Four students from three local universities working together as Team Change Makers Union have won the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2024 Development Challenge by pitching a STEM-powered solution for increasing the numbers of tech savvy young farmers across Jamaica.

The mixed university team emerged winner from three teams who all pre prepared video pitches which they defended live before a panel of judges at the Ready Set Great Conference on 18 October in Kingston.

The team which topped the 2024 call for Youth Poverty solutions includes: Diandra Spence and Stafford Brown of the University of the West Indies (UWI); Khygandhie Hall of the College of Agriculture, Science and Education, (CASE), and Nicholas Lindo, University of Technology (UTECH). They have won paid internships at UNDP, mobile devices and call credit from FLOW and gift baskets from Grace Kennedy Foundation.

Their youth poverty solution (SAY-JA), short for STEM-Agri Youth Jamaica seeks to empower Jamaican youths in major poverty-stricken parishes by nurturing a tech savvy generation of young farmers fully empowered through STEM education to innovate and implement sustainable farming practices.

According to the Change Makers Union pitch, “SAY-JA will create a generation of tech-savvy young farmers, contributing to both food security (creating more breadbasket parishes) and economic growth in Jamaica”.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative Kishan Khoday hailed the winning entry as an innovative and compelling approach to food security which underscores the visionary and insightful contributions youth can make to Jamaica’s sustainable future. He said UNDP intends to translate dialogue into action by supporting and mentoring the winning team in implementing the SAY JA solution. 

The highly anticipated Development Challenge is the finale of UNDP’s Ready Set Great conference, both in their fourth year. Ready Set Great is a youth empowerment vehicle for young people who want to make a difference in the lives of other young people and their nation.  In the past two years, delegates and youth partners have focused their advocacy on better plans, policies and resources to combat extreme and multidimensional youth poverty.  Ready Set Great’s steering committee includes youth partners, Anni-Vee Moore, Young Women/Men of Purpose (YWOP/YMOP); Nevile Charlton Youth Inspiring Positive Change JA. Ltd.; Christina Williams Youth Activist; Jénine Shepherd, Youths For Excellence Ltd; Shamar Wedderburn, Equipped To Speak; Jhannel Tomlinson, Caribbean Youth Climate Justice Coalition; Tavoy Barrett, Jamaica Union of Tertiary Students. Institutional partners are Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and Vision 2030 Jamaica Secretariat, Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Research (SALISES), and Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF).