IAAS Executive Board (EB) is pleased to launch a new competition to all youth, IAAS members, and non-IAAS members: the Youth for Climate-Resilient Agriculture Programme (YCRA Programme) in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). With this competition, we call for projects led by youth, which follow the concept of climate-resilient agriculture. This concept highlights the vulnerability of the agricultural sector to climate change and its impacts on the climate and environment. A transition to more sustainable food systems should go hand in hand with improving food security and reducing poverty. These transformative changes will work to build resilience, green agri-food systems, and fight the climate crisis.
Youth play an active role in protecting the environment and finding innovative solutions to climate change, and also have a pivotal role in adopting and promoting environmentally friendly practices at home and in the community. Nevertheless, they often face very specific age-related challenges and barriers to get involved in the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. The YCRAC aims at addressing these challenges by supporting youth engaged for greener and more resilient agriculture systems by providing capacity building and helping youth develop their outreach.
Are you involved in a project working on climate-resilient agriculture that could benefit from intensive capacity building training? Are you interested in participating in the International Conference for Youth in Agriculture in Bonn, Germany from 10 to 13 of March 2022 to represent your youth-led green and climate-resilient agriculture project? Would you like to benefit from networking with other young leaders and receive mentoring? And are you ready to show the world the power of youth at COP27 in Egypt? Then this is your chance to bring your project to the next level!
You have until 5 February 2022 at 11:59 p.m. (Amsterdam time) to fill in the Project Template (You can download this file by clicking on File and Download). Eight projects will be selected by the selection committee. One participant from each project will receive a fully-funded return trip to the international conference of youth in agriculture (ICYA) in Bonn, Germany, where capacity-building training will start. These trainings will be given by the IAAS Training Committee, consisting out of experienced student trainers and alumni who will provide you trainings to make the next steps in your project. The committee will tailor their training based on your needs. After ICYA, you will get a mentor assigned and there will be a monthly training online till this summer. Then, at the World Congress of IAAS (WOCO) in July 2022, two projects will win a fully-funded return trip to COP27 in Egypt to present their work on a global stage.
Are you ready to take part in this challenge?
Fill in the project report and send it to vppartnership@iaasworld.org
Deadline is 5th February 2022 23:59 hr GMT+1 (Amsterdam time)
Nota Bene: IAAS will host a Q&A hour about this competition on Wednesday 26th of January at 13h GMT +1. You can watch the Q&A back here. Check this page regularly for a possible second Q&A.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1/ What are the requirements for a project?
The projects should be youth-led and you should be able to present successful results on how your project contributes to green and climate-resilient agriculture. We are not looking for ideas with this competition, but ideas that are already put into action. Applicants from developing countries, ethnic minorities or presenting solutions that can be beneficial for developing countries will be favoured. To find out find what a developing country is, please look at this list.
2/ Can you give me an example of such a project?
Youth-led actions are popping up across the globe, and as IAAS we are happy to see this taking place. Inside IAAS, we have three existing frameworks of projects: the Village Concept Project (VCP), No More Food Waste and Women in Agriculture. More information on these frameworks can be found in the IAAS Greenbook. This Greenbook shows ongoing projects inside the IAAS network to inspire you. However to enter the competition, we invite you to be creative and come up with new ideas.
3/ How will the winners be selected?
In order to be able to select the winners, we expect you to make a Project Report. This is a document that explains very clearly what your project is (action steps + timeline) and what your accomplishments are. We expect you to finish this report by the 5th February 2022. Note, that your submission will be used in a larger project to map out youth-led projects across the globe. The selection criteria will be based on the following rubric and must consist out of:
Originality: The quality or state of being original of the project.
Creativity: The capability or act of conceiving original or unusual ideas within the project.
Innovativeness: The implementation or creation of the idea that has realized value to the sector.
Applicability: The degree of usefulness of the project to the listed problems or the sector.
Social impact: The marked effect or influence by the project on the social level
Environmental impact: The marked effect or influence by the project environmentally
Alignment with green and climate-resilient agriculture objectives is mandatory.
4/ What can I win?
The eight winners will receive a fully-funded return trip to the 2022 international conference of youth in agriculture (ICYA) in Bonn, Germany if COVID-restrictions allow. At the conference, they will also benefit from various online capacity trainings given by the IAAS Training Committee. The topics of the trainings will be tailored to your needs and project. After the trainings at ICYA you will receive monthly trainings and mentorship to help you further.
At the World Congress of IAAS (WOCO22), the two winners from the early eight selected candidates will be announced. These two winners will win a fully-funded return trip to COP 27 in Egypt to present their work on a global stage.
NOTA BENE: You can participate in this competition as a team but there is only place for one team member to travel to ICYA and potentially to COP.
5/ What is green and climate resilient agriculture?
According to FAO, green and climate resilient agriculture « employs agricultural practices, technologies and innovations that enhance productivity in a sustainable manner, increase resilience and food security, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure higher incomes for small-scale producers.». As you can see, green and climate resilient agriculture is a large umbrella that encompasses practices and approaches such as climate-smart agriculture, agroecology, sustainable management of forest resources and fisheries, and the use of biotechnologies or information systems to foster resilience and low carbon agriculture.
Two concrete examples that showcase green and climate resilient actions are the Green Cities Initiative and the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. The green cities targets improved access to nutritious and low carbon food that supports farmer’s livelihoods in urban areas and strengthened urban-rural linkages. The UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration is a global movement aiming to raise awareness and accelerate actions to drastically lower the impact of human activities on land and underwater ecosystems. As major drivers of deforestation, land use changes and pollution, agriculture sectors represent a significant area of action for the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.
