Call for Evidence Synthesis: Youth in Africa’s Just Food Systems Transition

✓ Food systems across Africa are undergoing profound transformations, driven by climate change, environmental degradation, demographic pressures, technological change, and shifting global and regional markets. These dynamics are reshaping how food is produced, processed, distributed, and consumed with significant implications for employment, livelihoods, and equity.

✓ Young people are at the centre of these transformations. They are disproportionately affected by unemployment, underemployment, and poor job quality, while also holding critical potential as workers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and agents of change within food systems. However, transitions towards greener and more sustainable food systems are not inherently just. Without deliberate policy choices, they risk reproducing or deepening existing inequalities, excluding certain groups of youth, or creating new forms of precarity.
Against this backdrop, INCLUDE launched the research programme Youth in Just Food Systems Transitions. The programme examines how food systems transitions shape youth employment outcomes, and under what conditions these transitions can contribute to decent, inclusive, and equitable livelihoods for young women and men. It explicitly applies a political economy lens and treats justice as both an outcome and a process, emphasising issues of power, voice, agency, and distribution for a just food systems transition. Recognising the multidimensional nature of justice in food system transitions, the case study research is supported by the
analytical framework presented in the foundational paper.

✓ As part of this programme, five country case studies are being conducted and will be finalised by April 2026. These studies explore youth employment dynamics in different food system contexts, focusing on green jobs creation, institutional and regulatory frameworks, justice dimensions, digitalisation,

Proposals will be assessed based on:
✓ Relevance to the objectives and framing of the research programme;
✓ Analytical quality and clarity of the proposed synthesis approach;
✓ Ability to engage with justice, political economy, and food systems
perspectives;
✓ Policy and practice relevance of the proposed outputs;
✓ Qualifications and demonstrated experience of the applicant(s)

Proposals should demonstrate a clear understanding of the programme’s framing and the role of evidence synthesis. Submissions should include:
✓ Name(s) and affiliation(s) of the applicant(s);
✓ An abstract (max. 250 words);
✓ A detailed description of the proposed synthesis approach, including howthe case studies will be analysed and integrated;
✓ A preliminary outline of the proposed paper, with a short explanation ofeach section;
✓ A short note with reference to relevant literature on your understanding of the programme’s focus (justice, political economy, and food systems transformation);
✓ A reflection on the policy relevance and intended audiences of the synthesis;
✓ Relevant experience with evidence synthesis, political economy analysis, and/or food systems and youth employment research;
Annexes:
✓ Detailed budget breakdown (maximum EUR 15,000, inclusive of VAT
and editing costs);
✓ Short CV(s) (max. two pages per author) and list of key publications
or relevant outputs;
✓ A statement confirming compliance with the EU General Data
✓ Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The selected researcher(s) will be expected to deliver:
✓ One Evidence Synthesis Paper (approximately 20-30 pages), integrating findings from the five case studies;
✓ A concise policy-oriented summary (2–3 pages) highlighting key messages, implications, and recommendations for policy and practice;
✓ Active engagement with the INCLUDE team during the synthesis process, including feedback rounds and participation in an online webinar to disseminate the findings.
✓ All outputs will be published under a Creative Commons AttributionInternational (CC BY 4.0) licence.

✓ Funding