Young Jordanians innovate to tackle food insecurity

Young Jordanians innovate to tackle food insecurity

AMMAN — In Jordan, where many struggle to find enough to eat, young people are finding creative ways to tackle food insecurity, and create sustainable, environmentally friendly employment, with support from a UN innovation program. Jordanians are dealing with multiple overlapping challenges including slow economic growth, high youth unemployment, water scarcity and increased cost of living. With 63 percent of its population under the age of 30, Jordan has one of the youngest populations in the world, and youth engagement and mobilization is crucial to finding solutions to food insecurity. This is why the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP) launched the Youth in Food Security Innovation Program, which saw a group of young Jordanians, aged between 18 and 26, presenting a wide range of ideas, from addressing the problem of solid waste, to recycling fruit and vegetable peel. As part of the project, the participants received training on the implications of food insecurity, the opportunities and challenges directly linked to food security, the role of technology in shaping the future of food, and strategies for changing the traditional food chain. Aya Kreik, an architecture student in Amman is one of those young innovators. Kreik and