International Day of Education: The Power of Youth in Co-creating Education
What if education were no longer something young people simply receive, but something they actively help to design? This question lies at the heart of the 2026 International Day of Education, celebrated globally on January 24, under the theme “The power of youth in co-creating education.” At a time when the world’s future is being shaped by a rapidly growing youth population, intensifying climate uncertainty, and accelerating technological change, rethinking how learning is designed and delivered has become not only relevant, but urgent. Led by UNESCO and its partners, with global celebrations and high-level events taking place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, this year’s observance calls for a decisive shift from symbolic youth engagement to genuine partnership where young people are recognized as co-creators of inclusive, relevant, and future-focused education systems. This vision strongly reflects the work of the Agripreneurship Alliance and the Entrepreneurship in African Agribusiness (EiAA) course, where youth voices, lived experiences, and innovation are central to positioning education as a catalyst for sustainable agrifood systems and economic opportunity.
Photo by Sheila
The call to co-create education comes at a defining moment for Africa. With the youngest population in the world, the continent stands at a crossroads where education can either deepen inequality or unlock unprecedented opportunity. Traditional education systems, often disconnected from labor markets and local realities, have struggled to equip young people with practical skills, entrepreneurial mindsets, and adaptive capacities. The year’s theme challenges this status quo by emphasising youth as architects of education, not passive recipients. It urges governments, institutions, and development actors to move beyond consultation toward meaningful youth participation in curriculum design, learning methodologies, and governance structures. In agribusiness education, this shift is especially critical, as young people are not only learners but also producers, innovators, and change-makers within food systems.
Across Africa, young people are already redefining agriculture by blending entrepreneurship with technology, climate-smart practices, and locally grounded innovation. From digital platforms connecting farmers to markets, to climate-resilient production models and value-added agribusiness ventures, youth-led solutions are reshaping the agrifood landscape. However, for education to truly support and scale this transformation, it must move beyond top-down, theory-heavy approaches. Through the EiAA course, young agripreneurs actively engage in venture creation, and problem-solving grounded in real agrifood value chains. The young agripreneurs bring their lived experiences into the self paced program, with shaped discussions around market realities, and co-create learning pathways that respond directly to challenges such as climate change, food insecurity, youth unemployment, and limited access to finance. This approach ensures that learning is not only relevant, but immediately applicable.
Relevance lies at the core of meaningful education, particularly in agribusiness where global and local challenges intersect daily. The EiAA course emphasises experiential learning, value chain development, climate resilience, and market-driven innovation key pillars for building competitive and sustainable agribusinesses. Participants are encouraged to analyse real-world cases, test ideas in their own contexts, and learn from peers across diverse geographies. By grounding education in practice, learning becomes a tool for empowerment rather than abstraction. This helps young people see agriculture not as a sector of last resort, but as a space for innovation, leadership, and dignified livelihoods. In doing so, agripreneurship education contributes not only to economic opportunity, but also to food security and environmental sustainability. In line with this commitment to inclusive and youth-centered education, the EiAA course is offered as free and open access to all users, including individuals, TVET institutions, universities, accelerators, incubators, and other learning providers. Beyond access, the Agripreneurship Alliance actively supports the integration of the course into formal and non-formal learning environments, offering capacity building and training-of-trainers programmes on a cost recovery basis to ensure quality delivery, contextual adaptation, and long-term sustainability.
Photo by: Muhammad
This approach is particularly powerful for young people in crisis-affected and marginalized communities, where access to formal education is often disrupted and economic opportunities are limited. In such contexts, education must do more than transfer knowledge; it must rebuild confidence, foster agency, and restore hope. Empowering youth to lead initiatives, mentor peers, and innovate within their communities strengthens social cohesion and resilience. When young people are trusted as leaders and co-creators, education becomes a stabilising force that supports peace and development, echoing UNESCO’s broader vision of education as a public good and a foundation for lasting societal transformation.
As the global community looks beyond the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 4, the message of the 2026 International Day of Education is unmistakable: the future of education depends on meaningful youth engagement. UNESCO’s focus on student participation, new youth networks, and shared decision-making signals a growing commitment to reimagining education as a collaborative endeavor. For agribusiness education, this means co-designing curricula with young entrepreneurs, strengthening partnerships between educators, industry, and policymakers, and investing in learning models that respond to evolving food systems and labor markets. It also requires recognizing young people as partners in shaping post-2030 education goals, ensuring that education systems remain adaptive, inclusive, and forward-looking.
With this celebration we reaffirm our commitment to co-creating education that reflects youth realities, values lived experience, and equips learners to navigate uncertainty with confidence and purpose. By placing young people at the center of educational design and delivery, we unlock education’s full potential not only to prepare youth for the future, but to empower them to actively shape it for generations to come.
“The future of education is not about teaching youth what to think; it’s about creating space for them to build what matters.”
Sheila Mary Bahonya
Agripreneurship Alliance
24, January 2026