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African youth: endure the climate, or transform it?
At the third YAAC Talk, committed voices came together to answer one of the most pressing questions of our generation.
| Date | 21 February 2025 |
| Format | Panel discussion |
| Theme | Climate & Migration |
Why this conversation matters
Climate change is already reshaping how and where people live across the continent. Droughts, coastal erosion and failing harvests push families to move — often within their own country, sometimes far beyond it. Yet young Africans are rarely at the table when migration policy is written.
This edition of YAAC Talk set out to change that framing: not youth as victims of a warming climate, but youth as the people best placed to design the response.
What came out of it
Panellists returned repeatedly to three points:
- Migration is adaptation. Moving is not a failure of resilience; it is one of its oldest forms. Policy should support mobility rather than criminalise it.
- Agroecology keeps options open. Restoring soil fertility and water retention gives families a genuine choice about whether to stay.
- Youth need decision-making power, not just consultation. Being invited to speak is not the same as being able to decide.
The discussion closed on a call to keep the conversation going — in classrooms, in cooperatives, and in the rooms where climate finance is allocated.