From September 1-5, 2025, I had the privilege to attend the Africa Food Systems (AFS) Forum that was held in Dakar, Senegal. This forum was also attended by Mr. Claver Gatete, the Under Secretary of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa. Hosted under the leadership of H.E. Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar FAYE, President of the Republic of Senegal, the AFS 2025 Forum brought together public and private sector leaders, policymakers, researchers, development partners, and youth champions around the theme: “Africa’s Youth Leading Collaboration, Innovation, and Implementation of Agri-Food Systems Transformation.” Several issues were discussed during the forum that are relevant to my fellowship research on agri-food systems and job creation in Africa. Ultimately, I managed to take a few points that I would like to share with you all:

-Africa has favourable conditions necessary to produce enough food for its rapidly growing population. Nevertheless, Africa remains one of the world’s food-insecure regions.

-Africa imports approximately 50 billion worth of food annually. This suggests the need to transform AFS to ensure food security and food self-sufficiency.

-The agri-food system in Africa is one of the largest employers. However, many people are employed at the farm level. If well transformed, the agri-food sector helps reduce the unemployment rate by generating employment opportunities in other parts of the agri-food value chain, such as processing and distribution.

-Certain social groups, including youth, women, and refugees, are often left behind in the transformation of agri-food systems. It is important to place these marginalised social groups, particularly youth, at the centre of agri-food systems transformation.

-Many policies and commitments have been made to transform food systems for better jobs and food security in Africa, yet many of them have not been effectively put into implementation. This suggests the need to transition from theory to practice to ensure the development of sustainable and resilient agri-food systems.

Generally, African youth are required to take part in agri-food systems transformation to enhance the continent’s food security and food sovereignty, as well as create jobs along the agri-food value chains. However, a key question is:

1. Are young people ready to participate in transforming agri-food systems?
2. If not, who will feed Africa in the next few decades? If you have any inputs, I would be glad to hear from you.

Thanks

SHWEHDY Amged B, Libya, SRO-NA Hi Amged. Congratulations on publishing a paper on e-government. This is a highly relevant topic, especially for African countries where the implementation of e-government remains limited. Concerning your questions, yes. I have experience in publishing several articles in international journals such as Information Development, Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, Sage Open, World Development Perspectives, etc. (You can access them through my Google Scholar account: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EEaYc08AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao). There are a lot of ups and downs in the overall process of writing a manuscript and get published especially if your target is journals with high impact factors. I got a lot of rejections at the beginning, but I had to learn and improve my manuscripts and finally got published.

ABNER Martha,Namibia,DES-PS Aside from our division work and research projects, I think it would be beneficial to form clusters of researchers working on similar themes. This could enable members to share opportunities, collaborate on developing funding proposals, and jointly implement different projects after this fellowship. I am open to collaborating with anyone working on issues related to agriculture and rural development, agri-food systems, food security, agroecology and food sovereignty, and ICT4D. I also have a particular interest in critical agrarian studies and minority studies. I study all these from sociological perspectives.

SYAHUKA Hilda, Uganda, DOA Thank you for sharing the PDM. I think it is a good model that can be replicated in other African countries. I will read more about it. Thanks

ALI Ibrahim Houssen,Djibouti,ACS Absultely. Governance is a big challenge in Africa.

LIPEDE Omolola Mary,Nigeria,GPSPD Thank you for your input. Sure, the African position on GMOs was discussed through two angles: (a) embracing Indigenous knowledge in agriculture and (b) agroecological practices. These two issues, from Africa's perspective, could help to build a resilient food system that sustains cultural identity and the environment.