Building Resilience to Climate Change Youth Building Resilience to Climate Change In Vietnam

Population: 95 Million (50 % are females; 30-40 % youth VIETNAM-Key facts: Population: 95 Million (50 % are females; 30-40 % youth Income per capita: 1,900 USD/year Life Expectancy: 76 Climate Change: Extreme weather events increased Higher frequency of floods, typhoons and storms, and droughts Sea Level Rise Higher temperature Changing rainfalls Challenge to Change www.challengetochange.org

. Youth are the primary stakeholders of the medium-term (5 to 50-year) future, the period when climate change will have its greatest impact.

But Youth are marginalized from current decisions to deal with the future impacts of climate change. In the 1970s, development practitioners like Robert Chambers learned the importance of including main stakeholders in planning and decision-making regardless of their social, political or economic status. These ideas became known as ‘participatory approaches’ – PRA, PLA, PME etc. The same participatory approaches of including the main stakeholders – Youth – in climate change plans and decisions, must now be applied.

Youth are the best Change Agents, because: They are motivated by strong ideals They are willing to take risks They have a lot of energy They are trend-setters for others And they are highly communicative. But they lack power, opportunities, technical knowledge, and material resources.

In 2012 to 2014, the Rockefeller Foundation provided funding to an NGO, ‘Challenge to Change’, to support Youth adaptation to climate change, in three Vietnamese cities: Quy Nhon, Da Nang and Can Tho. The programme enabled Youth aged 16 to 25 to implement their own climate change adaptation initiatives. About 20 Youth Groups were supported to implement 12 initiatives of value up to USD 5,000 each.

Youth initiatives are:   Support to a vulnerable neighbourhood or community, to analyse their vulnerabilities and elaborate solutions Research into existing ways people are adapting to climate change Support to enhance existing community-based adaptation Support to new adaptation/resilience initiatives   Adding value to existing government or ACCCRN climate change initiatives Documentation of a climate issue in the city Start-up of a longer term cooperation, network or service for urban climate change resilience http://www.challengetochange.org/ayip-eng/

The programme encouraged active collaboration between government agencies and Youth Groups in the three cities. This enabled Youth to learn about climate change initiatives, and enabled government agencies to see climate change from a new angle.

Here is a short video showing one of the Youth activities: research into food security of vulnerable households during flood season. A group of students from Quy Nhon University, in the central region of Vietnam, supporting farmers to find solutions to food shortages by analysing adaptive agricultural models for growing crops during flood periods. The project collected seeds for experimentation, and selected the two to five most effective seeds for application in local flood conditions, depending on the soil, weather and flood conditions.  The project worked at several pilot areas. For example, the group identified a ‘water-fern’ which is able to grow easily in floating boxes during flood season and can be harvested in 2 to 3 days.  Successful methodologies were shared with farmers to improve their disaster management.

Challenge to Change www.challengetochange.org

Youth Unions made video-documentation of their climate change initiatives. The programme provided each city Youth Union with a video camera, and provided digital film editing training. The programme took advantage of Youth characteristics as good Change Agents and trend-setters who are highly communicative. In this way Youth communicated their ideas and values, and other stakeholders saw climate change resilience through their eyes.

Key Outcomes of the programme were: The enhancement of Youth rights to address climate change, (Rights-Based Approach), and the emergence of Youth climate champions An understanding of climate change resilience (UCCR) through the eyes of Youth The spread of climate change awareness through existing Youth networks using multiple media, creating conditions for community-based adaptation.

Youth Engagement Approach Enhancing youth strengths Mentoring process along the way by youth Youth Groups and youth networks (informal and formal ones) Team work and working skills with local people including men, women, children, elderly Training support of write-up, problem analysis, finance/grant management, leadership, gender, advocacy and networking, CC, DRR Engagement with scientists, politicians, NGOs, Government officers and other professional for know-how and solutions Using media and youth communication channels Providing finance resources for experiements Challenge to Change www.challengetochange.org

A new online forum for young people from around the world to share their climate change and other environmental or planet-saving projects is www.youngupstart.com. Youth can add their own projects online, and the website sorts and showcases them, enabling youth to network and learn from each other.

Thank You Phuong Dang DRR/CC Consultant hanoiphuong@gmail.com