Youth demand greater share of food systems investments at National Agribusiness Dialogue

Youth demanded a greater share of investments under the country's flagship food systems programmes at a National Youth Dialogue on the domestication of the Africa Agribusiness Youth Strategy (AAYS) and the Youth in Agrifood Systems Performance Index (YAPI), which concluded in Accra. In a communique issued at the end of the three-day dialogue, the youth called for urgent, coordinated, and accountable actions to translate AAYS and YAPI commitments into laws, budgets, programmes, and measurable results. They stated, "The stronger story for Ghana is not that youth are mentioned in policy; it is that Ghana can measure whether young people have skills, assets, jobs, voice and resilience."

The dialogue was organized by AGRA, Mastercard Foundation, and the Government of Ghana. AAYS is the African Union's blueprint for enhancing youth participation across agrifood value chains, emphasizing enterprise development, market access, and inclusive policy design. YAPI is the union's accountability and tracking framework that measures how effectively countries support youth inclusion in agribusiness. The young people stated that Ghana should move from mentioning youth in agrifood policies to making youth intentionality a funded, measured, and accountable deliverable across the Feed Ghana Programme (FGP), the National Agricultural Investment Program (NAIP), National Youth Policy, Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) trade systems, district delivery mechanisms, and parliamentary accountability. The dialogue, themed "Bridging Policy to Practice for Youth Participation in Regional and Continental Markets," brought together over 350 youth agribusiness practitioners and representatives from public institutions, parliament, regional trade bodies, and the private sector.