For as long as rural livelihoods are associated with drudgery and inadequate movement towards mechanization, we will be losing our young people into urban settings.

Never underestimate the power of leadership. When leaders speak, people listen.

We are in the foothills of a really long, complex, challenging journey. We … need to support countries in unlocking their (national food) pathways. We don’t have 20 years for us to spend getting food systems transformation right.

The AGA is about giving members and partners a safe space to discuss how to shape coordinated and harmonized donor approaches to better serve rural people in the path to development and make our interventions more effective and impactful.

Impact … is not felt at the level of beautiful documents that are shared, but in how you move the needle and shift the reality of the lives of rural people and all of the people in the food systems.

We must work to build more effective multilateralism, including via platforms such as the GDPRD – but this … needs commitment at the highest levels within our own organizations.

The group has proved its value by providing space and opportunities for different actors in rural youth to share their views, methodologies, results and lessons learned. This strengthens partnerships and coordination among the group’s members.

This is a great platform … not where agriculture people talk to each other but a place about rural resilience, climate change mitigation and adaptation, natural resources, biodiversity, income and jobs in rural places, and digitalization.

The world is complex. There is no one solution for everyone. There is not an average farmer nor an average country. We need this detailed information to really fix and improve the different parts of the food system we want, with the right solution at the right place.

Climate, nature, water, nutrition and gender are not considered in credit risk assessments and investment decisions in sustainable food systems. This is a market failure that donors must address as non-sustainable businesses will suffer heavy losses as extreme weather sets in.