Climate awareness and action for all ages and stages: findings and recommendations from studies at the intersection of climate change and children and youth

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Evidence indicates that advances in education without integration of considerations for climate resilience, adaptation, and mitigation, the state of learning poverty, will only be exacerbated by environmental disruptions and compound the learning loss attributed to COVID-19. This panel presentation provides findings and recommendations from distinct actors in international education development; donors, and international development partners, specifically a regional network and two implementing partners who initiated a variety of studies to deepen the evidence and suggest how to more intentionally and impactfully program for the intersection of climate change and the spectrum of childhood and youth development.

Derived from conceptual and theoretical research that makes the case for
integrating climate action into education assistance, USAID’s Center for Education presents technical guidance to support governments and implementing partners on designing programming and interventions that mitigate disruptions to learning caused by climate change. Building upon the USAID 2022-2030 Climate Strategy, and the comprehensive findings from a USAID activity inventory, literature review and rigorous stakeholder engagement process the new guidance is poised to shape collaborations between governments and partners in systemically addressing climate change. The guidance concretizes the role of education in climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation from the lens of systems strengthening, across the developmental spectrum from early childhood to workforce development and recommends how a range of actors across the international education ecosystem can collaborate to advance both learning outcomes and climate action.

Zooming in on the intersection of climate change and early childhood development, Asia-Pacific Regional Network (ARNEC) presents conceptual and theoretical research that recommends how to expand global climate discourse to the youngest members of humanity so that the full implications of climate change and environment degradation on vulnerable children ages 0-6, their caregivers and teachers do not go unrecognized. ARNEC will share guidance and recommendations for early childhood practitioners from their how-to note that includes guiding principles and entry points and for programs and services based on findings from a desk review of primary and secondary sources, such as literature review, COP 26 results statement, regional call to action, and a variety of case studies. While the how-to note articulates ways in which the long-term project of climate adaptation and the larger agenda of sustainable development is undermined when early childhood development is overlooked, guidance presents specific pathways and actions that empower early childhood technicians.

Chemonics and Unbounded Associates collaborated to conduct comprehensive conceptual and theoretical research that informed the development of Centering Youth in Green Workforce Development: An Action Guide, a resource package aimed at international development organizations (IDOs) delivering youth-informed guidance on centering youth voices in just transitions to a green economy and supplemental youth-to youth materials. Components of the action guide were designed in response to findings from sixteen youth climate experts from around the world, technical sector experts from implementing partners, and youth beneficiaries from ten USAID-funded programs. Study methodology for the Analysis of Global Youth-led Climate Initiatives included rapid discourse analysis of fifty youth-led climate initiatives based on one primary question, three themes, two classifications of initiatives, selection criteria and limitations. Three case studies on Climate Smart Agriculture, Natural Climate Solutions and youth entrepreneurship initiatives from Columbia, Pakistan and Uganda are also included in the action guide and provide context for the four specific priority recommendations of youth which surfaced in the study. These recommendations are critical for donors and international development organizations to center youth voices in design and implementation of programming that promotes them as changemakers and informs interventions that attend to the domains of Positive Youth Development.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Hetal Thukral, DDI Center for Education, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Individual Presentations

• Integrating Climate Action into Education Assistance - Rebecca Povec Pagel, USAID Center for Education

• Centering Youth in Green Workforce Development - Katherine E Centore, Chemonics International

• Supporting Early Childhood Development Practitioners to Integrate Climate Actions into their Programs - Evelyn Santiago, ARNEC

Discussant

• Anna Pettee, Unbounded Associates