Youth leadership accelerates national pathways for food systems transformation in Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

As strategic partners, innovators, entrepreneurs, and partners in implementation, young people are working together with National Convenors to implement national pathways for food systems transformation across the Eastern Caribbean.

Convened under the Hub’s Youth Leadership Programme (YLP), two national Science–Policy–Society Interface (SPSI) workshops held in April 2026 in Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines showcase the benefits of more inclusive and participatory decision making in food systems. Bringing together government institutions, youth organizations, academia, civil society, technical partners, and development actors, National Convenors explored how youth engagement must move from consultation to concrete action.

Engaging the youth: Pathways beyond consultation

For Small Island Developing States, food systems transformation is closely linked to climate resilience, livelihoods, food security, nutrition, and economic opportunity. In both Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia, discussions highlighted common challenges, including climate vulnerability, high food import dependency, limited domestic production and value addition, and barriers affecting youth participation in agriculture and agri-food enterprises.

Yet the workshops showed that young people are already contributing across food systems. They are engaged in small-scale agriculture, school-based initiatives, agro-processing, digital communication, agri-food entrepreneurship, and community-level knowledge sharing. The challenge is not a lack of youth interest, but the need for more structured pathways, institutional support, access to finance, data, markets, training, and opportunities to influence implementation.

In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Hon Israel R. Bruce, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Transformation, captured this shift clearly: “Young people should not be passengers, they should be driving the vehicle.”

Accelerating implementation of national pathways for food systems transformation

The SPSI approach creates structured spaces where scientific evidence, policy processes, and societal actors can come together to support evidence-informed and inclusive decision-making. In practice, this means connecting national priorities with community realities, and ensuring that food systems policies are shaped by those working across the system.

In Saint Lucia, Dr Randel Esnard, Deputy Permanent Secretary and National Convenor, emphasized this transition: “This workshop is not just another dialogue, it is a step toward implementation. Our focus now is on translating the national pathway into concrete actions that deliver results for Saint Lucia.”

Dr Nicole De Paula, Technical Officer for Science for Food Systems at the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, underlined the same point, noting that the work is about “moving beyond discussion and into delivery, ensuring that evidence, policy, and community realities are connected and translated into action in the long term.”

Building the systems that allow youth to lead

Across the two workshops, participants pointed to the same core need: youth engagement must become more structured, continuous, and connected to existing institutions.

In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, discussions highlighted the role of the Zero Hunger Trust Fund, the proposed National Youth Food Systems Framework, and the World Food Forum Youth Chapter as mechanisms that can help connect youth participation with enterprise development, livelihoods, policy engagement, and action across the food system.

In Saint Lucia, participants identified national assets such as extension and training services, multi-stakeholder platforms, and the Integrated Farmer Registration and Management System, known as iFARM, as tools that can support stronger coordination, service delivery, and evidence-informed planning for young farmers and agri-entrepreneurs.

Together, these examples point to a broader lesson: youth leadership does not happen only through participation in meetings. It requires data, financing, coordination, institutional entry points, and practical mechanisms that allow young people to shape decisions and act on them.

National priorities emerge

The workshops generated practical youth action priorities adapted to each national context. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the draft SPSI Youth Action Plan focused on improving access to food systems data, strengthening youth engagement and education, and connecting national processes with community-level governance mechanisms.

In Saint Lucia, priorities included youth food security enterprise, climate-smart education from preschool, youth-inclusive food policy, improved access to markets and finance, and a national food systems data platform building on iFARM.

While the priorities differ by country, they share a common direction: making youth engagement more practical, better connected to national implementation, and more closely linked to livelihoods, resilience, and local food systems development.

A regional message: Youth as implementers

Taken together, the two workshops point to a wider regional message: youth engagement in food systems transformation cannot remain symbolic. It must be structured, continuous, and connected to real implementation mechanisms.

Hon Lisa C. Jawahir, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Climate Change of Saint Lucia, underlined this ambition: “Food systems transformation in Saint Lucia must create real opportunities for our youth, empowering them as entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders in building a more resilient and sustainable future.”

Across the Eastern Caribbean, young people are already contributing ideas and practical solutions. The priority now is to ensure that regulations, policies, institutions, data systems, financing, and decision-making processes support their continued participation and leadership.