In July 2021, African Youth in Agriculture and Climate Change convened a joint dialogue on food systems as part of the pre-United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) events. The three-day dialogue was convened by Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD), Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program Youth Network (CYN), and Africa Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC) with support from USAID-Policy LINK and Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). A unanimous decision by participating African youth was to establish a unifying Youth Network through which they would contribute to the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) agricultural development policy agenda and climate change policy agenda via United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) processes.
The Consortium of African Youth in Agriculture and Climate Change (CAYACC) was then formed through the coming together of CYN Africa, AYICC Africa, YPARD Africa, One Billion Tree Campaign for Africa and AfCFTA Youth Council.
CAYACC then conducted a mapping exercise to understand the continental youth-led organizations landscape, with support from the African Union Commission (AUC) department for Rural Economy and Agriculture, with the intended outcome to strengthen youth engagement in CAADP agenda and the climate change policy agenda for Africa. 205 youth-led organizations across the continent responded to our survey. This mapping exercise exposed the low level of youth organizations engagement in CAADP and other Agricultural and climate change policy processes and all the 205 youth-led organizations that responded to our survey underscored the affirmation to establish a unifying network in Africa to enable a more coordinated, structured and traceable engagement in continental policy process related to agriculture and climate change.
USAID Policy LINK is supporting CAYACC with the Strategic Planning Workshop that will be held in Nairobi, Kenya on September 11-13, 2023. The Strategic Plan will enable the Consortium to have a shared vision, mission and strategic direction for the network, which will further enhance their ability to engage in continental, regional and national level Agriculture, and climate change Policy platforms. CAYACC will be officially launched at the next CAADP PP in Zambia this October.