Malmö and Lusaka, Zambia
Project: Youth for Change
Lusaka and Malmö are two cities with a young population. Together we have identified a need to develop better strategies for youth participation to make use of the potential and perspectives that young people possess. Inclusive processes will provide us with better policies, better decisions and increase local democracy. This is especially important when dealing with climate change issues, since they require long-term political decisions that can be unpopular, but necessary.
Lusaka is developing a Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plan (SEACAP) whilst Malmö is planning for a new Action Plan for the Environment Programme. We plan to include young people in in these climate change policies by increasing awareness in both cities of the importance of youth participation and knowledge of tools for youth participation. We also plan to introduce methods for quality dialogue and identify suitable platforms for youth dialogue.
In the long term we hope that the project will contribute to increased local democracy and that our municipalities are better equipped to include young people and achieve climate change goals.
This project has long-term objectives in two categories: strengthened local democracy and better environment/lessened climate impact. We believe that better quality decisions on how to mitigate climate change, made possible through empowerment and inclusion of a wider spectrum of society, will also contribute to alleviating poverty.
- More involved citizens
- Inclusion of young people
- Better equipped to achieve municipal goals for inclusion of young people
- Better equipped to achieve municipal goals for climate change
- Better quality in decisions regarding climate change
- Better use of young people’s capacity
- Increased local democracy
- More engaged citizens
- Raised climate awareness among citizens