Discovering climate resilience and environmental sustainability pathways within education systems through youth-led participatory climate action planning

• In Event: Reduce education injustice and social exclusion through curriculum and practice

Proposal

As climate change intensifies, so too does the urgency of building the resilience of children, their communities, and sustainability within systems upon which they depend. Children living in environmentally fragile contexts experience disproportionate impacts due to their direct exposure to climate related hazards such as floods, droughts, heatwaves as well as reduced access to food, water and socio-economic assets during times of climate stress. These impacts are aggravated by the disruption of their access to education systems, as well as the increased health and environmental risks faced within education facilities during times of climatic shock. While climate induced disasters and stresses erode the assets and systems that children and their families depend on for their wellbeing, education facilities and systems have potential to contribute towards a more environmentally sustainable society through building critical assets and capabilities for climate adaptation and mitigation.
This paper draws on findings from a multi-country education resilience intervention which aims to build education system resilience through engaging children, youth, teachers and education leaders in climate adaptation, mitigation and environmental sustainability planning.
Through participating in climate resilience assessments and action planning, impacts of climate change on education facilities in over 50 marginalised locations in Nepal, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda have been assessed, and critical assets and capabilities have been prioritised by youth, children, teachers, parents and carers as essential for resilience and environmental sustainability. These have been translated into actions within school improvement planning, and local level climate adaptation and development planning.
This paper draws findings from the climate risk assessment and action planning across this multi-country education system context, as well as from the implementation of resilience strategies arising from the action planning process. These findings demonstrate that while the vulnerabilities which exacerbate exposure of education systems, and the children and youth dependent on them, are context specific, they can be related to specific environmental, human, social and physical assets such as the location and condition of the environment within which the education facility is situated; the physical infrastructure within the education facility including water access; the level of access to child friendly information on climate risks and early warning system; social support systems and protection mechanisms as well as connections between schools and other duty bearers such as disaster risk reduction units and social protection services.
Through the development of climate resilience action plans, a diverse set of solutions or pathways are being identified and prioritised by children and youth and are being embedded within various domains of education programmes. Pathways which have been identified and implemented within the scope of this research include strengthening climate resilience at the level of the child through embedding access to information about climate change, climate rights and environmental education within curricula, as well as supporting access to pyscho-social support to address climate anxiety and/ or trauma and building climate leadership and resilience skills for children. Access to green jobs and vocational training within the green economy have been prioritised by older children and out of school youth. Education facility and community level actions have included education facility preparedness planning for climate hazards, actions to improve environmental sustainability as well as water and sanitation access and the establishment of social infrastructure such as school environmental committees. At system and policy level, youth have been engaging district and national decision makers to scale up findings and ensure that education and climate policies, plans and investments are responsive to the priorities of marginalised children and youth. Digitalisation of climate and environmental risk assessments within this resilience building and research intervention has supported the establishment of a geo-spatial dashboard which has been used by education project stakeholders to support decision making, to monitor new climate shocks, and to assess impact of resilience actions taken at school, district and national level.
In conclusion, the depth of data gathered, as well diversity of climate resilience pathways and solutions which can be embedded and scaled through risk informed education systems and services, indicate that as those directly experiencing climate risks, children and youth are well placed to identify effective climate resilience and environmental sustainability solutions. As such, children’s inclusion and leadership are vital within climate resilience building process, and the resulting climate and environmental sustainability interventions can support children, carers, teachers, and the education system more broadly to reduce vulnerabilities and build environmental, human and social resilience to shocks and stresses across the different domains of an education system.

Authors

• Clodagh Byrne, VSO International

• Purna Kumar Shrestha, VSO