We mark this year’s International Youth Day under the theme From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development.
This theme is alive to the reality of the youth population bulge in many parts of the world where young people comprise nearly or over 60% of the population. For instance, two-thirds of the general populations in Sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia, Middle East, and Pacific Islands comprise young people aged below 30 years. This brings into sharp focus one inevitable challenge for many governments and international community altogether: Leveraging on the youth bulge to create a youth demographic dividend.
The failure of addressing pressing youth demands has negative effects which can gravitate into violent conflict. The recent events round the world bear imminent evidence to the likely effects of such failure or strategic disregard for listening to youth voices: youth-led anti-government protests in Kenya, Uganda, Bangladesh; and student protests in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza across universities in United States, inter alia. In addition, the global youth bulge has also partly execrated the global ecological crisis, especially in parts of Africa.
Young people, faced with a myriad of socio-economic problems – deprivation, tough living conditions, scarce resources and limited employment opportunities, are left between the devil and deep blue sea, having to choose between their survival and environmental conservation. How then can the youth be empowered to create likelihoods for a sustainable future?
Inspired by Laudato Si’ (2015), Pope Francis’ master thesis on the looming ecological crisis, the Laudato Youth Initiative (LYI) has taken on this task targeting learners in schools, parishes and universities across East Africa. Learners are organized in school clubs called Laudato Si Clubs through which they carry out activities.
LYI is driven by the mission to popularise and promote the Pope’s message on caring for the environment through planting fruit and indigenous trees, trainings, information sharing, technical support, media and showcasing youth talents. In January 2024, we launched an ambitious 1-year campaign to plant 1 million trees of which we have nearly met half our target. We leverage on social media and internet to spread the environmental gospel where learners share their creative and innovative climate actions experiences through debates, short videos and edifying blogs.
Through our work, LYI is not only a strategic response to the Church’s ecological call, but also to SDG 13 on Climate Action. Our ultimate objective is to produce eco-conscious youth empowered with innovative ways of using the environment sustainably, for instance, through the 3Rs – reducing, reusing and recycling products, while creating opportunities for self-sustenance. Such initiatives, if genuinely supported by governments and other stakeholders, including religious and cultural leaders, can steer the critical need to leap the youth bulge into a demographic dividend in Sub-Saharan Africa. Happy World Youth Day!
Augustine Bahemuka
Laudato Youth Initiative
