Today, youth forms one of the vital stakeholders in our society. Their awareness of society’s real issues provides them with a zeal to contribute to improving lives worldwide. Hence, engaging them in meaningful conversations for finding solutions to multivariate issues is essential to develop better economic, social and environmental conditions for the global society.
`19 youths participated in a 2-day youth strategy meeting organized by Fairtrade NAPP to present their opinions on relevant issues and purposed solutions to various local issues of respective regions for better development of the society. This strategy meeting is part of the 2023 International Fair Trade Youth Strategy Meeting to bring all relevant stakeholders together to define and plan their strategy for the next three years.
These youths have identified important issues and presented their solutions that addressed the problem at the ground level. These issues are based on their localities such as drug addiction, unemployment, migration, climate change, and issues in the agriculture business among others. On this basis, the authorities have combined various issues under 5 themes that need to be addressed as a priority with a relevant action plan. The youths regrouped into 5 groups that presented solutions to be adopted as some strategies for the next three years.
1. Climate and Environment Change
Climate and environmental change have taken precedence in these years. Despite a few social entrepreneurs, it was found that most environmental technologies whose function is to reduce or eliminate pollutant discharge into the environment have little or no natural market. The panelists appreciated the group for suggesting the “Miyaki method” for facilitating the ecosystem to tackle climate change. However, there is further analysis required for other sub-topics.
2. Drug Addiction
Today, drug addiction is one of the most social evils prevailing in this country that has an enormous impact on other daily activities of the youth. It was analysed keeping the perspective of various stakeholders i.e., institutions, patients, family members, physicians, volunteers and government policies in mind. There were various innovative ideas suggested by the presenters such as music or dance activities that would help in diverting the attention of the youth.
3. Underemployment
As of the 21st century, underemployment is one of the most important issues that has been tackled across various countries in the world. Developing various skill development centres were deemed to be the most important strategy for this issue in addition to teaching farming techniques to interested youth in Agriculture. The analysis conducted by this team was deemed the best analysis by the panelists.
4. Agribusiness
The team has analysed the agriculture business through various stakeholders such as labours, transportation, creditors, suppliers, government, warehouses, and customers among others. They were evaluated on the several important factors of agriculture business such as value addition, marketing, exporting, and advertisements among others.
5. Migration
The team analysed the prevalent issue of migration keeping various stakeholders such as youth, farmers, families and society into consideration. Various practical solutions suggested by the presenters have great potential to tackle this issue at their ground level.
The Panelists were very impressed by their presentation and summarized the strategies suggested from the larger picture. They credited the Unemployment team with carrying out the steps of stakeholder analysis, SWOT analysis, and strategy development. They also praised the Climate Change team for including the ecosystem as a stakeholder and provided some valuable suggestions that need to be taken into consideration for suggesting feasible solutions in the real world. The stakeholders of the meeting together purposed sustainable development goals taking various perspectives (such as budgeting) into consideration.
This meeting saw our youths taking the foremost step in taking real action to make their lives better. Analytical thinking was applied to address relevant questions and generate several solutions that can be implemented in the near future. Fairtrade NAPP has made a relevant attempt to empower them by engaging them in strategy development for Fairtrade for the upcoming 3 years. After all, today’s youth should be capable of becoming future leaders to lead the world in the right direction and make their own destinies!
Youth leaders’ testimonial:
Ananya: “We should start at the micro level and build up.”
Ajay: “We have to go in-depth into strategies and innovations.”
Albin: “Youth involvement in agriculture should be encouraged.”
Umesh: “New ideas should be brought in.”
Sivam: “Learnt about strategy, stakeholders – who are important, budgeting, how to market and progression.”
