On 31st January, the COCOREADO Project organised a policy workshop in Brussels, on “Empowering young citizens involvement towards sustainable food systems”, where relevant policymakers from EU institutions such as DG AGRI and DG RTD and other relevant institutions such as UN FAO, joined alongside the project partners and ambassadors.
The workshop started with our COCOREADO partner Lisa Van den Bossche (EV ILVO) presenting the Multi Actor Approach jointly with the Ambassador Network, and Miķelis Grīviņš (BSC), where the methodology and the work carried out throughout the project were highlighted.
Interest picked up after these sessions and the participants were very keen to find out more about the ambassadors, so our ambassador Carlo Celis shared his testimony on an ambassador perspective and outlined to the audience the future of the ambassador network.
Getting to learn all of this about the project impressed the participants, mainly on how COCOREADO developed and fostered a significant network of young citizens from diverse backgrounds and from across Europe.
After that, a more policy focused session took place with the unveiling of the project Policy Brief on “Empowering young citizens involvement towards sustainable food systems”, by Tomás da Cruz Machado (RYE). There was explanation of the urgent needs of the agricultural sector identified throughout the project. This includes the growing awareness and consciousness of consumers towards sustainability and fairness in the food system, together with the hurdles to generational renewal in agricultural systems. Also highlighted is access to training and education. This led us to present the respective recommendations centered on educating, involving and connecting young citizens.
All the participants also had the opportunity to discuss and brainstorm among themselves in a World Café activity, on how these recommendations could promote empowering young citizens in general, specifically from a policy perspective. They also discussed how better conditions can be created within European institutions to help young people have a true and fair space in decision-making processes, so that it is possible to empower young people to get involved with the transition towards a sustainable food system.
Overall, it was a great event that promoted high visibility for the activities of the COCOREADO project, namely the Policy Brief developed, as well as fostering connections and debates between policymakers from EU-level institutions and young citizens.
Tomás da Cruz Machado
COCOREADO Project Manager