AAAP in the Media
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Global Center on Adaptation and African Development Bank call for applications for the African Youth Adaptation Solutions Challenge
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) and the African Development Bank have launched a call for applications for the first edition of the African Youth Adaptation Solutions (YouthAdapt) Challenge.
The call encourages young entrepreneurs, innovators from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and other youth-led and youth-owned enterprises in Africa, to implement solutions for building resilience and adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change. Young entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35 are invited to respond to the call for the expression of interest and submit their business plan through the official submission portal.
With a strong focus on youth and gender, winners of the YouthAdapt Challenge will be awarded business grants of up to $100,000 each and the opportunity to participate in a 12-month business accelerator program to help them scale up their businesses, deepen their impact and create decent jobs. In addition, the winning youth-led enterprises will be provided with mentorship and support to expand partnerships, knowledge sharing and learning through a network of young entrepreneurs in climate adaptation.
The African Youth Adaptations Solutions Challenge is part of the ‘Empowering Youth through Jobs and Entrepreneurship’ pillar of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), a strategic partnership between the GCA and the African Development Bank aimed at galvanizing climate-resilient actions through a triple win approach to address the impacts of Covid-19, climate change and the economy.
The competition aims to leverage the resources, complementary expertise and networks of both organizations to support the ‘missing-middle’ of mid-sized companies in the areas of funding, thereby promoting sustainable climate adaptation and resilience practices on the African continent.
Announcing the YouthAdapt Challenge to a group of global leaders at the High-Level Dialogue: The Adaptation Acceleration Imperative for COP26 held in Rotterdam, Netherlands on Monday 6th September 2021, Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation said: “Our vision is to empower one million young people in Africa with the financing and skills they need to pursue jobs and careers in climate adaptation. With this new challenge we aim to unlock the business opportunities in adaptation action by innovative youth-owned enterprises and prepare a new generation of African youth for the transition towards green and climate-resilient development.”
“The YouthAdapt Challenge will unleash the entrepreneurial drive and capacities of African youth to grow their businesses, address the continent’s pressing climate challenge and create decent jobs, building a more climate-resilient Africa”, said Akinwumi Adesina, African Development Bank’s President, affirming the Bank’s commitment to invest in the youth.
Twenty youth-led enterprises will be shortlisted at the end of the application window on 6th October 2021 and invited to submit videos for a jury panel review ahead of the finals and an award ceremony at COP26 in Glasgow on November 8, 2021. At this event, ten winners will be selected, 50% of which will be women-led enterprises.
Adaptation Futures Conference
Venue: Montreal, Canada (Hybrid)
The Adaptation Futures 2023 conference aims to learn from Indigenous, local knowledge and voices in climate change adaptation research, policies, practices and actions around the world, accelerate the adoption of transformative adaptation for long-term resilience, bring marginalized voices, especially from the Global South, to the forefront in pursue of climate justice, equity, diversity and inclusion and accelerate momentum towards the Global Goal on Adaptation and the Global Stocktake and build on action to implement effective adaptation.
Conference themes include:
- Learning from Indigenous and local peoples knowledge and expertise in adaptation
- Dealing with multiple risks: Compound, cascading, cross-border climate change risks
- Making adaptation choices: managing trade-offs and seeking effective adaptation
- When we can no longer adapt
- Who wins, who loses, who decides: Equity and justice in adaptation
- The power of nature for climate action
- Teaching and learning adaptation in a changing climate
- Inclusive adaptation governance and finance: how do we get there?
AAAP Participation
- AAAP side event session under the sub-theme, Accelerators of Innovations as part Innovation Days of the World Bank Adaptation Fund SubConference. The session is titled, “The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program: A Transformative Initiative for Climate Change Adaptation in Africa to be held on 4th October at 1330 – 1430hours
- Joint IDRC and AAAP session titled, Youth Climate Adaptation Leadership: Insights from capacity building, knowledge brokering and entrepreneurship programs to feature the YouthADAPT initiative.