In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we need to leverage the full potential of all generations. As we observe this year’s International Youth Day, we need to work together to promote effective and equitable intergenerational relationships and partnerships to ensure “no one is left behind” in transforming our food systems for healthy people and planet.
Youth participation in aquatic food systems is a key component of WorldFish's 2030 research and innovation strategy. Addressing the current challenges faced by young men and women in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture is crucial to the inclusive development of the sector.
Our research reveals a substantial gap between young people's expectations for their livelihood and their actual circumstances throughout Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Young people are persistently unemployed, with rates of 30 percent in North Africa, 19 percent in South Asia, 11 percent in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, 10 percent in East Asia and 9 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding how young people can participate in aquatic food systems to acquire respectable and worthwhile livelihood opportunities is therefore particularly crucial.
WorldFish is working with governments and development partners to create an environment that allows youth to participate meaningfully across the supply chain of fisheries and aquaculture. This includes facilitating an evidence-based understanding of land distribution or tenure arrangements that enable youth to access productive natural resources and the establishment of cooperatives that improve youth access to land and water rights, inputs, markets and financial services.
Involving youth in the transformation of our food systems is crucial in building a food-secure future for a growing global population. To achieve this, there needs to be alignment with youth aspirations. Through increased integration of information and communication technologies and by creating an environment that supports youth entrepreneurship and offering possibilities for knowledge and skill development, governments, private businesses and research institutions can help alter how young people view the industry. As we move forward, understanding how increasingly open and globalized markets can pose new challenges for youth participation in the sector is crucial.
Below you will find a curated collection of youth-themed research and innovations in aquatic food systems. Let us work together towards intergenerational solidarity in creating a resilient and sustainable aquatic food system for all ages.
Regards,
Essam Yassin Mohammed
Director General (a.i.), WorldFish
Senior Director (Acting), Aquatic Food Systems, CGIAR
Steering intergenerational initiatives toward youth's development
Enriching youth's livelihoods through key job opportunities in aquatic food systems
While challenges still remain for young people to meaningfully engage in aquatic food sectors and their associated supply chains, WorldFish urges for more diverse policy and business initiatives to ensure youth's access to equitable employment.
Factoring education and social inclusion in the pursuit of a holistic food system
An inclusive food systems transformation will not be possible without an educated generation. This year, WorldFish has been actively engaging with Malaysian university students through visits and lectures on the importance of aquatic foods.
"The ECOFISH II project engages and cherishes 100 young people, including 25 women, as Blue Guards, to support biodiversity conservation and improve coastal ecosystem health through the removal of plastic waste and discarded nets in the coastal areas of Bangladesh."
Mohammad Jalilur Rahman
Scientist and Team Leader (OiC)
ECOFISH II Activity, WorldFish Read the blog to learn more.
"Young people require skills, knowledge and access to land and financial support to take aquaculture to the next level. The AQTEVET project based in Zambia seeks to improve young people’s accessibility to these resources, opening up key opportunities in the fish farming sector."
Spotlighting young change makers from Asia, Africa & the Pacific
Increasing accessibility to high-quality aquaculture inputs in rural Bangladesh
Saifuddin Rana operates a FishBooth in a remote location of Chattogram to supply high-quality and safe aquaculture inputs to aquatic food producers in the outlying areas of Bangladesh. Additionally, he also offers consulting services at the booth.
Diversifying the range of fish seeds to meet demand in Southern Shan State
Twenty-three-year-old Nan Win Htwe is gearing her family's hatchery to produce a wide range of fish seeds on top of the existing species currently being produced to meet the increasing demand for quality fish seeds in the Southern Shan State.
Innovating for accessibility in the face of COVID hardships & social adversity
Olatunde Olufunmike Kechicha is making waves as one of the youngest fish farmers and business owners in Nigeria who uses social media to reach out to rural communities and ensure their access to aquatic foods for food and nutrition security.
Digitilizing the fisheries sector in small island nations for improved outcomes
Joctan Dos Reis Lopes is regionally recognized in Timor-Leste as a young champion of big data, including the proliferation and communication of information and technologies to drive innovative, sustainable solutions to small-scale fisheries.
Bridging the digital age gap with stronger social connectedness
"WorldFish's pioneered innovation based in Timor-Leste called 'Peskaas' had allowed local governments to utilize data on small-scale artisanal fisheries to make informed decisions within the sector, opening up opportunities to empower and increase the visibility of youth actors."
Essam Yassin Mohammed
Director General (a.i.), WorldFish &
Senior Director (Acting), Aquatic Food Systems, CGIAR
There is a huge digital age gap in small-scale artisanal fisheries, whereby young fishers and their contributions to the sector are invisible and not accounted for in national accounts, investments and policy decision-making in Timor-Leste.
To uncover this, WorldFish, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) of Timor-Leste and Pelagic Data Systems, pioneered the first near-real-time, open-source monitoring and analytics system for small-scale fisheries called 'Peskaas.' This sophisticated innovation aims to open up opportunities for young Timorese to become enumerators of timely fisheries data.
In a dialogue session at the 2022 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development hosted by Formas, a Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development, WorldFish Essam Yassin Mohammed urged governments and private sectors to embrace innovations such as Peskaas, that strengthen youth's involvement, ownership and partnership in the fisheries sector.
Delivering a climate-smart generation through jobs & experiences
To achieve an equitable food systems transformation under a changing climate, engagement from young people is crucial. While being the generation most vulnerable to incoming climate impacts, they also offer ways forward as agents of change in their households, schools, business ventures, communities and regions. Thus, engaging youth in long-term adaptation and mitigation initiatives is a key focus of the CGIAR.
Under the Accelerating Impact of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) AICCRA-Zambia program, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and partners are collaborating with national universities and private sector entities to implement the 'I2G program.' It is an innovation and internship grant initiative to generate meaningful opportunities for young climate researchers and innovators to promote 'translational research' in business and commercial sectors.
