By Courtney Paisley and Marina Cherbonnier YPARD was extremely active in this years' AASW.  From identifying many excellent active youths for participation, organising a YPARD side event, participating and contributing to other AASW side sessions to social reporting of the event on-site and online.  The three side events with a strong youth component include the Gender and Youth Side Event, the... Continue reading

With over 40 young professionals supported to attend the 2013 African Agricultural Science Week (AASW), YPARD planned an event that could celebrate what young people have done on the continent in ARD and examine how we can work stronger, together. The objectives of the side event were to bring together YPARD members, representatives and those supportive of youth and agriculture issues... Continue reading

YPARD has been working to engage youth in the decision making processes in the agricultural development sector. Bringing youth representatives to boards, steering and advisory committees is one way of ensuring that youth are an active part of the sector and to encourage youth involvement in programme development.  We are thus, pleased to report that the Global Forum for Agricultural Research... Continue reading

This article "Investing in youth", by Courtney Paisley, YPARD, was published in the @FARMLETTER of April 2013, the newsletter of World Farmers'Organisation, p.19. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new” Socrates We invest in something to enable it to grow.  Yet, in practice, investment is made in... Continue reading

YPARD is proud to share its YPARD 2012 report.  This was a year of growth for YPARD where it made its mark in agricultural research for development. The strong showing by YPARD at the GCARD2 demonstrated to the international community that youth can have a strong voice and be an integral part of international events and proceedings and that they have... Continue reading

The YPARD Steering Committee which was held in Rome February 22nd and 23rd, 2013 was a fruitful event, examining the activities and role of YPARD, strategy and the years to come.  A couple points of note were a new Steering Committee chair and a new name for the coordinator. New Chair YPARD would like to welcome Codrin Paveliuc-Olariu as the new... Continue reading

I was invited to contribute through a guest commentary for the Chicago Council’s Global Food for Thought Blog on the importance of engaging/investing in youth in agriculture sector to alleviate hunger and poverty, given my experiences with YPARD.  The Global Food for Thought blog indeed provides a platform for expert commentary on international agriculture and food issues. This year, the Council... Continue reading

YPARD Team wishes every each of you a Happy New Year! We would like to give a big thanks to all of you who helped us make 2012 a big success.  It was a great year for youth in ARD and building of a stronger YPARD.  We look forward to working with all of you for an active and successful 2013,... Continue reading

The first event organized by YPARD China was a strong start from a very important region.  Young professionals from different parts of China undertook long train journeys to be part of a momentous occasion and the first of its kind for YPARD in China!  The day started out with many distinguished speakers from the hosts, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences... Continue reading

YPARD welcomes Martina Graf as the YPARD Europe coordinator for the recently established YPARD Europe Chapter. Martina will lead the development of the European network, creating a working group with the young professionals who have demonstrated their interest in working to shape the YPARD plan of action for Europe.  Martina is based in Switzerland, holds a Bachelor of Science in International... Continue reading

The YPARD coordinator, regional coordinator, and representatives for some Asian regions met in India in March, 2012 to formalise some of the activities for the region.  Some of the ideas that came out were as follows: Activities Learning Needs Assessment Working with different stakeholder groups to identify their capacity development needs.  These should be country specific (and more so, if possible).  This... Continue reading

The session on 'engaging young people' brought out different people to share their experiences on how they engage young people in the agrifood sector in Africa. These are some of the ideas that came out of this session (to which YPARD also shared their experiences) during the Future Agricultures conference on youth, farming and the agrifood sector in Africa. When we... Continue reading

The YPARD Coordinator travelled to meet with the YPARD LAC coordinator at CIAT in Cali, Colombia.  The pair discussed strategies to build up the region, get more young people interested and activities that could propel the region ahead in 2012. Plans for the region include increased awareness, displaying the testimonials of young people in the LAC region active in ARD, linking... Continue reading

  Official Launch of YPARD, in 2006, in New Delhi As we start 2012, YPARD will say thank you and goodbye to the last of the founding YPARD members who comes to the end of her term as YPARD steering committee member in January 2012.  YPARD began with a small, committed group of individuals who fought very hard to bring youth... Continue reading

CACAARI Regional Brainstorming meeting Tashkent, Uzbekistan, November 29-30, 2011 YPARD attended the Central Asia and the Caucasus Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (CACAARI) meeting to discuss further engagement of youth in the region and particularly within CACAARI’s regional plan.   The CACAARI region covers the countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Representatives of these regions were eager... Continue reading

At the International conference for innovations in extension and rural advisory services 2011, Nairobi, YPARD engaged interested participants on a discussion entitled: ‘youth in extension: are we making the most of our young assets’?  The aim of this discussion was to share the outcomes from the YPARD e-discussion on young professionals in extension, hear the experiences of YPARD members active in... Continue reading

Student engagement, social innovation, fostering democracy, youth employment, conflict and sustainable development are among the issues that have been discussed on the floor of the 7th UNESCO Youth Forum, 17 to 20 October 2011 in UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The Forum brought together youth delegates, civil society participants, UN entities, intergovernmental organizations, academics and the private sector. Participants discussed, debated, and... Continue reading

On February 24th, 2011 the YPARD coordinator discussed youth issues with interested colleagues at FAO.  The aim of the discussion was to look at potential areas of collaboration between the two organisations and to promote greater involvement of young people within FAO. Two main areas were discussed:  how to make agriculture more attractive to young people and addressing some of the... Continue reading

The YPARD Coordinator was invited by Steering Committee member Nadia Manning to co-facilitate a session on youth and agriculture knowledge at the Share Fair in Addis Ababa.  The fair provided a good networking platform and a chance to improve YPARD’s knowledge sharing activities. Two agricultural magazines are planning issues targeted towards youth in the new year, the New Agriculturalist and Farming... Continue reading

 YPARD Organised the YPARD Meeting of Local and Regional Representatives and Capacity Building Workshop Hosted by VIT University October 11-16, 2010.  Aim of Workshop Train local and regional representatives on the new e-tools of YPARD and the website Launch of the regional sites Strategic development of action plans of the regional coordination units of Asia, Africa and LAC. Discussion of regional... Continue reading