not very well coordinated in the continent, and many countries are no longer prioritizing the issue of extension. And this has to be brought back because it was playing a key role in the 70s and early 80s, but since the 80s and mid up to mid 19 has dropped. So is that something that need to be done. The second thing also I think that need to be done in the youth entrepreneurship, the coaching entrepreneurship and which is one of the point that Dr. Banda touch on when she was she was basically doing her presentation. So targeted capacity building should be should be done to help youth to acquire those skills to have such self confidence, but also to help them also to access to market so it's not just getting to production, but also you need to be able to sell. So all the issue of entrepreneurship as a business development, connecting to market access to resources, access to lead has to be sorted out. So the issue of input access is a challenge in the in the continent. The last issue also, we have a lot of models that have been tested. For example, at the moment, to the African Union Development Agency, we have a couple of projects that we where we are working with youth in few countries where we come. We do a scale mapping, we identify where, where capacity is needed, we develop specific curricula, we put them to a rigorous training through the ATVAC process. And then at the end, we help them to develop like let's say business cases, but the challenge usually is like once the youth develop the business cases, there were like a missing link with access to finance. So now we we're trying to address that issue when we link this to the youth to basically what you call rural finance here, and then help them to be entrepreneur. It's a long route, but we have graduated more than 2000 students already over the last three, four years. Thank you so much. And, and I love hearing how the dot connecting is occurring between policy and, and in the field and at the same time, what are the opportunities to be even more impactful. And that's something that I want to impact further with Sherry Atelano, who has joined us from the Philippines. You were appointed by the UN Secretary General as one of the 27 ambassadors for the UN scaling up nutrition movement. You are an agricultural leader in your own right in the Philippines as CEO of Agraea. And I understand you were working in agriculture from the age of 12 and loved it did it out of love. So I'd love to hear your perspective of course you're bringing in the nutrition and agriculture perspective the table with your role with son but you're also a voice for the global youth perspective. I want to talk a little bit about the dynamics at play that impact how effectively youth are embedded into agriculture and our broader global discussions around food systems. Thank you very much. And we have her actually inviting me here. Good evening. Good day. Good morning. Good afternoon everyone. It's late evening here in the Philippines. It's a very beautiful question because you know, most of the time I guess first I think I'm a living example of youth in agriculture, not only in the agriculture sector, but also in agribusiness that actually what Ahmadi was actually was discussing about. As mentioned, I started teaching farmers at the age of 12 and you know put career into agriculture became an agricultural scientist and now an agricultural entrepreneur and an advocate in agriculture. I just really want to give clarity most of the time on the youth that agriculture is not only about food production. But it's actually you know the mission of agriculture is putting food on every table of every person. Once that mission is not achieved, agriculture is failing in the process. So in that sense of production to putting food on the table. There's actually a lot of opportunities in the youth in that spectrum. There are on farm opportunities. A lot of youth can actually go into production. You know our research and extension like for example in the company. Part of your six months probation period. My company is an average age of 28 years old employees. We work with more than 20,000 farmers in the Philippines in my company. And part of the need actually to work in the agriculture sector, especially in Agria is to immerse yourself in the farmers because we use a lot of youth to be the extension workers in the work. And second one, I see a lot of contribution of the youth in sustainability and sustainable agricultural practices. Why is that so? If you work a lot with the youth now on on farm, they're more aware about the relationship of agriculture to the environment, the relationship of healthy eating. You know to agricultural production and a lot of youth actually see also potential on social entrepreneurship. So we work a lot in the social entrepreneurship spectrum because it kept across not only in the production side, but also in value addition and also livelihood development. And on another one I guess on the off farm, what I see right now especially this COVID pandemic, my company run the largest food distribution and online platform in the Philippines. We help more than 20,000 farmers to have market to the consumers. What I see is the potential of the youth to do, you know, ICT information and communications through digitalizing agriculture and also in the supply chain. So I'm sharing this with you because these are practical experience. I've been experiencing running a company that during this COVID-19 pandemic, if you're 60 years old above, you are not allowed to go out of the street because of our total lack done in Manila. So what we did, we actually got a lot of young people age from 21 to 35 years old to run our logistics. So they are the ones running through digital platform monitoring our logistics from, you know, thousands of islands in the Philippines to be here in Metro Manila. Connecting to farmers and how to inform farmers on pricing because during this COVID-19 pandemic our country actually did the freeze pricing. So there's a freezing of price for agricultural commodities so the traders will not manipulate the market. And we put a lot of youth in monitoring that price freezing, you know, in the market because they run the logistics. And more than that, during this pandemic also it's pretty imminent that most of our young people who are actually involved in their operation are very aware of promoting healthy products, sourcing local, and, you know, and really focusing on even talking to local government units that the local government units will support the farmers not only giving, you know, process food backs to, especially to the poorest of the poor or at-risk communities, but there are youth who are really frontliners and created a movement to encourage our local government units to actually use the produce of the farmers to give food backs to the poorest of the poor at-risk communities. And lastly, I will actually add it on the Hamadi, you know, point a while ago because I'm so excited. In the Philippines, I'm the Philippine Ambassador for Food Security, I was appointed. And one of our programs actually that got right now around $1 billion fund as an initial fund is the mentoring and agripreneurship for the youth. At each youth, you know, if they have a business idea, they can actually avail a zero interest loan from the government for five years, amounting from $10,000 to actually, you know, until $50,000 initial capital. But the money will not be given if the youth has no business plan, if they cannot get a mentor, and if they don't have a market. So we work on three M's, money, mentor and market, so