This World Youth Day, we are showcasing the passionate advocacy work of African youth, who are bringing their energy and skills to bring positive change to their communities.

Partnered with the Jesuit Centre for Ecology and Development (JCED) in Malawi, one major focus in their development projects is empowering young people to recognise that social justice and climate action go hand in hand. Across the country, JCED are giving youth the tools to become effective activists as well as leaders wanting to build sustainability and inclusion within their local communities.

In October 2023, thirty-eight young people from Southern Africa embarked on a ‘Caravan of Hope’ tour to capture and amplify stories of communities on the margins affected by climate change. The caravan focused on farmers seeking to build resistance to extreme weather and the effects of climate change, including the survivors of Cyclone Freddy in southern Malawi.

Cyclone Freddy brought huge destruction to the southern part of Malawi uprooting and shaking the lives of thousands damaging infrastructure, crops and livelihoods – inflicting great loss of life and injuries to people.

The tour under the theme, “We Are in This Together,” brought together young climate activists from various disciplines and backgrounds passionate about caring for the environment. Using their diverse talents, they collaborated to not only bring a message of solidarity to disaster victims but also to use their voice to demand climate action from politicians and local authorities.

Youth activists capturing climate crisis stories in Southern Malawi.

Climate change is affecting all of us but in the global south, despite contributing the least to global warming, extreme weather because of climate change is an immediate and severe problem and young people especially, should we not act to reduce global temperatures and protect biodiversity, are at greater risk in the future.

JCED organised the “Code Red for Humanity” weekend in Blantyre City, situated in Southern Malawi, and the campaign led by young people demanded ambitious and urgent climate action from leaders on behalf of marginalized communities suffering from the effects of climate change.

The campaign started with a high-level engagement meeting bringing together local and international key players in climate disaster risk management such as humanitarian workers, academics, journalists, community leaders, the youth, and government officials and the advocacy work around preparedness and climate action continues to this day.

This year’s theme for World Youth Day is ‘Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development’ but what does that mean?

Digital technologies like smartphones, social media creatives and even newly emerging AI all have major parts to play in achieving the sustainable development goals which aim to combat poverty, inequality and the negative effects of climate change.

With major impact across all things economic, social and environmental, according to the United nations: “ digital technologies and data contribute to at least 70% of the 169 SDG targets whilst reducing the cost to achieve these goals also.

As you can imagine it is young people who are leading the charge in digital innovation and contributing to shared digital spaces and empowered by JCED, African youth are using those tools, platforms and their own creativity to build momentum in tackling climate change from encouraging fellow youth to take ownership and care of their local trees and environment to being engaged in climate activist networks locally and afar – sharing skills, experiences and knowledge.

You can listen to their voices here

And for more on our climate action projects with JCED, click the link: here