Youth panel discussion

Participants:

Hlengiwe Radebe, civil engagement officer, WWF South Africa

Yasirah Madhi, climate researcher, Institute for Economic Justice

Moliehi Mafantiri, intern at the South African Climate Action Network

Akhona Xotyeni, climate, youth and human rights activist

Ivanna Katz, intern at WWF South Africa

Moderated by: Innocentia Modau, project manager and youth climate coordinator, WWF South Africa

The panel discussion raised many challenges.

Yasirah Madhi, climate researcher at the Institute for Economic Justice, said a challenge for youth activists in the climate change space is that older people too often assume that young people don’t understand the concepts that pepper the climate change sphere.

In a contrasting statement, Moliehi Mafantiri, intern at the South African Climate Action Network, said in conversations with uninformed youth, complex concepts need to be “broken down” so people are not excluded from the conversation by jargon. “Don’t dumb it down, break it down,” agreed Hlengiwe Radebe, civil engagement officer, WWF South Africa.

Ivanna Katz, intern at the WWF SA, said a “big challenge” many face is that university curricula are too narrow and don’t show “all the aspects” of climate change. Also, it is difficult to bridge the gap between an internship and gainful employment in the climate change space.

Mafantiri suggested “Soul City-type” programmes on climate change would help the general public understand the issues in the same way that the Soul City Institute for Justice’s widely popular TV programme helped address issues around the HIV/Aids pandemic.

Madhi said many civil society organisations are working on improving young people’s capacity to engage with climate change topics, and suggested that there needs to be better follow-through, so those trained through these activities could go on to explain the concepts to people from their communities.

She also said young people need access to “valuable positions” in the climate space – in politics, government and independent entities such as the Presidential Climate Commission, an independent, statutory, multistakeholder body established by President Cyril Ramaphosa.