that they can avail the support of the government. And another one also, because, you know, Nabiha Walego mentioned about my work in malnutrition right. Malnutrition, I guess, is a human rights issue, but it's also an economic issue, especially right now that we need to build our human capital to be really, really strong. We took the power of a lot of young people to be movement makers on how they can change the game, that even, you know, restaurants would really source local. Restaurants would focus on building healthy consumerism in the market, and a lot of these youth are actually building social media campaigns on how to aggressively promote sustainable agriculture, sourcing local, supporting our smallholder farmers, and at the same time, building sustainable, you know, system between the producers and the consumers. Excellent. So exciting to hear of your experiences as an agricultural business leader in the Philippines, and also recognizing that you wear this global hat, right, with scaling up nutrition. I was wondering if you can highlight one or two points that you've learned that you're seeing with the working communities in the Philippines. And how that applies to the broader youth context in Africa and beyond. I suspect there's some common, some common insights that work across borders. So, you know, put on your UN hat a little bit and share with us what are some of those cross cutting insights you're seeing that we need to be aware of. Oh, that's beautiful. Actually, all my best friends are located in Africa, in Angola and in South Africa and in Kenya. And I always exchange ideas with my friends because the problems of the youth in Africa actually is somewhat similar here in Southeast Asia. You know, we're all third world country with very limited resources with a diversity of culture, but with such wealth of network and wealth of access to information now. And during my time, you know, Nabiha, I was this 15 year old girl trying to enter conferences before. I would even like, I couldn't afford to pay conferences and I just like sneak and be a volunteer just to learn everything about agribusiness. And right now, you know, I've been having this opportunity and I mentor a lot of groups in Africa, I'm mentoring one organization now in Tanzania. And what I learned from my mentorship in Tanzania group, a lot of young people are actually wanted to create change and impact in their community. I think, you know, most of the most beautiful and the common ground is people are not looking anymore on just building a business, but they wanted to have a purpose and a meaning. And it's one common values and mindset across, you know, African Southeast Asia. And number one, second one is the power of collaboration and the power of access to information. In a way that with the power of access to information, it's so easy to create collaboration like Asia and Africa. And what we actually learned from Asia is actually also applicable to Africa. I remember last two months ago, I judge a competition in Sunskilling Obnitrition Network in a business network in Sun and actually the applicants are from Africa. And I was like, wow, a lot of these young people are actually submitting their business proposals to Sun Business Network are actually a little bit not advanced compared to the Asian, you know, agri-sector in terms of youth. So what I shared with that one is most of the youth in Asia are very, very broad in thinking and progressive because, you know, we're separated by seas, you know, we're separated by water. If you go to Philippines, to Vietnam, to Indonesia, you need to fly, you need to cross the seas. But the most beautiful in Africa, you're just a massive piece of land. You know, of course you need to fly to go to other country in Africa, but it's easier with more concerted effort. And at the same time, there's a lot of potential in Africa. And I want to tell the African youth to stay in Africa. The best one is to know your roots, know your problem because most of the time we focus on just the problem. But they always tell the youth that the common denominator is if we see ourselves as solutions. You know, if a lot of youth in Africa can actually figure out an innovation, a movement or an enterprise they want to create, it would be easier for the government to support it because that's what happened in the Philippines. You know, every year we do around table discussion with the youth who are involved in agriculture, agribusiness, agricultural research and education with the minister or the department of agriculture secretary. So that our secretary can actually hear us because it's so nice to be here. And the secretary's office usually design programs in that youth. That's why now there's so much funding going to the youth in agriculture in the Philippines. And for the UN also, you know, I work in 61 countries with the help of the scaling up nutrition movement and I speak on the youth. I always say that we are not only the future, we are the now and the present and we need to be involved. Before it says that youth for agriculture, we need to make sure that it's youth in agriculture. We're not only involved, but we're also committed to create change in the agriculture sector as a whole. Wonderful. I love this point on seeing ourselves as solutions. I'm, I know you're referring to you and your youth peers but I think that's powerful and, and Dr. Fetian Abe, you're on the front lines of solution finding right. I also want to acknowledge that we are thrilled by your appointment Madame President of the first female president of McKellay University in Ethiopia. You were the first woman plant breeder and lecturer at McKellay University and the first female deputy chancellor of the university. So you're a trailblazer we're thrilled to have you, and you've also overcome tremendous challenges. I'm curious if you could talk about the unique considerations for young women and girls in agriculture. There is a gender dimension here and we have to call it out and I can't think of anyone better than than you to provide that perspective. Thank you very much. I'm honored to be here today. And yes, I'm just working as interim president, but I used to work also as a vice president for research and community services. So I mean, there are a lot of burdens, especially on the use in female, because you know, there is a very high negative perception in Africa about women. They are more loaded on domestic, domestic responsibilities. There is a very high time poverty for the females. And we have a high number of dropouts. Even young graduates use in female group. And this is a very hot issue. So as part of my responsibility, of course, in McKellay University we have established entrepreneurship center, we have center of entrepreneurship, career center, and the gender institute. So institutionally we are committed and we are very ready to work on this line. But practically, you know, I wanted to introduce a model on university without border, which means we need to integrate educated women with with dropouts, young students in the rural area, even illiterate women who has a very important skill and knowledge in managing their farms. I'm a national coordinator of post harvest loss innovation lab, Ethiopian chapter, and we realize 88% of the post harvest management is conducted by women. But the access for capacity building, access for incentives and including them in new initiatives is almost new. So we are advocating for women and agriculture is, you know, already defined as a risky business for investment, even by institutional finance institutes. So we have so many