Nigeria Youth SDGs registered as the Network of Youth for Sustainable Initiative in collaboration with the United Nations Information Centre, Lagos, held six interactive workshops ahead of cop27 aimed at building the capacity of young people to advocate for environmental and social justice issues in Nigeria. The workshop happened in Adamawa, Anambra, Kaduna, Kwara, Ondo and Rivers states which were selected based on the need to improve the knowledge of the youth on environmental and social justice issues. Three of the states – Anambra, Rivers and Ondo- rank amongst Nigeria’s most vulnerable to climate change.

The workshop was divided into three sessions with the first session focused on improving the understanding of the realities of climate change based on the context of their states. The session allowed participants to understand how climate change is connected to environmental and social justice issues.

COP27: NGYouthSDGs Advocate Stronger Commitment to Climate Change, Biodiversity

The second session focused on identifying solutions to mitigating the effect of climate change and how they can work with fellow youth to take advantage of the green economy to create jobs.

The third session focused more specifically on how participants could use their voices to advocate for meaningful engagement in the design and implementation of policies and programs to combat the impact of climate change in their states.

During the workshop, the participants made the following recommendations:

• Collaboration and intersectional approaches to actions and solutions that address environmental and social justice issues.
• The inclusion of young people as advocates, communicators, leaders and partners in programs to address the impact of climate change
• Climate education should be included in the educational curriculum, especially in secondary schools to build the understanding of youth on environmental issues.
• Funding opportunities should be available for young people involved in designing local solutions to reduce the impact of climate change in communities across Nigeria.

The workshop in Rivers state was supported by the Foundation for Partnership in the Niger Delta (PIND) with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the SDGs Offices in the other states in attendance.