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An Interview by Jacob Häberli
In Madagascar, the impacts and realities of climate change are not a distant threat but an everyday condition shaping livelihoods, food systems, and political possibilities. Between subsistence and aspiration, agriculture becomes both a necessity and a space of hope. In this interview, Lucky Andrianirina reflects on youth empowerment in the context of climate change, on translating global agendas into local action, and on navigating the social and political barriers that continue to limit meaningful participation.
Your work connects youth engagement, environmental issues, and food systems. What first drew you personally to questions of agriculture and food security as political and civic questions?
I think the first thing I can say is that food is life. It feels very natural and very obvious to me to say that food matters. A few years ago, however, my main area of engagement was climate change. From there, I increasingly focused on adaptation, and when you speak about adaptation, you inevitably speak about livelihoods, about agriculture, food systems, access to information, capacity building, and related issues.
Over the past two years, I also came into contact with GIZ, which invited me to engage with programs around the transformation of food systems. Through that I gradually discovered this field more deeply. That was the moment when I can say that I truly fell in love with food and agriculture, and why I decided to follow this path.
Building on this more personal trajectory, I would like to turn now to a broader, structural perspective. What role does agriculture play for young people growing up under current social and environmental conditions in Madagascar?
Madagascar is, in many ways, a very young country. More than 70 per cent of the population is under the age of 35. Another figure that is equally important is that around 80 per cent of the population lives in rural areas and depends on agriculture for their livelihoods. Agriculture therefore plays a particularly central role for young people, since most of those living in the countryside are young and are peasants at the same time.
The first role of agriculture is survival. In a country where only a small number of young people have access to education, skills, and decent employment opportunities, agriculture becomes the primary, and often the only, option available. It is one of the few ways for people – especially young people – to ensure their day-to-day survival.
The second role is that agriculture also represents a kind of dream. When young people speak about entrepreneurship, about setting up a business or starting an initiative, many of them turn to agriculture and agribusiness. In this sense, agriculture becomes a source of hope for young entrepreneurs. Even under very difficult conditions, it still functions, for some, as an imagined future and a space of possibility.
You have worked extensively with youth organizations and currently serve as president of AIKA, which engages with issues of climate, biodiversity, and livelihoods. Where does agriculture fit into this work, and how do young activists connect everyday food production with broader concerns of justice and sustainability?
As I mentioned earlier, one of the major issues in the country is the sheer number of young people. Madagascar has a very young population, but for many of these young people access to education, skills, and decent employment is extremely difficult. The first challenge we face as a civil society and youth-led organization is therefore how to genuinely empower youth organizations and young people themselves.
If young people are not given the means to act, it becomes very difficult to connect broader topics. When individuals are primarily focused on survival, it is hard to expect them to engage with cross-cutting issues such as biodiversity, climate change, desertification, or food systems. Our first approach is therefore to empower youth-led organizations so that they can understand and master these topics.
The second approach is to raise awareness and to actively connect youth-led organizations with a range of stakeholders, particularly public authorities. We are very aware that within our alliance we do not have all the skills, and we cannot master every field. For this reason, it is essential to build connections across sectors, including the private sector, government institutions, and civil society organizations.
This is why we also focus on linking youth-led organizations with actors who have technical expertise as well as financial resources that can help leverage their actions. When young people begin to understand these topics more deeply, they are able to implement concrete activities and to engage in advocacy.
For example, over the past year, through our collaboration with GIZ, we trained about one thousand of young people, including around twenty young leaders from our alliance, on the cross-cutting topics. After completing the training, we took time to reflect with them and to assess its effects. It was a very positive surprise to see that some organizations are now raising awareness within local communities around issues such as agroecology, food transformation, and climate justice. Other organizations that were already engaged in food transformation have been able to strengthen their existing activities and to connect with partners such as GIZ and local organizations.
To summarize, our approach rests on three elements: empowering youth-led organizations, raising awareness while building connections with other stakeholders, and enabling young people to translate knowledge into concrete action.
In food systems and agricultural policy, there is often a gap between global frameworks and local realities. How do young people in Madagascar translate international agendas – such as climate commitments or zero hunger initiatives – into grounded local action?
In Madagascar, as in many countries, we face the challenge of implementing global orientations and approaches discussed in major conventions such as the COP or the UN Food Systems Summit. The first challenge is ensuring that these frameworks are understood by young people and activists on the ground.
What young activists often do is translate the complex language of international conventions into accessible terms and into concrete projects. In practice, this means disseminating techniques, ideas, and best practices, and supporting local communities in processes of empowerment. In this sense, activists sometimes become project managers, because implementation is unavoidable.
Do you have a concrete example for that?
Well, I think a good one is agroecology. COP decisions often emphasize land restoration and agroecological approaches. One of our member organizations, Avijoro Madagascar, participated in the COP and subsequently developed a training project on agroecology for young people and children in schools. This work follows a learning-by-doing approach and directly translates global commitments into local practice.
Some organizations were already active in food transformation or climate action but were not necessarily aware that their work aligned with broader transformation frameworks. Through trainings and awareness sessions, we help them recognize this alignment and access partnerships, governmental policies, and additional resources. Explaining how global and national frameworks are connected is therefore central to making these agendas meaningful and attractive for youth organizations.
Agriculture is often closely linked to issues of land, gender, and law. How do youth networks in Madagascar, and particularly AIKA, engage with these challenges, and where do you see the main limits of your work?
Gender and land access are among the most significant challenges. In some parts of the country, ensuring women’s participation in local decision-making processes remains extremely difficult. Access to land is also highly problematic, as many people do not know how to secure land rights, even when land has been passed down through generations.
As a youth organization, we do not possess all the expertise needed to address these issues comprehensively. Our strategy is therefore to strengthen our network by engaging with stakeholders who have the relevant knowledge and to transfer this understanding to our members. Poverty remains a major constraint. When people struggle to meet basic needs, issues such as gender equality or climate justice are often perceived as secondary. Our work therefore focuses on building bridges between communities, authorities, ministries, and civil society, to demonstrate how these challenges are interconnected and to offer concrete entry points for action.
Looking ahead, what do you need in order to build these bridges more effectively and to achieve the objectives of your youth organization?
What we need most is an enabling ecosystem that recognizes young people and allows them to acquire skills. Poverty places many individuals in survival mode, which makes meaningful engagement difficult. Overcoming this requires structural transformation and political will at both local and national levels.
We also need political space that allows for continuous dialogue with decision-makers – not only during consultations, but throughout project implementation and evaluation.
Too often, young people are included at the beginning and excluded thereafter. An ecosystem that enables skill-building, combined with genuine political dialogue, is therefore essential.
As a final question, when you think about the future of Madagascar’s food systems, what gives you hope, and what still requires urgent attention?
What gives me hope is the engagement of young people. The political movement in Madagascar in September last year demonstrated that young people are deeply committed to change, countering the narrative that they are only active on social media. This engagement is particularly visible in the agri-food sector, which many young people see as a space of opportunity and entrepreneurship.
At the same time, there are major challenges. One is purchasing power. Food system transformation must ensure that nutritious and processed food remains affordable. Another challenge is that transformation will reshape livelihoods. Increased production and diversification will require new roles in processing, selling, and distribution, and people must be supported through these transitions.
In short, the key challenges are ensuring affordability and accompanying social change. But given the energy and commitment of young people, I remain hopeful.