Congratulations to Genna Tesdall on her leadership role in the working group on rural youth employment, starting on 1 January 2025. In this interview, she discusses her goals for the group and shares her own experiences leading a global, youth-led organization.
Genna Tesdall is the Director of the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD). She recently joined Ji-Yeun Rim from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as Co-Chair of the Thematic Working Group on Rural Youth Employment.
Michelle Tang/GDPRD: Welcome to your new role at the Thematic Working Group on Rural Youth Employment. What are the opportunities for cross collaboration from your YPARD perspective?
Genna Tesdall: YPARD is a youth-led organization that promotes people-centred and environment-centred projects and network actions. We want to bring this focus front and centre through the working group so that young people can speak for themselves. For example, one of our active members in Kenya is speaking at the GDPRD’s Annual General Assembly (AGA). These are the types of activities we would like to see more of, with other youth organizations as well.
To start, we aim to connect different types of stakeholders in the donor environment. There is significant interest in working with foundations, for example, and having more collaboration between government funding, foundation funding, and private funding in a concrete way. This kind of collaboration would be very helpful to an organization like YPARD because we're trying to connect those dots through our work. The Donor Platform is a great place for that to happen.
At its core, [the thematic working group] is a place to share lessons learned from both practitioners and donors. Putting us together in the same room helps us find solutions more easily.
Michelle: What do you value most from your experience so far in the working group?
Genna: At its core, it’s a place to share lessons learned from both practitioners and donors. We can see both sides of the coin. From our side, we often talk within groups of similar organizations as practitioners facing significant challenges. It’s valuable to witness the other side of the table where the donors are also struggling to solve the same challenges. Putting us together in the same room helps us find solutions more easily.
Group photo at the session "Innovative Financing Approaches for Young Agriprenuers" during the 2024 Annual General Assembly. From left to right: Ji-Yeun Rim, Henry Bonsu, Jenice Achieng, Moreen Nyakato, and Genna Tesdall.
We aim to connect different types of stakeholders in the donor environment. [...] The Donor Platform is a great place for that to happen.
Michelle: Financing food systems is a key theme of the 2024 AGA. How does this relate to YPARD’s work, and what lessons can YPARD share to promote more inclusive financing systems?
Genna Financing is closely related to YPARD's work. Young people are doing a lot, but their efforts usually remain small or medium scale. To take their efforts in their communities to the next level, they need quality financing. At YPARD, we support our members by building their capacity to understand how to reach that next level and connect them to relevant opportunities.
Co-Chairs Ji-Yeun Rim and Genna Tesdall at the 2024 Annual General Assembly.
Michelle: What kind of support do organizations like YPARD need from donors in order to scale up that impact?
Genna: Donors must cooperate from the start to finish of a programme. We often see a lot of excitement around youth interventions, but typically at a later stage of programme planning. We invite that excitement earlier in the design phase, so it can carry through to implementation and even monitoring, creating a more robust model for including youth and young professionals in development efforts.
There's a growing understanding of the need to engage youth, which is great progress over the past decade. But there are different stair steps of youth engagement: youth are being invited to share their views about the programmes, but now we can move to higher stair steps, including youth at eye level for programme design and implementation.
How are we all going to work together through these challenges? I look forward to taking on the co-chair role of the Rural Youth Employment Thematic Working Group and find ways to contribute unique energy and added value as a youth organization.
Michelle: What do you hope to learn and bring back to your work at YPARD?
Genna: We are looking forward to the diverse views the AGA will bring together. It’s a great opportunity to engage with stakeholders outside our immediate community and learn how donor governments plan to handle challenges like austerity measures in the coming years. How are we all going to work together through these challenges? How do we address increasing fragility, whether environmental or manmade? I look forward to taking on the co-chair role of the Rural Youth Employment Thematic Working Group and find ways to contribute unique energy and added value as a youth organization.
Michelle: What do you consider to be the most promising development in 2025?
Genna: A super promising development, in my view, is the growing emphasis on working with local stakeholders and giving them more credibility as drivers of change and for knowing what can work. We understand the challenges we face so we have to think about how we build safety nets into our work because instability is becoming an even bigger issue.
A super promising development, in my view, is the growing emphasis on working with local stakeholders and giving them more credibility as drivers of change and for knowing what can work.
Michelle: Which leads me to ask, what sustains your optimism in a world that is increasingly uncertain and volatile?
Genna: It depends, but I always draw energy from two things. First, I am energized by concrete examples of projects our members are doing. Interacting with them and connecting them to a resource they need—like an expert on fisheries feed—is incredibly motivating for me.
Second, I am motivated by how we act as an organization with integrity at the highest level. Because we are small, we can make meaningful changes quickly whether it’s implementing strong gender guidelines, robust travel guidelines or how we make disability accommodations. We can make a real difference in a short amount of time and that keeps me engaged in a small and dynamic organization like YPARD.
Learn more about the 2024 Annual General Assembly on "Financing Food Systems Transformation and Rural Revitalization" and the GDPRD Thematic Working Group on Rural Youth Employment.
Meet fellow Co-Chair Ji-Yeun Rim from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) through her interview and podcast.
Photos: ©Flavio Ianniello/IFAD
