Tell Your Story, Win a Trip to Rome: FAO Global Youth Contest 2026

What if your learning journey — the courses you took, the knowledge you built, the skills you developed — could win you a fully sponsored trip to Rome and a seat at one of the United Nations' most important annual gatherings on food, agriculture, and the future of our planet?

That is exactly what the FAO Global Youth Contest 2026 is offering. Organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through its globally respected FAO eLearning Academy, this international youth contest invites young learners from every country in the world to share how FAO's online courses have transformed their lives — and rewards the most compelling stories with a fully funded trip to Rome, Italy, to attend the World Food Forum 2026 from 12 to 15 October 2026.

Three winners will be selected. Three lives will be changed. And the barrier to entry is not a degree, not a test score, not a prestigious title — it is a story. Your story.

If you have completed courses from the FAO eLearning Academy, the deadline to enter is 31 July 2026. Here is everything you need to know.

About the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

The Food and Agriculture Organization is one of the oldest and most consequential specialized agencies within the United Nations system. Founded in 1945, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, FAO was established with a single defining purpose: to defeat hunger. In a world still reeling from the devastation of global conflict, with food systems shattered and millions facing starvation, the international community recognized that achieving food security for all of humanity would require coordinated global action — and FAO was born to lead that action.

Today, FAO operates in over 130 countries around the world, working with governments, civil society, the private sector, and local communities to build more sustainable, more equitable, and more resilient food and agriculture systems. Its mandate encompasses an extraordinary breadth of work: from soil science and fisheries management to agricultural policy, rural development, nutrition, food safety, climate adaptation, and the conservation of biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems.

FAO's influence on the global food system is both deep and wide. It maintains the world's most comprehensive databases on food and agricultural production. It develops the international standards and guidelines that govern food safety and trade. It mobilizes billions of dollars in development assistance for smallholder farmers, pastoralists, and fishing communities in the world's most food-insecure regions. And it serves as the intellectual and policy home for the global conversation about how humanity can feed itself sustainably as the population approaches ten billion.

For young people interested in food systems, agriculture, environmental sustainability, nutrition, or rural development, FAO is not a distant bureaucracy — it is the most important organization in the world for the issues that matter most to their professional lives. And the Global Youth Contest 2026 is FAO's invitation to young learners everywhere to become part of its global community.

The FAO eLearning Academy: A World of Knowledge, Open to Everyone

At the heart of this contest is the FAO eLearning Academy — one of the most impressive online learning platforms dedicated to food, agriculture, and sustainable development anywhere in the world. Free to access and open to learners from every country, the FAO eLearning Academy offers hundreds of courses across a vast range of subjects — all directly connected to FAO's mission and the challenges facing food and agriculture systems globally.

The course library spans topics including food safety and quality standards, animal health and veterinary protocols, plant protection and pest management, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, agroecology and organic farming, climate-smart agriculture, nutrition science, rural finance and agricultural economics, food security analysis, geographic information systems for agriculture, and much more. The depth and breadth of this offering is remarkable — it represents decades of FAO expertise, distilled into accessible, self-paced online learning modules that anyone with an internet connection can take advantage of.

Learners who complete FAO eLearning Academy courses receive certified digital badges — internationally recognized credentials that verify their completion and competence in specific subject areas. These badges are not merely decorative; they are meaningful professional credentials that signal to employers, academic institutions, and professional networks that the holder has invested in developing real, relevant knowledge and skills.

The FAO eLearning Academy has reached millions of learners around the world — professionals in agriculture ministries, extension workers, farmers, students, researchers, NGO staff, and curious individuals seeking to understand more about the systems that produce the food they eat. It is a democratic and genuinely impactful learning resource, and the Global Youth Contest 2026 is a celebration of the transformations it has made possible in real people's lives.

If you have not yet explored the FAO eLearning Academy and the deadline allows, there may still be time to complete a course before entering the contest. Visit the Academy, find a course relevant to your work or interests, complete it, earn your certified digital badge, and then tell your story.

What the Contest Is Asking For: Your Story of Transformation

The FAO Global Youth Contest 2026 is not a research competition, an essay contest, or an examination. It is something more personal and in many ways more powerful: it is a storytelling contest.

The contest invites registered FAO eLearning Academy learners between the ages of 18 and 35 to submit a short written story explaining how FAO eLearning Academy courses have transformed their personal, academic, or professional journey. This is not about academic perfection or technical jargon — it is about genuine human experience. It is about what happened when knowledge met real life.

The most powerful entries will be those that are specific and honest. Not "I learned a lot about food safety" — but rather "I learned about HACCP principles through the FAO eLearning Academy course on food safety management, and then I used that knowledge to redesign the quality control process in the small food processing business I work for, which allowed us to export to a new market for the first time." Not "I improved my agricultural knowledge" — but rather "I completed the course on climate-smart agriculture during a drought season in my region, and the water-efficient techniques I learned helped my family's farm survive a year when most of our neighbors lost their crops."

These are the kinds of stories that move selection committees — not because they are dramatic, but because they are real. They demonstrate the fundamental truth that the FAO eLearning Academy is built on: that accessible, quality learning can create tangible change in lives, communities, and food systems, one learner at a time.