agendas to advocate and convince, but you know, in in agriculture, we need labor. We need educated labor, which means we have so many young citizens in Africa already educated. The second point is we need land. Land is also not an issue in Africa, but the financial constraints. I mean the commitment by African governments and even by donors to initiate investment on land, because we need to invest on land because we are operating on climate change and mountainous areas, dry land areas never been touched. Because most of the donors and private companies focus is on high potential areas where we have less problem that they use who are really migrating and also becoming a burden. We can change them and transform them as an opportunity because the labor force is very important for agriculture. So my role here is, you know, we have really to to transform and update our curriculum in Africa, because they are largely academic. So we need to be also very inclusive for women. So I have, I have so many new initiatives in my heart, but I am looking for a partnership, you know, it's not easy to implement it alone. So I call upon the collaboration of the governments and also collaboration of international donors, you know, we need to be targeted, you know, yeah. Yeah, well, I want to build a little bit on some of the extraordinary work that you highlighted. You're working on the front lines of agricultural innovations and scientific achievements at McHale and you're also the country lead for the USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for post harvest loss. As you know, I'm the daughter of a wheat scientist from CEMET, and it's been ingrained in me that research without a dissemination and an uptake plan does little good for humanity. I'm very curious from from the various leadership roles that you are playing at a renowned academic and research institution, how intentional is, is the broader sector of donors and private sector and even the research community in prioritizing young people as part of the dissemination and uptake strategies for innovation and maybe share one or two things that you think need to be done. There are a lot of commitments and initiatives I have observed in so many projects and donors, and the issue of use is like a cosmetics, you know, but we really need to have a serious engagement and a continuous support. I mean, we can, we can, we have to be accountable for showing successes in targeting the youth group. But you know, the youth group are mostly involved in the planning process, maybe the target thing aspect will not be, because the youth group themselves, they are heterogeneous. You know, considering them as uniform group is also an issue in addressing. I mean, there are a lot of stress issues and questions by, by the users, but when the donors, private companies also planning to include the youth group, they need to be representative. That's what I would like to mention. Some of the private companies need also intentional incentives to include youth group, because including them as employment, even if they are not profitable for a short time, is a learning process. And our extension system is also a top down. We need to have, in Ethiopia, we have approved the uninclusive and pluralistic extension services. There is no extension services for private companies working in agriculture. This has to be really considered. There is also a lot of commitments by respective governments at the local level, but they face a serious financial constraints. I never seen also national governments in Africa put a very clear and big agenda, the issue of youth, I mean how to address the cause of the migration instead of addressing the symptom of migration. So it has to come out as a serious strategic agenda at a national level, African level and also international level. Otherwise, it's a very hot and global burden and that we are ready to change it and transform it into opportunity for collaborative efforts and commitments. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. You know this this piece on including the young people and having them at the table. There is tremendous work underway in so many places of the world, certainly across Africa and bringing young people in and having young people drive that change and I'd like to turn to Trent McKnight. Among your experiences and accomplishments Trent you're both the president, former president of the National FFA and also founder of AgriCorps and you've been working on scaling up school based agricultural education and Liberian Ghana. Many of our speakers including President Banda noted the importance of being able to go to young people where they are, where they live, where they're learning, where they're thriving with their communities. And I'd like to hone in on Liberia with you or you've been working for five years. Tell us about the school based pathway to reach youth with agricultural rural communities in Liberia. Tell us a little bit about what it entails and what makes a viable across other contexts. Yeah, thank you Nabeah. So I am a product of school based agricultural education in the United States. I'm also a farmer I'm a cattle rancher. So I continue to remain grounded in production agriculture but all that comes from my school based agricultural education experiences in the United States those brands are known as the Future Farmers of America or 4-H. And so AgriCorps has taken this 100 year old SBAE or school based agricultural education model and adapted it within a West African context. We've been working in Liberia and in Ghana and SBAE encompasses the theoretical foundations of really four different bodies of knowledge, diffusion of innovations, experiential learning, positive youth development and behavioral economics and drawing from these different backgrounds and disciplines empowers SBAE to be a very cost effective change mechanism to really accomplish a couple of different objectives. First is youth. It contributes to the academic vocational and life skills of youth through learning by doing methods. And the second and this has been touched on by several by you and several of the different participants to improve rural livelihoods by transferring skills and agricultural innovations into the home and community through schools. So SBAE is not just about youth as beneficiaries to become future farmers for future impact rather SBAE is about youth as change agents for impact today. And the model the way that works. So in Liberia we're working with 4-H Liberia and Ghana we're working with 4-H Ghana and SBAE is a four component model. The first is classroom instruction. So this is just your traditional chalk and talk in the classroom where the students learn the local agriculture or science curriculum and we're focused mainly on junior high schools. So that's kind of the middle school so students between 12 and 15 years of age. So classroom instruction. The second is school demonstration farm where the students have the opportunity to apply what they've learned in the classroom but also so that parents and farmers within the community can see these different theories and applications in place. The third is home entrepreneurship project. So several of the panelists have talked about the importance of youth entrepreneurship and the home entrepreneurship project is learning and earning. So it's students applying what they've learned in the classroom on the school demonstration farm in their home in a home setting in a backyard garden at their home farm so that they can make money and also apply what they what they've learned. And the fourth component is