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Engaging and Empowering children and youth in the Climate Change Discourse

Engaging and Empowering children and youth in the Climate Change Discourse. Dr Elaine Tweneboah Lawson Prof Chris Gordon Dr Adelina Mensah Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies.

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Engaging and Empowering children and youth in the Climate Change Discourse

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  1. Engaging and Empowering children and youth in the Climate Change Discourse Dr Elaine Tweneboah Lawson Prof Chris Gordon Dr AdelinaMensah Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies Experts Meeting on Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development in Africa Mauritius 20 -22 March 2013

  2. How do we increase awareness of climate change issues among the children and youth? Generally climate change is seen as a scientific subject and is perceived among children and youth as: Boring, Dull, Difficult We need to make climate change: Interesting, Practical, Easily understood

  3. Halting the Menace; Improving the Management of Ghana’s Coasts by Engaging and Empowering the Youth The collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation uses interactive and participatory methods to engage children and youth in the coastal zone of Ghana It aims to: • Educate on environmental issues • Understand perceptions on the environment as compared to reality • Develop peer-to-peer communication tools which they use to share their knowledge, skills, and attitudes • Document their abilities to adapt to a changing physical environment. • Methodology: “EDSiR” Education; Development of communication tools;Sharinginformation (with other children and youth, parents, teachers, decision-makers, civil society); Replication of results in other schools and communities.

  4. Target Group: children and youth (11-17 years) in Anlo-Ewe migrant communities • Erosion and sand winning • Declining fish catch • Marine pollution • Poor sanitation • Marine debris • Algal blooms • Availability of water • Over exploitation of forests/wood • Climate change • St. Paul’s wilt disease of coconut An education and capacity building component was built into the project to support the identified groups. Topics were determined after initial community visits as well as consultation with community leaders. Posters and flyers were developed for this purpose. The topics were:

  5. An interactive session on the five most identified environmental issues was given. Because none of the participants readily mentioned climate change, the component on climate change was presented for all the communities.

  6. Developing communication tools

  7. Lessons learnt so far and the Future • “Use what they know to teach them what they do not know”  • Easier for children to identify with issues affecting their immediate environment. They see climate change as vague and in the future • Use examples of how climate change is interacting with factors in local environment and affecting them directly. • Make climate change real to them Further Work • Sharing information • Migration and environmental perceptions • Coastal profiling • Sensitisation programme for media personnel • Sustainability: Use of existing environmental/sanitation/CC clubs in schools and communities

  8. Thank you

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