Youth for Climate Change   |12 August 2023

Mr Bristol, TGMI project leader leading a group work in YCC Conference

·          UNDP Small Grants Programme engages Seychelles youth in green job opportunities

The GEF Small Grants Programme at UNDP has been prioritising youth as one of the vulnerable groups in the context of its environment and development work.

The SGP has been running a youth and climate change portfolio with four main projects in addition to two prior youth projects addressing climate change concerns.

The Wildlife Clubs of Seychelles completed a mangrove restoration and management project while the Futuro Sports Sesel led aspiring footballers to understand the challenges of climate change and how as a sports academia can also take actions to combat the impacts.  

Young generations occupy a unique position in relation to the threat of climate change and they will be forced to address these threats and make radical transformations possible.

This Youth and Climate Change project portfolio is supporting innovative youth-led experimental initiatives, to showcase the results and share lessons at different levels that demonstrate practical and specific ways for youth engagement in advancing energy system transformation and concrete measures to address climate change in their country.

More than 200 youths in Seychelles have been developing awareness, skills and competencies to lead climate action on local, national and global levels.

Some examples include; aspiring farmers from the Seychelles Institute of Agriculture collaborating with the Grand Anse Farmers Association to increase farm resilience against water deficit, during the dry season and build their knowledge and capacity about water conservation techniques and other field applications.

Younger students in two primary schools have also been initiated with a start up nursery and solar irrigation systems to instil in them the love for agricultural practices.

The University of Seychelles’ youth-led project is based on three components that use innovative tasks in climate change mitigation and adaptation within the context of sustainable development and environmental protection through livelihood improvement and the creation of green jobs.

These include acceptance of photovoltaic systems in the Seychelles, environmental sustainability in the Seychelles’ hospitality sector, and the promotion of agroforestry among 40 farmers through the planting of 600 fruit trees.

The UniSey youth project team concluded with a hands-on training of five young people and installation of a 15kw PV system at the campus in collaboration with the Seychelles Energy Department.

Marissa Samedi, 21 years old, informs that she participated in the project by undertaking her research work on PV intake in the community.

Part of the findings showed that PV is still inaccessible and unaffordable for most household to adopt thesystems in the country.

She states, “the project graced me with many opportunities and a clear guidance to a green career path. Now that I have completed my studies I am working with a tourism company as the Sustainability officer, assisting them in making greener choices for the company”.  The Global Shapers Victoria Hub has been building environmental leadership in young people aged 11 – 20, through an interactive engagement programme run during the school holidays.

The aim was to equip the next generation of environmentally conscious young leaders with the skills, knowledge, confidence and networks to positively tackle local climate action-related causes in their communities.

Despite challenges with the Covid-19 pandemic, they have managed to train 40 youthsin specific leadership skills to ensure that a new generation of competent, ethical and environmentally conscious servant-leaders across the public, private and civil society sectors are being fostered.

The participants met with prominent national leaders operating in the conservation space in Seychelles, learnt first-hand about the climate-related challenges that our country faces, as well as community-led solutions that are taking place on the ground.

They were also connected to existing conservation groups and NGOs in Seychelles through experiential activities and developed their own simple initiatives implemented at community level. This programme is a first for Seychelles in an attempt to attract more young people towards volunteering opportunities.

Young Yoan Aglae exclaims; “A small country like the Seychelles, why are we contributing to so much trash, why can’t we instead reduce, re-use and recyle!”

Finally, The Guy Morel Institute had the task of bringing together knowledge of all the projects from this Youth and Climate Change portfolio for wider dissemination at national level, while also promoting a greener platform at this tertiary academic institution.

A Youth and Climate Change conference, with a children’s conference component, was organised to that effect, over four days in October 2022 with participation of over 150 youths and which saw presentations from many stakeholders engaged in various climate change initiatives, among whom Ambassador Ronny Jumeau who explained the negotiations processes of the UNFCCC COP. 

The objectives of the conference was to promote youth engagement in Seychelles’ Nationally Determined Contributions and empowering them to become climate change advocates, while inspiring their leadership  in climate action within their community or their work environment. This resulted in a youth-climate position statement on the implementation of the Seychelles NDC and their engagement in building climate adaptation and resilience in the country. Sustainability for Seychelles and the Hill to Ocean Citizens are leading the promotion of the NDC-Climate Promise initiatives with the youth and other national stakeholders.

Contributed