leadership development. Life skills, public speaking, learning how to run a meeting, teamwork and cooperation. These soft skills that are necessary for employment whether they are working for others or as entrepreneurial farmers. And this all happens under the organizational structure of 4-H Liberia or a 4-H Ghana. And then the and then the outcomes really impacting both youth as well as the community and seeing as I've talked to young people, teachers and farmers in these communities that have benefited from school based agricultural education. Seeing talking to farmers who've improved their yield by 50 to 150% based on what they have learned from a 12 year old. Thank you Trent. You know I so appreciate and I think those joining hearing about some of the tools that exist to reach youth where they are. And school based ag education is something that has been tried and true in a range of contexts. And it's exciting to see how this could work in a range of contexts within the African context that align so beautifully with some of the policy priorities and the needs. And quite frankly this pathway to how we scale up innovation and insights and research. I love if you could spend a few minutes talking about the longer term results that you're hoping to see from the work in Liberia and down the road in Ghana as well. Yeah, so we are currently conducting a randomized controlled trial in Liberia. We're partnering with economist Chris Udry from Northwestern University's global poverty research research lab to measure the impact of school based agricultural education both on youth but also on adoption rates of farmers of improved agricultural technologies. And this research kind of came out of some anecdotal research that I was conducting a couple years ago in Ghana for instance I was in a in a rural community called a very very small small community with a junior high school which was the most senior level of education that they had as an infrastructure there in this community. And I talked to students and teachers and they all told me the benefits that they derived from forage or school based agriculture education. But what I was really interested in was how is this impacting the community and how is this impacting farmers. So the teacher brought together a group of about 10 different farmers we sat in the in the faculty lounge of this of this rule junior high there were three students in the back, two young boys and a young girl, and I asked the these farmers, you know, what has been the impact of school based agricultural education on you, and one farmer yells out 25 by 75, which is the spacing centimeters for for maize another yelled out one seat for a whole another yelled out fertilizer application. And I said this is this is this is wonderful like you all learned this from school based agricultural education. Yes, yes, yes the forage program taught us all these things. And so what's been the impact on on your yields on your on your income. They all went around and told me that these innovations had improved their, their yields by about 100%, double double their their maize yields. I said, who taught you. And there was this lanky farmer that was sitting next to me and he stands up and was very, very animated he points to the back of the room and says, they did. They did it the youth, the youth taught me, I said which you think was Grace taught me in other words is Ishmael taught me a little simple course you taught me. So I pulled Ishmael aside. After, after this meeting I said Ishmael, these, these farmers are crediting you and your and your peers with increasing their yields by almost 100%. Like, how did you do this. And Ishmael was 17 years old, and he said about two years ago, because I was walking through the community, and I overheard a group of farmers complaining about their about their low yields. No matter where you are around the world, whether it's West Texas or West Africa farmers are always complaining about their low yields. We said I heard them complain about their low yields and I walked up to them and said, I can help you get higher yields. I said, but you were a kid and these were grown adult men, how did they respond to you is that they hesitated, but they had seen the impact on the school demonstration farm, and knew I had been educated so they listen. And one of the farmers invited him to his farm. He taught him how to create terraces, how to properly apply composting and, and chemical fertilizer so that it wouldn't wash away into runoff and actually impact his farm. He said I spent two hours with him, and that was enough. And now this young man Ishmael wants to become an agriculture extension officer. Well you've given an example of the power of youth, right. Absolutely. Not not only as what they absorb and how they can shape their future but the things that are happening in the here and now with the communities that they're in. Just fantastic. Thank you Trent. I'd like to turn to our final panelists, Ben Leica. And then I'd like to go to you and get your perspective from the business side of things. You're the CEO of the African Agriculture Council joining us from South Africa. You're working with agribusiness across the continent, building networks creating demand and shaping the market so that African agricultural innovations and agribusiness can really thrive and make widespread impact on how people farm how they harvest how how they eat and how they thrive. So I'm curious how do young people factor in to a vibrant Africa agribusiness landscape and do they have the right tools to be part of innovation growth and impact. Thank you Nabiya and thank you to everyone for joining us and for inviting the African Agriculture Council. To start, it's good to see so many people sharing some of the concerns and identifying the opportunities that that we have. Agriculture and the youth are two subjects that can easily be politicized, even though the seems to be quite a disconnect between policymakers, the private sector, as well as the youth. The way the council comes in is to trying to bridge that gap in connecting private sector policymakers, investors, different stakeholders across the value chain to be able to truly impact agriculture on the African continent. And it's important for every stakeholder to understand that the development of agriculture is a long term process that requires a clear strategic focus, and that was brought up in our opening keynote by her excellency. And at the start of the discussion, every time I have the opportunity to speak or to speak to the youth, I will stop by saying agriculture, the science and the business that requires an entrepreneurial approach, plenty of risk capital and favorable policies. So there's a role that each party and each individual needs to play. I was happy to hear about the work that Snapehead is doing, that Amadi graciously shared, but a little bit concerned that out of 44 countries on the continent, only 14 were able to give an update in terms of the work that they're doing to involve the youth in agriculture. And unfortunately, we need to see more of those examples across the continent. And as long as they saw that bit of disconnect between the different parties, then it's difficult to start planning on how to involve the youth into the sector. So we need to continue thinking about agriculture as requiring that entrepreneurial approach, requiring the necessary capital and requiring the favorable policies. And unfortunately, the youth doesn't always see it that way, working on the ground when the council started connecting business opportunities to investors. The first two