Representation and participation of young people in agricultural policy-making – an example from Peru
Eliana Antezana presented the "Agroecological Youth in Action for Peru" project, which she leads, in an exciting online presentation. She highlighted structural barriers to the participation of young people in shaping agricultural policy in Peru and spoke about possible solutions for better opportunities for participation.
On November 20, 2023, an online event on the topic of deliberative acts took place as part of the semester program "Sustainability as a Challenge for Deliberative Democracy". Eliana Antezana Febres, agricultural engineer specializing in agroecology at the National Agrarian University La Molina in Peru, was invited. The event was moderated by research assistant Linda Koch.
The topic of the lecture and subsequent discussion was the representation and participation of young people in agricultural policy decision-making in the context of Peru. After a brief welcome by Junior Professor Ulrike Zeigermann and Linda Koch, who also moderated the subsequent Q&A session, the event began with an exciting presentation by Eliana Antezana.
She began by shedding light on Peru's agricultural policy context, which is characterized by migration from rural to urban areas, the ageing of the farming community and low youth participation. Eliana Antezana emphasized the difficulty of participation for young people, although in recent years organized groups such as Fridays for Future have been founded by young people to gain more influence. Nevertheless, their voices often remain unheard.
Antezana presented the ongoing project "Agroecological Youth in Action for Peru", which focuses on training, research and advocacy in the Amazon and Ayacucho regions. The project is aimed at young people between the ages of 18 and 35 and is led by the agricultural organization ANPE (National Association of Ecological Producers of Perú) in collaboration with the Pontifical Catholic University of Perú (PUCP) and the organization Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (Ypard Perú). The research focuses on who the young people are and which strategies can promote their participation. The accompanying workshops are designed to impart knowledge and skills in agroecology, entrepreneurship, soft skills and leadership.
As a central aspect, Antezana emphasized the deliberative process, which stresses the promotion of discussion and debate, access to relevant and trustworthy information and respect for the diversity of opinions. He added that there is still a lack of integration of young people's voices.
In the discussion that followed, there was a lively exchange in which issues such as the importance of gender, cultural factors and reactions to the project were discussed.
The event was organized under the direction of Linda Koch and the Forum Nachhaltigkeit team. It was sponsored by the Human Dynamics Center of the JMU. The event can be re-listened to here:
