2024 Plenary Speakers
Day 1 - September 10
Towards a Youth Inclusive Green Economy: Levers of Change
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Youth hold the potential to drive a just transition of the world’s economy while speeding adaptation to climate change. To unleash this potential, evidence suggests that youth-inclusive green job growth requires a multi-stakeholder commitment—not only at the national level, but also at the subnational level.
Drawing from evidence from over 20 countries, this session explores this gap between global, national, and local priorities, and it highlights the key factors for greener, equitable, and sustainable growth. Leading experts will explore these factors along four main themes: education and skills needed for green jobs, the private sector’s role in promoting sustainable practices, the role of youth-inclusive financing, and youth’s role in awareness-raising and behavior change.
USAID Plenary: What the Heck Is UDL? Using UDL to Design Inclusive YWFD Programs
Shukhrat Amanov
USAID/Uzbekistan
Karla Yoder
World Learning
At the 2022 Global Disability Summit, USAID pledged to integrate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles into all new education programs by 2026. While many applauded this pledge as a demonstration of USAID’s commitment to equity and inclusion, many people were also left wondering, what the heck is UDL? In this plenary, we will explore what UDL is, and how it can be applied in youth workforce development programming via practical examples from USAID activities. We will also discuss how UDL benefits all learners, not just those with disabilities, and how many YWFD programs are already applying the three UDL principles of multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression.
Day 2 - September 11
Intergenerational Circle: Building Forward the Green Economy Together
The Green Economy has the potential to unlock an additional 24 million jobs by 2030. The promise of the green economy provides a tangible pathway towards addressing the youth unemployment crisis. Considering this, funders, youth serving, and youth-led organizations have embarked on implementing initiatives to drive forward green jobs and green youth-led enterprise support. While these efforts are commendable, there is still a need to leverage intergenerational partnerships and localization as tools to meaningfully drive forward a green economy together.
This plenary will therefore bring together funders and youth experts for an intergenerational circle on how together they can build forward the green economy. It will delve into funders and youth experts' priorities and programming for accelerating youth economic opportunities within the green economy, the existing pain points and opportunities for leveraging intergenerational partnerships and localization to complement their efforts.
Private-Sector Perspectives: Driving Forward a Just Transition
The raging climate crisis will result in approximately 80 million full- time jobs being lost by 2030 and global economic losses amounting to $2,400 billion.1 According to the ILO, youth are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults. While private sector is increasingly making commitments to shifting to more environmentally friendly and sustainable sectors and practices, these changes may negatively impact opportunities for youth and other traditionally marginalized communities, such as reduced incomes or job opportunities or involve value chains with poor work conditions. This indicates the urgent need to accelerate a just transition more so with a focus on decent and viable economic opportunities for the next generation. To effectively realize this just transition, partnerships, and investments particularly from the private sector remain critical.
This plenary brings together thought leaders from the private sector to share their perspectives on the just transition. It will delve into how each of these actors are contributing to a just transition, the initiatives they are investing in, their incentives and challenges they’re grappling with. From supply chains to the apparel industry to the energy sector, panelists will share their perspectives on how they are moving the needle in their sectors to accelerate the just transition.
Day 3 - September 12
Creating Enterprise Opportunities for Youth – Innovations in the Green and Circular Economies
Climate change increasingly threatens food security and livelihoods across the globe and especially in vulnerable communities. But entrepreneurs are finding innovative ways to mitigate and adapt to climate drivers with products and services that support regenerative agriculture, use renewable energy and repurpose waste. The next generation of young entrepreneurs are leading in the adoption of new practices and solutions and are becoming leaders in the green and circular economy. A panel of innovators, two of which are youth-led businesses, will share their exciting solutions for greening the economy and their innovative methods for supporting young people to find and develop their passion for their environment. Bayron Cazun, co-founder of Rain Drop Restoration Services (El Salvador) will share their work providing monitoring services on farms and forests using innovative technology including ground-based measurements, aerial drone imagery, and geospatial analysis. Femi Oye, Founder of SMEFunds, Nigeria will share their approaches to building a “cascade” of entrepreneurs selling renewable energy products like solar and bio-fuel. Michelle Wilson, Head of Programs at WasteAid, will explain how they have established circular economy networks to identify and support wastepreneurs in a number of African countries. So, join us to learn about dynamic approaches for engaging young people and improving their livelihoods through entrepreneurship pathways that address climate change.
Building Pathways: Catalyzing Youth Economic Opportunities with and for Refugees
Over 110 million people globally have been forcefully displaced due to war and armed conflicts, human rights violations and climate change.1 Over 60% of these refugees continue to face limited access to formal employment due to countries’ restrictive policies, limited skills development opportunities, inadequate access to financial services and markets for their products.2 Young people constitute a significant proportion of this demographic and continue to face these challenges as they strive to build their livelihood pathways.
Considering this, this plenary will bring together actors working towards catalyzing youth economic opportunities with and for young refugees to share their perspectives. It will delve into the strategies and evidence-based programming for accelerating young refugees' access to livelihoods, the existing bottlenecks, and policy and advocacy efforts required to change the status quo.