The green economy has the potential to create 24 million jobs by 2030. However, to date, only 1 in 20 Gen Zers have the prerequisite green skills needed for these employment opportunities, and only 10 percent of climate finance has been disbursed for locally led development. What will it take to drive systems change within the green economy?
This year’s Global Youth Economic Opportunities (GYEO) Summit: Youth Driving the Green Economy, made progress in tackling this question. Looking back on the many rich discussions during the Summit, we identified five key elements that drive systems change within the green economy while maintaining a localized lens.
Several sessions equipped participants with frameworks for systems analysis and on how to effect change. The Youth Systems Collaborative Framework is one such framework. This framework comprises nine domains and enablers for effecting youth systems change. Drawing on the framework, the four domains of policy; norms and mindsets; service and practices; and resource flows point to the space where systems change within the green economy plays out. The enablers, which include capacity development, systems mapping, vision and goals, data learning, and evaluation, are the actions that can help inform and advance systems change to support a green economy.
Reform Within Local Institutions
Representatives from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) showcased a few new initiatives and tools affecting systems change including a new green jobs diagnostic tool. This diagnostic is a comprehensive, multi-sector and evidence-based inquiry that unpacks the constraints and opportunities for expanding green job prospects for youth and women, including within the grey economy and agriculture value chains.
The first element required for systems change in the green economy is reform within local institutions to make green job opportunities accessible to youth. Youth Climate Justice Fund’s Strategy Director Joshua Amponsem urged governments and donors to invest in strengthening workforce development (WFD) training curricula to incorporate the “green” skills and competencies to transform existing jobs into green ones. USAID’s case studies on effective systems change models in Tunisia, the Philippines, and South Africa are instructive for how workforce development training institutions can adapt to the needs of youth and the private sector when conducive factors are at play.
Enhanced Stakeholder Coordination
Stakeholders supporting and funding these reforms also need to enhance stakeholder coordination and complement each other's programming. Summit speakers from several YEO coordination groups (i.e., Generation Unlimited, Decent Jobs for Youth, and the Global Opportunity Youth Network (GOYN)) welcomed greater coordination and communication across their portfolios of activities to maximize investments and foster efficiency. All of these discussions at the Summit reflect growing commitments to investing in systems strategies to support climate-friendly youth economic solutions.
Resource Flows
And yet, systems change is not attainable without resource flows. Funding is needed at the frontlines and into the hands of the 1.8 billion youth and Indigenous communities. Currently, only 0.76 percent and 1 percent of global climate grants have trickled down to youth and Indigenous communities respectively. How can we shift this status quo? What will it take to remedy this funding gap?
Capacity Strengthening
As attendees grappled with these questions during sessions, speakers from the Bezos Earth Fund and Youth Climate Justice Fund shared how they are trying to remedy this. Trust-based funding coupled with capacity strengthening for youth grantees is at the core of Youth Climate Justice Fund’s approach. Being a youth-led fund, they directly embody this approach by funding youth climate justice movements across 40 countries and have committed $2.1 million to support 90 youth-led grantee initiatives.
Localized Approaches
Resource flows must be coupled with working with and through youth and Indigenous communities. For its first 10 years, Bezos Earth Fund’s model will hone in on working with and through Indigenous communities to advance climate justice, amplify Indigenous ecological knowledge, accelerate the green energy transition, and regreen cities. Not only do these approaches support the ethos of youth-led programming and localization but also should compel other donors and development organizations to walk the talk and shift power and resources to the Global Majority.
To drive forward systems change within the green economy, catalytic funding must be directed to those at the frontlines. Green curricula should be integrated into existing WFD curricula. Stakeholder collaboration must become the norm rather than the exception, and power dynamics need to shift to local stakeholders. The outstanding challenge for us all in the YEO community, is how will WE contribute to localized systems change within the green economy?
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