months when we made that official announcement that the council was going to facilitate that engagement with the financial community, we received over $2 billion worth of projects in our database in less than two months. However, once we started going through those projects and doing our due diligence, we could see that there was again, there's a lack of understanding in terms of what are the necessary criteria that investors will be looking for when they're seeking for investment opportunity. But also from an investment perspective, their criteria are not necessarily in the context of Africa or in the context of African youth. Because the majority of those projects, 60% and above, were presented to us by young people who might have inherited land, who have project or field in the community that saw the opportunity and they want to be able to tap into those opportunities. Unfortunately, their understanding of what is required to secure funding for them to be able to start impacting the community, there's a bit of a gap there. And as I said, a gap from a financial community as well. So that becomes the first challenge for us and for incorporating the youth into the transformation of agriculture. Secondly, when you start again engaging with the youth, you quickly see that agriculture is the afterthought, as the Excellency said herself. It's very difficult to see young men actually looking at agriculture and seeing himself as a business owner or seeing himself driving a beautiful car or seeing himself in a beautiful home. It's very difficult because what they can see and what they can relate to, it's hard labor subsistence sector. So that impacts how they see agriculture and that's the danger for us as a community. It's a danger for us as the consumments, because when you start looking at the average age of African producer or a farmer, you will quickly see that it's mostly the older generation and the integration of the younger generations taking place at a very slow pace. So we need to change that narrative and we need to change that perspective as soon as possible. And those are principles that can be thought at a school level, but as an industry stakeholders, we also need to understand what is required from our side to make sure that the youth can truly impact the industry. We, as the council working with different partners, we started to look at different programs that will combine technical and operational support for young entrepreneurs in agriculture. And I was at a recent meeting with government officials and we brought up the question, yes, we will assess some of the businesses that come our way. We will work with the youth to make sure that the business are operational and eventually bankable. But what happens when we identify the gap and as the council do not necessarily have the funding to address that gap? We know that young business owner or that young entrepreneur doesn't have the funding to address that gap. Do we have access to funding that can address those gaps, helping those businesses to be a bit more sustainable? And we all started looking at each other without an answer because the funding is not there. And if we had to speak to the investment community, there's not necessarily a tele-made African youth funding that is there to support these businesses. And if they are the bureaucracy and the process is just very discouraging for some of these young entrepreneurs. And through our own ESP and AFTI initiative, we believe that we can start working with the youth a bit more closely, bringing in the different stakeholders, whether it's public or private sector, to almost switch that innovative mindset that is within the youth to change that narrative and to get them involved into agriculture. Yeah, it's this need for creating a synergistic ecosystem where so many things need to work right for us to really reap the benefits of agricultural transformation. And you and others have talked about reaching young people and youth early on as early on as possible with Trent's example as well on how they can be influencers in the here and now, and reaching them at schools in spaces where they already are. It's not only an obvious place to start, but it seems from your perspective also a smart place to start. But it seems that there is a need to align what youth are exposed to early on and their agricultural experience early on with what are the business imperatives and the business needs. And how do we align the two, if you could talk about that. Well, the wealthiest farmers that I've met were all exposed to agriculture at a young age. And that's a fact. It's not something that you wish to do when you retire. It's not something that you wish to do when you have a bit of time. And agriculture, unfortunately, is the honest sector where we tend to think about it from a retirement perspective. I would never think when it's time for me to retire to be a doctor or to be an engineer. Unfortunately for agriculture, that's the case. And in many places on the continent, that's how people think about it. So I'm a firm advocate of reforming the African education system and curriculum. It's a clear pathway for me to developing future leaders and entrepreneurs in this continent. We need to invest in the knowledge and skills that is needed for economic development and building credible and resilient institutions on the continent. That's the only way that will develop this continent. And starting at a school level, it's the obvious place to change the narrative of how agriculture is perceived by many. You will not attract the youth if they still link agriculture to poverty. It's very difficult to do that. And sometimes you almost force to invite them to very big farming conferences or trade shows where they can actually see farmers spend millions of dollars on equipment, where they can actually see that farming is not limited to primary agriculture or from a production perspective as was shared by the previous panelists. But there's an entire value chain that they can work in, an entire value chain that's made of different sub sectors where they can contribute and where they can create wealth. So to start at a school level, Hobbes has changed that narrative in terms of their perception, but also incorporate that business mentality into the agricultural training. So it's, as I said, it is time, so you need to know how to farm, you need to understand the sector and the industry, but it's also a business that means you need to understand the business fundamentals for you to become a success, for you to run a multi-national business that just produces food for people that provide service across the value chain that's in logistics or technology or whatever the case may be. And you see a lot of, and I've seen a lot of experts really focusing on the digital aspect of agriculture and only looking at that as the key, the focal point of attracting the youth. We need to look at the entire value chain and there's a role that our education system needs to play in facilitating that bridge. Thank you, Ben. So much, so much there, so much opportunity and so much need and I know we'll get it right. We have no choice. We've got some wonderful questions from the floor. Unfortunately, we don't have time for all of them, but we'll lift up a few. The first, perhaps Trent and Ben, you could comment on this as well, but Trent, starting with you, educators are vital in guiding youth in their learning and integration into the agricultural system. How can we develop the capacity of educators to be prepared to develop the knowledge and the skills of youth? Yeah, thank you, Nabi. I