2024 engagements

In 2024, the Youth Assembly held the Thematic Youth Assembly session on livestock, online on 2 October and a dedicated side event at the 29th Session of the Committee on Agriculture (COAG). These engagements were pivotal in identifying youth priorities for the sector.

Key youth priorities that emerged from these engagements included:

• promoting inclusive decision-making, ensuring youth are meaningfully integrated into policy development processes — particularly within influential platforms like the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations COAG Sub-Committee on Livestock;
• enabling economic empowerment and expanding opportunities for pastoralist youth through better access to markets and land;
• fostering youth leadership in the livestock sector; and
• addressing barriers such as infrastructure limitations and restricted access to funding, ensuring youth-led initiatives can thrive and create lasting impact.

Tentative 2025–2026 engagements

Building on youth-identified priorities, in 2025 the Youth Assembly will prioritize strengthening youth engagement in the COAG Sub-Committee on Livestock by refining key priorities, enhancing youth capacity and ensuring meaningful engagement leading to the committee annual meeting in 2026. A key focus will be on amplifying youth advocacy through the development of targeted policy materials, equipping young leaders with practical tools to influence decision-making processes effectively.

The Youth Assembly will also work on structuring youth involvement by proposing a clear roadmap and defining essential activities to ensure sustained participation in COAG and other relevant livestock platforms. Empowering young leaders remains central to this effort, with an emphasis on providing the skills and knowledge needed to lead sustainable livestock transformations within their communities. For that, the Youth Assembly will organize technical workshops and focus on gathering actionable recommendations by capturing youth perspectives on sector challenges and opportunities, ensuring their voices drive meaningful, youth-led actions and inform broader policy dialogues.