Think carefully about your own story. What courses did you complete? What knowledge did you gain? How did you apply that knowledge? What changed — in your work, your community, your thinking, or your opportunities — as a result? Write that story clearly, honestly, and with the specific detail that makes it credible and compelling.

The World Food Forum 2026: Where Winners Will Go

The prize for the three winning entries is a fully sponsored trip to Rome to attend the World Food Forum 2026 — and understanding what this event actually is helps appreciate why it is such a meaningful reward.

The World Food Forum is FAO's flagship annual event for young people, and it is one of the most important youth-focused gatherings in the international development and food systems space. Held each October at FAO's headquarters in Rome, the World Food Forum brings together thousands of young people — students, entrepreneurs, innovators, activists, researchers, and policymakers in the making — from around the world to engage in dialogue, debate, and collaborative problem-solving around the future of food.

The 2026 edition will take place from 12 to 15 October and will feature high-level panel discussions, interactive workshops, innovation competitions, networking events, and the opportunity to engage directly with FAO leadership, senior government officials, leading researchers, and inspiring young changemakers from every part of the globe.

For the three contest winners, attending the World Food Forum as recognized FAO awardees — not just as general participants — means a level of visibility, access, and recognition that is genuinely extraordinary. Winners are featured on FAO's official platforms, acknowledged publicly at the event, and connected with a network of global food systems professionals that would take years of conventional career building to assemble otherwise.

Rome itself adds another dimension to the prize. The Eternal City is one of the most historically and culturally magnificent places on Earth — a city where ancient ruins sit alongside Renaissance masterpieces, where the world's finest cuisine is served in neighborhood trattorias, and where the weight of human history is felt at every turn. FAO's headquarters on the Viale delle Terme di Caracalla — with its view of the ancient Circus Maximus — is itself a setting of remarkable symbolic power. For winners attending their first major UN event in this setting, it is an experience that leaves a permanent mark.

Five Objectives That Give the Contest Its Purpose

The FAO Global Youth Contest 2026 is not simply a marketing exercise or a public relations initiative. It is built around five substantive objectives that reflect FAO's genuine commitment to youth engagement and the democratization of food systems knowledge.

Showcasing Impact Stories is the foundational goal — demonstrating through real, verified personal accounts that FAO eLearning programs are creating measurable change in the lives and work of their learners. This evidence matters for FAO's institutional case-making and for inspiring the next generation of learners to take advantage of what the Academy offers.

Highlighting Real-World Application goes beyond the learning itself to focus on what learners do with what they learn. The contest celebrates the bridge between knowledge acquisition and practical action — the moment when a course completion becomes a community intervention, a business improvement, a policy recommendation, or a personal transformation.

Facilitating Peer Inspiration recognizes that young people are often most powerfully motivated by the examples of their peers. Seeing someone from a similar background, region, or professional context use FAO learning to achieve something meaningful is far more motivating than any institutional messaging. The contest amplifies these peer-to-peer stories at a global scale.

Amplifying Global Visibility for Youth Voices uses the FAO platform — one of the most widely followed institutional voices in the international development space — to give young learners a megaphone for their ideas, their work, and their aspirations. Contest entries that are featured on FAO's website and social platforms reach an audience of millions.

Celebrating Young Agents of Change honors the fundamental belief that young people are not the passive recipients of development interventions but the active architects of more sustainable, more equitable, and more resilient agrifood systems. The contest is FAO's public declaration that it sees young people that way — and its investment in celebrating and amplifying their contributions.

Rome, Italy: The City Where Your Story Will Be Celebrated

For the three winners making their journey to Rome, the city itself is a prize worth appreciating in full. Rome is one of the most extraordinary places in the world to visit — a city that has been at the center of human civilization for nearly three thousand years and that wears that history lightly, as a living backdrop to a deeply modern and vibrant urban life.

October in Rome is one of the finest times of year to experience the city. The brutal summer heat has passed, the tourist crowds have thinned, and the city settles into a golden, pleasant autumn that Italians call the "Ottobrata Romana" — a season of mild days, clear skies, and the particular golden light that has inspired painters and poets for centuries. The outdoor cafes are full, the piazzas are alive, and the food — always at the center of Roman life — reaches a kind of seasonal perfection with the arrival of porcini mushrooms, fresh truffles, and the new olive oil harvest.

FAO's headquarters in Rome occupies a monumental building on the edge of the historic Aventine Hill, with views across to the Circus Maximus and the Palatine Hill. Attending an international event in this setting — as a recognized contest winner from the global FAO community — is an experience unlike almost any other in the world of international development.

For many young people who have never had the opportunity to travel internationally, the FAO contest prize represents not just a professional milestone but a life-expanding personal adventure. The connections made, the perspectives gained, and the memories built during four days in Rome at the World Food Forum 2026 will stay with winners for the rest of their lives.

How to Apply

1. Visit the FAO eLearning Academy at elearning.fao.org and ensure you are a registered learner
2. Complete FAO eLearning Academy courses and obtain your certified digital badge(s) if you have not already done so
3. Navigate to the official contest page at elearning.fao.org/youth-contest
4. Write your short story of transformation — specific, personal, honest, and compelling
5. Submit your entry through the official platform following all contest guidelines
6. Submit before the 31 July 2026 deadline