Action 24 Zimbabwe recently brought together 35 young people for a climate adaptation training aimed at equipping them to spearhead initiatives in their communities while influencing policy at both national and international levels.
Held under the theme “Strengthening Technical Capacity for Viable Climate Adaptation Solutions,” the training was organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, the Climate Change Management Department, the Harare Institute of Technology, and ActionAid Zimbabwe.
The programme is designed to provide Zimbabwean youth with practical skills and knowledge essential for climate adaptation, promoting community-level action and informed policy engagement.
Archieford Chemhere the country coordinator for Action 24, who is the focal point for the Youth Adaptation Network Zimbabwe chapter described the programme as a key step in preparing young people to access climate adaptation financing.
“We conducted a training session for 35 youths who were trained in proposal development. The youths also had an opportunity to interact with government representatives, where they learned about the climate policies and frameworks that are currently spearheading adaptation initiatives in the country.”
“This training is a good opportunity, as it also prepares our young people and youth to access adaptation financing and we hope this is a starting point to spearhead initiatives and actions that respond to adaptation in Zimbabwe,” he said.
The initiative seeks to reach grassroots youth and support youths in carrying out effective community-level climate adaptation interventions.
“We want these kinds of initiatives to cascade down to grassroots youth and to support young people in communities in undertaking effective adaptation interventions and actions at the community level,” he added.
The curriculum included training in proposal writing, project management, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and strategic communication, utilizing established methodologies from the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) Toolkit.
The training saw an increased young women participation, a shift organisers welcomed as a sign of growing inclusivity.
“We have seen that the program has been very inclusive, with more girls participating, which is not always the case,” Chantelle Tauya, Action 24 programmes officer.
“We are happy that it has attracted so many people to take part and we are strengthening our capacity to develop viable, bankable climate adaptation projects and to further build our overall capacity,” she added.
Flames and Lillies Director Chido Nyaruwata said the training is vital in helping youth-led groups create strong, community-driven proposals that focus on women and girls and ensure projects are locally relevant and sustainable.
“This training is giving me a better understanding of what we need to include in our proposals, how we can search for funding, and how we can ensure that when we are developing our proposals, we have consulted our communities before we start writing from our own ideas.”
“It is also important to make sure that the proposals are contextually relevant and informed by the realities of our community members, especially the women and girls whose adaptive capacity we want to build, thus helps us work together with them so that they take ownership of these initiatives, ensuring they are long-lasting, sustainable, and driven with the community in mind,” she said.
The youth climate adaptation training has been hailed as shaping the next generation of leaders to drive change, engage communities, influence policy, and protect the future.
“The training, which I envision helping both myself and the community I lead, focuses on ways to engage in climate adaptation not only at the policy level but also at the grassroots level and how we can then engage the youth adaptation network in order for us to then be broad in terms of our thinking when we speak about advocacy and integrating it with adaptation and any other forms of policy engagements that are associated with climate change and how we can better adapt, particularly as young people who are living in a context where we bear the responsibility of safeguarding the future, not only for ourselves, but for future,” Simba Hunzvi, Advocacy in Action Team Leader.
The Earth is now about 1.25°C warmer than pre-industrial levels (based on 2015–2024 averages), causing more frequent and intense climate extremes. Without urgent action, temperatures could rise 2.5–2.9°C this century, making adaptation harder and costlier.
Developing countries and vulnerable groups are most at risk, and even with rapid emission reductions, adaptation is essential to protect people and ecosystems from ongoing climate impacts.
