Rebooting the Food System

The EU Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR) programme promotes and enables active engagement of EU citizens, especially young people, in development issues and addressing global challenges at local and global levels. It is also an important vehicle to promote European values such as equality and solidarity. The programme has been implemented under different forms and names since 1978, evolving together with the EU development policy, EU priorities and awareness of development and global issues of all EU citizens. 

Global challenges (such as the triple planetary crisis - climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution -, inequality, irregular migration and others) have become more pressing in the last few years, some of them further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This opens a wider door to overly simplistic solutions to complex problems, and potentially resulting in declining solidarity and increasing nationalistic tendencies. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine provide momentum for our societies to become more aware of the global interdependence and the need to act in accordance with European values. 

While young people are one of the groups most affected by these global challenges, the potential of their role and the impact of their actions are currently limited for various societal and structural reasons. Encouragingly, there have been, however, outstanding examples of youth movements, such as “Fridays for Future”, which have a huge impact on the public discourse and showcase the important role young EU citizens want and can play in our societies at all levels. 

While a large majority of EU citizens are convinced of the necessity of EU development cooperation, only around half of them take action themselves. Many are not aware of their potential role and responsibility as citizens, voters and consumers. 

For example, although the knowledge about ecological crises is growing, many EU citizens do not adopt the simple steps to limit their carbon footprint, out of lack of knowledge or because they think it would not make any difference. In the quest for ever cheaper goods, even more pronounced in the midst of the economic crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic, adopting a sustainable lifestyle, respecting the planet and people, and taking action for the global good is still not a priority for many Europeans. 

Sustainable development and addressing global challenges require actions based on responsibility towards both local and global communities and ecosystems. For the EU and Member States to pursue policy coherence for sustainable development, the support and engagement of the public is necessary. 

The evaluation of the 2014-2019 CSO programme recognised that the DEAR programme “is unique in its scope, being the only EU-funded programme that explicitly connects global development issues with actions aimed at EU citizens”, acknowledging also that DEAR worked through “a highly complementary set of modalities” while pointing out that “the effectiveness of the DEAR programme was impacted by the lack of a clear theory of change and a results framework of the programme”. 

Overall objective

The Reboot action will contribute to a more inclusive society with a developed sense of co-responsibility for sustainable food supply chains on a local and global level, tackling global inequalities and ecological crises.

Specific objectives

1) More EU citizens, in particular young people, are aware and have a critical understanding i) of the globally interdependent food system, and of agroecological principles and practices in the EU and the Global South, and ii) of the role of women and girls and other marginalized people in creating a sustainable food system.

2) Young people in the EU and partner countries engage actively in campaigning for i) the empowerment of producers and workers (in particular women and girls) in the global food system, and ii) the inclusion of agroecological principles and practices in European and national food system-related policies.

Interactive youth communication campaign

• container campaign, mobile escape rooms, board game
• active media and press presence, including usage of social media, websites, advertising, influencers, e-newsletters, multimedia
• street actions and stands, youth festivals
• shared gardens

Youth empowerment and Global Citizen Education

• trainings, peer to peer exchange, webinars, youth conferences, agricultural youth caravans
• young professionals trip to Global South
• digital reboot community platform and events
• Global Citizenship educational materials and events, e-learning
• youth council
• sub-granting youth organizations less involved in Europe
• exchange of agroecological experiences with CSO’s in non-EU countries

Influencing by content

• Studies and policy papers on:
  • youth behaviour and engagement
  • eating habits of youth relating to human rights and environmental impact
  • participatory policymaking for sustainable food production
  • sustainable consumption, food waste, potential of urban gardening for sustainable schools
• Citizen science studies on sustainable food systems
• Researches on:
  • human rights violations and environmental degradation in food supply chains and the impact of due diligence regulations and agroecology
  • social/political/economic impacts on agricultural workers in Latin America, 1 study on the impact of agroecology on women’s rights in Senegal
  • resilience assessment of agroecosystems for sustainable food production
  • the impact of international trade mechanisms on agriculture/agroecology
  • climate justice, agroecology and systemic thinking
  • social/environmental impacts of EU agrifood companies
  • the effects of industrial agriculture on health and land use
  • transition from industrial agriculture to agroecological system
  • market turnover of fairtrade, organic and agroecological products
  • retailers/brands/products/green claims/marketing practice
  • the impact of the German and EU supply chain laws on human rights and environmental standards in Brazil
  • impacts of civil society resistance against agro-industry in El Salvador
  • policy requirements to implement agroecological principles in the EU
  • the impact of agroecological practices in Germany
  • human rights violations with gender focus and environmental degradation in global supply chains in Italy and Mozambique
• Fair agro(ecological) policy roadmap
• Youth advocacy challenges and involvement of youth in key advocacy moments
• Speakers tours

Project management and communication

Online education

Event organization

Awareness raising actions

Knowledge sharing online / offline