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.

Creating space for young people to lead is essential to building healthier, fairer and more sustainable societies.

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.

Meals Markets Mindsets

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+ schoolchildren 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.

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 

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%.

Coming soon

Resources to look out for

In the coming weeks, GAIN will share a special International Youth Day podcast, a video presenting ten lessons from ten years of working with young people, the refreshed GAIN youth approach and new resources highlighting youth-led action and employment across food systems.

12 August podcast 10 lessons video Refreshed youth approach New projects and resources