Youth lead the way to multi-stakeholder partnerships for climate education and action

At UNESCO’s Partnerships Hub event held on 10 November 2023 in Paris, members of the SDG4 Youth & Student Network, a platform of the Global Cooperation Mechanism (GCM) representing millions of youth and student constituents, led the conversation on forging meaningful partnership between youth and the private sector for global efforts on climate action, justice and greening education.

One year after the Transforming Education Summit (TES), the global youth movement in education has grown exponentially. Youth engagement and participation also features prominently in the TES follow-up Strategy led by the SDG 4 High-Level Steering Committee, the apex decision-making body in education, where both youth and students hold Leaders and Sherpa seats.   

However, one year since the historic Youth Declaration in Transforming Education, was handed to the United Nations Secretary-General, a lack of investment is limiting essential capacity building, funding for grassroots initiatives and ensuring that youth are meaningfully engaged at the intersection of the education and climate movements.  

At the margins of UNESCO's General Conference 2023, the session “Fostering Partnerships with Youth for Climate Education and Action” brought together key private sector actors and youth and student representatives to discuss areas of synergy and collaboration and areas of mutually beneficial support.  

Diana Cristancho, Founder and Director FARO Migrants and Refugees, Colombia reminded everyone that young people are the next generation who will assume the effects of climate change and hence are the most vulnerable. Referring to the call to push for young people’s proactive participation in decision-making processes in the Youth Declaration, Cristancho added, “we need to share the power between the youth education movement and the climate education movement to create a global youth movement with the common objective and responsibility of protecting the planet; and I think it is essential to build on partnerships with adults.”  

Justin Edwards, Director, Learning Experiences, Minecraft Education, Microsoft, shared how Microsoft engages — or connects — with young people on the climate education movement. “At Microsoft’s Minecraft, we are developing content using a computer game that connects young people to the content; so, they enjoy it, they participate in it, they immerse in it in their everyday lives. We are also supporting teachers in materials and documentation that connect into that gameplay. Some of these works are done with partners around the world such as C40 around reimagining cities, so we are not just playing a game — we are also raising the youth voice as they start to understand the climate sustainability issues.”also raising the youth voice as they start to understand the climate sustainability issues.” 

Ellen Dixon, the incoming HLSC Student Sherpa and GSF outgoing steering committee member, highlights the private sector’s role in intergenerational, multisectoral response to transforming education institutions. The companies and enterprises “can turn education institutions into critical partners in educating the general public about clean infrastructures, green supply chains and pathways to sector development through supporting and resourcing internships, scholarships, funding for schools, educators and youth-based entrepreneurship,” said Dixon. 

Danah Dajani, Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation Senior Vice President for Partnerships and Programs, whose foundation integrates sustainability and green education in its agenda since its establishment in 2015, delved into the role their institution play in preparing young people for the unprecedented future, through greening partnership for education. “At our foundation, we are working with young people across the Arab world and the region — mainly Middle East and North Africa — helping them in integrating and understanding sustainability and greening education. In 2015, we started the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education scholarship programme; and following that, we also have the Abdulla Al Ghurair Scholarship programme, which equips young people with leadership skills and sustainable practices and helps them navigate at and contribute positively to a world that is facing environmental challenges,” cited Dajani as examples, among many others. 

The Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation set up different upskilling programmes in addressing SDGs 4, 5, 8, and 17. 

Nils Pedersen, Executive Director, Global Compact France, underscored the value added of listening to and taking good use of young people’s skills in a more global context, and as private sector, extending them the opportunity to be involved in meaningful conversations, learning environments, and creating their future. Mentioning the partnerships among French companies as examples of the synergy led by Global Compact France in empowering young people, Pedersen added, “it is the responsibility of companies across the globe to help people and invest, through philanthropies and other means, in education especially for young people.” 

The discussion culminates into three key takeaways elaborated by session moderator, Kenisha Arora:  

• Current statistics are clear — the environmental crisis affects young people, especially those from marginalized communities 

• Education is needed to equip young people with skills and tools that will make them leaders in combatting and navigating through this climate crisis. 

• Partnerships are integral in the success of climate action — we cannot achieve anything without multistakeholder and intergenerational partnerships.