Different youth gathered with the aim of discussing Africa and Europe partnership around the urgent challenge towards achieving the SDG7 in the energy sustainability and climate protection context during the SEforAll Forum in Kigali on May 18, 2022.
During the forum, it was identified that there are some gaps that need more leaders to lead the transformational transfusion into a sustainable, cleaner energy society we all desire to see. In this partnership, the innovative smart technology that is groundbreaking is incubated and the effects of such technology are taking longer and the climate is not waiting for us. This was further taken into round table discussions on the challenges and received advice from the seniors to overcome them.
Out of the discussions, the were a few notes to take from every table; i.e: Understanding the reality of Africa and Europe as one to forge ahead to achieve the shared perspective. There was a question raised on whether there is enough investment in capacity building in the context of climate change and its contributors and the transition to clean energy. Realistically speaking; learning is a continuous experience and some investments should be investments be made and used in schools on all levels so that children can also grow with some points of awareness to the older people like their parents, grandparents and so on.
Training should be given in local languages for the locals to better understand everything. There is a challenge that as youths are trying to access funding there happens to be a shift in their message and then they have to find a way to put in or fit in what the donors want. This means, there is a need for access to a bottom-up approach for the young people to tell their mission, vision, and objectives and all the donors have to do is ‘Funding Youth’ and not tell them where to go and how to go about it which is not bad, but mostly it ends up diverting from what message the youth wanted to put out there.
There was also an issue of underprivileged youths who were not as lucky as those who got to attend the forum so there should be linkages for them as well to benefit the way the participants were benefiting.
Youth need further trainings
Later in the day, youth including the five RCCDN representatives were taken into the Green Economy field that is powering 24 million jobs in different sectors. To mention a few:
-Design engineers (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical and Lighting)
-Energy resource monitoring specialists
-Project developers
The green economy is evolving so youth were advised to network with their peers and leaders in the sector, to be open to different pathways and be willing to explore as well.
Writer; Janet Uwase Mbabazi
