Growing The Well-Being Economy: Youth, Smallholder Farming, and the Future of Rural Prosperity

​Session Partner

​What if the future of global food systems—and youth employment—depends not on aid alone, but on treating smallholder agriculture as core economic infrastructure for a well-being economy that regenerates people, land, and markets together?

​A well-being economy places people, livelihoods, and resilience at the heart of economic decision-making—and nowhere is this more critical than in smallholder and family farming. As food systems confront climate stress, youth unemployment, and fragile rural economies, the first mile of agricultural value chains emerges as a decisive frontier for systems transformation.

This panel convened by Global Citizen in partnership with International Fund for Agricultural Development, and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, explores how mobilising catalytic public, philanthropic, and private capital can unlock youth-led entrepreneurship, regenerative agriculture, and inclusive rural prosperity.

Anchored in TPC’s well-being economy framework and aligned with pivotal institutional moments—including AGRA’s 20-year milestone and IFAD’s 14th replenishment—the session shifts the conversation from fragmentation to coordination. Leaders from government, finance, development institutions, and agribusiness will examine practical pathways to scale early-stage infrastructure, services, and market access that regenerate ecosystems while creating dignified livelihoods.

The discussion culminates in a collective call to invest in food systems not as charity—but as foundational infrastructure for resilient economies.