Youth: use your superpowers to transform Cambodia’s food systems
by Bormey Chhun, a youth representative for Asia in the steering group committee in Scaling Up Nutrition Civil Society Network and Youth Nutrition Leader for Helen Keller Int’l Cambodia
If you could choose a superpower, what would it be: time traveling or telepathy? What if I told you that you actually have both, and these superpowers are already being used by the young activists of our food systems, the (s)heroes. These powers can be utilized to transform the food system that now, despite its importance, is not a topic often discussed among people my age in Cambodia.
So, on this International Youth Day, I am here to start an essential — but hopefully not so complicated — conversation, in the hope that it will convince you to start utilizing the superpowers you already have.
What are food systems?
According to the 2nd National Strategy for Food Security and Nutrition (NSFSN) 2019–2023, developed by the Council for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), the food system comprises all elements and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation, and consumption of food. This includes the environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions and more. Food systems also include the outputs of these activities, including health and nutrition, socio-economic and environmental outcomes. However, inequalities continue on, and healthy diets appear to be luxurious to some of the population still along with high poverty and malnutrition rates. There has been a lot of talk about food systems recently, as Cambodia has hosted many Food Systems Dialogues in preparation for the Food Systems Summit taking place at the end of the year. A Food Systems Dialogue is when (s)heroes come together to learn from each other, discuss and engage on how to make changes for a better food system. There are currently 139 states around the world working hard to host dialogues for many different groups within their country, combining the feedback from each dialogue to create one vision for a sustainable food system, and creating a set of actions to achieve this vision. To understand this process, think of the dialogues like how you put block on top of block in Minecraft, and eventually you have built a beautiful home.
How can we use our superpowers to transform food systems?
As young people in a rapidly changing world full of amazing technology at our fingertips, as well as experts and family and friends from across the generations, we have so much opportunity to tap into the world around us and transform what we have into superpowers. We can speak to our parents and grandparents, and use the internet for research, to time travel to the past and discover what growing crops and harvesting used to look like, and how they have evolved over time. We can also time travel into the future by speaking to our peers in other countries and doing research to find out how sustainable consumption and production is evolving beyond what we already know. We can then travel back to the present and make the changes we want to see to rewrite the course of the future and share it into the future we want. Once we have a clear vision of the sustainable food systems we want, we can embrace technology once again to exercise our powers of telepathy. Through social media and the internet, we have so much power to transmit messages on healthy diets and sustainable food systems, to create behavior change in our communities. We can also receive messages at the click of a button to continue evolving our vision for sustainable food systems.
My experience with Cambodia’s Food Systems Dialogues
I was humbled to host two very fruitful Food Systems Dialogues, with technical support from CARD, Helen Keller Intl and the FAO. The first dialogue on March 10 was under the theme ‘The voice of youth in strengthening food systems for sustainable development’, and was convened by Mr. Hou Kroeun from Helen Keller Intl. 16 participants joined, mostly from an excellent group of youth nutrition advocates called the Youth Nutrition Champions (YNCs), to discuss on their vision of a sustainable food system for Cambodia by 2030. The vision they came up with is that “the food system will provide food security for all Cambodian citizens, ensuring that local markets and local demands are met by local supply.” To reach that vision, youths need to start “encouraging chemical free, healthy, nutritious and local products, which requires joint effort from all stakeholders to achieve the vision and to spread these messages.” The second dialogue took place on June 19, under the theme of “Youth’s vital role in sustainable food systems in Cambodia.” This dialogue was convened by His Excellency Sok Silo, Secretary General of CARD, and a total of 45 participants joined from YNCs and other youth groups around the country. The key outcomes of the discussion on the key roles of youth in achieving sustainable food systems in Cambodia was that youth are engaged in food systems in many diverse roles, from agricultural producers to young entrepreneurs. When discussing the challenges, young people raised the lack of understanding of the food system concept, resources and finance. The possible solutions start from young people themselves to pursue a healthy diet, as well as the creation of a youth network to share information and better use of the social media to attract youth interest.
Why does youth engagement matter in the Food Systems Dialogues and Summit?
Cambodia identified youth empowerment as one of the four priorities for food systems transformation. Youth deserve a say in the pledges and decisions moving towards the 2030 sustainable food systems that will determine their future and the lives they want. This is even more urgent now that Covid-19 has created complications in the pursuit of better food systems. Moreover, continual youth engagement matters. Two dialogues is a great start, but it is not enough. The approximately 50 young people that have been engaged in this process is still relatively small when considering that 65% of Cambodia’s population is under 30 years old. In future, higher numbers of youth need to be reached to ensure diverse youth perspectives and that the voices of those passionate in taking part in the quest to improve the lives of the people in their communities are integrated as one to be represented on the national and international stage.
How can you engage in the discussion?
As young people we need to use our superpowers on this quest for sustainable food systems. You can start by learning about the food system, thinking about why it matters to you, your family, and the people in your community, and engaging with your peers. Then, embrace your powers of time travel and telepathy to help build Cambodia’s vision for the future of our food systems, especially how they can become sustainable, and to help your community change their behaviors to start consuming healthy diets and sourcing locally produced foods. Be creative and active in this journey through exploring Cambodia’s food systems, and planning for the future. It’s also important to remember that we don’t always know it all, and as young people a part of our responsibility is to seek guidance and support from many different food systems stakeholders so that we can use our superpowers to the best of our abilities through food systems training, promotion and collaboration.
What’s next?
The Global Food Systems Pre-summit in Rome, Italy, may have ended last week, but that was just the start as we continue to work our way towards the Global Food Systems Summit in New York this September, as well as other nutrition events such as the Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4G) in Japan in December.
Don’t let the idea of ‘systems and ‘summits’ make you feel reluctant to speak. As young people we are a strong force for our country. We have the superpowers we need to learn from the past, educate ourselves and those around us in the present, and influence the course of the future.
On this International Youth Day for 2021, under theme of ‘Transforming food systems: Youth innovation for human and planetary health’, Today the world commemorates the effort of youth to bring change to the food systems. As much as we should be celebrating how far we have come, even after the clock strikes twelve tonight we must continue our work in the new day to create the future we want.
Bormey Chhun, 23, works as a Youth Nutrition Leader for Helen Keller Intl Cambodia, she is also in her senior year as an international relations student at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Recently, she got elected as a representative of ASIA region in the SUN CSN steering group committee. Bormey became a youth advocate in 2018 after getting selected as a youth nutrition leader representing Cambodia by the SUN CSN. Her dream is to be a strong voice for her generation and take parts in the efforts to end malnutrition in her community. She is determined to start living healthier and use the platform she has to facilitate the involvement of young people in promoting food security and nutrition.
