From Empowering Youth to Innovative Food Systems

“You can't build peace on empty stomachs.” Lord John Boyd Orr, the first Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) urged the world to respond to the catastrophic food shortage in the post-World War II. It highlights the truth that food security is essential to human well-being, social stability, and peace.

Today, technological development and globalization have transformed how food is produced, distributed, and consumed. Although access to food has increased in many parts of the world, hunger and unequal access to nutritious diets remain persistent global challenges. In 2025, approximately 645 million people faced hunger, while an estimated 2.69 billion people could not afford a healthy diet. This systemic failure of the food system is not simply about producing enough food. It requires ensuring that everyone can access sufficient, diverse, and safe food through sustainable and resilient food systems.

Climate change results in droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events that threaten agricultural production and undermine the livelihoods of communities that depend on natural resources. In particular, in Southern Brazil, droughts disrupt the production of rice, maize, and soybeans, leading to significant economic losses. Therefore, transforming how food is produced, distributed, and consumed is essential to building a more sustainable future.

To promote a sustainable food system, World Food Day, annually on October 16, calls for collective action to address hunger and transform global food systems.  It aims to ensure access to sufficient, diverse, safe, and nutritious food while safeguarding the planet for future generations. This year’s theme, “Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow.”, emphasizes the importance of innovation, partnerships, and inclusive approaches. Beyond technological breakthroughs, innovation involves applying local knowledge, rethinking existing practices, and developing solutions that respond to the needs of different communities.

Young people have an important role to play in this transformation. As future leaders and innovators, they can question existing practices, explore the challenges within their communities, and propose creative approaches to making food systems more sustainable and inclusive. In Mauritius, the World Food Forum's Mauritius Youth Chapter was launched to advance youth-led action for sustainable agrifood systems, including strengthening resilience in the context of climate change and the blue economy. 

Youth-driven innovation often begins from the classroom. IVECA provides students with opportunities to explore sustainability challenges with global peers from different cultural backgrounds. Last spring semester, using a STEAM-based approach, high school students and youth mentors investigated local food systems, examined the journey food takes from production to consumption, and analyzed challenges across the food supply chain. By comparing experiences and exchanging ideas with international partners, IVECA students developed a broader understanding of how local food challenges connect to global sustainability issues. Through collaboration with global peers, students designed innovative and contextualized solutions that can contribute to healthier and more sustainable food systems.

By connecting students with global efforts to build sustainable food systems, IVECA reaffirms its commitment to empowering young people as innovators and action-makers for a more sustainable future. By empowering youth to innovate today, we can help build food systems that nourish both people and the planet tomorrow.

#WorldFoodDay #IVECA #GCED #GlobalCitizens #GlobalCitizenshipEducation #FAO #FoodandAgriculture #STEAM #FoodSecurity

The Power of Asking Questions Across Cultures

Misunderstandings across cultures often start with what each person assumes the other already knows: what a greeting means, how a greeting is meant, why a meal follows a certain order, or what silence signals in a meeting. These assumptions can remain invisible until someone asks about them.

A question opens a space to say, “Help me understand,” and invites another person to share their perspective. Asked with genuine interest, it also communicates that their way of living matters and lets them explain it in their own words. For students and professionals who study and work with partners in other countries, such conversations can be the beginning of shared understanding.

Research suggests that how we ask—and respond—matters. In a small study of an online exchange between university students in Spain and England, successful partnerships involved questions that invited reflection, thoughtful answers, and interest in what partners wanted to share. Another study comparing structured personal sharing with small talk found that questions encouraging progressively more meaningful sharing helped strangers feel closer. Together, these findings suggest that questions can deepen connection when both people have room to share and feel heard.

These findings connect with intergroup contact theory: interaction between people from different social groups can help reduce prejudice. In a face-to-face friendship study, meetings combining meaningful questions and cooperation eased stress among students predisposed to anxiety about another ethnic group. A structured online exchange between Muslim and Christian students also reduced intergroup bias, with benefits still evident six months later. These studies support creating opportunities for purposeful dialogue and cooperation, where people can get to know one another beyond group labels.

IVECA gives questions of this kind a place to happen. Students in different countries explore shared themes through issues in their own communities, exchange their work, and discuss ideas for addressing global challenges. A partner’s proposal becomes an invitation to ask: “Why does this matter in your community?” “What experiences shaped your approach?” or “How might your idea work where we live?”

Such questions make assumptions visible and show that a partner’s experiences and perspectives are worth understanding. Through classroom posts, replies, and live conversations over a semester, students have opportunities to listen, explain, and reconsider their first impressions. IVECA’s approach draws on the research’s emphasis on reciprocal dialogue and cooperation, creating opportunities to challenge prejudice, build closer relationships, and collaborate on the SDGs.

The power of a question continues in how we receive the answer—and what we do with what we learn. Understanding a partner’s perspective can also help students recognize assumptions within their own lives and communities. This is central to IVECA’s mission in global citizenship education: learning to interact appropriately and effectively across cultures and to cooperate toward a more harmonious, sustainable global community.

As students explore this semester’s themes connected to SDGs 4, 10, 12, 15, and 17, each thoughtful question offers a small but meaningful step toward that future. By asking with curiosity, listening with respect, and acting together, students can turn cultural differences into opportunities for shared understanding and collective action.

#InterculturalCommunication #GlobalCitizenshipEducation #GCED #GlobalCitizens #IVECA #AskQuestions #PowerofAsking #InterculturalExchange

A New Semester, A World of New Connections

As the Fall Semester begins, we are excited to welcome our students, teachers, mentors, and partner schools to another season of learning, exchange, and global connection.

This semester, the IVECA community continues to grow from East and Southeast Asia to South Asia and Eastern Europe, and across to North America, bringing together learners, educators, and mentors with diverse cultures, experiences, and perspectives. Across continents, our classrooms become spaces where ideas are shared, cultures are discovered, and meaningful connections are made.

Throughout the semester, we will explore topics such as community structures, the Climate Crisis, and cultural perspectives and Experiences, connecting everyday life to global issues and encouraging students to learn from peers around the world. Our learning journey will engage students with key UN priorities and global sustainable development themes for 2027, with particular attention to SDGs 4, 10, 12, 15, and 17: quality education, reduced inequalities, responsible consumption, life on land, and the power of partnerships.

With new conversations, new perspectives, and new opportunities for collaboration ahead, we look forward to making this semester a meaningful journey of discovery and connection.

Wishing everyone a wonderful start to the Fall Semester! May it be filled with curiosity, friendship, cultural exchange, and inspiring learning across continents. 

#IVECA #FallSemester #GlobalLearning #CulturalExchange #SDGs #GCED #SustainableDevelopment #GlobalEducation #LearningTogether