Climate Change Capacity Strengthening Project
Climate Change is disrupting national economies and affecting lives, costing people, communities and countries dearly today and even more tomorrow. Youth involvement in climate change mitigation is very low in Kenya, yet climate change is affecting all sectors of the economy hence challenging their future, Vision 2030 and achievement of the SDGs. much has to be done by the youth to minimize all these. Involvement and investment in clean and renewable energy offers one of the best bets for youth to support the mitigation processes. However, the limitations of target, time and technical know-how inhibit their meaningful engagement.
Secondly, we believe that youth involvement and participation in climate change adaptation can promote empowerment and support conversation efforts. Our main climate change adaptation strategy is through agriculture and agribusiness. According to Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, the sector is very key to national development and job creation by contributing 25% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) directly and 27% indirectly. Over 40% of the total population, and 70% of the rural people are employed in the sector in Kenya.
The youth must be at the forefront in combating climate change since they are naturally custodians of future interests and will suffer more from the consequences of the changes. This opens the whole space for the youth. As such, the mandate of future sustainable development through the SDGs has been handed by the UN to the youth.
The youth are still left out in the climate change agenda. Equity however demands sharing of benefits and losses including those of climate change; losses currently being transferred to the future generation. They can widen the scope of youth agenda to go beyond tokenism. The youths are therefore urged to get more active in environmental activities. They are encouraged to take up advocacy; - stand with communities and stakeholders who have interest.
Our Call to Action
During a workshop on 25th November, 2016 on Social Inclusivity; - The role of Students in Combating Climate Change organised by UoN and OAY, Dr. Marani University of Nairobi lecturer said: “The youth are being alienated in the climate change agenda, yet they stand to lose more if urgent measure are not taken”.
We seek partnerships to further the climate action agenda through enhanced capacity of the adolescents and youth. Specifically, based on the improved capacity, we will further enhance the partnerships with and by the youth to support them to ;
1.) Strengthen youth capacity and participation in climate action
Project Goal
Youth meaningfully take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.