Deadline: 31 March 2023

The Youth4Climate Initiative is inviting individuals, youth-led groups, and not-for-profit organizations such as CSOs, NGOs, CBOs, and youth-led entrepreneurs to propose creative ideas for addressing the climate crisis.

UNDP’s Rome office will implement the call for solutions aimed at involving young people in creating innovative solutions to address the climate crisis. The office will work closely with Italian and international institutions, such as academics, researchers, civil society groups, and private sector organizations, to identify key players who can support and exchange ideas with youth. The goal is to foster a collaborative and inclusive environment where young people can play a leading role in shaping the future of our planet.

Thematic Areas

The initiative aims to provide seed funding for youth-led and youth-inclusive solutions to enhance youth leadership and action to achieve impact on the ground.

• Challenge 1: Urban Sustainability
  • Half of humanity lives in urban settings and this number is projected to rise to two thirds by 2050. Urban resilience – the ability of city dwellers to withstand economic, social, health, environmental, disaster and climate related risks – has acquired renewed urgency and has become central to the sustainable development discourse. Within this context, young people represent a drive for change and the call for solution will challenge them to provide ideas on how to improve urban resilience to the effects of climate change in cities and urban settlements.
• Challenge 2: Food and Agriculture
  • The results of the food system Summit 2021 and the Youth4Climate Manifesto have highlighted the urgency to transform the world’s food system and try to find an innovative solution that can resolve hunger and reduce diet-related diseases and heal the planet. Climate change is putting the food chain production at risk and for many communities and young people, extreme weather events threaten their food security and livelihoods. The call for solution will aim to invert food trends, transforming them into viable projects and business models.
• Challenge 3: Education
  • It is increasingly recognized that education and learning are crucial for addressing climate change. Education is fundamental for democratic societies and a vital tool for young people to be empowered with knowledge and drive innovation. Education can encourage people to change their attitudes and behavior, and it helps them to make informed decisions, as clearly recognized by young people in the Youth4Climate manifesto. The call for the solution will challenge them to focus on education as a tool to ensure next generation’s awareness of climate change and encourage the adoption of more climate friendly lifestyle.
• Challenge 4: Energy
  • Most households across Africa continue to face challenges in accessing stable, secure and affordable energy. Commodity price inflation, driven largely by supply shocks arising from the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent policy response, has further destabilized energy access in much of Africa as household budgets are stressed, end-user energy costs rise, and planned infrastructure investments are put on hold to prioritize more urgent needs. To address this and ensure continued support towards the energy transition, this partnership seeks to support and scale-up demand/end-user side energy efficiency to maximize the benefit of household expenditures (in money and time) on electricity, cooking, cooling, and other forms of energy. Specifically, the challenge will seek to support youth-driven innovations to scale up energy conservation and demand-side efficiency services.

Funding Information

Grant: max. 20.000$

Partners

United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITCILO), Aworld, Global Climate Action, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) (TBC)

The initiative is also supported by several global partners providing advice and support across several areas, and these include the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Global Compact, and the UN Volunteers (UNV).

The purpose of the call for solutions will include the following:

• Supporting individuals and entities to generate innovative solutions to promote climate change actions and to achieve youth development objectives
• Supporting community-based self-help initiatives, which may include income-generating activities designed to promote youth innovation
• Promoting advocacy activities and networking among individuals, civil society organizations, private sectors, research institutes, and governments
• Create a pathway for Climate youth leadership

Partners contribute in the following ways:

• Supporting the selection process for individual grants: a Selection Committee to evaluate the proposals will be established, and partners will be invited to participate.
• Supporting the mentoring process: Leading or supporting mentoring programs (one-to-one, focus groups, TED talks, etc.) or training programs
• Financial or in-kind support: this may include funding for additional grants, financial or in-kind support for the mentoring and training opportunities (sponsorship or an event, hosting of an event, etc.), provision of career development opportunities in the relevant sectors (e.g., traineeships, boot camps, work experience).

Eligibility Criteria

The opportunity to propose an innovative idea is open to the following:

• Proposals can be submitted by:
  • Youth-led/ focused entities based in and proposing to develop an idea in a country eligible for programmatic support by UNDP – e.g., CSOs, NGOs, CBOs, or the private sector. Minimum one person in the team should have at least three years of experience in project management. The focal point should be a young person aged 18-29 years.
  • All young people who meet the following criteria:
  • Age: be a minimum of [18] years and a maximum of [29] age at the proposal submission time.
  • Nationality: be a national from a country where UNDP provides programmatic support proposing an idea for implementation in a country where UNDP provides programmatic support. If a team submits the proposal, members can be countries other than those receiving programmatic support from UND, but not the team leader.
  • Language: the ability to communicate in English
• Additional information: For both, priority will be given to youth and youth organizations from marginalized and excluded communities active in climate action or initiatives advancing the needs and aspirations of marginalized/excluded young people in the spirit of “leaving no one behind” (LNOB) and “reaching those furthest behind first.”.

Selection criteria

The proposed ideas for the call for solutions must respect three main criteria:

• Innovation for development: the solution must adopt the most up-to-date concepts and means available to achieve change, find better ways to impact people and the planet, strengthen resilience, and build more inclusive societies.
• Sustainability: the solution must contribute to Sustainable Developments Goals and aim to create lasting impacts, to be viable in the long term, easy to replicate, and financially sustainable.
• Implementation approach: the proposed action must have a well-designed and innovative implementation approach, reflecting a clear understanding of existing efforts to address similar issues and the barriers to success.

For more information, visit Youth4Climate Initiative.