Video podcast
International Youth Day 2026 video podcast
GAIN’s International Youth Day video podcast spotlights youth voices, lessons from working with young people, and opportunities to strengthen youth engagement across food systems.
International Youth Day · 12 August 2026
Young people are shaping the future of food systems
Young people are not only the leaders of tomorrow. They are already creating solutions, influencing decisions and driving positive change in food systems today.
12
August
2026
International
Youth Day
About the day
Celebrating young people as partners in global change
International Youth Day brings the issues, ideas and potential of young people to global attention.
Marked every year on 12 August, the day celebrates young people’s contribution to addressing the challenges facing societies today and in the future.
Young people are already developing solutions, influencing their communities and advocating for meaningful change. To contribute fully, they need supportive institutions, inclusive policies and genuine opportunities to participate in decision-making.
International Youth Day 2026
Featured Resources and Highlights
To mark International Youth Day 2026, GAIN is spotlighting youth voices, youth-led action and practical initiatives that support healthier food environments and meaningful youth engagement across food systems.
Featured initiative
Creating Healthy School Food Environments Initiative in Urban Uganda
This featured video highlights work to support healthier school food environments in urban Uganda, showing how food systems action can help improve nutrition for young people where they learn, live and grow.
Featured on Citizen TV
GAIN featured on Citizen TV’s International Youth Day livestream
GAIN was featured on Citizen TV during the International Youth Day morning livestream, broadcast between 8:00–9:00 am EAT. The feature spotlighted youth, nutrition and food systems action.
The livestream is currently available as a full replay. A shorter segment will be added once an official clip is available.
GAIN’s youth approach
Young people are shaping food systems in three interconnected ways
Young people are not one uniform group. Their experiences of food systems differ according to their age, location, opportunities and stage of life. GAIN’s youth approach responds to these differences by recognising young people as consumers, changemakers and workers.
Across these three pillars, GAIN supports young people to make healthier food choices, influence the decisions that affect them and build sustainable livelihoods within food systems.
Drawing on 10 years of experience, GAIN works with young people as active partners whose knowledge, creativity and leadership are essential to creating healthier, fairer and more sustainable food systems.
Pillar 01
Youth as Consumers
GAIN promotes healthy eating habits, creative nutrition education and access to nutritious foods for young people aged 10–19.
GAIN’s School Food and Nutrition Approach brings together meals, markets and mindsets. Together, these components help ensure fortified, diverse and locally appropriate school meals are served.
The approach also strengthens local economies through inclusive procurement and uses schools as spaces to actively promote healthier food choices.
500M
Children reached
Half a billion children worldwide are reached through school meal programmes.
What GAIN is doing
01
School meals in Tanzania
Improving school meals while strengthening local food systems and community ownership.
- Supports fortified and nutritionally diverse school meals.
- Contributed to Tanzania’s National School Feeding Guideline.
- Creates markets for fortified maize processors and high-iron bean farmers.
- Supports school gardens that grow food for schools.
225,000+ school children benefiting
02
Heroes Journey
Gamified food education for girls and boys aged 10–14.
- Follows four superheroes travelling through three imaginary worlds.
- Players discover nutritious foods while completing challenges and missions.
- Weekly activities encourage healthier eating at home.
- Implemented in Mozambique, Bangladesh and Tanzania.
- Gamifying healthy eating for adolescents aged 10–14.
46,000 girls reached in Mozambique
03
The Food Investigator Game
Supporting healthier food choices among adolescents in Indonesia.
- Helps young people understand front-of-pack nutrition labels.
- Builds youth advocacy skills through workshops and peer learning.
- Uses digital tools to make nutrition information easier to understand.
- Encourages retailers to offer healthier snack options.
140,000 web users reached
Heroes Journey in action
Pillar 02
Youth as Changemakers
GAIN supports young changemakers by creating opportunities for advocacy, leadership development and participation in food systems policy spaces.
Young people bring valuable knowledge, experiences and ideas to food systems decision-making. GAIN helps them strengthen their skills, build networks and lead collective action at national and global levels.
1.8B
Young people
There are 1.8 billion people aged 15–29, making this the largest generation of youth in history.
2022 estimate
The Youth Voices Project: the 4Cs framework
01
Community building
Developing youth leadership and fostering a strong sense of community among young food systems advocates.
02
Capacity building
Strengthening knowledge and skills about food systems and how young people can influence change.
03
Collective action
Supporting young people to influence national food systems pathways and global decision-making spaces.
04
Policy culture
Building constructive engagement between young people, governments and other food systems stakeholders.
Youth Voices Project
The Youth Voices Project is implemented in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Tanzania, and globally through the youth-led Act4Food movement.
The initiative develops food systems knowledge and enables young people aged 18–25 to participate in national and global decision-making. The training programme has also been endorsed by the Government of Bangladesh.
11,140+
Young people reached
155
Young people holding active roles in policy
Pillar 03
Youth as Workers
GAIN works with young people who are already working, or want to work, in food systems to strengthen their skills, livelihoods and contributions to sustainable food production and distribution.
Supporting youth employment requires more than training alone. GAIN considers job creation pathways, skills, finance, market access, complete value chains and tailored support for young women.
44%
Of working youth
Globally, 44% of working young people rely on agrifood systems for their livelihoods.
FAO, 2025
Supporting sustainable youth employment
Job creation pathways
Identifying realistic employment and entrepreneurship opportunities across food systems.
Integrated support
Connecting skills development with finance and access to markets.
Full value chains
Looking beyond production to processing, distribution, retail and entrepreneurship.
Young women
Providing tailored support that responds to the barriers faced by young women.
DELIVER Nigeria
DELIVER supports small-scale producers in Nigeria to build decent livelihoods through more resilient food systems, with a particular focus on young people and women.
- Helps smallholder farmers increase their incomes and improve their livelihoods.
- Promotes the production and consumption of a wider variety of vegetables.
- Encourages healthier dietary habits within participating communities.
33,956
Young people reached through DELIVER Nigeria
$1.5 trillion
Potential increase in global GDP from investing in young people, equivalent to approximately 1.4%.
Resources and Publications
Team
Miriam Shindler
Programme Lead, Children and Young People
Stephanie Sargeant
Global Youth Campaigns Coordinator, Act4Food & GAIN