Glossary

AGE COHORTS

Although the age brackets defining youth differ considerably across countries and regions, this report adopts the United Nations definition of individuals between the ages of 15 and 24. However, where data sources use alternative age cohorts, the corresponding figures reflect those definitions, with explanations provided in the relevant contexts. Individuals below the age of 18 are legally children. When turning 18, individuals reach legal age and are considered adults. As such, the 15–24 age range captures the upper range of children and the lower range of adults.

• Adolescent: 10–19 years
• Youth: 15–24 years
• Younger youth: 15–17 years
• Older youth: 18–24 years
• Adults: 25 years and above
• Younger adults: 25–34 years
• Older adults: 35 years and above

AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS

Agrifood systems comprise the entire range of actors and interlinked activities that add value in agricultural production and related off-farm activities such as food storage, aggregation, post-harvest handling, transportation, processing, distribution, marketing, disposal and consumption. Agricultural production refers to primary crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry production.¹

AGRICULTURAL, RURAL AND STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION

The process by which low-income societies, in which agriculture absorbs most labour and generates most economic output, become high-income societies characterized by a relatively smaller but more productive agricultural sector. Structural transformation involves the reallocation of economic activities away from agriculture and natural resources to industry and services, expanded domestic and international trade, increased specialization and division of labour, and increased ruralurban migration. It also includes the urbanization of the countryside, combined with a reduction in birth rates and a greater participation of youth in the workforce. Agricultural transformation is both a cause and effect of structural transformation – involving productivity increases in agriculture and a shift from subsistence farming to commercial, highly diversified production systems and value chains. Rural transformation captures all aspects of agricultural transformation and also includes the emergence of livelihood and incomegenerating opportunities in the rural, non-farm sector.¹

AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION

The process representing the normative change sought in agrifood systems, around a vision balancing sustainability, healthy diets, inclusion and decent livelihoods.

AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS TRANSITION

The process by which agrifood systems change through various shifts – for example, in practices, technologies or market dynamics from traditional to more modern, formalized and industrialized agrifood systems. This transition is not strictly linear and is reflected in different categories of agrifood systems, each with their specific status, challenges and opportunities in terms of sustainability, nutrition and inclusion.

AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS TYPOLOGY

This report adopts the agrifood systems typology developed by Marshall et al.² and extended in The State of Food and Agriculture 2024 .³ The typology classifies countries using measures of productivity, dietary diversity, urbanization and modern retail infrastructure coverage to assess the degree of agrifood systems transition, with a separate category for countries in protracted crisis, producing six categories: 1) Protracted Crisis, 2) Traditional, 3) Expanding, 4) Diversifying, 5) Formalizing and 6) Industrial.² These six agrifood systems categories do not suggest a linear progression from a “less desirable” traditional state to a “fully desirable” industrial state; rather, they serve to indicate where countries are situated along this agrifood systems transition.

AGRIPRENEURS

Individuals who establish and manage enterprises within agrifood systems by identifying business opportunities across the value chain, aiming to generate profit and returns on investment.^{4, 5}

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY SPACE (FOR YOUTH)

The set of viable economic opportunities that young people can harness to improve their livelihoods. These opportunities have strong spatial dimensions, reflecting variations in the structure of agrifood systems and the degree of rural and structural transformation within the country and local areas where youth reside. Youth opportunities may vary across rural areas within a given country, influenced by biophysical and socioeconomic context. Economic opportunity spaces are categorized in this report into five categories: 1) spaces with low opportunities, 2) spaces with moderate opportunities, 3) spaces with strong agricultural opportunities and lower market opportunities, 4) spaces with strong market opportunities and lower agricultural opportunities, and 5) spaces with diverse and high opportunities.

GENERATIONAL RENEWAL

Generational renewal in agriculture refers to the process of a new generation, especially young people, taking over and continuing the activities of an older generation, often in a family-run agrifood system business or farm. Generational renewal refers not only to replacing the older generation, but also includes empowering a new group with the skills, knowledge and resources to thrive and innovate. In places with declining and aging rural populations, generational renewal is critical for maintaining rural economic and social vitality and ensuring the long-term competitiveness of the agricultural sector.

INTERGENERATIONAL (IN RELATION TO YOUTH)

A relationship that occurs between different generations or involves two or more generations. For youth in agrifood systems, intergenerational is often used in the context of transmission of resources (e.g. land) and knowledge transfer, between youth and adults, both within families (e.g. from parents to their children through inheritance) and beyond families (e.g.between community members).⁵

INTERSECTIONALITY (IN RELATION TO YOUTH)

An approach used to study, understand and respond to the ways in which the status of being a youth intersect with other social factors and/or personal characteristics/ identities linked to gender, ethnicity, education, wealth, health status and disability status, and includes how these intersections combine to influence unique experiences of privilege, social exclusion and discrimination.¹

NEET

Young people who are not in education, employment or training.

URBAN-RURAL CATCHMENT AREA (URCA) FRAMEWORK

The URCA framework defines spatial categories primarily by travel time to urban centres and the population size of those centres. Urban centres are first stratified into categories based on their population (from 20 000 to over 5 million). There are 30 URCA categories in total, where category one represents the largest cities, and the last category corresponds to the most remote areas. Adapting an approach from Cattaneo et al.,⁶ the first nine categories are grouped as “Urban”, the next three as “Peri-urban”, the following nine as “Peri-rural” and the final two as “Hinterland”. These groupings reflect differences in infrastructure, employment prospects and access to essential services.

YOUTH-ABUNDANT COUNTRIES

Countries characterized by a substantial pool of children and youth which offers a strong potential workforce that can be leveraged for agricultural activities and drive innovation and rural livelihood diversification at least for the next two decades. Most youth-abundant countries are still in the early stages of agrifood systems transition, where agrifood systems, and in particular primary agriculture and related activities, remain the dominant source of livelihood for the growing youth population.

YOUTH AGENCY

The capacity of young people, individually or collectively, to act independently, to take control over the direction of their lives and to influence the direction of changes in society more generally. Young people’s agency is bounded by their position in intersecting structures of inequality and exclusion based on age/generation, class, gender, heteronormativity and ethnicity, among others, but also involves their efforts to change these structures.⁷

YOUTH-INCLUSIVE AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS

An agrifood system that actively engages young people as key stakeholders, beneficiaries and decision-makers across all stages – from production to consumption – while addressing the specific needs, aspirations, constraints and potential of youth to ensure equitable participation, decent employment and sustainable livelihoods in agriculture and food systems.⁸

YOUTH MAINSTREAMING

The process of assessing the implications for youth and non-youth of any planned action – including legislation, policies and programmes – in any area and at all levels. It is a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of youth and non-youth an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that they benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated.¹

YOUTH-SCARCE COUNTRIES

Countries characterized by an aging rural workforce and lower share of youth in the population, and where a demographic deficit is a key driver of workforce shortages in agriculture. Many of these countries have undergone demographic transitions and rural and structural transformation processes. Their agrifood systems have also transitioned to more modern and industrialized forms and experienced economic diversification, with more non-agrifood system employment opportunities, increasing competition for the shrinking pool of youth labour.

YOUTH-SPECIFIC FACTORS

Youth-specific factors encompass unique characteristics, constraints or opportunities disproportionately affecting young people during this transitional life stage. They include demographic characteristics (e.g. gender, ethnicity and disability status), skill levels, agency and access to productive resources and assets (e.g. land, finance or technology).