- 22/10/2025
As Pakistan advances its URAAN Plan and National Food Systems Transformation Pathway, meaningful youth engagement will determine how inclusive that progress becomes. Despite strong national frameworks and growing youth-led innovation, young people remain largely outside formal decision-making. This policy brief sets out practical actions to institutionalise youth participation across governance structures—embedding the Scaling Up Nutrition Youth Network (SYN) within national and provincial coordination bodies, assigning youth advisory roles and quotas, and establishing a Youth in Food Systems Working Group to align mandates and financing. It further calls for building leadership pipelines through a Youth Food Policy Fellowship, integrating national programmes like Kamyab Jawan with food system priorities, and introducing digital accountability tools such as a Youth Engagement Scorecard. By embedding youth as architects of transformation, Pakistan can turn its demographic strength into a lasting engine for innovation, accountability, and resilient food systems.
- 21/10/2025
Bangladesh is redefining its path toward a more equitable, climate-resilient, and nutrition-secure future—and young people are at the centre of that journey. As the country advances major national strategies like the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy, this policy brief highlights how youth can move from community action to shaping national decision-making. It proposes creating formal youth roles in bodies such as the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council (BNNC) and District Nutrition Coordination Committees and strengthening cross-ministerial collaboration through a Youth in Food Systems Working Group. The brief also calls for expanding Department of Youth Development (DYD) programmes to include policy and governance, integrating food systems into university curricula, and building leadership pipelines through fellowships, mentorships, and digital participation tools. By positioning young people as active partners in governance, Bangladesh can cultivate a generation of leaders driving food systems transformation in line with the country’s long-term development agenda.
- 11/10/2025
KEY MESSAGES
Children in both urban and rural Ethiopia are increasingly consuming ultra-processed foods that contain unhealthy levels of sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats. These items, heavily marketed and widely accessible, are rapidly replacing traditional healthy diets.
Inadequate and unhealthy diets during childhood can compromise physical and cognitive development, diminish immune function, and increase susceptibility to chronic illnesses later in life.
Priority policy areas the government should consider include: more nutrition education; improved regulation of the food environment to make healthy options more prominent and unhealthy options less prominent; subsidies that prioritize healthy diets for children; and improved coordination and coherence across sectors seeking to transform food systems (e.g. Agriculture, Education, Health, and Trade).
Reducing unhealthy diets in children is not just a nutrition issue – it’s a systems issue. Ethiopia must urgently implement a coordinated, multi-sectoral strategy with actions to ensure all children have access to diverse, healthy, safe, and affordable diets from the start of life.
- 08/09/2025
Stunting is a major concern in Eastern Africa, where nearly 1 in 3 children under 5, about 22.6 million, are
affected (UNICEF, WHO, Worldbank, 2023). In Kenya, the prevalence has declined to approximately one in
five children (18%), outperforming the regional average of 31.6%. However, this still represents more than
1.2 million children at risk (KNBS, Ministry of Health, ICF, 2023). The consequences are far-reaching;
stunting contributes to child mortality, vulnerability, and lifelong impairments in physical growth and
cognitive development, impacting both individual well-being and national productivity. In Kenya, child
undernutrition, including stunting as a key component, is estimated to cost the economy KES 374 billion
(approximately USD 4.2 billion) annually, equivalent to 6.9% of the GDP (Government of Kenya, 2019).
Stunting, a persistent form of long-term nutritional deprivation, acts as a silent driver of inequality, limiting
opportunities, lowering future earnings and reducing the potential to contribute equally to the economy.
Yet the returns on investment in nutrition are high, with every dollar yielding up to $22 in economic
benefit. (Eberwein, et al., 2016)
- 26/08/2025
We know in our bones that youth must be part of the solution to the key crises facing
our planet – but why and how exactly? Here we provide government policymakers,
business people, civil society members and development partners in the food systems
space with some ways to advance meaningful youth engagement.
- 21/07/2025
Malnutrition in all its forms continues to be a major public health challenge worldwide, and progress on improving it has been very slow, with no country on track to meet global nutrition goals and the number of people affected by hunger or unable to afford a healthy diet rising in recent years.
- 10/04/2025
While there is a growing recognition of the importance of youth engagement in food system decision-making and governance, existing research remains largely theoretical or anecdotal, with a scarcity of empirical studies providing robust data on the engagement and meaningful participation of young people in food systems. A first step towards providing such data is having strong, validated metrics and data-collection methods that can be applied comparably across contexts. This scoping review thus synthesises evidence on metrics and methods used to assess youth engagement in policy processes, with a specific focus on food system-related policies.
- 13/08/2024
ACT4FOOD was launched as a global youth-led movement to transform food systems, with a pledge to encourage millions of young people to create sustainable food systems and more opportunistically to get involved in the UNFSS and to bring their demands to the decision-making table.
- 12/08/2024
The youth leadership initiative is a platform for young individuals aged 18-25 to actively participate in food systems decision-making. This initiative aims to provide opportunities for young people to have a voice and influence in the decisions that shape food systems, especially national food systems pathways.
- 12/08/2024
The youth leadership initiative is a platform for young individuals aged 18-25 to actively participate in food systems decision-making. This initiative aims to provide opportunities for young people to have a voice and influence in the decisions that shape food systems, especially national food systems pathways.
