Belém, Brazil — 19 November 2025 #YAF@COP30
As climate impacts intensify across Africa, young leaders gathered at COP30 to deliver an unequivocal message: adaptation finance systems must be fundamentally transformed, and youth must be central to that transformation. During the side event titled Mobilising Youth Power to Increase Adaptation Finance in Africa, organised by the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access (ACSEA) together with the World Future Council, youth voices from Cameroon, Uganda, Malawi and Chad demonstrated how continental youth networks are emerging as influential actors in reshaping Africa’s adaptation finance architecture.
Moderated by gender and climate advocate Malango Kayira, the event highlighted how lived experience, community-rooted knowledge and analytical rigour are positioning African youth as indispensable contributors to climate finance governance. The discussions made clear that young Africans are not merely asking for a seat at the table; they are already building and leading the systems that the continent urgently needs.
Reframing the Adaptation Finance Debate
The session opened with a frank assessment of the imbalance shaping Africa’s climate challenge. Although the continent contributes less than four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, it continues to absorb the worst impacts of climate change. Despite these mounting risks, adaptation finance for Africa remains insufficient, fragmented and often inaccessible to the communities for whom it is intended.
Against this context, Afanyu Yembe, Coordinator of the Youth for Adaptation Finance in Africa (YAF), explained the impetus for establishing YAF. He emphasised that adaptation finance decisions are frequently made far from communities experiencing climate impacts and without meaningful input from the young people already responding to those impacts. He described YAF as a corrective effort intended to position youth as strategic actors who influence National Adaptation Plans, NDC processes and ongoing negotiations on the New Collective Quantified Goal.
Central to his intervention was the Yaounde African Youth Call on More than Doubling Adaptation Finance. He described the Call as a blueprint for transforming Africa’s adaptation finance architecture through increased, predictable and grant-based resources that are accessible to youth and frontline communities.
Voices from Uganda: Youth as Community Anchors
Irene Anena, ACT Alliance Coordinator for Uganda, presented a grounded perspective rooted in community realities. She described how climate impacts are eroding livelihoods, displacing households and undermining progress across rural Uganda. In these contexts, young people often act as first responders, supporting early warning efforts, coordinating community mobilisation and testing local adaptation solutions.
However, Anena emphasised that youth remain excluded from adaptation finance governance. She outlined structural barriers such as limited capacity, inadequate access to decision-making spaces and overly technical financing processes. She called for systematic inclusion of youth in the design, implementation and monitoring of adaptation finance, noting that meaningful solutions must be informed by those who experience climate impacts most directly.
Frontline Realities from Malawi: A Case for Youth-Accessible Finance
From Malawi, Tarcizio Kalaundi, a CVF Fellow and resilience practitioner with Trócaire, spoke about the escalating climate shocks affecting rural communities. He detailed how recurring floods, prolonged droughts and unpredictable seasons continue to undermine food security and livelihoods.
Kalaundi highlighted that young people are active contributors to resilience-building efforts through climate-smart agriculture, community preparedness measures and early warning systems. Yet youth-led organisations often struggle to access adaptation finance due to high administrative thresholds and eligibility requirements tailored to large institutions rather than local actors. He advocated for youth-accessible finance windows, simplified procedures and microgrant mechanisms that channel resources directly to frontline initiatives.
Mobilising Momentum Across the Sahel
Representing YAF Chad, Idriss Adoum Idriss explored the role of communication in driving political will and accountability within adaptation finance. Speaking against the backdrop of the Sahel, where climate vulnerability intersects with fragility and insecurity, he emphasised that youth leadership is essential for building trust, transparency and social stability.
He described how youth coalitions use storytelling, community engagement and digital mobilisation to track adaptation finance commitments, simplify technical information and encourage policymakers to honour their obligations. He stressed that communication is a form of power and a necessary tool for building a public movement capable of advancing climate justice.
A Movement Ready to Lead
Across all contributions, a consistent message emerged: African youth are no longer waiting for institutional permission to shape the future of adaptation finance. They are organising, coordinating evidence, influencing policy and driving community-level innovation. Their interventions throughout the session underscored several priorities for Africa’s adaptation finance framework:
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Youth participation should be institutionalised within adaptation finance governance.
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Finance mechanisms must be redesigned to ensure direct accessibility for youth-led and community-based initiatives.
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Transparency is necessary in the allocation, delivery and monitoring of adaptation funds.
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Investments in climate finance literacy, negotiation skills and technical capacity must be scaled across youth networks.
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The Yaounde Youth Call should guide Africa’s engagement in the NCQG process and broader COP30 negotiations.
As the COP30 negotiations move into critical phases, the perspectives presented at this side event bring clarity and moral weight to Africa’s demands. They also reflect a broader shift within the climate movement: young Africans are not the future of adaptation finance governance. They are already among its most dynamic and essential leaders.
