Young Professionals and Youth Coalition (YPYC), Africa’s leading transformational leadership advocate, Climate Investment Funds (CIF), Washington DC, USA and British High Commission (BHC)Ghana are collaborating to intensify the engagements of young people in Africa to address the effects of climate change in their communities and countries.
In a high-profile stakeholders’ forum at the Accra International Conference Centre in Ghana, YPYC aims to build the knowledge and capacity of students, young community leaders and the youth in general on climate change advocacy and solutions search.
Mr Andy Okrah, founder and President of YPYC speaking to the issue said, “we are excited about such collaborative efforts because as transformational and generational leadership advocates seeking to inspire meaningful development in Africa, we see Government of Ghana, Forestry Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, CIF, BHC and other relevant stakeholders as crucial partners who could achieve a lot together.”
According to him, “YPYC has built a strong connection with young professionals, young leaders and the youth of the continent in general at various levels for over ten years. We know and appreciate with insight the innovative energies the youth possess and what we could achieve with that with respect to the climate change agenda.”
On his part Dr Julian Wright, West Africa Senior Advisor for Climate Change and Natural Resources at the British High Commission Accra expressed the commitment of the Commission to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and that failing to tackle climate change risks undermining development progress.
He believes that young people will be the most affected by climate change but the most important in driving innovative solutions, hence the British High Commission is supportive of the efforts of the YPYC and its collaboration with partners.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CIF, Ms Mafalda Duarte noted that involving and partnering with youth is core to driving innovative and inclusive solutions to climate change and that is why the CIF prioritizes youth engagement.
The UN and both local and global development stakeholders are concerned about climate change and its effects because of the devastating impact they have on the SDGs and humanity. They are thus making all the necessary investments and efforts to win the fight against climate change.
But they cannot succeed without the youth and young leaders in communities across the world. To reach them, they need vehicles like YPYC. And, the High Level Youth Leaders Climate Summit is coming off to achieve that and many more.
