Summary:

• This report consists of seven chapters, structured into three parts, which examine key dimensions of youth engagement in agrifood systems. Together, they provide a comprehensive picture of the demographic, socioeconomic and environmental factors shaping youth participation and outcomes from agrifood systems, as well as opportunities, challenges and policy pathways towards transformed agrifood systems that deliver decent jobs, food security and nutrition, and resilience.
• Part I (Chapters 2 and 3) lays the foundation for understanding youth engagement and outcomes in agrifood systems across diverse contexts by examining available opportunities and young people’s ability to leverage them. Chapter 2 focuses on youth economic opportunities in agrifood systems. It explores how youth demographics and mobility patterns intersect with agrifood systems and sub-national biophysical resource and market access to determine youth opportunities. Chapter 3 examines factors that enable or inhibit youth from seizing these opportunities, focusing on assets and resources youth need, such as human, natural, financial, physical and social capital, and how generational, gendered and social inequalities affect access.
• Part II (Chapters 4, 5 and 6) evaluates key youth outcomes essential for agrifood systems transformation. Chapter 4 analyses youth employment in agrifood systems, exploring the types and quantities of jobs young men and women hold and the conditions under which they work. It assesses intergenerational and sectoral mobility, following labour shifts from primary agriculture to higher productivity sectors and their impacts on youth welfare. Chapter 5 focuses on food security and nutrition, assessing youth’s unique dietary needs, prevalence of food insecurity, and the effect of inadequate diets and malnutrition on youth’s health, productivity and agrifood systems engagement. It shows that food insecurity among youth increased from 16.7 percent to 24.4 percent between 2014– 2016 and 2021–2023, driven partially by the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises. This increase widened the existing youth–adult gap and was greater among women and rural populations.

• Chapter 6 explores youth resilience to economic disruptions, climate change and conflicts. It examines how shocks and crises shape opportunities in agrifood systems and how young people cope, adapt and contribute to mitigating their effects on themselves, their communities and broader agrifood systems. Part III concludes the report by examining policies and strategies that support youth-inclusive agrifood systems transformation.

• Chapter 7 reviews youth focused interventions and programmes to identify approaches and design features that effectively expand youth’s economic prospects in agrifood systems and enable young people to engage meaningfully in agrifood systems. It highlights strategies for improving outcomes in decent jobs, food security and nutrition, and resilience to shocks, alongside measures that strengthen youth voice and agency, skills development and access to essential resources. By detailing key design elements and presenting best practices, Chapter7 offers policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders' clear guidance on how to foster a supportive environment for youth and ensure that they become pivotal actors in agrifood systems transformation.