From voices to action: Insights from the 1000 African Youth Summit on Agroecology and Climate Resilience

Abstract

To galvanize change in Africa's food systems, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) organized the inaugural 1000 African Youth Summit on Food Systems and Agroecology in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in October 2024. This critical convening brought together over 1000 youth participants (244 physically present and 783 engaged virtually) from 45 countries to exchange knowledge, construct shared narratives, and propose strategic action pathways for transforming African agroecological and food systems. This study employs a robust thematic analysis methodology, scrutinizing diverse summit outputs, including breakout session summaries, youth stories of change, policy proposals, and comprehensive post-summit reflections to document key outcomes. Five prominent and cross-cutting themes emerged from this corpus: critical importance of youth agency and leadership, the acceleration of agroecological innovation and entrepreneurship, the preservation of Indigenous knowledge and cultural identity, the utilization of digital and media activism, and the persistence of deep-seated structural barriers to participation, especially gender inequalities. Youth participants constituently framed agroecology not merely as a farming system but as a political and cultural movement fundamentally rooted in sovereignty, social justice, and resilience. Collectively, they shared grassroots innovations, advocated for explicit inclusion in national planning processes, and successfully launched networks that now continue to influence local and regional food systems. The findings underscore both the transformative potential and the entrenched systemic challenges inherent in youth-led agroecology. While young actors catalyze bottom-up change, they continue to encounter formidable structural obstacles such as restricted access to productive land, adequate finance, and formal institutional recognition. This study subsequently contributes new empirical insights into youth-led agroecological action and offers targeted practical implications for policymakers, donors, and civil society. We conclude that effectively supporting youth as legitimate actors in agroecology mandates concerted investment in training, the implementation of participatory governance structures, and establishment of policy frameworks that explicitly value Indigenous knowledge and decentralized leadership.