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A climathon for students to tackle climate change challenges in secondary cities: Feedback from 3 recent experiences in Senegal, Burkina-Faso and Niger

Virtual Event, 25/04/2023

First Climathon in Kaffrine, Senegal in preparation for the VIVRE project under the Green Cities Initiative

FAO Green Cities Initiative will hold a virtual side event during the ECOSOC Youth Forum 2023 on "Accelerating the Recovery from the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and the Full Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at Levels" on 25 April, 1:00 to 2:30 pm EDT (17:00 to 18:30 UTC), in English.

Register for the Zoom event

Event rationale

The urban population in Sub-Saharan Africa will more than triple between 2020 and 2050 with an average annual growth of 3.42%. As a result, cities are changing, and new cities are emerging at a rapid pace.

Cities are both responsible for and victims of climate change. At the global level, 70% of the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change are emitted by cities. Moreover, housing density and the little space left for natural ecosystems lead to a very high vulnerability to risks such as floods, heat waves or landslides. The degradation of air quality or access to drinking water resources also marks the vulnerability of cities in their context of rapid growth. .

It is in this spirit that Climathon were organized in three secondary cities (Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina-Faso, Maradi in Niger,and Kaffrine in Senegal) with 46 students to challenge collective intelligence on environmental issues. They also sought to foster the emergence of innovations dimensioned to respond to specific climate issues; and thus improve the lives of inhabitants while promoting more efficient and virtuous policies of the city.

Each of the cities defined a specific challenge according to its local issues, on which fifteen young students have collectively worked out about in each of the cities to co-build new solutions for adapting to climate change. They created and presented their project to a local jury.

The speakers will provide a feedback on this Climathon in order to share the method to a wide range of stakeholders. These Climathon delivers progress on SDG 11 “sustainable cities and communities” by enhancing youth initiatives on the ground to make cities more resilient to climate change and crises such as the COVID-19 crisis. Youth worked in team and relied on a wide range of stakeholders and institutions such as university, municipality, associations, and FAO in order to build strong communities. They proposed concrete climate solutions and were part of a learning community.

Moderation: Chloé Quinonero & Eva Radek - Climate Chance

Why a Climathon and what is the FAO Green Cities Initiative? - 19:00 - 19:15

Feedback from youth and main stakeholders on the activities done; What has been done to prepare the Climathon? - 19:00 – 19:45

How to boost youth entrepreneurship in Africa? - 19:15 -20:05

Comments and Q&A  20:05 – 20:30

 

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