Project Name: Youth Climate Catalysts: From vulnerability to vitality youth growing stronger futures.
Project Objective: To support adolescents and youth in coastal Bangladesh to plan and implement climate and environment-smart projects, livelihood schemes, and advocacy actions.
Project Goal: To empower adolescents and youth in coastal Bangladesh to lead climate adaptation and build community resilience.
Project Brief: This project is a comprehensive effort to build climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods by positioning adolescents and youth (aged 12-24) as the main drivers of change. The initiative unfolds across four interconnected stages, beginning with Youth-Led Climate Action and Capacity Building. This foundational stage involves forming youth clubs and equipping them with critical knowledge in climate change, environmental stewardship, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and child rights. Empowered youth then lead community assessments, develop adaptation plans, and execute awareness campaigns to establish themselves as visible agents of change.
Next, the focus shifts to Community-Led Climate Adaptation Projects. This highly participatory stage involves joint workshops to identify local adaptation needs, followed by a formal call for proposals. Technical support and grant funding are provided for 20 selected projects to bridge the financial gap for grassroots efforts. Ongoing support and a rigorous monitoring system ensure the success and sustainability of these community-led initiatives.
To enhance economic resilience, the project develops Climate-Friendly Livelihoods. This crucial stage involves market research to identify and pilot viable, low-carbon economic schemes, such as sustainable agriculture. The successful schemes are then formalized with comprehensive business plans to boost local economic resilience against climate shocks.
Finally, the project ensures local successes translate into systemic change through Youth-Led Policy Advocacy. A specialized Advocacy Team uses evidence gathered from local projects to prepare a policy brief and organize regional workshops. This culminates in youth participation in a national-level advocacy event, ensuring grassroots insights directly influence national climate policies.
The project targets 5000 Children, Adolescents & Youth (CA&Y) across two sub-districts and engages government line departments and policymakers as indirect participants to ensure their local efforts inform national strategy. The implementation is overseen by Educo Bangladesh and executed by two local partners with significant experience in the field.
Working Area: Shariatpur Sadar, Shariatpur.
Beneficiaries: Adolescent, Youth, Parents, Teachers, LGI’s Representatives
Major activities:
1. Formation/reformation of A&Y groups
2. Bi monthly meeting on CA&Y
3. Conduct an A&Y-led environmental assessment in each community and prepare risk reduction and resilience action plans engaging the community and relevant stakeholders (quarterly coordination meetings with DMCs and relevant service providers)
4. Facilitate and support A&Y clubs to develop and implement youth led CCA & ES plans
5. Orientation on climate change, environmental stewardship, and DRR and child rights
6. Support A&Y for preparing video clip and editing (cost for videographer and editing)
7. Organizing environmental campaign at school and colleges
8. Organize yearly stakeholder meetings for project reflection
9. Local level youth conference on climate/environmental issues and possible solutions
10. Learning sharing workshops
11. Conduct a workshop to identify potential adaptation projects in collaboration with the local community
12. Funding for the selected 20 projects through grants
13. Monitoring meeting to track the progress, impact, and sustainability of each project.
14. Conduct market research to identify viable, climate-friendly livelihood schemes that align with local skills and resources (e.g., sustainable agriculture, renewable energy installation)..
15. Conditional Funding for pilot 10 of the most promising schemes to test their profitability and scalability
16. Develop business plans and financial models for each of the schemes, highlighting their social and environmental impact.
17. Formation meeting of Research/advocacy Team with the representatives of adolescents and youth clubs
18. Prepare a policy brief and an advocacy workshop at the regional level.
19. Support youth representatives to attend the advocacy event at the national level.