think there are really two ways, because you have two different sets of teachers in a way. First, you have teachers who are already in the field. And so we must roll out a set of professional development in service teacher training seminars that focus both on pedagogy, how to teach experientially agriculture, but also focus on these improved agricultural innovations. And so, so I think the first piece is focusing on teachers who are already in the field, and we do that through through in service teacher trainings and targeting them. And then second is about future teachers and preparing future teachers and improving a higher education teacher training training colleges to be able to prepare agriculture and integrated science teachers to use the school based agricultural education model to use this experiential learning pedagogy to better teach agriculture in junior high senior high school settings. Excellent. Fetian and Ben, would you each of you like to weigh in? Perhaps we can go to you Fetian first on this question. You are on mute. Fetian. Sorry. Sorry, Nabaska. I mean, I mean, we have to improve the image of agriculture. Agriculture is not considered as a profitable business because there is no capital, especially for users who are in a very less productive environment, a marginal environment, there is no capital for them. And most of the innovations, agricultural innovations are designed for high input or ecologically rich environments. Then you have to reach at least at the middle level to encourage the use group in the area where I'm working. The government, local government was working very hard to transform the mountainous areas and reforestation. We have been really globally awarded for that. But now there is no focus and there is no investment. There is no also targeting those use groups to be engaged on that. So that's why I said, you know, we have really to design multiple entry points and heterogeneous entry points and also targeting sensitive environment, sensitive environments in a war zone area, a climatically affected area, less advantageous groups now. Totally, those use groups, they have no feature on their mind. I like the court. We cannot do anything without having them. So I'm looking forward for, I mean, paradigm shift, redefining the use engagement and building the image of agriculture as a profitable business. Thank you. Thank you, Fetian. Ben, could you comment? I know you had some of these points in your remarks, but building that capacity of educators to prepare the skills of young people develop that knowledge and perhaps in alignment with what the business needs are. Absolutely. The scientific and academic approach is absolutely on point as Trent mentioned and Dr. Fetian mentioned. But I will add to that is the mentorship aspect of agriculture, which hops almost on a technical and operational day to day for young entrepreneurs. And that can be looked at at a high school level or at a college level, whichever you choose. The mentorship prospect is very important. And that's something that we've added to the FT initiative where we know the majority of startups and businesses, they tend to fell in the first year, unless they have the right supports and mentorship to help them through that difficult journey. We went through that ourselves, we were fortunate enough to have people to support us through that journey. Secondly, is to bring people who actually have done have run the business of agriculture, and you bring those successful entrepreneurs and businesses to showcase to the young people and young future entrepreneurs that you can actually be a success in this in this field, not just to talk to them but almost create a project or plan that will support those businesses where they can have first hand advice and support from someone who's run the business might be retired or is still working but still is committed to seeing young entrepreneurs coming up still committed to seeing Africa move forward, have those kind of figures to be involved into the discussion you're bringing the private sector on board, you're bringing someone who's very successful will have changed the narrative in the picture of what agriculture is. Once you can add that to the academic and scientific approach, then you almost have that perfect picture. I think the only point that will be missing is that policy elements, where we know now that we're seeing across the continent is a bit of an awareness of an empowerment movement that's coming up with the youth starting to think about politics and how that impacts their life that will only come once they start seeing that look for me to be successful for me to run a successful business on the continent, I need favorable policies, and I have the power to impact those policies. Let's combine that and we will see positive results. Great. Our second question. I'm going to direct this one to Hamadi and also to Sherry from from the perspective of Hamadi looking at it from the supply side and and Sherry perhaps from your perspective on what are the needs in order for for for you to be successful in agriculture and so the question is how do we ensure that youth get access to the required resources to perform agriculture. Given the fact that youth are less likely to access capital, they're less likely to be in a position to access innovations that are aimed at high productive areas and so on and so forth. So, perhaps Sherry you could you could speak first about what is needed. What do young people not have access to and then Hamadi jump in with what is the policy imperative and what's happening across the continent to improve the situation. Oh, actually though it was like a common topic mentioned that access to finance is actually the problem in the youth sector. So if they actually have a great idea, but they don't have, you know, a finance and financial support to that it will not happen. But more than that, a lot of young people didn't have experience. So there must be like an role model example of a successful agribusiness who could mentor them and show them the way so that if this youth will, you know, there's a management of risk right on the capital also supported to them. Like for example me I started my company when I was 20. So I was 30 years old I'm already running an agribusiness company and it's not easy. Agriculture is not for the faint heart. It's so difficult to get investments because it's risky. I live in a country where war is happening in the south of Philippines every year. We have 20 to 21 typhoons every year and market is so political, politically driven, you know. But I think first is for the youth to have the kind of greed and tenacity that if they want to go into agriculture money will not make sense if the values and attitude of the youth is actually not yours to are building it into agribusiness. And second one, you know, changing the narrative of agriculture right because agriculture is always associated to poverty and drudgery. I'm known to this Nabiha of making farming sexy. You know, glamorizing farming when people would see dirt in soil I see gold because I'll never dedicate 22 years of my life building business in agriculture and running businesses not only in the Philippines. You know, I do an impact base in Singapore and we're actually investing in different countries in Southeast Asia and common problem I encounter a lot of young people they have good idea, but they don't have mentor didn't have money. If they have the mentor and the money did not know how to access market because market sometimes is also controlled by big institutional market. So you need