PRESS RELEASE
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—UNFPA is turning to young people as an innovation powerhouse to build resilience to climate change in Africa.
From more than a hundred innovative projects pitched by young Africans at UNFPA’s 2021 Climate HackLab, two innovative ideas for climate resilience were selected for seed funding and incubation, to turn them into viable solutions.
The projects aim to improve access to health supplies for women and girls in remote areas through low-carbon mobile clinics, empowering women and improving livelihoods.
The two winners – Agripa Maposa from Zambia, and Agnes Kimweri from Tanzania – will receive support for three to six months to kickstart their projects under the guidance of regional innovation incubation agency AfriLabs.
The HackLab attracted 111 innovative ideas from across East and Southern Africa. Of these, 40 young leaders representing 11 project ideas were put through an intensive two-week course on design thinking, business development and leadership. Nine of these ideas were pitched to a panel of judges and two were selected for four months’ innovation incubation with UNFPA’s regional partner, AfriLabs.
“UNFPA believes in offering young people the tools and skills to become change makers and to lead on innovative solutions. Our aim is to give the next generation the best possible chance of reaching that goal,” said Angela Baschieri, Population Dynamics Policy Adviser for UNFPA East and Southern Africa.
About the UNFPA Climate HackLab
UNFPA East and Southern Africa Regional Office, under the flagship Safeguard Young People programme, launched the Climate HackLab project in May 2021. The HackLab is a climate innovation project that aims to build climate resilience and generate innovative climate adaption solutions led by young people, especially women and girls. It builds on UNFPA’s Climate Value Proposition, which seeks to limit the impact of climate change on the achievement of UNFPA’s transformative results, and increase the resilience of people and systems to cope with climate change.
The proposition outlines four pillars to achieve its aims: investing in healthy, empowered populations with a focus on women, girls and young people; creating climate-resilient health, protection and education systems; reducing risk by enhancing preparedness and strengthened emergency response; and building strong data systems for climate vulnerability and adaptive capacity.
About UNFPA
UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Our mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA calls for the realization of reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services, including voluntary family planning, maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education.
For more information visit www.unfpa.org and https://esaro.unfpa.org/
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For more information or to arrange an interview:
Daisy Diamante Leoncio
UNFPA Regional Communications Advisor
leoncio@unfpa.org / +1 347 4919154
