Theme: African-led Solutions to Global Challenges Introduction

Africa has the youngest population with over 400 million young people between the ages of 15 and 35, however, the participation and inclusion of this demographic in building a more sustainable and resilient Africa for all is lacking. Additionally, progress and efforts made towards youth empowerment face climate crisis risk, and youth are key stakeholders in shaping Africa’s climate resilience strategy and agenda moving forward. Against the backdrop of the inaugural Africa Climate Summit that will bring over 40 Heads of State and Governments to Nairobi, the Africa Youth Climate Assembly (AYCA) will be the mechanism that will ensure African youth voices are heard, systemically embedded in policy frameworks and young people play a crucial role in mitigating and adapting the climate crisis through innovative and sustainable solutions.

The African Youth Climate Assembly (AYCA), is a dynamic and inclusive conference aimed at uniting and amplifying the voice of African youth, sharing ideas, and showcasing youth solutions in the global fight against climate change. With its focus on fostering collaboration and engagement, AYCA will gather young change-makers from over 60 nations across Africa and beyond, showcasing their work and connecting them with AU heads of state, policymakers, influential personalities, business leaders, non-state actors, and esteemed scientists. Under the theme, “African-led Solutions to Global Challenges”, our primary objective of the assembly is seeking systematical embedment of the voices of youth in the climate decision-making frameworks at the county, national, and AU levels before, during, and after the African Climate Summit.

By providing a platform for dynamic dialogue and knowledge exchange, AYCA seeks to empower and equip the next generation of African leaders with the tools and strategies necessary to tackle the urgent climate challenges facing our continent. This youth-led Assembly strategy is to provide African youth with a platform to present their declaration on critical environmental and climate governance issues to Heads of State at the summit. The final output document, the Nairobi Youth Climate Declaration, will clearly articulate the demands and ideas of young people that will feed into the ACS Nairobi Declaration, UN General Assembly, COP 2,8, and other regional and international forum

AYCA 2023 Objectives As an action-oriented Assembly, the vision is to achieve the following key objectives;

1. Amplify youth voices: Amalgamate youth voices through the AYCA Nairobi Youth Declaration and input youth needs into the AU Heads of State Nairobi Declaration;

2. Foster Connections and Collaborations: Facilitate young change-makers engagement, connection, and collaboration before, during, and after ACS, UN General Assembly, COP 28;

3. Promote and Showcase Youth Led-Initiatives and Solutions: Highlight and amplify the actions of young people across the continent to Climate Change creating a platform for knowledge sharing, investment, and partnerships within the AYCA;

4. Address continental priority issues: Facilitate exchanges on pressing continental concerns such as Climate adaptation and Resilience, Loss and Damage, and Just Energy Transition among other issues that are central to the Green Growth Agenda and Climate Financing;

5. Empower Youth: Initiate lobbying for the systematic embedment of an Africa Youth Climate Assembly including a special AU Young Climate Envoy and Assembly in AU, formation of Youth climate councils in African national and local government to scale youth representation;

Thematic Areas: Energy transition/Renewable Energy; Green Minerals and Manufacturing; Sustainable Agriculture, Land and Water/Ocean Use; Sustainable Infrastructure and Urbanization; Natural Capital; Climate Mobility.

African Climate Youth Assembly 2023 Road Map: Pre & Post Assembly Activities

1. Africa Climate Innovation Challenge (ACIC) (June - September 2023); ACIC seeks to empower young Africans in their communities by solving sustainability challenges through entrepreneurship and innovation being spearheaded by 3 E’s, GAYO and Start.Up Lounge.

2. Regional Consultations (July & August 2023): The African Youth Climate Assembly collaborating with other African youth networks with footprints in the regions, will host five regional consultations in East, South, West, North, and Central Africa. Acknowledging that each African region has its unique needs and rich diversities, these consultations aim to collect African youth recommendations from the five regions that will feed into the African Youth Climate Declaration.

3. Spotlight on Grassroot Stories and Youth-led Innovation (July & August 2023): In the lead-up, during, and after the Assembly, we shall amplify and showcase the tremendous solutions of young people across the African continent through various mediums including documentaries, social media, and digital visibility, and exhibitions.

4. Africa Climate Summit (ACS) & Agenda 2063 (4-6th September 2023): Anchored by Agenda 2063, ACS presents an opportunity for a bold and ambitious new African Vision for a Green Growth Agenda to address the impacts of Climate Change. AYCA’s thematic areas are intertwined with ACS and Agenda 2063 goals ensuring that the outcome document, the African Youth Declaration, will feed into the ACS Heads of State Declaration which will aid in its localization.

5. Africa Climate Week (ACW) - (4th to 8th September 2023): At ACW and its processes, AYCA recognizes that there is a need for African youth to actively participate in the Stoke take process and as key stakeholders in advising major systems-based tracks to inform the global stocktake. AYCA will also do a stock take and identify the gaps that have left out African youth in COP processes. The findings and recommendations will be shared with the COP-28 Presidency, AU youth envoy, as well as to AU Heads of State.

6. UNGA: UNSG Climate Ambition Summit/ 2023 SDGs Summit (18-19 September 2023): Following the High-Level Political Forum in July 2023, the SDG Summit will be a political summit aimed at accelerating the implementation of Agenda 2030. ACS position will feature prominently in UNGA and influence African Heads of State inputs into the SDG Summit, and youth inputs need to be included in the African Position going into the Summit through AYCA. Additionally, AYCA will endeavor to follow and consolidate African youth voices in key UN Processes including the ECOSOC Youth Forum and the Summit of the Future.

7. Climate Change Summit Africa (October 2023): Hosted in Cameroon and termed “Africa’s Pre-COP”, AYCA seeks to have its presence at this regional forum through an exhibition booth. The booth will showcase the youth declaration which fits into the theme, “Sustainable and Inclusive Habitats in Africa too be embedded into the summit’s output - the Yaounde Declaration in solidarity with the African climate actors to accelerate local climate action.

8. COP 28 (December 2023): AYCA seeks partnerships to set up an African Children and Youth pavilion at COP28 to host leaders, sessions, capacity building, and collaboration with the League of African groups of young negotiators to drive change. AYCA aims to increase youth African visibility in COP 28, by producing Learn-the-COP Process tool kits for young African innovators, entrepreneurs, negotiators, and climate justice advocates to identify their way in COPs and learn how to amplify the African youth voices and engage with stakeholders at COPs.

9. AU Heads of States Assembly, February 2024: To drive action, AYCA during the AU Assembly in February 2024 will publish AYCA outcomes into a handbook for Youth with exercises and action points to engage key stakeholders to adopt the outcomes translated into different languages, propose AYCA Hubs as the vehicle for the handbook implementation across Africa, best practices report from the 1st AYCA to build up to the next assembly and propose the next host county for the AYCA.