to really know how to play the game in agribusiness. And the third one I guess is more educational component and the youth in agriculture. I like actually the comment of Trent. My company started the first farm school in the Philippines that is actually accredited by the government. So now my farm school is running programs for the youth. We have having three farm schools now in different areas in the Philippines, and these farm schools are actually working hand in hand with the government so the government is funding our farm school. And I'm so happy to say that since we started the farm school more than 50% of our enrollees are young people who were told by their parents so we're farmers. Please don't go into agriculture, study hard and leave the farm because this should not be your future. And here we are our farm school is encouraging a lot of these young people to stay in the farm and take over their parents land and make it more profitable. And another one of course, a lot of young people are interested in research and development. They like new innovation because like for example, a new innovation in agriculture or mechanization digitizing agriculture is something that actually makes the youth have greater access to the agriculture sector, makes the youth to actually help change the narrative in agriculture. So all of this I'm trying to incorporate in my company on how you know we can bring a lot of millennial even to be employed in the agriculture sector but more than that start their own, you know enterprises so that they can give you know livelihood and sustainable opportunities in the rural areas. Thank you Sherry. Hamadi, would you like to weigh in from from the supply side of things what do we need to make sure that our young people have access to. I think you should thank you to be I think on my end. I will just use the two illustrations on how this can be done. I have seen some questions to the chat function on how to bring youth into into agriculture, what are the perception of youth and other culture, why in some countries, I think there is someone from Ghana who said there's a disconnect between the policies and the youth implication in in different platform and access and how they can access to different inputs and the like so I just give like a two examples. The first one is a process will be on the process and the second one will be on on actions. So from the process point of view in the implementation of the. current, which is the Malabo commitment that I mentioned earlier on the way it operated that at the beginning African Union support countries to develop strategies that are aligned to the continental frameworks. But the process is very, very inclusive. And once the strategy is developed, it is translated into what we call a national agriculture investment plan. I'm sure if you Google it you will see what we call nights. And at the moment we have about 47 countries out of the 55 African Union member state that have gone to the process and have endorsed basically the cadet process and have developed basically strategies that are kind of compliant. So now, once you develop the national agriculture investment plan, because don't do a very pro consultative process. The document is co signed. I'll just give you one example for example of Cameroon, for example, I'm just picking up what was signed by the prime minister, the minister of agriculture, the minister of land. I think the minister of finance, the head of the development partners who are operating in in in Cameroon, the farmers organizations, the youth organization and the women organization and the list goes on and on and on. On the top of that also is also signed by the African Union. So it gave you a clearance that the document has gone through like very gross and consultative process and then through that process. Countries goes now and mobilize the sources. So now, the challenge we have now. And I some someone just send a question on the 10% budget of kind of the challenge we have is that when we, we, we, we basically develop that framework about 15 years ago. We said for Africa to, to meet its need for food security, they need to, to grow basically their productivity by 6% per annum. But for that to happen, they need to allocate about 10% of their GDP to agriculture. Unfortunately, this has not happened. To me, there were like one shortcoming is to consider that the only investor in agriculture should be the government. Agriculture is a private initiative, and it should be private sector driven. And that's the reason why in the Malabo, in the Malabo iteration, a big emphasis has been put on private sector engagement. So this lead me to the second point that I wanted to, to make in terms of illustration. For example, at the African Union, we have this initiative that you call grow Africa. So what we do usually is that we go into a country. It's a demand driven. So we come into a country. And then we help the country to assess a value chain, for example, for commodities that they deem as a priority. For example, in Côte d'Ivoire, we're working on rice. In Burkina Faso, I think we're working on mangoes. In Kenya, we're working on the horticulture sector. So we basically bring all the actors along the value chain. We identify where the problems are, whether it's youth engagement, whether it's a processing issue, whether it's an input issue and the like. And then we help basically the different actors along the value chain to develop business cases. So those business cases are developed now. And this is the issue like in term of accessing to finance. Once the business cases are developed now, we take those business cases and we use our name and leverage to bring private sector to come to invest in it. We have already made a much making between private sector and different cases in, I think 12 countries in the tone of more than $200 million over the last three years. Really, that's how we addressing those issues. I don't know whether it has addressed, I mean, if I have responded to your questions. Yes, you have. Does anyone else want to weigh in on this question of meeting the needs of youth from your diverse perspectives and experiences on the front lines? I would just add one thing, that I mentioned several times in the comments, but there's a lot of talk about making, you know, agriculture sexy for youth and attracting youth to agriculture. What I found in both Ghana and Liberia is that young people in these rural communities are already interested in agriculture. Rather it's outside forces who are shaming them about being in agriculture. So rather than thinking about how do we attract them to agriculture, it's rather about giving them permission to be in agriculture, because it's something that they already want to be just like their parents. They just don't want to use the same methods that their parents use. They need improved methods, improved innovations, so they can make more money, but they already have a predisposition to want to be in agriculture if we give them permission and the skills to do so. Can I speak? Yeah, Neviska? Yes, go right ahead. Yeah, I would like also, you know, there are a lot of opportunities in Africa considering youth, you know. I'm from the farming community, my mother is a farmer, and I have also family farm. I feel like I have a time-tested knowledge in agriculture, but the labor is a constrained factor for me, and without the youth I cannot succeed. So the labor is the most important factor as a success factor. So what we are talking now is Africa is a very diverse continent with full of opportunity, full of health