Intersections of Youth and Food Security
The purpose of this report is to provide guidance to USAID on how to best engage youth in global food security initiatives. USAID is a leader in addressing the root causes of food insecurity and providing solutions that improve agricultural activity, promote market development, prevent nutritional deficiencies, and promote rural growth. This work is in line with the Millennium Development Goal to half the amount of hungry individuals by 2015. However, much work is still needed in this field, as almost one billion individuals remain food insecure.
"Food security is often rooted in poverty and has long-term impacts on the ability of families, communities, and countries to develop. Prolonged undernourishment stunts growth, slows cognitive development, and increases susceptibility to illness. Food security means having, at all times, both physical and economic to access to sufficient food to meet dietary needs for a productive and healthy life. A family is food secure when its members do not live in hunger or fear of hunger."
With global populations rapidly increasing -- especially in the developing world-- providing food security increasingly requires innovative solutions and technologies. The United Nations predicts that by 2050 global population will increase by approximately 2.5 billion people, with the majority of this increase occurring in the development world. Much of this growth will be among youth, who are expected to makeup half of the 2050 population. Due to these demographic shifts, youth are extremely vulnerable to food insecurity. Problems of rising food process and crop loss from climate change-related weather patterns only exacerbate this vulnerability. For these reasons targeting the overall youth cohort is a promising way to address the development challenges associated with decreasing food insecurity, and will ensure that USAID maintains its leadership role throughout the development world.
Access the full case study here.