African youth at the forefront of climate action: AfDB commits 1 billion USD to climate adaptation efforts.
African Development Bank financial support for African youth
Nearly a billion USD will be disbursed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to assist young entrepreneurs in order to tackle climate change issue on the continent. The announcement was made by AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, who emphasized that not investing in youth would be detrimental to Africa.
In an effort to tackle climate change issue, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Global Center for Adaptation (GCA) have pledged 996.6 million USD to support young entrepreneurs across the continent. GCA is a global organization prioritizing the acceleration of climate change solutions. « The capital injection will empower young entrepreneurs across Africa. It’s an exciting step towards economic growth », according to the AfDB statement.
Investing in youth towards a brighter future
Investing in youth is essential to promote prosperity and stability on the continent, stated Adesina, during the African Youth Assembly for Climate. Furthermore, the AfDB will provide additional funding, totaling 4 million USD, to strengthen YouthAdapt, affiliated with the GCA, a joint initiative between the bank and the GCA
YouthAdapt invites young entrepreneurs and micro, small and medium enterprises from Africa to submit innovative solutions and business ideas that can strengthen adaptation and resilience to climate change across the continent.
Africa contributes for only 4 % of global greenhouse gas emissions; however, the continent suffers disproportionately from climate change. More precisely, many African countries heavily rely on industries vulnerable to climate change, such as energy, tourism, water resources, and agriculture, which are the cornerstones of their economic development and survival.
YouthAdapt at the heart of youth-centric Initiatives
In the coming months, the AfDB and private partners will announce a series of new grants and initiatives. This will include, but is not limited to, accelerating opportunities to safeguard the health of the most vulnerable and least responsible for climate change. Also, it will prioritize the health sector into negotiations.
Over the past two years, YouthAdapt has provided more than 1.5 million USD to 33 young entrepreneurs in 19 African countries. Some have even increased their profits by 200 %.
« African youth is the present. Their views and perspectives will change the continent… not investing in youth will harm Africa, failure is not an option », stated Adesina.
In his address, the President of the African Development Bank urged young people to be global citizens and not to be constrained by national borders. He encouraged them to hold their leaders accountable for the promises they make such as challenging today’s leaders, to use the voting power in order to prioritize climate adaptation and financing.
The President of the African Development Bank, Namwamba mentionned the example of Kenya. He highlighted some government’s initiatives to promote climate adaptation. Likewise recruiting a green army of one million youths as climate warriors to support President William Ruto’s ambitious plan to plant 15 billion trees in 10 years. According to him, this would increase the country’s forest cover from 12 % to 30 %.
He noted that Kenya was the first country to ratify the Sports for Climate Action Initiative under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Through this initiative, sports organisations will be able to pursue climate action in a cohesive and collaborative manner through the dissemination of best practices, lessons learnt and cooperation.