contribution because of the diverse ecology we have, the diverse knowledge we have, the diverse food systems we have, and the technologies and the skills at the local level will be a source of inspiration for the scientists and also the business group. So we have really to cater the issue of youth group, and we, as a learning institute, we need to be also recognize our contribution. We have committed agricultural cadres, ready to implement the new, I mean the new shift that we need to revise our curriculum, because, you know, in most of African countries, including my country, it's more academic. So vocationalizing education is a most important step. Establishing advisory group for mentoring youth group is also very important. I'm looking forward for such kind of innovative ideas and showing success stories is already in our hand, but what we need is we need to work together for addressing and stabilizing Africa and the workforce has to be stabilized also. So the social responsibility of all decision makers, scientists, experts, and also, you know, we are at, we have a contribution as a leaders, but the social stability social fabric is very important for stable business and entrepreneurship. Thank you. Thank you so much. You put it so well. Africa is full of opportunity and the local skills and passion are a source of inspiration and each of you has certainly inspired so many of us today. I want to thank all of our panelists, her Excellency President Banda, my colleagues at FAO, the Alliance to End Hunger, and at Humanitas who worked so hard to put this together. There are such rich insights shared today and I'm really inspired and encouraged because we have the tool systems and vision to enable youth led ag transformation in Africa and around the world. The key is how we align policy design programs and make the wisest of investments and propel this urgent work forward. It's been a pleasure to participate and moderate this conversation today, and I'd like to hand it over to Director Sharon for his closing remarks. Director Sharon, you're on mute. Unmuted. Thank you, and thank you all the panelists for your absolutely fantastic remarks. This was indeed an amazing area of thoughts and what comes out very clearly for me is that there is no silver bullet, and there is no magic wound. This is a rough and tough journey ahead, but we all need to pull together all our resources to ensure that this important aspect of integrating youth in agriculture of bringing the power the enthusiasm and the energy into agriculture is is absolutely so if we want to move on the journey of ensuring global food and nutrition for everyone. Just a couple of things I don't think I'll try and really capture everything which everyone said because the chat box is full of comments and I'm sure the audience is really participants are really taken to the views being expressed because I can see a parallel webinar going on in the chat box, and that's really, really, really encouraging. So, I'll only say that a couple of things really stood out, you know, youth for youth, and there's nothing about them without them I think her excellency made a fantastic opening statement with that that you cannot work on you that ideas without really integrating and involving them in the decision process, and that really set the tone for the discussion today are you the solutions that we had the need for exposure training giving them a voice embracing their power. You know, understanding that they are the ones who need to come into the main decision making positions to take this forward. I need to put on a gender lens I thought again, extremely powerful opening statement by her excellency. When she says that the woman tells plants how we send cooks first, but eats last and least I thought anyone working on gender, and looking at anything to a gender lens has to take this on. Such a powerful picture which she has painted about where women stand, not just in Africa, not just in sub Saharan Africa though she was speaking from experience there I think it's a picture which can be true for any part of the world, especially the developing world. I wanted to understand. I think the need for de risking agriculture. We heard the model for bringing the three ends the money the mentor and the market and that those are really, really important the need for changing curriculum, the need for changing the approach the need for skill training the entrepreneurial training. They were thousands of ideas which came through so I thank you everyone for really flagging this and on our part on FAO's part. We have been pretty active in sub Saharan Africa on our work and youth and agriculture transformation we have currently over, I think over 20 dedicated projects going on in Africa, many of them through partner organizations. We are partnering with you needed on opportunities for youth in Africa and there are programs running there on rural youth employment, green jobs and I've written your chef skill development farmer school. The programmatic focus of course is on knowledge generation which is our bread and butter FAO is the knowledge organization knowledge generation and tool and training packages like there's an excellent program going on in Uganda on the junior farm field in life for schools in Uganda. I'll invite all of you to really Google that and see it on the FAO website or maybe our communication team can put post the link on the on the in the chat box for this. We had about the importance of integrating agriculture education in the school curriculum. And we are convinced that at a fair that young people's interest in agriculture and food that goes a long way in improving school attendance by making that by making education more relevant to local lifestyle. And we have lesser number of dropouts, we have decreased child labor, if proper education is provided on agriculture issues school so I'm sure you all share this belief that inclusive transformation of rural economies and agriculture systems cannot come about unless you have the youth fully engaged in it and I need I think we need to really empower them in their role to achieve a sustainable and equitable world. If anything COVID-19 has really shown us how iniquity of our growth patterns are how iniquity of our economies are and how youth and women are really in the marginalized in the group which really needs to be looked into and supported and brought into the mainstream. I think our discussions today in its own small way will help take these messages to policymakers around the world and help them help the youth and ensure that we, you know, assure in perhaps a youth revolution for a sustainable and remunerated agriculture. So thank you all of you for joining and thank you to all the participants who tuned in from various parts of the world. It has definitely been one of the most engaging group of participants I must say. As I mentioned, I nearly felt that there was a parallel webinar going on in the chat box. So thank you very much, all of you. And back to you, Nabeah. And thank you, Nabeah, for fantastic moderation and for posing some difficult and probing questions to our eminent panelists. And that really brought out the essence of their talk and their ideas. So thank you very much. Thank you to Alliance for co-hosting this with us. To Humanities, your organization for co-hosting this with us. Thank you all of you. Nabeah. Thank you very much. We'll be sharing the recording tomorrow and appreciate everyone's insights and of course for hosting. Have a great rest of the day and evening and good health to all. Thank you and bye-bye. Thank you. Bye-bye.