New Change Theory Maps How to Unlock Youth Power in Africa’s Agri-Food Systems

Across sub-Saharan Africa, young people are often described as the future of agriculture, yet they remain largely locked out of the very systems that are supposed to feed that future. A new study published in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation argues that this exclusion is not the result of a single missing ingredient, such as start-up capital or land, but of a web of interconnected constraints that reinforce one another: unemployment, inequality, limited access to resources and information, and a lack of relevant training. The research, led by Wendy Geza and colleagues including Mjabuliseni Simon Cloapas Ngidi, Rob Slotow, Nafiisa Sobratee-Fajurally and Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, sets out a formal Change Theory designed to guide policymakers, funders and practitioners toward genuine youth inclusion and empowerment in agri-food systems.

The team did not build their framework from scratch. Instead, they assembled it from a substantial body of prior work, drawing on previous studies and two scoping reviews that mapped what is already known about youth engagement in agriculture and food systems. Crucially, they also consulted stakeholders, grounding the resulting theory in the lived realities of the people and institutions it is meant to serve. This combination of systematic evidence synthesis and participatory consultation is what gives the Change Theory its practical ambition: it is intended not as an abstract model but as an initial starting point that can be adapted and contextualised to guide the design of real interventions on the ground.

At the heart of the framework is a proposal that transformation requires simultaneous change in four interlinked domains. The first covers knowledge, awareness, attitude and skills, the human capabilities that determine whether young people can actually participate in modern agri-food value chains. The second is political will, the commitment among leaders and institutions to prioritise youth in decision-making and resource allocation. The third is policies, the formal rules and programmes that either open doors or quietly close them. The fourth is partnerships, the collaborative arrangements among governments, private sector actors, civil society, researchers and young people themselves that determine whether good intentions translate into coordinated action.

What makes the theory distinctive is its insistence that these four domains are mutually reinforcing rather than independent. Training young people in agronomic or entrepreneurial skills, for example, achieves little if policies continue to deny them access to land, credit or markets. Conversely, well-drafted youth policies remain paper promises without the political will to fund and implement them, and without partnerships that connect young producers to information, technology and buyers. The authors argue that interventions targeting any single domain in isolation are likely to fail, because the systemic barriers that hold youth exclusion in place operate across all of them at once.

This systems perspective matters because agri-food systems in sub-Saharan Africa face mounting pressure. The region must feed a growing population while confronting climate change, environmental degradation and persistent food insecurity, all amid some of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world. Agriculture and related food industries remain among the largest potential sources of livelihood for young Africans, yet outdated perceptions of farming as low-status, low-return work, combined with structural barriers, keep many young people on the sidelines. The Change Theory positions youth not as beneficiaries to be helped but as agents whose participation is essential to achieving broader transformation.

The framework explicitly links youth empowerment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, identifying five in particular: SDG 2 on zero hunger, SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth, SDG 10 on reduced inequalities, SDG 13 on climate action, and SDG 17 on partnerships for the goals. This alignment is more than rhetorical. By tracing how change in each of the four domains contributes to these global targets, the theory gives governments and development partners a way to argue for youth-focused investment in the language of international commitments, and a logic for measuring whether that investment is actually moving the needle on hunger, jobs, inequality and climate resilience.

One of the most practically valuable elements of the study is its attention to institutional arrangements. The authors highlight that even well-designed policies frequently stumble at implementation, undermined by challenges within the institutions responsible for delivering them. Weak coordination between ministries, fragmented donor programmes, limited accountability mechanisms and inadequate feedback from young people themselves can all erode the efficiency and effectiveness of policies on the ground. The Change Theory is designed to illuminate these pathways of failure in advance, offering implementers a structured way to anticipate where interventions will encounter institutional friction and to design around it.

The emphasis on context-specificity is equally important. Sub-Saharan Africa is not a monolith, and the constraints facing a young woman seeking to launch an agribusiness in a rural district may differ sharply from those facing an urban graduate interested in food processing or digital agriculture services. The authors stress that their theory provides a starting framework rather than a fixed prescription, and that it must be contextualised for particular countries, value chains and communities. In practice, this means that applying the Change Theory begins with diagnosis: identifying which of the four domains is most binding in a given setting, and how the domains interact locally.

For researchers, the framework opens a clear agenda. Because the theory is built from scoping reviews and stakeholder consultations, its propositions are testable and refinable. Future work can examine which combinations of interventions across the knowledge, political, policy and partnership domains produce the strongest and most durable gains in youth participation, and how those combinations vary across contexts. For practitioners, the theory offers a shared map that can align the efforts of governments, NGOs, financiers and youth organisations around a common understanding of what transformation requires, reducing the duplication and contradiction that often plague youth-focused programming.

Ultimately, the study’s central message is that youth inclusion in agri-food systems demands a systematic, integrated and coordinated strategy rather than piecemeal projects. Collaboration among stakeholders across every aspect that affects youth well-being, development and empowerment is not an optional extra but the operating condition for success. If the authors are right, the question facing the continent is not whether young people can transform agriculture and food systems, but whether governments, institutions and partners will transform the structures around them quickly enough to let them try. The Change Theory offers a rigorous, evidence-based starting point for answering that question with action.

Subject of Research: A theory of change for youth inclusion and empowerment in agri-food systems in sub-Saharan Africa

Article Title: Developing transformative pathways for youth inclusion and empowerment in agri-food systems: A change theory

Article References: Geza, W., Ngidi, M. S. C., Slotow, R., Sobratee-Fajurally, N., & Mabhaudhi, T. (2026). Developing transformative pathways for youth inclusion and empowerment in agri-food systems: A change theory. PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, 5(6), e0000255. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pstr.0000255

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000255

Keywords: youth empowerment, agri-food systems, sub-Saharan Africa, theory of change, Sustainable Development Goals, food security, youth unemployment, policy implementation, stakeholder partnerships, agricultural transformation, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, Developing